The ShadowMusic Web Community

Hi friends
Maxwell James Merritt(30 April 1941[2] – 24 September 2020) was a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter and guitarist who was renowned as an interpreter of soul music and R&B. As leader of Max Merritt & The Meteors, his best known hits are "Slippin' Away", which reached No. 2 on the 1976 Australian singles charts, and "Hey, Western Union Man" which reached No. 13. Merritt rose to prominence in New Zealand from 1958 and relocated to Sydney, Australia, in December 1964. Merritt was acknowledged as one of the best local performers of the 1960s and 1970s and his influence did much to popularise soul music / R&B and rock in New Zealand and Australia.
Good listening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOfMUY8ev5c

Hi Denis,

I enjoyed the both the number and the video, Bob has clearly found a new acting vocation and is now starring in “Honey, I shrunk the Guitar”. I don’t think he should give up the day job just yet as his fretting style on the wee beastie still needs a bit of work, but the air picking was immaculate as usual!

The thought occurred to me that he may well be onto something here, as many of us are reaching a certain age and can no longer carry around heavy gear, with a bit more imagination and dexterity I’m sure we could all master a new generation of super mini class kit (a certain Dave will I’m sure will be keeping a close eye on this)! LOL

I really need to have a lie down at this stage as the dystopian ramblings fade back to reality, but couldn’t resist one one more thought process………… supposing we shrunk the recording studio, ooh….. we already have it’s called a laptop!

Regards

Gary

I don't say this lightly, but that has to be the most boring thing I have ever heard in my life.

Hi Steve,

I think some numbers work better than others when done as instrumentals, the vocals add meaning and are very prominent on the original, in terms of playing the number VHBL are well up to their usual high standard and I believe have tried to work with this in the arrangement (whilst having a bit of fun).

Possibly it doesn’t always work as intended, but VHBL are producing these with people doing their own parts remotely, it’s not like having all the musicians in the studio working together where there can be spontaneous improvisation.

I did ask Bob about this and whilst VHBL do have some really good vocalists that sometimes work with them, apparently they don’t attract much interest on guitar related sites?

Regards

Gary

Thank you Gary appreciate it
FYI, our last sung title (Fields of Gold) had more than 4500 views which for the VHBL is one of our best scores.

Uncle Fiesta wrote:I don't say this lightly, but that has to be the most boring thing I have ever heard in my life.

Maybe a few more 'key' changes and better use of the variety of tonal colours available on the strat plus some good harmonious fills on another strat would have saved it. Listen to some early Shadows stuff.

Ah, where would we all be without those usual unabashed blunt words of encouragement from Steve - eh?
The 'Don Rickles' of instrumental commentarians.

Rgds

Bob