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I am experimenting with video editing, so I set up the camera in my rehearsal studio, grabbed my guitar and microphone, and recorded one of my favorite songs that I like to sing at coffee houses, "If I Were A Carpenter." The audio quality is a little less than perfect and there is an unexpected "click" at the end, but I never intended for this to be a professional clip. I just realized that it's been a long time since I shared any of my music with you, so I wanted to do this informally. I hope you enjoy it. You email comments are always welcome!
I have made arrangements with popular Christian Country Rock recording group "Rightside" (from Southern California) to record a brand new blues song that I wrote last month, March 2011. The song is called "Choose The Lord." Here is a "demo" recording of the song that I presented to Rightside so that they could see how the song should sound. Their arrangement will be essentially the same except Rightside lead vocalistLinda Lee Burnett will do the vocal on the next Rightside CD. This song presents a new direction for my songwriting, so I wanted to share it with you and see how you like it. In the past, most of my songs have been closer to folk music, country music and light rock, except for some jazz instrrumentals. The heavier blues sound of "Choose The Lord" seems to fit better in today's contemporary music market, and I am hoping that some other famous bands might hear it here and want to add it to an upcoming album project. Another interesting note about this song is that I recorded the guitar track with the cheapest possible equipment I had available. The guitar is a Yamaha Stratocaster made in China, and the amplifier is a small solid-state 15 watt Crate amp. I wanted to prove that you don't have to have an expensive, top-of-the-line gutar and amplifier to sound good. What I used is probably less than most new guitar students begin with! Please enjoy the song, play it for other bands in your area. Tell them they can perform it if they want, and to contact me if they are interested in recording the song. Thanks for listening!
Here's a sample of some of the songs I am currently working on for my two new CDs, "Will Play Jazz For Food" and "Got Twang?" These songs are not the "finished" versions. The songs you are hearing will probably be improved in several ways before they are accepted for the final product, but it will give you an idea of what the next two Tom Smerk CD releases will sound like. One of the reasons I am posting these here for you to hear is because I would like your comments about anything I can do to improve each song as I continue to re-work some of the parts on the way to the finished product. Please email your comments to tom@tomsmerk.com. I hope you will enjoy the finished products when they are released.
Click on any of the links below to play the songs. Sometimes the songs take a long time to load, especially the longer songs, so be patient!
As you can see above, I wrote an original song for my new instrumental jazz CD "Will Play Jazz For Food." The tracks have all been recorded, the album art is complete, and all that I am waiting for is the disc mastering, which is being done by Jim Burnett of Upper Room Studios in Santee, California. Everything should be finished by May 15, 2011, and I should be able to announce a release date and make the new CD available for sale. Enjoy the samples, and let me know if you like my original song.
I was going to record a CD, "Still Folkin' Around," in 2006. After listening to a test pressing, I found numerous things I wanted to change in order to greatly improve the album. Some songs will be remixed and others will have to be rerecorded from scratch. It was to contain many familiar folk songs, mainly from the early `60's when folk music was at its peak. I believe that folk music is coming back in a big way, and I had hoped that this CD will be an important part of the folk revival. Well, for unknown reasons, this CD got put aside and I worked on four other CD projects instead. Two have been released this year (2010) and the other two should be finished early 2011. My next project after that will be a CD of my original compositions, and then, finally, I hope to finish and release "Folk Rocks!"
Here are some samples of what I was working on that you can listen to until I get around to finishing the project. Email me if you like folk music!
The rest of these songs are not final cuts - they are just rehearsal tapes, but will give you an idea of some of the songs I have planned for the album:
If you enjoy the music, come to one of my live performances! Click here to find out where I'll be performing.
By the way, I'm currently looking for a few venues in San Diego county where I could perform 2 or 3 nights a week as a "single" (solo entertainer). My stage act is a variety of jazz instrumentals and traditional American Folk music (vocal) with acoustic guitar accompaniment. I can also throw in some Counrty & Western or some Gospel music as well as preforming some of my original songs.
If you know of a place that featuring this mix of music (or would like to), please have them check out the tunes on this page, and then email me tom@tomsmerk.com for more information. Thanks!
I also have about sixteen original songs that I'm currently arranging. I hope to have three or four new CDs out next year. I am also working on a smooth jazz CD and another CD of Guitar Instrumentals (Apache, Honky Tonk, Lonely One, Sleepwalk, etc.) plus some surf music (Walk, Don't Run, Pipeline, Journey To The Stars, Penetration, Vandrell Stomp, etc.). Keep in touch!
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