Cover of Bright Eyes "First Day Of My Life"
Jim Schwartz - all instruments/production
Joe Burch - i just sing it


First Day Of My Life

A Country song in the classic style. Written years ago by my Uncle Rusty. 
In March 2024, Rusty asked me to help him figure out the chords and structure. His original intent was for me to sing it. He sent me multiple voice memos from his bed, just for reference. His breath was very short, but his style was apparent. And the song was great. I wrote up a chord chart with the lyrics, figured out the tempo, and laid down a demo version in Pro Tools. After doing my own vocal pass, it just didn't quite sound right. It's not my song, so it felt as if my vocal style was off. Too sweet. Then I thought of the Rick Rubin produced Johnny Cash Album, American Recordings. The grizzled veteran, emoting and singing in his own way, in the moment. Not attempting to perform like his younger self. The imperfect grit and rawness of a hard life only served to accentuate the emotion. In a perfect world, I would have been able to record Rusty under better circumstances with a good microphone, but Uncle Rusty's voice memos were all I had. So, I dropped them into Pro Tools, and I was amazed at how closely matched they were to the tempo I'd established. Even with the less-than ideal quality of the recordings, it sounded perfect. I had to do a little slicing and dicing so the lyrics flowed a little bit more naturally. It's not perfect, but I find it to be so lovely. Rusty then let me know there was one more verse that he forgot to sing, but I never got the chance to have him sing it, so he gave me the verse to sing. When I finally sent him the finished demo, he loved it. Although he did have notes! 
Since then, while building my Pro Tools skills, I have been working on the song, attempting to solidify the guitar performances and make it more of a professional sounding mix. But as with before, everything I added that was more polished and played more intricately, just didn't sound right. 
The session I worked on that very first night, until 4am, was the one. I never even Mastered it.
Perhaps someday I will record this song with pro musicians. But as it is, it makes me happy that my Uncle Rusty has one of his original songs out there in the world. Stanley A. Padlo Jr, "Rusty" passed away on July 20th 2024. And we didn't top the charts together, but we were brought together through his music. And for me, that is the true power of music.  RIP

joeyburch