Here’s the last tune that I did with my beloved niece Amy while she was visiting a few weeks ago. It’s the Creedence classic Who’ll Stop the Rain. I don’t generally cover such iconic songs, given how well-ingrained they are in most folks’ minds, but this one has always been a major favorite and lately its lyrics have taken on new meaning for me, given what is happening in our country. I chose to arrange it as a sort of cross between a churchy, gospel-ish sound and a straight-out anthem. I’ve always found the song to be very stirring, so I’m trying for that kind of feel here. And we really do need to find a way to stop this metaphorical rain that seems to get worse and worse…
Amy and I do a sort of call-and-response vocal structure for the first couple verses, then harmonize on the choruses and final verse, as well on some outro BGVs.
And for the second special guest, I am also fortunate to once again have our own @Jonathan on not one but two keyboard tracks, one of piano and one of B3 organ. This is our fourth collaboration, and as always, his work really makes the sound, it hits precisely the feel I was going for. Thank you Jonathan!! Always a great pleasure to work with you!
One of my denser productions… 6 and 12 string acoustic, some 6-string electric in the bridge, 12-string electric (via Variax modeling guitar) in the outro, bass, MIDI drums to go along with the piano, B3, and vocal tracks.
I am digging your version of this one! Who’ll Stop The Rain is almost always the opening song when I’m doing an acoustic gig. One of these days I’ll get around to releasing a multi-track recording of the acoustic set I did back in March.
Your niece’s voice has a very cool growl to it, and I like your vocal in a slightly higher register than usual as well. Just listening on cans ATM, so I won’t make much comment of the frequency content until I can check it on monitors.
There are a few moments where the drums sound a little stiff and they don’t gel as well as they could rhythmically, but I think that may be to do with the interaction with the timing of the bass. At times, the bass seems to be “pushing” ahead of the beat, rather than sitting in the “pocket” behind the kick drum. I hope that makes sense.
Many thanks Andrew! I do know what you mean about the pocket thing-- one of my achilles’ heels. That wouldn’t be too tough to fix. Thanks for the listen and I’ll look forward to frequency comments if you get a chance to give it another go.
I like the way you guys have stamped your own mark on the cover, and given it your own treatment! I wonder whether John Fogarty had this in mind when he produced the originals? It’s almost like he put out an invitation for bands to have a go and enhance the songs?
Just listening through headphones at the moment and all sounds good… I’ll give it a proper listeb through speakers when I get a moment.
CW Awesome. My generation songs. Like the slower version. Don’t have cans, I am on a trip. Sounds wonderful on my laptop. Can’t wait to hear this on speakers next week. Sounds so full. congrats to all:)
Very nice, Dave, vocals and guitars are very well done, it’s a cool version of the song. I agree that the drums could use a little help. It needs a little push/pull in a few places, and a slightly smoother ending, which sounds a little abrupt with the flourish you’re doing on the guitar. I also hear a lot of the beater on the kick drum, maybe around 4.5 to 5k, that is slightly out of place with your more acoustic version of the song. Other than that, I like the feel you gave it, although I think a couple of good glasses of scotch could get you closer to Fogerty’s growl. Unfortunately you wouldn’t be able to talk for a couple of weeks at work, but hey, gotta suffer for your art.
Hi all, I’ve just put a revision in the OP. The difference is very subtle! I did some microsurgery on the bass track as well as using the “humanize” feature on the drum track to try to make the bass & drums more “pockety”. I also did some EQ on the kick per Bob’s comment, and changed the final seconds to have a bit less abrupt of a fill to go along with the final guitar flourish. Thanks for these inputs, and I’ll be happy to hear your thoughts!
Sounding good. I like the sound your getting with the two guitars it am finding that in particular the timing from 0:26 and 0:38 is a little off. especially that section around 0:38 and 0:44. This doesn’t seem to bother other people but it screams out at me on the first couple of listens. Who knows maybe i am wrong. I am also going to say that i find that the drums are too dry. I think you could add some delay and dirt to them and they would mesh better with the vibe you got going on.
Anyway that is just my beaver (canadian 5 cent piece since we don’t have pennies any more. )
Yeah, there were some spots where it struck me “if the voice had a little more ‘rasp’ it would sound a lot like Fogerty.” I really like the harmony treatment and the slower tempo. Nice job all around.
Man, I would kill to have that Fogerty-esque rasp… the man has the quintessential rock voice. I would put the vocal from “Born on the Bayou” up against pretty much anything for “best rock vocal ever”…
Thanks for all these late-breaking comments! Much appreciated!
