CAESAR SALAD

And I’m the nutter who made the 5/4 – the way it is

Just listening through the collection now – some great stuff here.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

And I’d be one of the three hooligans who hijacked ten minutes of your life with “The Road Not Taken.” I played piano/synth/bass/organ/lame drums using synth keys (I play drums also, but ran out of time to set up & mike a full kit), and arranged the main section and outro.

Many thanks to Si for the great work he’s done here, and congratulations to the other “Salad” contributors for creating some impressive reworkings. Excellent job all around!

Nathan Olsen

Awesome!

I’ve been out of town all week and just couldn’t wait to get back on the forum to check out the festivities!

Daily Dose 3: Awesome! ❗

DavidR, daverich, rdiakun, nathan: Awesome! ❗
(Would love to play with you sometimes!)

Ceasar Salad: Awesome! ❗

Thank you musicians for all your time and energy! Let us hear from more of you! Don’t be shy! You know who you are! Don’t be a “shadowhand”! ❗

David Day
Lake Lanier, GA

Haven’t gone through everything yet, but I’m definitely impressed with what I’ve heard so far, and honoured to be surrounded by a great group of talent. Some really imaginative re-workings here, from the rawkin’ “Changes Made” that reminded me of Sublime singing, to Ric’s close-to-my-own-heart fusion-esque “China Doll.” Great job, everyone. I’m curious to check out the original music you guys do.

David

Thanks to getting hooked on the music of Curtis Stigers after seeing him live in Manchester on Tuesday, tonight is the first time I’m listening to Caesar Salad. I’ve listened to tracks 1 to 8 so far and been really impressed, but I’m now listening to track 9 and I’m blown away. Freaking awesome! What a fantastic new direction for a BH cover.

I take my hat off to everyone that’s been involved in this project, you can justifiably be very proud of yourselves. I hope that maybe one day I can be involved myself to pay my own tribute to the master of prestidigitation.

Wowwweeeewoooowaaaaahhh!!!!! Is VERY nice!

(Would it be inappropriate to say some of you guys have almost “out-Bruced” Bruce this time???)

The intro to the song was done by my brother Matt Olsen, one of three collaborators on the track. The singers in question are the Carter Family, singing “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow” in 1927. Matt recorded and produced the intro part using his own computer recording rig, at our family’s beach house on the Oregon coast. Everything else in the song was done in studio.

Basically what Matt did was to sample that old gloriously lo-fi Carter Family song (snagged, I believe, from the Library of Congress audio archives), and adjust the pitch of the song to be (relatively) in tune with his instruments. He then layered multiple hammer dulcimer tracks (and I think some guitar and/or autoharp) to fade in while fading out the Carter track. Then later at the studio we imported Matt’s section and lined it up to be the first piece of the song. The Carter Family hails from Virginia, so we thought it fitting to integrate an old-school Appalachian sound into the song, given the lyrical content.

The middle section of the song (vocal verses/choruses/solo) was recorded separately. I laid down a temporary piano guide track (which we ended up keeping), and we recorded everything else on top of it. Then I recorded the instrumental end section during yet another session, and Matt threw some dulcimer in there too. After that we lined up those three pieces, and thus our long-winded Frankenstein monster of a song was born.

Thanks, David! All the Salad contributors did themselves proud. I’ve definitely been digging on these great Hornsby covers, which are in rapid rotation on my iPod. It’s just too bad we’re all spread out across the globe. I’d love to collaborate with you guys at a live gig some time.

Hail Caesar!

I am so late, but so enthusiastic………(!!!!)

Hey everybody,
I only made my first test post on a forum today, just so I could tell the other guys who worked on Caesar Salad what a magnificent job they did!!
I thought the whole project was amazing….my favorites tracks would have to be:
Noah Wilker’s wonderful singing and playing on “White Wheeled Limousine”, and Erik Nagel and Gavin Murphy’s version of “Changes Made”….I don’t know, somehow it works better (I’m definitely out on a limb here) as a “guitar” song….
I thought the dance twist and Abi Ellis’ vocals on “Look Out any Window” were wonderful….the purity of the take on “Pastures” impressed me, as did the mezmirizing intro to “The Road Not Taken” by Fieldwork….The “Defenders” interpretation was great fun….
Did you guys enjoy this as much as I did? When can we do it again? Has anyone heard from Bruce?
Si, thanks for the opportunity to work with such a brilliant, imaginative and spectacularly creative group of musical minds….
And thanks for giving us the chance to contribute to a cause so much larger than ourselves….
Yea Missy!!
Sincerely,
Megan Metcalfe

Are you in Boone, NC? I thought you were in GA. If you are in NC, I’ll have to give you a shout the next time I get up the courage to visit my mother-in-law, who is not far away in Damascus, VA.

Rich

I think Ceasar Salad is great! Here are my favorite songs (at the moment):

*Defenders Of The Flag-love the horns!
Dreamland-very heartfelt
*Gonna Be Some Changes Made-it rocks!
*I Will Walk With You-wish I could sing like Megan!
*The Way It Is-my favorite of all the songs on the album

I know I’ll find more favorites as I keep listening.

Jackie