Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Here's a Shaggy Dog of a Tune

One of the reasons I wanted to figure out a way to digitize my albums was this song -- "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" -- a non-listed song on the B-side of Chris Stamey's Instant Excitement EP from back in 1985. I love the loose, slapdash nature of it, and it's got more energy than any of the other tunes on the EP, which suffer from too much production. And the song isn't even sung by Stamey (formerly of The dBs) -- I think the vocals are done by producer Don Dixon (if anyone can say for sure, I'd appreciate it). It's also got one of the best/worst banjo solos you'll hear (you make the call).

I could never find it in digital form, so I knew it would be one of the first things that I'd digitize once I got the tools. Same caveats as the last one: haven't processed it with any software -- it's just straight off the turntable with a bass-boosted EQ.

Chris Stamey: It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels