Class Act

Pictured, from left: Joel Dove, Edward Iglesias, Barbara McFall (Director of BCC, Southport Campus), Glenn Erb, Jim Bradley, Jamie Hoover (instructor), David “Cosmo” Reed, Mike Browning, Chris Luther, Patty Webb. Not pictured, Richard Rossi.

SONG NOTES

Do It Again (Wilson/Love) – At the beginning of each term, Jamie asks for suggestions from the class for a song to study and reproduce to the best of our collective abilities. This suggestion was provided by Glenn Erb, who shares my passion for The Beach Boys. This happens to be my favorite Beach Boys song, so this was a great idea as far as I was concerned. Breaking down all of the instrumental and vocal parts was a great learning experience, and was made a bit easier by the fact that track-only and vocal-only versions of the song had been officially released and were available on YouTube. I played all the instruments, programmed the drums, and sang all the vocals, except for one key part. The Brian Wilson “trumpet” part during the chorus was a bit above my reach, even with the pitch correction feature available in Cubase, so I called upon my wife, the lovely and talented Janine Browning, to give it a try. She came through with flying colors, as you will undoubtedly agree.

My Back Pages (Dylan) – This one was also suggested by Glenn. I had always wanted for my former band, Close Enough, to give this one a try, but at the time I didn’t have enough confidence in my ability to reproduce the gorgeous electric 12-string guitar sounds we hear on The Byrds’ version. With the pressure of performing in front of a crowd a non-factor, I was able to come pretty close, thanks to my Schecter Diamond Series 12-string and my Boss CS-3 compression pedal. I played and sang everything on this one.

Norwegian Wood (Lennon/McCartney) – It can be intimidating to cover a Beatles tune, but I didn’t feel any angst about recording this because I didn’t think anyone outside of my family would ever hear it. This is the first song I recorded by myself, after having nearly a year of Jamie’s instruction and mentorship under my belt. My daughter, Jillian, had always loved The Beatles, and, as with most folks of her generation, her first exposure to them was watching the animated film classic Yellow Submarine. Norwegian Wood was among her very favorites from the movie, so I set about making a version for her as a Valentine’s Day present. I had always been curious about what this song would have sounded like had George Harrison never met Ravi Shankar, so I used my electric 12-string as a replacement for the sitar. I was happy with how it came out, and Jillian was so delighted that she started using it as her ringtone.

867-5309/Jenny (Keller/Call) – This is the song we recorded in my first class, starting back in March, 2018. Jamie offered me, as the new kid in school, the chance to select the song. This is a power pop classic and was a favorite of my old band Close Enough, so I had some confidence that I could make a meaningful contribution. This is one of the songs I had to circle back and update a bit, since I hadn’t yet gotten into the habit of making a complete version of the class songs on my own. While I played and sang everything else, that’s our teacher, Jamie Hoover, on drums.

(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet (Hamilton/Gorman) – This was suggested by our resident bass player, David “Cosmo” Reed. Cosmo is a member of Mike’s Garage Band, a local outfit which plays exclusively for charitable causes. I sing all the parts and play acoustic and rhythm guitars, but this one is more of a group effort than any of the other songs on the album. While I have played guitar for several years, I just started to learn the bass shortly after I began taking Jamie’s class. As a way to advance my learning, I have tried my hand at the bass parts of all of the songs we do, but Cosmo nailed it so well, that I just decided to use his bass track. Glenn Erb contributed electric guitar and the fuzz bass parts during the choruses and solo. Catesby Jones joined us for this session and played drums. Catesby is a talented songwriter and performer in his own right, and scored as a co-writer of “Country Club,” a huge hit for Travis Tritt. Catesby and Jamie have written songs together, and Jamie produced Catesby’s latest album, “These Roads of No Return.” For more information on Catesby’s work, visit catesbyjones.com.

I’ll Never Find Another You (Springfield) – Along with Norwegian Wood, this is the only other song that wasn’t done for class… it was done because of the skills I had learned in class. This is one of my wife’s favorite songs, so I thought I would give it The Byrds’ treatment… a classic folk song taking on an electric arrangement. It was a challenge to work on this and keep it a surprise, since I do my recording at home in a small house. Fortunately, Janine was still working part-time, so I was able to get most of the recording work done while she was out. I presented it to her for Mother’s Day, 2019. This was the first recording of mine to be played on the radio. I sent it to Janine’s cousin in Texas, Cami McCraw, who runs KATZ radio in Fort Worth, TX (under the show biz name Cami Bradley). Thanks Cami, for the support and the airplay!

Gimme Some Lovin’ (Winwood/Davis/Winwood) – I don’t remember who suggested this R&B classic, but I’m pretty sure it was either Glenn or Cosmo. Glenn helped out a lot on this one, providing fuzz bass, the high co-lead vocal on verses two and three, background vocals on the choruses, and the enthusiastic whoops and hollers throughout. Jamie kicked in on the drums.

Dear Madam Barnum (Partridge) – my good friend Rich Rossi suggested this XTC song, which I had never heard before. Andy Partridge of XTC wrote the song for inclusion in an Australian movie called The Crossing, for which it was never used. It was created to sound like mid-60s Hollies, and XTC nailed it. Thanks to Rich for suggesting such a great song, and thereby exposing me to the wonderful XTC album, Nonesuch.

(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Boyce/Hart) – This was my suggestion, another song for which I had a fair level of comfort after playing it on a regular basis with Close Enough. The Monkees’ hit version was the model used by the class, but I added some elements of the equally excellent version by Paul Revere and the Raiders, the fuzzy lead guitar lick being the most recognizable. 

You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Dylan) – This was suggested by Jim Bradley, who joined our ranks via Zoom during the pandemic in 2020. Jim had already produced a complete rendition before he moved to our area, but thought it might be fun to rework some of it. This was our first venture into full-blown Country Rock since I joined the class in early 2018. The Class Act version includes Jim’s fine electric guitar work, along with banjo, percussion, and backing vocals from Glenn Erb, and harmony and background vocals by Patty Webb. The a cappella break towards the end was Jamie’s idea, and it fits beautifully.

The Little Black Egg (Conlon) – This is another chestnut from the Close Enough catalog, and may be the most obscure song of the bunch. It was written for an Easter concert in 1965 for which The Nightcrawlers opened for The Beach Boys. The original recording was released in 1965 and was a regional hit, and was picked up by Kapp Records in late 1966 and hit the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 (#85) in early 1967. I became aware of it through its inclusion on the classic Nuggets collection. I gave this one the full reverb treatment, to match what Capitol Records executives did to the early Beatles’ records on which I grew up.

Picture Book (Davies) – To close out the album, we have this Kinks classic from 1968 that was suggested by Jamie Hoover himself. It wasn’t a big hit in the US, but it was used nearly 20 years ago in an ad campaign for Hewlett-Packard, to the delight of Ray Davies himself. This one is all me except for the excellent drums provided by Jamie. Make sure you stay for the entire track… there is a surprise ending that I included for the class, just to show myself (and my classmates) that I could do it.

My thanks for this project go out to lots of people, starting with Richard Rossi, who painted the front cover art. Special thanks to Barbara McFall and all the folks at Brunswick Community College in Southport, NC. Thanks also to Jamie Hoover for teaching the class and sharing his knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm with all of us. Thanks also to each of my classmates over the years, who have made this venture such a joy.