[Adam]

Hey folks. Here's a video of a song I play in my acoustic set. Feel free to be savage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdPpiEEOHiI  

[S.T.C]

Hi, Adam, it`s a good song,nice vid,,your guitar work is good , all in time etc..i`ve only had one listen.so ,hard to be critical..but since you want some feedback..

For me the amount of words isn`t a problem,but maybe needs to rise and fall a little more(or in a section)..i`m not a musician so will leave the technical stuff to others..just a listener .

I`ll have another view ,later on and see what a second listen is like.

STC.

[montydog]

Adam,

You have a fabulous voice and the playing is beautiful - this is right up my street. Lovely, tender, thoughtful song. I'd kill to be able to write like this.

[mihkay]

Really good. Very professional. Well sung and it kept me listening all the way through.
Please develop it, because the only thing that niggled was the guitar rhythm was constant. Not bad just unvarying and even then I still enjoyed it.

"I don't want to die without scars" great line. And I don't really take in lyrics on first listen.

So for me you have a great song here, I wish you success with it. It's a gem.

[vibesville]

Hi Adam,

Good performance, great DV. I thought it was very constant and maybe not enough peaks and troughs for me, a good album song :)

[man of simple pleasures]

yeah nice simple strumalong like good stuff, i like the chorus and the beg steal or borrow bit sounds good!

[Godot]

Not bad but, to me, it just plods along after a while. I think a rhythmic change at one point would've kept my attention more.

I like your voice.

[ric]

Beautifully sung (great voice), well crafted song, perfectly balanced the verses with the chorus and well played. Such a ballad sings out for strings but I'm glad there were none, this song is strong enough to stand on its own and the very acoustic nature of it might even be spoilt if a string section were introduced. Brilliantly recorded - and filmed - as well! Quality.

Ric

[The Corsair]

I think ric summed it up there in the word 'quality'. This is a good, well-arranged, well-performed track. Well damn done!

[evanjavo]

Amazing voice. Wish I had it lol. The song's fine, not quite my taste, but I realize it's a quality performance, and I appreciate you sharing it. Well done.

[Adam]

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen and for the generous and encouraging comments. They really are very much appreciated. I will relay your comments regarding the video to the guy who made it. I'm sure they'll make his day. I hear the comments about the linear nature of the song's structure. Normally I'm a sucker for a middle-eight but here I was experimenting with paring everything down hard to the bare knuckle. Believe it or not I recorded violin and lap steel parts but after a fair amount of deliberation I decided not to sweeten the sound and to just leave the lyric and vocal to bear the full weight of the song on their own. I understand that this approach is not to everyone's taste but, to me, it just feels truer in this instance at least. Once again sincere thanks for the kind words and the constructive and very gentle criticism                                

[Adam]

Just noticed that I omitted the lyrics. Here they are:

Tie back your hair and put on that dress
And I'll tell things I've told no-one else, my beautiful friend
In all of the clubs and all of the bars
We'll talk low and drink to the stars, this night without end
Now that you've learned that this life never turns out the way that it is in your dreams
The corners you've turned and the bridges you've burned only carry you closer to me
We'll beg, steal and borrow and maybe tomorrow we'll know what it is to be free
Do you recall that warm summer night?
You held out but, try as you might, you took it too far
And kissing me slow in the back of your car
You said 'I don't want to die without scars' and I knew you were right
Now that you've learned that this life never turns out the way that it is in your dreams
The corners you've turned and the bridges you've burned only carry you closer to me
We'll beg, steal and borrow and maybe tomorrow we'll know what it is to be free
Who would have thought that you'd find me here?
I thought you might never appear, I waited so long
And if I don't speak it's only the fear
The words that I need you to hear might tumble out wrong
Now that you've learned that this life never turns out the way that it is in your dreams
The corners you've turned and the bridges you've burned only carry you closer to me
We'll beg, steal and borrow and maybe tomorrow we'll know what it is to be free
Believe that your sorrow will come to an end
You welcomed it in like a friend
Now just let it go  
  

[James Nighthawk]

Cool guitar. The instrument I mean.... an acoustic with an electric headstock. Neat. Some cool engineering tricks going on at fender to prevent issues with tension on the neck. One would hope at least!

The video confused me momentarily. How was the vocal sound so clear with no mic in front of you. The penny then dropped that you are miming to a recording. I feel a fool 

This song is pretty. But the one level thing really does make it wash over me. I have said before pon here, I struggle with strummed only songs. Fingerpicking can keep me interested for ages (Joni/Dylan do this over and over). The vocal is also very one level so while it is very pretty it does become background quite quickly. But this has its benefits too. I imagine after successive listens the vocal and most importantly the words will start to take presidence.

Your vocal is wonderful pitch wise and has a great tone, but lacks the "pull" for me to really engage. But again, such a thing is subjective - some may, and no doubt will, be pulled in by your vocal. And I tend to like a quirky vocal over a straight one anyhow.

Thanks for sharing 

[Adam]

Once again thanks for the comments and taking time to listen, James. That guitar is a 1986 Fender Newporter. It's the only acoustic guitar I've ever owned. And yes the song came before the video. I wasn't miming in the video, though. That would have made me feel foolish. Actually I felt a bit foolish anyway but miming would have made it even worse...        

[estreet]

I'm surprised people weren't kinder to this Adam - and I think it was damned by faint praise to some extent. I must admit that I'm not generally excited by stuff that consists of one singer-songwriter and a solitary acoustic guitar, mainly because after about a minute you are pretty sure what the rest will be like and a lot of the stuff follows a well trodden path. I thought your melody held a few surprises and was a cut above average so I was surprised to see it passed over as a kind of pot-boiler when I felt that , for this kind of thing (which isn't really my thing) it was better than most.