This song was the
Pick of the Week on 2016.04.19.
Here's the story:
Here's another one from the Voyager 96: Ride session of February 1996, a little over 20 years ago. I chose this one for two reasons: (1) there's a vaguely environmental theme to the lyrics and Friday is Earth Day, and (2) the guitar riff is so dang cool. It came out of the smoldering improvisation that meandered from song to song throughout that session, the seventh song of eight on Saturday night.
The chaos of "Bonbons in Flotsdam, Mississippi" was winding down and no one knew where we were headed next. I had my MXR Distortion+ pedal fuzzing out my guitar and pretty much stumbled on this riff, using a right-hand tap. Tim ends up echoing the riff with some similar tapping on the bass riff he eventually comes up with. It takes a little while to gel, but it's a wicked little groove.
Let's get back to the womb of the trees!
Instruments: Jon plays drum kit, Tim plays bass guitar, I play electric guitar, Tommy plays some percussion, and Pete sings.
Recording info: just two mics into a cassette deck, live. No overdubs or processing during digitization.
Thanks for listening!
-Andy
Freebus visited Ithaca in the February 1996, and another Voyager reunion ensued, playing nothing but improvised rock tunes.
Recorded with two mics to a cassette deck.
1990s improv reunions
Members:
Pete Downes - vocals, guitars
Jon Morse - drums
Tim Odell - bass, vocals
Andy Wyatt - guitar, vocals
Years of Activity:
1993-1997
Overview:
This started with a huge blizzard at the first recorded reunion of Voyager. Pete had moved to Lansing, Michigan in 1980, and in March 1993 he came back to Ithaca and had an epic jam in an unbelievable blizzard that dumped 5 feet of snow on Ithaca. Pete blew us away with his vocal improvisation and rock improv musical spark. EBA had always started rehearsals with an improv that occasionally included a vocal melody, but Pete took it to another level. This inspired some EBA improv sessions then Killer Whirlpool and Killer Voyage as we added more players.