CD Launch - Bob Cooper

Today is the culmination of the release of Bob Coopers second CD which was held at the Traralgon R.S.L.

A bit of background. Bob is a practioner of the 'Slim Dusty' style of bush balladeer and writes a lot of original material in that style. Bob approached me to record his second CD. I accepted and was pleased that Bob layed no rules down: Do whatever you like, I know you'll do a good job. How could I refuse?

Bob's performing style is just like Slim's, root and fifth played of the bass and a strum on the second and fourth beat using a thumbpick. Very traditional, but also very repetitive, resulting in one song merging into the next.
The aim of the style is to tell a complete story, where the music is secondary to the lyric. It's really poetry to a very simple support music.

My task, amongst others was to make each song stand on it's own.

Since Bob gave me a free hand, I decided early on to use drums and bass and a acoustic guitar as a basic support structure for each song.
I used Sonar 8.5 as the recording technology.

The drums and bass are MIDI instruments. The acoustic guitar was recorded with a microphone, anything electric was recorded without an amplifier.

I ended up using the following instruments as solo voices:

• Maton acoustic, using a microphone.
• Stratocaster, recorded without an amplifier.
• Telecaster, as a lap steel, recorded without an amplifier.
• Ibanez AS series, recorded without an amplifier.
• Dobro style, De Gruchy resonator, recorded with a microphone.

I carefully applied the solo voices in places where Bob wasn't singing:

• Introductions and Codas.
• Solos.
• Fills between sentences.

The whole process took about five months, but not all of this time was recording time. I took weeks, even months to record what I thought was appropriate.

Traralgon R.S.L. hold what is called 'Morning Melodies'. This is a service to patrons of the R.S.L. to present live music to senior citizens for their enjoyment between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm as well as providing work for local musicians.

Bob Cooper was the main performer, followed by Fiona as a support act and me providing the sound system, mixing the sound, playing bass and providing occasional backing vocals.

We are all members of the 'Our Kinda Country' Club. Supporting each other.

Everything went to plan and even managed to entice a few dancers onto the dance floor.