The Linear Canvas

This really isn’t a new recording. I recorded it about a year ago. That version came out OK and I also recorded a version with my niece. My sister told me she couldn’t hear the lyrics when I sang it and after listening to it again, I agreed. This is a better mix, I hope. The only thing else different is that I recorded a new bass part. The old one was probably recorded before I fixed my bass and there was a lot of buzzing in it. I think it also makes it chug along just a little better too.

The Old Prisoner

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/The Old Prisoner 20100322_2013_256.mp3]

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When I posted the previous version of this song, this is the text I included with it.

I wrote this song thinking about my uncle Herschel Kelly. Born in the 1920’s in the Kentucky Appalachians, he struggled to get out of poverty like many at that time, later becoming a veteran of the Army in World War Two and then enlisting in the Air Force after the war. He found time to go to college and became among many things, a prison guard and a school teacher.

He was a mature good looking man but was never married, quite a controversy in Baptist circles that he grew up in. Somewhat of an outcast from his family at times and mysterious to neighbors. Strangers knew him as a helping hand when they needed him. I think he was a bit of a communist too.

He was very attentive to me. I think he saw some of himself in me. I am grateful for his presence in my life, but as he aged his demeanor changed and he became more distant from me. My life was changing in ways that didn’t include him. At the end our relationship had become non-existent and he was not answering my letters. When he passed away several years ago, he was separated from his family and resentful of his past. I always thought he felt trapped in the expectations of his family and society and he remained angry until the very end.

As usual I wrote the song, sang, and played all of the instruments. I recorded the song on my Fostex VF-16 digital multi-track and processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 7 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.

(The new bass part was recorded on my desktop PC directly into Cakewalk Sonar 7 Producer using my PreSonus Firebox audio interface)