NashTracks

Your Songs, Nashville Players

Tracking Gracie Falls Contest Winning Song, ‘Treasure State’

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Congratulations to Gracie Falls, who wrote The Songwriting Academy’s contest winner last year!  One of the prizes of the contest was to have the song produced and recorded by Nashtracks in Nashville, Tennessee!

 

The Band that day was Jerry McPherson on Electric, Pat McGrath on Acoustic (mandolin, bazouki, etc), and Tim Marks on Bass guitar with yours truly (Tommy Harden) on drums.   Look up the credits for these crazy guys, it’ll blow your mind.

Click here to hear ‘Treasure State’ by Gracie Falls and congratulations!!

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Congrats to Nashtracks client Scott Fleming for winning UK Songwriting Contest!

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Nashtracks client Scott Fleming took his Nashtracks production, ‘Kitchen Door’,  to the UK Songwriting Contest

and won the Country Division for Best song!  Congrats to Scott!    The song was cut in our studios in Nashville, with Matt Dame singing the vocal.

Click Below to hear ‘Kitchen Door’.

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Also in the honorable mention category was another Nashtracks production written by David Blake called ‘In My Boot,’ sung by the amazing Kelly Archer.  Congrats to David Blake!

click below to hear ‘In My Boot’

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Our goal at Nashtracks is to take every song that comes in and try to arrange and produce it to sound like it could go on any record.

Vocal licks, the ‘Spice’ of a song

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One of the best things I ever did for my production and studio playing chops was to become a prolific songwriter.  When you write a song, then play on it, the song is top priority, even over your own playing.  I would listen to finished demos of my songs 500 times.  It’s then that you say, “Why did I play all those stupid licks?”  My need to impress folks with my drumming prowess, overcame my duty to serve the song.  I learned pretty quick, don’t do that!  You’re gonna regret it.  It’s self serving, not song serving.  We call it, ‘musical self gratification’, if I can be so crude.

waiter

When’s the last time you sat down at your favorite restaurant, famished and looking forward to a great meal?  Imagine the waiter bringing you a plate topped high with Salt, Pepper, Cumin, and Thyme, and says “enjoy!”  You’d look at him like he was insane!  Yet vocalist do this on so many songs I hear.

Think of your song as the main course.  If you add no spice, it’s going to be bland and tasteless.  Boring.  But, if you add too much spice, what are you going to talk about?  The dish?  No!  The Spice!!  Your focus is going to be not on the song, but on the vocal acrobatics, tricks, and licks, which are leading the focus away from the song.

singer

I had the pleasure of recording a bass player in my studio that is probably the top player on records in Nashville.  He’s the most recorded bass player I’d guess for the last 10 years.  It’s a privilege to get to play with him, but when he records in my studio, I also then have the ability to study his playing on protools after he leaves.

So I noticed one thing about his playing.  HE PLAYS THE BASS!!   It doesn’t sound like the NAMM show or walking into Guitar Center.  He’s funky and his pocket and time are perfect.   But it serves the song, first and foremost.  Then, once, maybe twice per song, he’ll step out, usually towards the 3rd chorus or closer to the end, and slap you upside the head with a crazy lick!  BAM!  Then, before you can figure out what just hit you, he’s back playing the bass.  Simple yet effective.  Spicy, but not overpowering.

What is it about Nashville?

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IMG_4300I met a songwriter from Denmark yesterday and he was astounded at watching us track songs. He said, “you guys all know what to do on the first take!  I can’t believe how fast you are!”  He’s right!  There is something about Nashville studio ‘cats.’  I’ve seen this scenario played out a hundred times.  Usually writers or producers from somewhere in Europe, i.e.. Sweden, Germany, Belgium, etc.  come here a lot to co-write, then inevitably find themselves at a session.  They are flabbergasted at how Nashville studio cats can listen to a work tape 1 time, and sit down and usually nail it.  There is a learned language among session players.  It has to do with not only knowing a million and one styles, tones, and reference songs, but having used them on a million and one songs and knowing how to get at those sounds very quickly and pull off those styles perfectly and consistently.   And…….(here’s the most important part)…..to adapt any any and every one of those styles to modern music.  Push the envelope, if you will.  That is what separates the pretty good players from the killer players.  They constantly listen to new music and are constantly filling up the ‘tank.’

Nashville definitely has it’s own ‘sound.’  I’ve heard people try to pull off a ‘Nashville’ in other places, and I gotta tell you, you can generally spot it a mile off.  It’s not that it’s bad, don’t get me wrong.  It’s just that it’s not Nashville.  If you want a Nashville sound, there’s one place you can consistently get it.  You know where.