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THE SONGS
From the Album 'Down At The Flats'
1. Slide On By |
7. Mayday Stomp (for Chas the Hippie) |
8. Cajun Rain |
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10. Doing Me Wrong |
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5. The Fever |
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*Click on a song title to hear a sample from the album.
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Down At The Flats is also available through CD Baby and Digstation for .mp3 downloads. Click on one of the images below to go to our page on those sites.
All songs written by George Eberlein (© George Eberlein - 2006/BMI) except "The Fever" (© Bruce Springsteen - Bruce Springsteen Music ASCAP) and "Cajun Rain" ( © A. Smith and Ed Gore - Cajun Reign Publishing/BMI 1997)
Seven of the nine songs I wrote for the album are new, written for this project. When I started putting together the tunes I had only one criteria, that they would be fun to do live. I wasn't worried about writing songs that were 'commercial' or sticking to one genre, or following any sort of format. I just wanted to come up with some songs that would fit our trio format, and that Henry and Rick would enjoy playing in our shows. For most of the songs we would work them up, play them live and kind of jam around with them, experimenting with different arrangements, tempos, and grooves. By the time we took them into the studio, we pretty much had a handle of the way the songs wanted to sound and the recording went quickly.
We cut all of the basic rhythm tracks at Rick Long's studio using his Pro Tools rig. Basically we played the tracks live and tried to get a good 'band' feel. Most of the tracks went down quickly and most of what we used were first or second takes. Some of the overdubbed electric and acoustic guitar parts were done at Rick's studio.
We then imported the tracks to my studio. I recorded the rest of the guitar overdubs, all of the vocals and the keyboard tracks there using Sonar 5 Professional. I did all of the mixing there as well. The mastering was done by The SoundLab at Disc Makers in Pennsauken, NJ.
I'd like to say thanks to Rick and Henry for their contributions to the arrangements and for breathing life into these tunes. And a special thank you to the two incredible keyboardists who contributed to the project, Ed Gore and The Amazing Eddie Moore.
George Eberlein
September 17, 2006
Click on the song title to hear a clip of the song.
1. Slide On By
This was one of the first tunes I wrote for the album. Originally it was an instrumental written on my National Steel guitar. When I recorded a demo of the song I need a title and I called it "Slide On By" (It was a slide guitar piece) When I decided to try and make it a vocal tune, I used the existing title and wrote some lyrics to it. The guitar lick and the original feel of the song were definitely influenced by the Allman Brothers tune "Hard Times" from their 'Hittin' The Note' album. Ed Gore from the Andy Smith Band plays organ and piano on the track.
2. Tryin' To Tell You Baby
This one is a Texas drivin' blues thing that definitely shows a ZZ Top influence. When we started doing the trio I was listening to a lot of power trio bands like ZZ Top, Cream, early Govt. Mule, etc., tryin' to get a feel for the approach I wanted to take with our band. I love the first three ZZ Top albums and you can hear the influence in this song. I love doing this one live.
3. Airport Blues
This is an older tune, written in 2000 when my wife and I were dating. We had spent a two week vacation together but she had to return to her job. I drove her to New Orleans for her flight. Well I was pretty bummed out and like the song says, just as I drove out of the parking garage at the airport it started raining, just pouring down. When I got home there was an old acoustic of mine leaning against the couch. It was tuned to an open D chord for slide and I picked it up and wrote the song start to finish in one sitting. I've never changed one word or revised it since it was written. I like it because it is honest. Henry did a great job with his drum parts on this one. I love the cymbal washes.
4. Livin' With Regrets
This one came together differently than any of the other songs on the album. During one of the sessions at Rick's studio, Henry and I were jamming around in between takes. He had changed his snare drum to one with a really tight, popping sound. I started playing a one chord funk thing and he fell in with a great groove. After a couple of minutes Rick yelled at us to stop so he could hit the record button and capture what we were doing. When we started recording I quickly realized that all I had was my one chord riff and that wouldn't make for much of a song. I came up with a couple of different sections off the top of my head. We only did it once and what you hear on the record is that original first take. The intro guitar rhythm is my original guitar part. Later Rick put a bass part down and I took the tracks to my studio, wrote some lyrics and built up the track. The Amazing Eddie Moore plays piano and organ on this one. If you like this song, thank Rick. If he wouldn't have hit the record button, the song would never have been captured and most likely the groove forgotten.
5. The Fever
This is the first Springsteen song I ever heard. In the early '70's there was a live in the studio version of Bruce and the E Street Band doing this song. This was right before the release of 'Born To Run' and a lot of radio stations around the country were playing it. I heard it and immediately loved the song. It was never released officially until the '18 Tracks' album in 1999. I've done it in a couple of bands over the years and I've always wanted to cut it. I originally played the keyboard parts but I asked Ed Gore to play some 'proper' piano and organ. Ed really did an incredible job on this tune. I still don't think that he has ever heard Bruce's version. Ed and I were never in the studio at the same time for this. I sent him a copy of my tracks and he recorded his parts in his studio in Lafayette, LA. He would upload his parts to my web server, I would listen, make some suggestions and he would upload the next version. He and I have done other projects in this manner. Technology at work! Greg memphis added a nice Baritone part to the background vocals. He also did the 'Big Man' vocal line in the last chorus. On Bruce's version Clarence Clemons sings this cool vocal part on each chorus, "He's got the fever for a girl". I got Memphis tone sing that part as a nod and a wink to Bruce's version. Thanks to the great people at Bruce's management company, Jon Landau Management for allowing us to release this tune.
And yes, I know I sang a wrong word in the first verse. I was talked out of replacing it and now it drives me crazy every time I hear the line.
6. South of Highway 31
This is another one of the first tunes I wrote for the band. When we first started out, every night I would change where I said the band was from. All three of us lived in different cities. Every night I would say "Good evening, we are Catfish Flats from ...." I started saying that we were from the 'South side of .... It sounded blues approved, you know like you might hear at a blues club, " Ladies and Gentlemen, from the south side of Chicago, please welcome...." So I started having fun with it, saying that we were from the south side of Interstate 10, the south side of Baldwin county or wherever. One night I said "We're Catfish Flats from South of Highway 31". a light went off in the songwriter side of my brain and I wrote the song around the title. The people mentioned in the song are folks Henry and I grew up with. Ruby grew up a couple of blocks from me (I keep expecting to hear from her about the mention in the song). Styx and JB are a couple of friends of mine who have a band called 'The Lost Boyz'. When we started playing this one live, we immediately got a lot of positive feedback That in itself was very encouraging and made me realize that we had to get an album out.
After I had finished the song, I came to the bitter realization that US Hwy 31 is a North-South route and there possibly was no 'south of Highway 31'. The highway starts in Spanish Fort, AL and runs north all the way to Mackinaw City, MI. But, at the southernmost part of the highway between Highway 59 and the Mobile Bay, the road takes an east-west swing. So there is in fact an area south of Highway 31 (Thank goodness. I thought I was gonna have to write another song!). You can trust me on that one. I grew up there.
7. Mayday Stomp
This is an instrumental that I wrote on my National steel guitar. I wrote this one for my buddy Chas (the hippie) Boyce. He is a big fan of that guitar and is always encouraging me to play it more. Henry and I cut this one live in the studio and I think it is a second take. I had a basic structure for the song but ended up improvising a lot of the parts. I later played the bass part but that is the only overdub on the song. The rest is live just as Henry and I played it.
There is a park down on the bay in Daphne, AL called Mayday Park. When I was growing up I used to sit down there all the time and play guitar. It is my favorite place in the world and I still go down there and play guitar whenever I get the chance. I wrote this song there one afternoon as I watched the sun set over the bay.
8. Cajun Rain
This is a cover of a song from the Andy Smith Band. I played with Andy for 1995-1997 and we did an excellent album 'Positive Ripple Effect'. "Cajun Rain" is one of the songs from that album. I always wanted to do a cover of this one. We initially had a difficult time getting a track on this song. I wanted to do a different feel than the original version, but the version on Andy's album is so strong, that we had a hard time changing it up. We just couldn't get away from the original groove of the cut, and it wasn't working for us. After a couple of months of trial and error I tried a different approach. One night, after finishing a club gig I told Rick and Henry I wanted to try something. I hummed the bass line to Rick and asked him to play it. After he got a handle on the bass line, I asked Henry to play one of those Meters grooves he loves. Then we jammed on that, just playing over one chord, for 15 or 20 minutes. Then I told them, this is how we're gonna play "Cajun Rain". Then we adapted the chord changes of the song to that groove, and I changed the key signature, and we came up with a cool feel for the song. We went into the studio the next week and nailed it on the first or second take.
9. Remembering Duane
This is an instrumental written as a tribute to Duane Allman. I wrote and recorded it with my National Steel guitar. Originally, it was faster, kind of like the tempo of Duane's song "Little Martha". But as I was arranging it, the song seemed to want to be played slower. Rick does a beautiful bass solo on the third section, a nod to the original bassist for the Allman Brothers Band, Berry Oakley.
Duane is my all time favorite guitarist and his playing sounds as fresh and exiting to me now as it did when I first heard him, 37 years ago. I hope he likes this song.
10. Doing Me Wrong
This is an old song of mine, written around 1985. It has been cut by a number of people and it was included on the Mr. X album that I did in the early '90's. I wrote it for the second Frontrunner Band album, but was never recorded. I liked the song and fortunately I held onto it. Originally it was all in a major key, kind of like Elmore James' "It Hurts Me Too". That is the way it was recorded on the Mr. X album. I was working it up for an album project I was producing for vocalist Felicia Devine, and Felicia asked, "could you do this in a minor key?" I immediately said, no that's not possible, but then thought about it for a second and came up with the current arrangement where the verses go from a minor to a major key. It has a unique chord progression for a blues tune and it is a lot of fun to play. Thanks to Felicia for the idea to change the song up a bit.
People always ask me who was the woman who was 'doing me wrong' in this song. The truth is that it was written for no one in particular. I came up with the title and made up the verses to fit the theme of the song. So there is no guilty party.
The Amazing Eddie Moore plays piano and organ on this tune. Eddie came into my studio and after listening to the song once, sat down at the piano and JUMPED on this track. Eddie played like it was the third set in a packed club on a Saturday night! Like it was the third set in a packed club on a Saturday with three good looking women dancing in front of him! Like three good looking women were dancing in front of him and two of them were giving him 'the eye'! OK, you get the idea. He really played some incredible stuff on both piano and organ and really shot some life into the song.
11. Down At The Flats
This an instrumental I wrote for the band as kind of a signature instrumental piece that we could use as an opener for our shows. To date, I don't think we've ever done it as a set opener. Oh well, so much for that concept. Maybe one day we'll kick off the night with it. This song was done live in the studio, start to finish on the first take. In fact, it was the only take and the only time we ever recorded it.We had been playing it live for a couple of months before the recording session, and to tell you the truth, I was worried about getting a good cut of it in the studio. I kept thinking 'oh man, the song is gonna kick our butts in the studio'. I thought it would take forever to get a cut. We did it at the end of our first session and what you hear is the live track, the first and only take. The only overdubs are the organ on the long jam section at the end and a rhythm leslie guitar part on the main part of the song. There are mistakes (particularly from me) on the track, but I like that it captures a live, spontaneous feel.
The end section was not planned. When we got to the 'arranged' ending of the song we were going to hold the last chord and kind of let it ring out. On the last chord I bent over next to my amp and let some of the notes feedback. Since I was playing unbelievable loud in the studio, one note of feedback turned into another, and Rick and Henry jumped on what I was doing. The end part of the song happened spontaneously, everyone reacting to what the others were doing. I did edit a bit of this section out, as we went on and on with it. The last section is live, real, fun, spontaneous, long, musical and completely self indulgent. And I like it, and had to include it on the album. I hope you like it as well.
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