Old fashion country drinkin' song

Well... I'll try again.

Thanks for the feedback Leizer.  When I was listening to the track in my car I thought the same thing about the vocals..
Thanks!
Tom.

Thanks Alan, I'll listen again and try your suggestion.  Thanks!

I wonder if the bass is not lined up with the kick or the vocal not lined up properly.  I'll listen again.  Thanks again!


Tom.

Nothing says COUNTRY MUSIC like a drinking song.  I like country quite a bit.  So, this interested me.  I listened the first day you put this up.... came back the next day and again today.... so here's my take on this.  Started off sounding like "Chicken Fried". Nothing wrong with that.... just an observation.
 
Cool tune, but the mix needs some work.
 
Vocals could come up a bit. I had a hard time understanding what was being said in a few places.
Fiddle fills could go down a bit.
 
I got the feeling that some of the parts felt a tad bit rushed. I'm talking about something that's a feeling as opposed to... yeah that's coming in too early. I noticed this in the beginning licks. Kinda like the players were trying really hard to nail it rather than simply letting it flow naturally.  We've all done that.
 
Others have mentioned that it's a bit busy. I have to agree. Probably from the fiddle that's playing fills throughout. Start out by pulling the fiddle out where the singer is singing. Let it "fill" a few places between the vocal phrases. Sometimes, all it needs is a single note or two as opposed to an entire fiddle phrase.
 
Also... Try using another fill instrument... acoustic guitar, piano, steel, dobro,  etc on fills in this. When I work on a song, I use a fill instrument, generally speaking, on one verse. The next verse will have a different fill instrument. Just as the lyrics are telling a different part of the story, the fill instrument is painting a different musical vibe and feel for the listener. The chorus sometimes will have the brightest fill instrument.

Also, for a nice dramatic build to the song.....consider leaving the fills OUT in the first verse totally.  The idea for that and for using different fill instruments is to have a general building of energy and excitement in the song which hits it's peak on the chorus.

I've even had the fill instruments swapping fills in some songs. And each song is totally different. So think about how you want to build the song. For country, also think what would be the minimum instrumentation that will sound good and get the song's idea and concept across.

Good song, make a few tweeks and let us hear it.
 
Edit: listen to this song on my site>>>  http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13040458  this is using the things I spoke of.... no fills on the first verse, selected ones from there on.... mostly fiddle fills. Varying between piano, guitar and steel. The drums also start driving on V2.
 

Thanks everybody..

stevec
Ditto to the above - good country song with a great vibe.  I actually played country-rock back in the mid-90s and I could picture doing something like this!
 
For the mix the only thing I would add is perhaps working with the strumming part(s), either simplifying them, pushing them back or EQing to carve some space.  For me that's what seems to make the mix a little busy even more than the fills.  Although for those fills...   you could try trading them back and forth a bit more too.
 

 
Yup.... ditto.... for the rhythm guitars.... I generally have them really low in the mix.  And...I only have one in most cases.... with acoustic, I will record 2 separate tracks panned 100% opposite for a nice wide stereo field, but they tend to be very low in the mix.