Paul Bartlett
 

Paul is kind enough to play with me from time to time. I hope I can find other snippets of his playing and put them up here. As you may know, he learned from the master himself, Red Shea. I also attended Red's school of acoustic mastery. ..but alas... Red died before I 'got it'. Paul definitely 'got it'.

Red said, just before he passed away, that he always wanted to introduce the two of us because of our common love of GL music. But that never happened until the early part of last year. Paul plays wonderfully.

Inspiration Lady - acoustic

Inspiration Lady - orchestrated

Song for a Winters Night - with East York choir

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

Brilliant guys!
You are a great duo. Red was right on with that one.
Talk about inspirational! This is just what I needed to get me on with my day.
Sure makes it much brighter, even though the sun is shining today in Vancouver.
When I watch Paul and how his presence is so "just right up there" and his playing so smack on I can envision a young Red Shea from some of the wonderful memories that are still with me from those early years in Toronto.
And John, you have the voice that's for certain, so that, together with your guitar skills provides us with a nice little package of Lightfoot listening.
Keep it up guys. We can never get enough of that wonderful stuff. RJ.

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

yeah-what Ron said!!
and I'd love to get to one of your sessions!

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

thanks char and ron j. You guys are great for listening in.
If you keep saying you like it ..you're gonna get more ...for sure. !!

Paul may chime in sometime on this thing. He liked the one with the "band" ..but I thought the guitars rang out sorta nicely on the acoustic one.

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

Very, very nice. Perhaps you can get Mr. Bartlett to showcase his guitar work in a future video. Ya know, so we can "follow the fingers where they go".

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

Sorry to sound a dissonant note. The guitar playing is excellent to brilliant in the pieces shown. However, to turn "Song for a Winter's Night" into a choral piece is almost blasphemous, in my opinion. This is the most intimate of songs, the ultimate and best "just me all by myself and my doubts and I'll let one person (who should be the beloved but is not) listen in" tune ever, and to have a whole chorus singing is like inviting the whole town in to talk about it. The song takes place in one room, with a feeling of being closed in by the weather, one solitary lonely person smoking and drinking most of the night and worrying about whether or not his loved one is really true ("if I could know within my heart that you were lonely, too"); oh, and by the way, now let's let everybody in now to talk about it? Maybe we could have a focus group, or a poll about whether or not it will all work out. I think not!
I haven't had much time these days to comment, but I still lurk and make an occasional foray. B'stone, hang in there and keep going in the right direction!
Best to all,
DQ

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

I am inclined to agree with the noble knight, with no offense intended to the Choir. The song does lend itself to a solitary voice, in a deeply personal way.

BE

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

yea but...

Paul's guitar playing is nice.
The arrangement is different and has appeal to those who like it( alot of positives from comments)

..and last but not least..

Its more Gordie Songs!!>>

Go GL!!.

John

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

lol, you would get a kick (sarcasm) out of the bluegrass version of Bitter Green found in the Misc thread (and the comments)

JS, love the "band" but I am partial to your more naked renditions

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

In general...i prefer covers that try and recreate the original sound.

"Interpreting songs"... "making them your own".. is suited for American Idol judges.

But i am not against it in any radical way.

At the end of the day...its great to hear more GL. ...from anywhere.

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

hear, hear...

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

I've Paul singing and playing Insp Lady somewhere here

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

Just a follow up on SWAFN.

It's interesting to note that Gord included it on his "Gord's Gold" recording with orchestration by Lee Holdridge and also it sounds like Gord is actually strumming it out on the 12 string.
It's a much "busier" version that that of the "solitary type" United Artist recording which is the one I prefer but being such a masterpiece of a song it can be appreciated in other ways as well.

Either way it sure is a "great Gordie song."

Cheers, RJ.

Re: Paul Bartlett
 

Can you believe this folks? It's not SWAFN, it's SFAWN, you know; "SONG FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT." RJ needs to get a life!

But this a typical sagittarian trait you see.

We have the answers to all the world's problems, but when we get up to the podium to address the masses, we lay out our papers and a gust of wind comes up and blows them off and down into the mud puddles below.
It's all very embarrassing. RJ