Here's a new one I wrote.

I played all the instruments and sang all the vocals.  What you hear are: 12 String martin acoustic guitar, 5 string banjo, Fernandez bass guitar, Ibanez artist semi hollow body electric guitar, Yamaha Cornet.  The organ was a kontakt 5 Whiter Shade of Pale emulated through my axiom keyboard controller.  I used protools 10 through my new apogee duet interface and played the drums and mellotron through logic patches.

What I Want To See (Demo 5-12-2015)

Recorded live at REI Studios 6/25/15, this song was a group effort that we all wrote last winter.  Other than a banjo overdub track and a tiny bit of vocal overdubs that I did in the beginning, there has been no production work done on this song.

James Murray - Vocals, Bass Guitar, Banjo
Nick DiVico - Vocals, Electric Guitar
Mike Watson - Acoustic Guitar
Peter Threulson - Electric Guitar
Jimmy Carlucci - Drums

All of us wrote the song with some help from Frank Cordaro in the lyrics department.

Diamond Jig - Cornfield

This is going to be the opening to the Drakus album, and it's actually one of the first things I ever wrote.  I wrote it in 1994 when Drakus was still going to be one really long song.  I remember attempting to put this together with my friends Andrew, Dean and Chris back in High school.  It actually hasn't changed that much since then, except that I've streamlined it quite a bit.

The Riders hasn't changed much since then, but it's been streamlined a bit.  Worthwhile has gotten longer, the softer section was added about 10 years ago.

I'm playing trumpet, classical guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboards (mellotron/piano/strings)

Art by Via Anjipan

The Riders / Worthwhile (demo)

Finally got around to finishing this song.  I couldn't find a drummer to do it, so I did it myself.  I'm not much of a drummer, but with time and patience I managed to finish the track.

It took a long time but I think it was worth it.  So it looks like I'm going to be playing all of the instruments on this album.  At this rate I don't know when I'll be finished :).

What I Want To See

I wrote in March of 2016, although parts of it are pretty old and were originally part of the Drakus concept.  It still fits actually.  Finally got to finishing recording it.  It's the drums that took me a long time.

Prove (Demo)

This is a song written by my Tia Ish (Iris Sweeney).  She wrote it for her husband Jimmy and used to play it a lot on the piano when I was a kid.  She's been having health problems and recently lost her vision so I thought I'd record this for her as a gift.

Jimmy's Theme

Here's a really old song that I wrote when I first got my electric guitar back in 1995.  It was written as a speed picking exercise and was soon added to the original Drakus Suite.  I recently dug it up to record for my Drakus album.  I must say this was probably the most difficult song to record yet.  I play all the instruments except for the drums which were very skillfully provided by "Bongo" John Metcalf who also did the mixing.

There are 3 parts to this song:
Part 1 - Bustling Brew
Part 2 - Funky Feast
Part 3 - Blissful Bellies

Heroes' Feast

Here's another track that's going on the Drakus album.  This is sort of the "defeat of the dragon" track that was originally supposed to end the Drakus suite, but now it's going to be the penultimate track of the album.  The flamenco/salsa section at the end is a new addition, and I was inspired by Eduardo Rivera to add it.  He plays Congas and Bongos on this track, and Pete Threulson plays bass pedals.  My sister Coreen and cousin Christina also provide backing vocals.  And my friend Michael Perlmutter did an excellent job playing bass.  I play the rest of the instruments but will probably have "Bongo" John Metcalf add some more drums and finalize the mix for the album version.

Like a lot of my songs, this song has 3 parts:

1. Final Form
2. Furious Flamenco
3. Salsa Shower

Firestorm

Both discs of my drakus album.  All songs have been merged to preserve the flow of the tracks.

Drakus

Drakus - Part II

Drakus - Part I

Song written by Mike Watson with a little help from the Diamond Jig band:

Mike Watson - bass, lead vocals
Peter Threulson - electric guitar
Frank Cordaro - Percussion, backing vocals
Nick Divico - electric guitar
Al Billian - Drums
Jimmy Carlucci - Drums
Edgardo Rivera - Congas and bongos
James Murray - Acoustic Guitar, 12 String Guitar, backing vocals

This was performed live at studio 14B near 89 North in Patchogue with Protools 10.  I overdubbed my 12 String and backing vocals from home also with Protools 10.  The mandolin style 12 string picking is louder than it will be in the final mix.

Diamond Jig - It All Leads to Trouble (2-27-13)

I grew up listening to prog rock, jam rock and folk thought I'd try my hand at writing some songs myself.

James Murray 20

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