Is it too “early” to tell? Another album preview.

First there was “Wayfaring Stranger“. Now, there’s “Early”.

How To Rise and Keep Rising

Just a few weeks ago, I shared the only cover song from my upcoming album as a first preview. Thanks for all the wonderful response to that. Next up is one of the 8 original folksongs that will be part of this release.

As always, my subscribers are the first to hear all of these songs. I’m so grateful for their support! They heard “Early” — including pre-release versions that won’t be heard again — early.

Be sure to check out the song video (see below). You get to see what’s happening in my recording studio. I didn’t even clean up the dust bunnies before I started the video camera…

“Early” versions

My first thought as I recorded the vocals on this song was to keep it as close to a “live” performance as possible. I sang the lead vocal start to finish. But that wasn’t really working. Even after I comped several takes together, the delivery felt harsh.

And that’s the last thing I’d want on this song. It’s actually a very tongue-in-cheek song about my insomnia. So, I wanted to have a more relaxed, light-hearted sound.

One way I was able to get closer to what I was looking for was to record verses and refrains separately. My intuition was to record the verses first. Ironically, I was happy with the very first take. The refrains took four takes to get to one that I liked well enough to keep. That’s the ones you’ll hear on the video and Mirlo releases of this new song.

What is Mirlo and Peertube?

Mirlo is an independent platform for musicians who want to share their music. Though it is quite new, I’m appreciating it so far. You can learn more on their “about” page. My releases on Mirlo are limited, but most of my newer albums, suites, and singles are here.

PeerTube is a federated video-sharing platform. Unlike sites like YouTube, it is not owned or run by a single commercial company. Instead, many “instances” of PeerTube may be found in a directory of sites built on this platform. I chose BassPistol as my instance because some of my friends were already sharing videos there.