No Direction Home

First of all. Thanks for sharing your music. I enjoyed listening and heraing what you are doing. Keep doing it!

You wanted feedback and not an ego stroke so here are just my first impressions.

I listened to them in the order they appear on the MySpace so one of my first comments was going to be that the vocals are waaay too down in the mix. The bass as well. I know it's difficult getting these things right but the vocalist (is that you?) can sing, and he needs to be heard and the story he is telling.

However, when I got to 'My Demons', it showed you could get it right. Whatever recording levels you used here should be the basis for the others.

Just going back a bit 'Hard Road Blues' sounded like something I would like, but for the reasons above (for me) it doesn't show what you can do. The vocal here reminded me of John Mellencamp, and believe me, thats no bad thing!

As I say 'My Demons' gave a much clearer impression of how you can sound. Were you doing it live?,  I noticed some effects on the vocals and stuff on a couple of tracks but otherwise not too much tinkering.

For me then 'Hard Road Blues', My Demons' and 'til I die' say to me there is a diversity in your music and that is an excellent basis. I make no judgement as to quality. they are your own songs and as such you are to be admired and praised for creating them in the first place. Keep doing that and be inspired to do it as much as you can.

Recording wise I would definately like to hear the bass higher up in the mix and the vocals to stand out in the mix because I think they should and they can! 'My Demons' proves that. The hi-hat nervewracked me on a couple of tracks, most notably 'Meaningless War', but please don't take offence. This stuff is all subjective and I ain't no expert.

I sing myself so I know how important it is to have it (the vocal) up there. Plus if you are recording but don't have the benefit of multiple takes and studio tricks at your disposal to get the vocal perfect then keep extended notes short or use mic distancing to fade the effect. If the vocalist has listened to recordings of himself live he'll know what I mean. There's no bloody hiding places in the studio. Your singer has a great voice and range of styles so he has absolutely nothing to worry about.

So thanks for the heads up. You may have no direction home but it seems to me there is some direction to somewhere - enjoy the journey!

Mike