Original fingerstyle guitar music in the style of Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed with a great Nashville band and some guest hot pickers, including producer, Pete Huttlinger.

10 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Americana, EASY LISTENING: Instrumental Pop

Show all album songs: It's The Wood Songs


Details:
âItâs The Woodâ

Produced by Pete Huttlinger

Jim Ohlschmidt â electric and acoustic gut-string guitars

THE BAND
Brian Fullen â drums & percussion
Jeff E. Cox â bass
Bob Patin â keyboards
Pete Huttlinger â acoustic and electric guitars

SPECIAL GUESTS
Jason Bailey â mandolin on âDown To The Wireâ
Joe Ebel â fiddle on âBabyâs Backâ
violin on âThe Way She Looks Tonightâ
John McKay â harmonica on âShiney Side Upâ &
âThumbpickerâs Choice Medleyâ

Recorded at Brianâs House Of Drums, Nolensville, Tennessee
Additional recording at Higher Ground Studio, Birmingham, Alabama
Lost Jimâs Studio-In-A-Boxcar, Cincinnati, Ohio

Mixing engineer â David Sinko, Sound Emporium, Nashville, Tennessee

THE TRACKS
Except for âThumbpickerâs Choice Medley,â I wrote all the tunes either by myself or with my guitar pickinâ buddy in Birmingham, Clyde Kendrick (âOld Soft Shoe,â âI Maybe Write,â and âYouâre Not The Bossa Meâ). The following are my notes on each composition:

âBabyâs Backâ â I wrote this tune sitting on a friendâs porch on Shades Mountain in Birmingham. I had recently gotten a guitar back from Kirk Sand, the luthier in Laguna Beach, CA who made both of the gut-string models I play. It had been out of my hands for a few months, and in getting reacquainted, this melody came out. Joe Ebel, a great fiddler and violinist in Asheville, North Carolina (and an old friend and musical collaborator from back when we both lived in Wisconsin) provides a great ride on this one.

âDown To The Wireâ â This was one of those necessity-being-the-mother-of-invention situations where I wanted to play this double-stop lick against the D bass and a B bass, but there was no good way to do that in regular Dropped D tuning. Out of curiosity, I tuned the A string up to B, and it worked beautifully, so the tuning ended up being (low to high) D â B â D â G â B â E. Pete Huttlinger did a fantastic job of layering multiple acoustic rhythm parts and a scorching electric track to give the arrangement sonic depth and tension. Jason Bailey, the fine mandolinist whoâs recorded with me on many of my previous CDs, laid down a great solo in the middle, and helped drive the rhythm along with his great âchopâ totally in the pocket.

âEZ Pickensâ â I wrote this tune a while back, and a solo version of it was featured with a transcription in Craig Dobbinsâ Acoustic Guitar Workshop, a subscription instructional series for fingerpicking guitarists. Craig is a fantastic thumbstyle player who has accurately transcribed many, many great tunes by Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Paul Yandell, and others, and he has written quite a few nice tunes himself. Check out his solo CD (right here on CD Baby), then visit his web site (www.craigdobbins.com) and check out his books and subscription series.

âHawaiian Lullabyâ â I originally recorded a version of this on my solo guitar CD âToo Poor To Paint, Too Proud To Whitewashâ with a Collings OM2. Since then, Clyde Kendrick had been after me to record it on the Kirk Sand electric gut string (the guitar shown on the cover), so I revisited the tune here and came up with a little bridge thatâs not in the original version. The tuning here is C â G â D â G â B â E. Chet Atkins sometimes used this tuning to great effect, particularly on his âAloneâ and âAlmost Aloneâ albums. When I wrote it I thought it sounded a kinda like a slack key piece, hence the title.

âI Maybe Writeâ â The cheeky title indicates just how much of this tune was borrowed or âappropriatedâ from other sources. Itâs a composite (of sorts) of bits from two great standards, âDeed I Doâ and âI May Be Wrong.â Thanks to Pete for his airy, melodic electric solo, which gives the tune a nice lift before the middle section. Pete is a master guitarist living in Nashville with many years of professional recording and performing experience, including stints with John Denver, LeAnn Rimes, and others. He has several outstanding solo CDs, and he was recently featured in Acoustic Guitar Magazine for his recording website (www.GuitarTracks.biz) where artists can hire him to create tracks for their projects in his own studio. For more info go to www.petehuttlinger.com â youâll be glad you did!

âOld Soft Shoeâ â Clyde Kendrick came up with the opening section of this tune years ago, but we could never figure out where to go with it until one night we were sitting around at his house picking when quite by accident we started picking the lick that begins the tempo section. I came up with the rest of the tune from there. Much of this was inspired by the wonderful playing and writing of John Knowles, another expert picker in Nashville who worked closely with Chet Atkins for many years. John also offers an excellent instructional series by subscription called FingerStyle Quarterly. Check out his superb work at www.johnknowles.com PS â I love Bob Patinâs keyboard solo on this track!

âShiney Side Upâ â I was thinking of John Knowles and Jerry Reed when I came up with this ditty. John McKayâs harmonica adds some sweet country flavor here. Those who may still be familiar with old-fashioned trucker CB lingo will recognize the title, as in âkeep your shiney side up, and your greasy side down.â Thatâs a big ten-four.

âThe Way She Looks Tonightâ â Not to be confused with âThe Way You Look Tonight,â this one tips the hat to Earl Klugh, one of my favorite gut-string players. Joe Ebelâs elegant violin work floats on air, and in my mind Iâm on a white sand beach somewhere on the Gulf shore. The original idea for this tune came to me on an extraordinary day a few years ago when I was in New York City doing some shows accompanying singer/songwriter Mae Robertson. The shows were finished, and I flew home to Birmingham early enough in the morning that I saw the sun come up on the cab ride to the airport. It happened that Clyde Kendrick and I were playing a private gig in Destin, Florida that night, so after landing, Robbi (my wife) and I drove to Destin (about 4 hours) to meet up with Clyde. We arrived late that afternoon, and when we had dinner that evening before the gig, we watched the sun go down over the Gulf. Sometimes life just hands you a melody . . .

âThumbpickerâs Choice Medley: Spanish Fandango / Sweet Alla Leeâ â Clyde Kendrick had a whole lot to do with this one. He and I have played together as a duo for about eight years, and Iâve learned so much about writing and arranging from him. He started picking this version of âSpanish Fandangoâ based on an early recording by Chet Atkins. This history of this tune isnât entirely clear to me, but it goes back well into the 19th Century. Itâs usually played as a waltz (Chet recorded it that way, too), but one day when Clyde was picking the 4/4 thumbstyle version in C, I slapped a capo on the fifth fret and started playing along in G position. This is a great âtrickâ because it creates a kind of âinstant harmonyâ with the un-capoed guitar (the original recording of Clyde and I playing this was featured in John Knowles FingerStyle Quarterly). Then Clyde started throwing in a few choruses of âSweet Alla Leeâ a tune that Chet wrote and recorded on his âAlmost Aloneâ album. The two tunes just fit together so well that they became a medley. I play both parts here (Clyde hates to record!) on a Blueridge flatop, interspersed with two fine harmonica solos by John McKay, and little brush work on my leg for percussion.

âYouâre Not The Bossa Meâ â Clyde Kendrick came up with the first theme in this composition, and like all single themes, the questions always is, where we do go from here? After fooling with it for some time, I wrote the second section, then came up with third part, which is essentially just a major key rendering of the original minor key melody. Bob Patin turned out a fantastic piano solo, and as we joked around in the studio, he came up with the title, which I guess is a play on the title of the theme song for the TV sitcom âMalcolm In The Middle.â If you like the bossa nova styling of this tune, you should check out my instrumental CD âSand & Waterâ (here on CD Baby), which features more original compositions in this style with a great band of Birmingham musicians.

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Clyde Kendrick, Rick Gustafson, Craig Dobbins, John Knowles, Pete Huttlinger, Larry Kilgore, Paul Yandell, Pat Kirtley, and to Mark and Carol Pritcher and the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society. Thanks also to Scott Fuller for his great graphic designs, and to Nancy King (www.nkingphotography.com) for her beautiful photos.
â Jim Ohlschmidt