I'd Rather Go Blind

[Guest]

This is a song by Etta James...yes a female. I absolutely love this and the various versions of it, which unfortunately I can't seem to capture. It seems like an easy song but it isn't. I am having a hard time with it and need to get it down by the first week in September when I would like to sing it live. It still needs work but this is what I have so far.

Let me know what you think. Thanks

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11824651&q=hi&newref=1

[ronws]

Made me want to dance with my wife. Actually, I like dancing with her and this is just as good an excuse as any.

I also like the sound quality of the vocal track. Clean and crisp, present. Some of your others have been a little muddy but this one seemed to fit well.

And of course, that outstanding blues tone in your voice.

You should be writing some stuff of your own. And don't give me the crap about how you barely know how to play guitar. AWARD WINNING (is that too much emphasis?) songwriter James Blume can barely strum a few chords on a guitar. Piano? Forget about it. So, he hums tunes and writes lyrics and gets a guitar player co-conspirator involved to flesh out the accompaniment.

You need to be doing that.

Or maybe, an album of covers and standards. Either way, you've got the goods. You've got that "feel."

[Guest]

Made me want to dance with my wife. Actually, I like dancing with her and this is just as good an excuse as any.

Dance? Well now I know it needs work. I was aiming for making you feel like crying. Until then it remains a work in progress. :(

[Guest]

I also like the sound quality of the vocal track. Clean and crisp, present. Some of your others have been a little muddy but this one seemed to fit well.

Actually I almost posted the one I recorded just before this one. The vocals were lower. I don't like the vocals so up front and thought this was too loud. I don't think the muddiness you hear is the mix as much as I think it's my mic. I notice that most of my recordings are missing the "s" sound at the end of any words that end in "s," even though I am making an extra effort to enunciate them. I also noticed that many of the first words of my sentences are missing and made a special effort to overcompensate on this song. But I think it may be the mic. SM58...maybe it's better live than for recording?