The long drives to school gave me time to listen to music and sing at the top of my lungs. Nobody was listening. I was safe. I could be like Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Avril Lavigne with all those deep belly breaths and high trills. And then the country music playlist switched on and my heart started to fill with gratitude. The country singers were always expressing gratitude for a simple life; the peace of sitting on a porch and watching kids play in the grass, the special feeling when you have a cold drink by the river, the way the sunrise is more beautiful when you realize you'll only get to see so many of them. As a teenager with big observant eyes and a big compassionate heart that desperately longed to suck the marrow out of life, country music was speaking my language. One of my favorite country songs on my iPod has always been "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. I recorded a cover this week and I'm publishing two versions. Which version do you like better and why?
Version One: One Raw Take
I just clicked record, sang the song and clicked stop. I added a little audio effect (hello 'Large Stage' & 'Vocal Hall' reverb for the voice and 'Oil Barrel' reverb for the guitar) and clicked published. Take it just as it came out, just as it is.
Version Two: Compiled
I recorded myself singing the song three times and then I plucked out my favorite parts from each song (based on how my voice sounded) and stitched them together into one complete song.
THE COVER ART
I design all my cover art in Adobe Photoshop, combining photos of my life taken during the time period while working on the song that hold a special significant to me with some relevance to the song - a visual feeling to accompany the sound.
This cover includes these photos:
☆ Davey and Me playing with sunflowers in our garden, being goofy together and really enjoying summer weather.
☆ A goofy group photo of us with friends out on a motorcycle ride, stopping to watch sunset over Lake Sammamish and jump around a little.
☆ A field near North Bend, WA full of wild elk grazing at sunset.
☆ And of course, an abstract portrait of my naked body lying in bed (fact).
