In the New Old-Fashioned Way
Art by The Skimmer. I do wear suits like that pretty much every day.
Among all that it has wrought, the digital revolution has changed utterly the way we mere amateurs, without access to mindbogglingly expensive and carefully calibrated recording equipment, collaborate in the creation of music when we live hundreds of miles from each other. Even ten years ago, what you are about to hear would have been virtually impossible. Four-track cassette technology (which is what I was using in 1997) was notoriously unreliable; an A recorded on my home studio’s TASCAM might be a B flat or a G sharp on someone else’s. Many was the nonplussed musician contemplating self-slaughter upon discovering the need to microtune a piano to a distant friend’s mailed horn or guitar.
Last year, the estimable Blue Girl and I began what we hoped would become an annual tradition, a long-distance collaboration on a Christmas song. Last year, we threw together a rather nice, woody, contemplative take on Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here” that drew a few compliments.
Having done a quiet and meditative tune last year, we decided that this year the joint would rock. At every creative decision-point, we asked ourselves, “What would Phil Spector do?” (Given his recent past, this may not have been the best question to ask — not wishing to disturb our local police forces’ holiday repose, we limited our Spector-emulation to the musical realm.)
Through the absolute miracle of Apple’s GarageBand, then, without further ado, we present for our NewCritics pals, our humble annual Christmas Holiday offering:
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