Left to write.

Sparks — Coldplay cover

Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all.

Love to you all,
K-Rodge

Radiohead cover — Karma Police

In order to celebrate the fact the world hasn’t ended—and it is in fact December 22nd, 2012 (take that Mayans)—I decided to record one of my favorite 90s tunes for all of us 90s kids that have made it this far. One of the earliest times in my life I can recall the first time I heard a song involved this particular song. I was watching Vh1 and I still remember the music video coming on, but I didn’t even pay attention to the visual on the video because I was so blown away by the song.

I grew tired of wrapping presents tonight, so I sat down and started messing around with a capo on the 7th fret. I almost immediately started picking out this tune, and the more I messed around with it, the better I felt about looking up the lyrics and demoing it to see what it sounded like coming through a set of speakers.

Since it was a vocal and trebley guitar with the capo on 7, I hooked up my keyboard and thought about just adding that cool little piano melody in the choruses, but I ended up trying out the whole song with the piano, and I enjoyed the fullness of the bass end on the piano, so I decided to record the whole thing with piano.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading and listening. If you get a chance, take a listen with headphones (not earbuds, kids)—it may have a little more to offer you in that instance.

Here’s to the world not ending any time soon, y’all. Cheers!

P.S.—I originally encoded the mp3 to 320k, but alas it was too big, so I had to dial it down to 256k—I know, it’s gross, but I had to do it. Sorry, folks.

Don’t Know Why — Norah Jones cover

Speaking of don’t know why, I don’t know why I haven’t updated this thing in almost a month. I really need to get on here more often and put up some new tunes—whether or not anyone is actually paying attention. It’s always better to get new ideas out there regardless.

I was just hanging around this evening playing the guitar while sitting on my bed and started messing around with this classic. It’s such a timeless song—I think you could step into a time machine and go back to the 1920s and play this song at a rinky dink bar somewhere and no one would even think twice—or tweist as we say down here.

I’ve been messing around a lot with recording vocals and instrumentation simultaneously. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post or not, but I feel like when all instruments/voices are being tracked live, it adds more of the human element to the music. No matter how many times you rehearse a number, if you track the guitar or piano, and then go back and sing over top of it overdubbing, it’ll never be perfectly in sync—the organic flavor is lost in a sense and the brain can truly tell the difference. I’ve heard a lot of folks say—including the production genius Jeff Lynne—it’s all about how the air moves around in the room when you produce all the sounds at once. If Jeff does it, it must be right.

Anyroads, I hope you take a listen and enjoy it. Thanks for checking this out, friends.

With love,
Mr. K

Original Song — High and Dry (Ukelele)

It’s still astonishing to me at times that I wrote this song when I was 18 years old. Thinking back it’s amazing how insignificant my problems were in the grand scheme of life. I suppose I didn’t realize how heavy life would become in the following years—similar to how most folks think in their late teens I’m sure. At the time, I thought it highly detrimental the girl of my dreams in high school would probably never like me as I dreamed she would, and it drove me into such deep emotional thought. I sat down and wrote this song in the basement of the music building at UGA on one of those upright pianos they have in the practice rooms after leaving a pointless music theory class. This class went through tireless reiterations of concepts I learned as a six year old taking piano lessons for the first time. I suppose the sheer boredom of my music theory class spurred me into thinking deeply about my own life and also led me to recall a melody that had been floating in my head for perhaps years by this point. I had the first two lines in my head for quite some time as well:

“How are you getting along these days?
I haven’t seen you since my world turned cold.”

So I took it upon myself to trudge into an empty practice room in the basement right across from my classroom, and in about fifteen minutes I banged out this tune, not realizing that one day years later I’d still be thinking about it and rerecording it with a ukelele. The lyrics took a bit longer to finally come to me; however, once they started flowing it didn’t take long. The overall defiance of the words in the song have always intrigued me—never give up; always keep plugging along because things could always be worse. I think this song came along at a time when I had finally grown content with not knowing where my life was heading, but no matter the direction, I was fine with it. It’s an attitude that allowed me to explore the world in a new light during my college days.

Playing the ukelele has become a nightly habit of mine for quite some time now. I rather enjoy it’s therapeutic qualities as well as the sheer simplicity and portability of the instrument itself. Music can be such an expansive, deep, complicated, evasive, and bewildering animal; and yet a ukelele almost seems to mock all of that in its simplicity and ease of use—and I love that.

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen. I hope this song finds you well—especially those of you in the northeastern United States. Hopefully you’re not feeling too high and dry—better days are ahead.

Lyrics:
How are you getting along these days?
I haven’t seen you since my world turned cold
But as for me I’m getting by, getting by
Sinking down, got nothing left to hold

I miss the days when you were there beside me
I miss the days, the days of old
I wonder how i see it all so clearly now?
You left me high and dry for good

How are you getting along these days,
One mile away from being broken down?
But as for me I’m getting by, getting by
In a world forgotten long ago

I miss the days when you were there beside me
I miss the days, the days of old
I wonder how i see it all so clearly now?
You left me high and dry for good

(Instrumental)

I miss the days when you were there beside me
I miss the days, the days of old
I wonder how i see it all so clearly now?
You left me high and dry for good

How are you getting along these days?
One foot in the grave and now I’m all alone
But as for me I’m getting by, getting by
Just a name engraved into a stone

Forever Like That — Ben Rector cover

After seeing Ben Rector play at the Georgia Theatre a couple weeks ago, I’ve been noodling around on the guitar with this unreleased song of his. For those of you playing at home it’s capo 6, D-shape. Ben tunes the low E-string down a whole step to get that full Ab major sound when strumming all the strings with the D-shape. It also adds to the little walk down parts. That being said—I didn’t tune it down myself, just because I get confused easily, and my brain couldn’t handle all of those shenanigans.

If I ever get married, it’s safe to say this tune will definitely makes its way into the ceremony that day. Great song, great artist. Ben hasn’t officially recorded and released this tune yet, but look for it on the charts whenever his new album drops. I think the world will know the name Ben Rector pretty soon. Thanks for the cool tune Ben and keep doing what you’re doing. I’m so glad you decided to be a musician rather than a used car salesman or something. Thanks for reading and listening, folks.

Lyrics (may not be 100% accurate, but I’m giving it a sound attempt):

I’ll be your rainy day lover,
Whenever the sunny days end.
And whatever the weather, we’ll have each other,
And that’s how the story will end.

I’ll be your shade tree in summer,
If you’ll be my fire when it’s cold.
And whatever the season, well, we’ll keep on breathing,
Cause we’ll have each other to hold.

I’ll hold you - and I’ll sing.

I wanna love you, forever I do.
I wanna spend all of my days with you.
Carry your burdens, be the wind at your back.
I wanna spend my forever - forever like that.

I’ll be the words on the pages,
If you’ll be my sweet melody.
And the tune can keep changing, cause I’ll keep arranging.
And this is the song that we’ll sing.

We’ll sing—

I’m wanna love you, forever I do.
I’m wanna spend all of my days with you.
Carry your burdens, be the wind at your back.
I wanna spend my forever -

When the rain comes, I’ll be your shelter.
When the winds blow, we’ll be together.
And the storms they may rise, I’ll be right by your side.

I’ll sing—

I’m gonna love you, forever I do.
I’m gonna spend all my days with you.
Carry your burdens and be the wind at your back.
I’m gonna spend my forever - forever like that.

New Cover - Sucker - John Mayer

After putting new strings on my acoustic guitar for a solo acoustic gig yesterday, I couldn’t help but mess around on my guitar for a chunk of the evening. Any guitarist will tell you there’s nothing like playing on some fresh strings.

I was fooling around with this unreleased John Mayer track and I thought I’d lay it down live (vocals + guitar at the same time) and see how it sounded. I was messing around with the mic models on my H4 recorder (which I had never done before…stupid I know) and I settled on the C414 mic because it really brought out the highs more so than the other mic models and I thought it was fitting for the acoustic guitar/vocal combo. After a couple of listens I thought it was worthy of throwing on this blog.

I also find it fitting (and completely unintentional) that I’m uploading a song with Mary Jane references on 4/20. I wish I could say I was brilliant/witty/crafty enough to do this intentionally; but alas, I’m not quite that thoughtful. Anyroads, I hope you enjoy! Thanks for listening y’all.

New Original - Lonely Boy

I finally purchased a ukelele here lately, and for some reason when I get a new instrument, I feel like it’s essential to write one or two songs on it to truly figure out what the heck you’re doing. With that said, I sat down a couple of nights ago for some night ukeleling—ukeleling at night—and this song came right out in about ten minutes. I wanted to keep the tracking simple, so it’s just double-tracked rhythm ukeleles with one ukelele lead line to start things off. I’ve been listening to a ton of Jessie Baylin and She & Him lately, and so a thought I’d slap some serious reverb/compression on the vocals and do a nifty little throwback harmony for the choruses. I hope you enjoy and thanks for taking the time to check this out.

Lonely boy
Spent his whole life lost in love
A princess at the reigns

He loved a girl
And she just left him there to die
But his love still remains

But he knows she will never change
And she’ll break his heart
And watch it as it burns
And he’ll always be a lonely boy lost in love

Lonely boy
Sees his old love once again
She sweeps him off his feet

He takes a step
But stops as worry and regret
Fill the cracks inside his heart again

Now he knows she will never change
And she’ll break his heart
And watch it as it burns
And he’ll always be a lonely boy lost in love
Lost in love
Lost in love
Lonely boy

My First Radio Jingle

I was digging through the archives and I found this old gem—rather hilarious if you ask me. It’s a radio jingle I wrote and recorded with my buddy McCall for the AJ’s gas station in Oconee County, Georgia. I figured I share it with you guys.

Big thanks to Chuck Chambers for letting us throw down in his studio—Red Barn Studios—and for his handy and precise drumming talents.

Personnel:
K-Rodge—>vocals, piano, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, probably other instrumentation…but I’ve since forgotten.
McCall McCoker—>vocals
Doctor Chuck “CC” Chambers—>drums, triangle

Fool on the Hill (instrumental) — The Beatles

I was just messing around on the Rhodes this evening and I started digging on this tune a bit. It’s a classic. I threw down one take of it, so you could have a taste. Hope you enjoy.

God Only Knows - The Beach Boys

This song has always been one of my favorites. As of late, I’ve been trying to learn more about recording and mixing different instruments as well as improving on my vocal harmonizing skills and recording those too. It was also my first time recording french horn and I’d like to thank McCall Coker—one of my bestest friends—for letting me borrow her French horn and throw down some leads.

Brian Wilson once said, “Music is God’s voice.” which I’ve always believed myself, and I think this particular song is proof of that. The blend of the different instruments along with the vocals creates an overall sound that one can’t really describe as anything other than beautiful—and I don’t think beautiful even goes anywhere near describing their version of the song. I also wouldn’t use that word to describe my hack at this song either, but I tried my darnedest. I think the formula for this song was: lots of varied instrumentation + reverb + harmonized vocals + reverb + a killer melody + more reverb + spirituality + even more reverb + great lyrics + another splash of reverb. As the great quotist (quotist should definitely be a word…although spell check suggests “quotidian” but alas I have no idea what that means, so I’m sticking with quotist) Marcus Twain should have said God + Reverb = A Great Studio Recording.

Although I haven’t been 100% satisfied with the final mix of the song, I think it’s about as close as I’m going to get recording it in my bedroom, so here it is. A big shout out goes to Brian Wilson for writing such a great tune. If I ever wrote a song half as good as this one, I’m certain I would die a happy man. Thanks for reading and listening and I wish you the happiest of New Years. According to our Mayan friends, it’ll be our last, so live 2012 to the fullest!

….and have plenty of canned vegetables and clean water stockpiled in a secret location in your basement JUST IN CASE.

Just kidding…

But REALLY.

Instrumentation:

-Upright piano
-Harpsichord
-Accordion
-Hammond organ
-Double-tracked french horn
-Bass
-String Quartet (two violins, viola, cello)
-Two flutes
-Bells
-Tambourine
-Wood blocks
-Double-tracked lead vocal
-Two double-tracked back-up vocals