Carroll Bryant: April 2015

Monday, April 27, 2015

Secrets Of My Songs #3 (Heat Of The Night)

If you ever wondered why my song, "In The Heat of the Night", sounds a little like the 1980's, it's because that is when I originally wrote it. I wrote it for Lori (my first fiancee') a few weeks after I returned from the military, and Norfolk, Virginia. Obviously, I was really missing her at that time. I often wondered if I made the biggest mistake of my life by walking away from that life. However, as fate would have it, there turned out to be much bigger mistakes for me to make in the future - which is now my past.

More mistakes on the way, I'm sure.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Secrets Of My Songs #2 (Rock That Country)

In this segment I will reveal a secret about the lyrics of my song, "Rock That Country". It all begins with the last verse where I refer to a barn that belongs to someone named "Johnson".

The barn itself is mythological. Kind of. I have taken a few girls behind a barn or two in my day, but who did they belong to? I may never know. One of those barns could have been owned by someone with the last name Johnson.

However, in this case, for my song, I took the name Johnson and used it for my barn to honor the song, "Raspberry Beret", by Prince.

In his song, "Raspberry Beret", he has a line that reads, "... down by old man Johnson's barn ..." And since I am a fan of Prince, and that particular song, I decided to call the barn in my song, "Johnson's barn".

And now you know the whole story.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Secrets Of My Songs #1 (James Dean)

I am starting this new segment where I will be sharing a few secrets behind my songs. The first song I am starting with is "In The Style of James Dean".

In this song, at the end of the bridge, the singer, Mark Reinhart, lets out a scream that ends up tailing out and blending in with the music. This scream was not written into the song, it is what us artists refer to as a "happy accident".

You see, Mark was struggling this day with the lyrics. He has a lryic sheet in front of him to reference in the course of him laying down the vocals but, when he starts singing, he sometimes closes his eyes and tries to find the soul of the sound. In this process, he sometimes gets the lyrics mixed up. Nothing to worry about but, it still gets under his own skin when he messes up and in this particular case, after messing up the lyrics yet again, he let out a scream.

My producer, Brian Preston, liked this scream for some reason and when he played it back he thought he could use it, and use it he did! He left it on the track and now, I can't imagine this song without the scream.

You can hear it for yourself below.