I've been playing this uplifting song quite regularly at the open mic at the Skunk Hollow Tavern, in Hartland Four Corners, Vermont, on Wednesday nights, where I've been playing as often as I can since April 2011. This song rarely fails to raise the roof, even without all the drums, horns, and stacked vocals from this 2005 studio recording.

Recording details: Recorded in mangobananas studio in Ithaca, NY, in 2005. It started with a drum beat tapped out in Logic, then sampled bass tapped into Logic. Then I laid in acoustic and electric guitars, the electrics using an amp simulator in Logic. Then I programmed a horn section of sax, trombone, and trumpet, all with Logic's built-in sampled horns in the EXS-24 sampler. Then I did a lot of vocal takes, and had a blast mixing and dancing as I went. I've intended to replace the drums and bass with real instruments, but this is hard to beat.

If you like this, here are some other links to follow:

• An open mic playlist with the studio versions of the original songs I play most often.
• This song's album: 'refresher'.
• A version of the song from 1996 from the album 'leave a trace'.

Thanks for listening!

-Andy

here today

soon I'm going away
gonna get on a plane

    here today
    gone tomorrow
    here today
    gone tomorrow
    don't you know we gotta live it up
    while we can
    live it up (here today)
    while we can (gone tomorrow)

it's a really nice night
gonna go for a walk
you're welcome to come
I just love how you talk

there's a place in my head
it's a touch on the wild side
and I've got to keep
this beast alive


©1996 Andy Wyatt