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“Meloneras Blues” (The Album) a short history.

I started work on this project “Meloneras Blues” (The Album) in February 2008.

Apart from two weeks holiday in March 2008….the rest of the time was spent writing and re-writing, recording and re-recording the album, almost 8 months in total.

A few of the songs had already been written, ( Meloneras Blues, Para Ti, Wasted Years and That’s Why It’s Called The Blues) but the rest of the songs were written as I was recording, and a few of them came out quite by accident!! …..for instance:

“A Man Without The Blues Is A Man Without Soul” (see below for the story of that song)

It was a real pain in the back, (and the ass! ha ha ha) project! ......writing and recording the whole thing. I had to go to the doctor on a few occasions to try and get my back sorted out. He told me that it was because of the 7/8 hours a day in the studio hunched over the guitar and the PC!

But now that it’s all done and finished, it was worth it!…….(but let me tell you, the next CD will be done at a much more relaxed pace)

All of the songs were written, arranged, produced and recorded by….yours truly! …….but I also had a lot of help along the way, as you will see from my notes below.

So, I hope that you will enjoy this short history on the making of the album, and more importantly,

I really hope that you enjoy the music on “Meloneras Blues” (The album)

Take care and good health to you all

Track List Story

1. Meloneras Blues.

I originally wrote Meloneras Blues (the song) as a “filler” for another project in December 2006.

The project was a CD single, and I had only the main title song ……so I needed at least two more songs to fill out the rest of the track list. So I thought, why not do something simple about Meloneras and the 19th Hole etc….and “Meloneras Blues” was written and recorded in about two days.

But the song took on a life of its own, and the people who come to the 19th Hole really seemed to like it…and relate to it. Then, when I put it up on MySpace it got a great reaction. The original recording of Meloneras Blues got around 15.000 hits on MySpace.

A great friend of mine and a great bluesman in Miami Florida “Poppa E” has recorded his own acoustic version of Meloneras Blues as well….and it’s just incredible!......... I love it!

Check it out at: http//:www.myspace.com/blackowlmusicmiami

2. Wasted Years.

“Wasted Years” is one of the older songs on the album. It was written on the 26th of June 1994 in a place called Banna Beach which is in County Kerry in Ireland. Originally it was written as an acoustic blues song…but I resurrected it again for this project and I put some horns from the “Blues Brothers” horn section and it just transformed the song into what it is now.

3. Let It Go.

“Let It Go” was written during the summer of 2008 as I was recording the album. It’s one of two songs on the CD which was written to “fill a blank space” on the CD!!....so to speak……..ha ha ha!

I had originally about 20 songs to pick from but I kept eliminating them one by one for one reason or another…too slow, too fast, too….whatever (musicians are weird people….that’s for sure) anyway I came up with “Let It Go” and it started out as a slow, laid back swamp blues type of tune…….and it finished up as……….well as it is!!!!

4. Hip Grinding Blues.

On my MySpace page, I have a lot of biker friends and Harley riders etc….and “Hip Grinding Blues” was written as a dedication to those guys and girls who like the freedom of the open road…….and it’s dedicated in general to bikers the world over. I also have another friend from MySpace who played some great slide guitar on the track. His name is Eric Larmier from France.

What happened was, I heard some stuff that he had done with another really good guitar player called Marco Maenza from Italy, so I sent him an email asking if he would like to play on a song. He said yes, so I sent him the track over the internet…he recorded his part in his studio…sent it back to me via the internet again….I put it into the track and it sounded just great! Thank you Eric!

Also on the song, another great musician is playing some Hammond B3 organ…his name is Joe Vitale.

He is better known as a drummer and has played with some of the great musicians of the world e.g. Joe Walsh, The Eagles and more recently Crosby Stills and Nash…….to name just a few!

5. Dangerous Times.

This song is about the times that we all live in right now.

Last year a tragic incident happened in the United States: “The Virginia Tech Massacre” where 33 people were killed….and that’s what moved me to write “Dangerous Times”

It also of course relates to “9:11 in New York in 2001”, “the 11th of March bombings in Madrid in 2004”, “the 7th of July London bombings in 2005” and many more such horrible attacks……..and why it is so important to try and bring peace to our world…….it’s the only one we’ve got!

6. Livin’ On The Line.

This is the second song that was written as a “filler”……..just something to make the track list a little longer, but as it turns out, everybody who has heard it have fallen in love with the song…….just one of those things!

Livin’ On The Line is a mixture of a lot of styles…………..it’s a sort of country/rock/blues song that seems to grab the attention of the listener... (don’t ask me why)…….. I have a very good friend of mine playing lead guitar on this track……..his name is Paul Jermyn. He is originally from Cavan in Ireland but now lives in England.

Thanks Paul…..for some really sweet playing on that song.

7. A Man Without The Blues Is A Man Without Soul.

I have a friend on my MySpace page called Mighty Mo Rodgers. He is an incredible blues singer/songwriter from Culver City, California. One day I sent him a comment that said “A Man Without The Blues Is A Man Without Soul” and in about 20 minutes he sent me a message with a verse written for a song. I asked if he would be interested in writing the song together…..but due to touring commitments in Europe he was not able to do it, so I decided to do it myself.

At the time I had just bought a new music software program called Reason 4….and I was learning how to use it. So, (quiet by accident) I found the drum loop and I added some of the Synth voices on top….played the bass line and out came “A Man Without The Blues Is A Man Without Soul”

So that song is dedicated to a great musician called Mr. Mighty Mo Rodgers.

Thanks for the inspiration Mr. Rodgers.

8. That’s Why It’s Called The Blues.

I originally wrote this song on the 22nd of April 2000 for another project, but it didn’t make the final track list………and I don’t remember why!!!

Anyway, it’s just a laid back slow blues tune that’s great to play and I hope….nice to listen to!

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

I wanted to have an up-tempo blues shuffle on the CD as well….so I was messing around with a few different ideas and……”I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby” came out.

At the time I was thinking about a BB King/Gary Moore type of feel. The horns on this are again from the Blues Brothers horn section….which gives the song a great boost.

The slide guitar is from a guy called Paul Black…..Hammond B3 is again from Joe Vitale.

10. Deep Water Blues.

This song was written on the 15th of March 1998. I have this out on another CD from a few years back….but this version is totally different.

It doesn’t have much of a story behind it…..just a good-time rock n roll tune.

11. Para Ti.

This is the only instrumental on the album. Originally it was written on an acoustic guitar as an acoustic instrumental……but I changed it to electric guitar and added it to the CD single which I mentioned earlier.

The melody for this tune was floating about in my head for months, and while I was on holiday in my sister’s house in Ireland in April 2006 I put the basics of it together.

The version which is now on the Meloneras Blues album was recorded in September of 2008.

The Musicians.

Frank Basile - Smart Loops

Frank began his love for the drums after beating up a friends' snare drum while listening to The Who. From then on it was playing to The Who, The Kinks, and Led Zep, and eventually learning every note played by Neil Peart on Rush albums.

Berklee gave Frank insight into Jazz and Latin, which led into working with many working bands in the Boston area. As a studio drummer, Frank showed his meticulous work-habits, and attention to detail, which led him to be an in-demand studio musician. After getting mixed up with music software at Cakewalk, Frank combined his engineering and software skills with his love of drumming to start an inventive online drum service named Live Studio Drums (LSD). "I provide multi-track drums for people who normally wouldn't be able to afford a professional drummer and studio time". Frank's favorite quote, which he is living himself now...

Frank Basile's credits include:

•

Founder/CEO of Smart Loops

•

Pro studio drummer with over 20 years experience playing and producing music in various styles.

•

Performed and produced all Smart Loops acoustic drum loop CDs

•

Degree in Music Production and Engineering

•

Drummer Frank Basile is offically endorsed by

Frank's Kit

MHX Masters Series

#141 Red Mahogany

22x16 bass drum

8x8 tom

10x10 tom

12x10 tom

14x14 floor tom

16x16 floor tom

14x5.5 snare drum

10x4 piccolo snare drum

13x5.5 brass Sensitone

13x3 steel piccolo

Eguie Castrillo - Smart Loops

All Percussion Kit loops were performed by Eguie Castrillo who has played with Tito Puente, Steve Winwood, Michael Brecker, Ruben Blades, United Nation Orchestra, Paquito D' Rivera, Michel Camilo, and many, many other world famous musicians.

Todd Sorensen - Drums On Demand.

Todd Sorensen is an accomplished session drummer and percussionist as well as a composer and producer. His playing and writing can be heard every day on shows like NBC's The Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America and more. He also composes for TV, radio and album production. His work has been featured in film trailers for such blockbusters as Tomb Raider 2, X Men 2 and Spiderman.

Joe Vitale - Sony Creative Software

Joe Vitale is a veteran musician whose career has spanned over thirty years of touring, recording, and song writing and production with legendary and Rock N Roll Hall of Fame artists including: The Eagles, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joe Walsh, Dan Fogelberg, John Entwhistle, Rick Derringer, Peter Frampton, Jay Ferguson, Boz Scaggs, Bill Wyman and many others.

His drumming encompasses all styles of music as does his incredible keyboard playing.

A dedicated professional, his quality of performance is evident in his resume.

Joe Vitale Specialties: Drums : Vocals : Keyboards : Percussion : Songwriter : Producer

Horncraft - Sony Creative Software

The Blues Brothers Horn Section.

Often called "the greatest horn section in the world", for over ten years Birch "Crimson Slide" Johnson (trombone), Lou "Blue Lou" Marini (tenor saxophone), and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin (trumpet) have propelled the Blues Brothers Band with their brilliant and fiery horncraft.

First call studio musicians all, Crimson Slide, Blue Lou and Mr. Fabulous have individually and collectively played on hundreds of recordings or performances for such artists as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, Destiny's Child, Bruce Springsteen, Lauren Hill, Bono, Tina Turner, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Santana, Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks, Ray Charles, Sting, and Bon Jovi. They can be heard on countless television shows, commercials and movie soundtracks, including "Blues Brothers 2000" where they are prominently featured as actors as well as instrumentalists.

The Memphis Horns - Illio.com

The Memphis Horns are the quintessential Memphis music combination - Andrew Love, tall, black and as mellow as one of his tenor solos; Wayne Jackson, short, white and as intense as one of his trumpet blasts. Together they were reared in all that Memphis music had to offer.

Elvis, Al Green, Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, The Doobie Brothers, Joe Cocker, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Gabriel, U2, Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Robert Cray Tony Joe White and hundreds of other have since worked with the men who made up the R&B horn section that provided the model for all others to follow.

To date, they’ve performed on 49 Number One records, 112 Top Ten records, 83 Gold & Platinum records and 15 Grammy winners.

Paul Black - Sony Creative Software.

Paul Black was never a cuddly performer. Years ago, talking about his approach to live performances, the Madison-based blues man explained to me, "I'm not there to get the audience excited and sweaty and get 'em to drink a lot of beer."

For 30 years, he refined his sets with his regular band, the Flip Kings, to the point where their takes on a connoisseur's selection of Delta blues, Chicago-shaded scuffling, inventively reworked rock covers and sly originals seemed to bore directly into the floorboards of local rooms like the old Church Key, the Crystal Corner and the Harmony Bar. These were serious blues sessions played with seriously talented sidemen like Jerry Alexander, West Side Andy Linderman and Joel Paterson. And the focus was almost always on Black's deft ululations on slide guitar — long, at times otherworldly peregrinations that could be unrelentingly doleful one minute and transcendently witty the next.

Sure, on some level the Flip Kings were offering up a soundtrack for the partiers who took over the bars after the work week was done. But it was also a kind of blues ritual in which Black played the role of shaman, massaging and stretching what appeared to be simple 12-bars until they came across as weird, goading messages from another dimension.

Black hadn't come to his magic easily. He'd knocked around in various contexts before settling in Madison in the mid-'70s. A stint playing around the South with Sonny Landreth (who'd go on to play with John Hiatt and do respected solo work) netted a lot of drunken nights and very little money. Later he played guitar with Texas-bred, San Francisco-based singer Jeannie Stout, who seemed destined for big things until she negotiated her way out of a contract with Arista Records.

Once he settled in Madison, Black became a reliable draw at local watering holes, and the Flip Kings established themselves as one of the area's best blues acts. He recorded a little, but mostly he developed his sound in clubs. In fact, it wasn't until the 1996 release of the David Z.-produced King Dollar on the House of Blues label that he got a brief shot at national exposure as a leader. Unfortunately, the label folded just as the album was getting some momentum. Black had matured into a unique blues player, but somehow he was back to playing remarkable live gigs in the same small Madison clubs.

Eric Larmier.

Eric currently play in a band called DUNES in France.

When it comes to slide guitar, I have been influenced by great sliders like Mick Taylor, George Harrison, Ry Cooder, Keith Richards (well not for slide but probably THE influence! Johnny Winter and so many others. More recently Sonny Landreth over the last 10 years just blew me away and I started to kind of working on new things since then, like fretting and playing harmonics behind the slide, or the other way round, tapping and picking, using e-bow.

Eric lives in Paris France.

Paul Jermyn.

Paul Jermyn,Guitarist, Singer/Songwriter from Cavan Town, Ireland, now resident in the picturesque village of Haworth, West Yorkshire UK. Paul started his musical career playing the pub circuit around Cavan and the Midlands. Bands included Midnight Run, Blast, Medicine Jar & Lightning Strikes & The Martin Donohoe Traditional Music Extravaganza!

Although considered to be a mainly Rock/Pop guitarist, Paul feels quite comfortable playing Country and Jazz and loves to play at traditional / folk sessions. He has toured extensively in the U.S. & Europe, playing support to such high profile acts as Don McLean and Dave Stewart.

Brett Raymond - Drums On Demand.

Brett Raymond works as a composer, arranger, studio musician, and singer for such varied clients as ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, ARTS Entertainment channel, Major League Baseball, Utah Jazz, FTD, including the theme for the "Today Show" on NBC, and the title theme for "ABC's Wide World of Sports." He received the BPME gold and silver medallion awards for television promos with CFCP 12, Montreal.

Dave Despain - Drums On Demand

Dave Despain, a founding member of the Salamanders, has been playing keyboards in a variety of bands since he was in junior high and has had the opportunity to travel all over the US and Europe playing for conventions and concerts. He does occasional session work and arranging for local songwriters and artists as well as local businesses and national corporations. You can hear his work on radio spots, Sony PlayStation games, and numerous CDs. Over the years he has been the keyboard player for numerous local acts including The Saliva Sisters, The Osmonds 2nd Generation, Joshua Creek, Thurl Bailey and has recently played shows with Juice Newton, Collin Raye, Lucy Lawless, Debbie Reynolds and Bo Diddly.

Michael Dowdle - Drums On Demand

Michael Dowdle began his professional career as a studio guitarist in 1979. Since then he has recorded thousands of sessions for artists and companies averaging approximately 250 sessions a year in all styles of music.

He has also recorded three nationally released pop-jazz instrumental albums, three Christmas albums and eight albums of instrumental hymns and religious music. He continues to work on many new projects and is involved as an arranger and producer as well.

Michael performs in various venues with many artists and really enjoys playing live. He feels very blessed to be able to make a living playing, composing and recording great guitar music.

http://www.michaeldowdle.com/

Carlos Nebot.

Frank plays on:

1. Meloneras Blues.

2. Wasted Years.

3. Let It Go.

4. Hip Grinding Blues.

5. Dangerous Times.

8. That's Why Its Called The Blues.

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

10. Deep Water Blues.

11. Para Ti.

Eguie plays on:

1. Meloneras Blues.

2. Wasted Years.

3. Let It Go.

4. Hip Grinding Blues.

5. Dangerous Times.

6. Livin' On The Line.

7. A Man Without The Blues Is A Man Without Soul.

8. That's Why It's Called The Blues.

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

10.Deep Water Blues

11. Para Ti

Todd plays on:

6. Livin' On The Line.

Joe plays Hammond B3 on:

4. Hip Grinding Blues.

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

Horncraft play on:

2. Wasted Years.

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

Lou "Blue Lou" Marini tenor sax solo on

Wasted Years.

The Memphis Horns play on:

1. Meloneras Blues.

3. Let It Go.

11. Para Ti.

Paul plays on:

2. Wasted Years.

9. I Wanna Make Love To Ya Baby.

Eric plays on:

4. Hip Grinding Blues.

Paul plays on:

6. Livin' On The Line.

Brett plays on:

8. Thats Why It's Called The Blues.

Dave plays on:

10. Deep Water Blues.

Michael plays on:

5. Dangerous Times.

8. That's Why It's Called The Blues.

10. Deep Water Blues.

Carlos sings backing vocals on

"Dangerous Times"

Carlos Nebot is originally from the beautiful island of Palma de Mallorca, but he now lives and works in Gran Canaria.

Carlos is a singer/songwriter with a crystal clear voice and has an incredible vocal range...(just listen to the notes that he hits on the chorus of "Dangerous Times").....GREAT!!!

Check him out on his MySpace page.