This is an energetic vamp (no lyrics) that I see as a strong service introduction.
24-dec-2006 I tried my hand at a "string pad" and re-recorded the electric again.
30-dec-2005 Someone once referred to this song as Fire Vamp. Consider the name changed (from the old reference of Joyful Vamp in A).
18-feb-2006 The WillSongs inventory has recently benefited from a new item: A one-inch, dual-diaphragm condenser microphone. I worked with such an animal fourteen years ago at Full Moon Recording studio (Eugene, OR) where I was trained and worked as a recording engineer. That microphone was the famous Neumann U87, which today sells for nearly $3,000. So I figured I would never have one. But I had a dream a few months ago that I had a similar mic (and, of course, such things have a way of getting my gears turning). So I recently did some searching and found that such a microphone can be had by laymen like me. The Behringer B-2 Pro sells for an astounding $150! After reading raving reviews, I decided to take the plunge and discovered a microphone that "tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
The B-2 Pro allowed me to capture something I have waited nearly ten years for: a pure reproduction of the Taylor 555 (a stunning graduation gift from my father, mother, grandmother, and a couple friends, Paul and Patty). About six years ago, I installed a piezo pickup so that I could play live, but the pickup never did the guitar justice (though the installation, which involved saws and drills, cost me many gray hairs).
I thought Fire Vamp was a good number to begin the "555 Upgrade" with since it has a story behind it which I have never told. Shortly after Cindy and I were married, she began to feel impressed by The Lord to reach out in reconciliation to her step mother. One of the things she did in obedience was to give a very nice ring that she had really prized (and anything "nice" was a rarity indeed for us as we were very poor in those years). God worked through these gestures, and, when her step mother died we went to her funeral. The seeds Cindy had planted matured into further reconciliation with more of her step family so that her step sisters agreed that Cindy should receive the ring back again (I would include a picture, but she gave the ring away again--more seeds).
Our God was clearly at work in this family, and I have seldom felt His presence so keenly as I did one of those nights when I stood outside the house in the dusk looking at the warm light spilling out through the windows. I felt as if Jesus was standing next to me and asked, "well, what do you think?" And I answered, "among all your works, it is one of the finest." I had brought the 555 with me, and the next afternoon I was strumming it in her dad's living room when the opening chords came to me.
That is the environment the song was born in, and there are few songs that fit the 555 better than Fire Vamp. In the five years since I published it, it has not opened many services, so it has not been developed. So I thought this was a good opportunity to see what I could do with PowerTracks and the RG1570. I have always loved the bass line, so I left it untouched. Besides, the electric guitar part gave me more than enough challenge to keep me busy!
Will
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updated 26-dec-2006
