see recording
Recording the concept mini-album for Sequoyah, a children’s book.
I found this book and was excited by the potential for horrible stereotypes of Indians with teepees and bows and arrows being that this book was published in 1960 (see cover). Opening it up to the table of contents, I quickly noticed the resemblance to a CD – twelve chapters, and the chapter titles all 2-3 words. The table of contents seemed ready to be a CD so I decided to pick it up when the time was right and record an album based on these twelve titles.
I decided to do it as a brainstorming musical expression, pulling the book out and writing each short piece without thinking ahead and keeping the first take when possible. I also did the songs all in order working for speed as opposed to quality as this was the desired effect. This was not meant to be a serious work of art.
The entire recording took about an hour including playback to be sure tracks were recorded right. The battery died on my looping pedal and I didn’t have another in the house, this hindered some of my choices.
Used: keyboard and keyboard features, hammer and nail, pre-recorded speech and noise, flute, hand claps, electric guitar without effects, xylophone, voice, dinner bell.
All Cherokee/White Man’s Wesa – guitar, slaps
Bright Hope – keyboard, metronome from keyboard, flute
Peace Town – flute
Powerful Magic – brought to you compliments of Yamaha’s pre-recorded tracks
Young Craftsman – pre-recorded noise and conversation, hammering a nail
The Accident – guitar, xylophone
New Ideas – xylophone
His Father’s Name – vocals, guitar, dinner bell
Useless One/A Bag of Gold – keyboard, xylophone
Days of Honor – guitar, flute
