THE PROJECT: Write, record and publish an original song every week.
THE GEAR: Washburn Rover Travel Guitar, MacBook Pro, GarageBand ’11
THE STUDIO: Atami Otakhi (“The Peach Room” – our bedroom in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia)

OCTOBER 29, 2011: I Can Only Let You Down
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

A simple song that started with a melody and no words a few weeks ago. I recorded this instrumental version but decided not to post it, because I wanted the song to be sung. A couple of very difficult weeks later on a Saturday afternoon, I re-recorded the instrumental parts and wrote/recorded the vocals a verse at a time over the course of an hour. This song is about those couple of weeks.

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OCTOBER 11, 2011: Everything’s Fine
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

This is technically cheating, but I’m including it anyway. When McKinze and I were back in the States last spring, my good friend (and musical genius) Larry and I got together a few times in his basement to quickly record the first thing that came together. The result is this song. I went back to my life in Georgia, Larry went back to his life in the States, and in the last few weeks he dusted this off, put some finishing touches on it, and mixed it all down (not in GarageBand). A song about being away from Georgia.

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2011: The Call
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

Our first night in Istanbul, walking back to the hotel from dinner, we heard the call to prayer: simultaneous singing from the minarets of more than 2000 mosques in and around the city. Unlike anything else I’ve heard. A cacophony of sound, voices both complementing and conflicting with one another. I had my iPhone with me and recorded a few minutes. The singing you hear in this song is on one track, from the tops of minarets, unedited, no effects. You can hear the tram go by and the sounds of the city streets. This is also my first time messing with loops in GarageBand.

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2011: Fences
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

After waking up on Tuesday, September 13th, with no song idea and very little time to get one down, this came from out of nowhere (I was humming the opening lyric while making the bed) and was recorded within a few hours (while my host brother and sister were sleeping, so the vocals and guitar had to be quiet). Another good one for headphones. Not perfect — the internal mic on the older white MacBook I recorded this on is even worse than on the MacBook Pro — but considering this didn’t even exist 12 hours ago (at time of posting), I’m actually pretty proud of it.

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SEPTEMBER 6, 2011: Preacher’s Legend
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

An ambient hymn, using a paragraph from Truman Capote’s short story, “Preacher’s Legend.” Put on your headphones and turn it up.

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2011: Get Gone
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

A loud, brash breakup song/work-in-progress that could just as easily be re-tooled as a Willie Nelson-ish country tune.

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AUGUST 25, 2011: The Old Man and the Sea
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

Written and recorded in a day, following a long weekend at the beach.

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AUGUST 17, 2011: My Favorite Time of Day
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

A sweet, simple and summery song about being happy with the one you’re with.

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AUGUST 9, 2011: Step Into The Sun
Click to play below, and/or Download Here.

Cats looking out windows. I wrote the first verse of this last Wednesday night and recorded the guitar/bass/drums Monday night. I scraped together some lyrics and recorded the vocals Tuesday night (yesterday). It needs a bridge and a lead guitar part.

All material Copyright 2011 Sean Fredericks