Mo' town

Audio: [mp3] (4.5 MB)

During the fall of 2004, I listened to a good share of motown music, a genre of music that draws its name from the Motown Records company, and has elements like R&B and soul.  In my youth, I had come to listen to a group called Little Mike and the Sweet Soul Music Band, action packed with soul guitars, a Hammond organ, two (!) drummers, a horn section (known as the Horny Horns), and vocals, background vocals, and bass, of course.  They did some great arrangements of classic motown tunes, which made a lasting impression on me (in fact, I heard many of the classics like Mustang Sally and In the midnight hour from them before I was familiar with the originals).  I've also listened a fair share to Steve Wonder (truly an inspiring master singer, song writer, and multi-instrumentalist), Michael Jackson, and James Brown, and The Blues Brothers ranks among my favorite movies.  During the fall of 2004, I listened more to music like Wilson Pickett and Tower of Power.  I think the final inspiration for writing a motown song of my own came when I saw a motown-filled concert with Sonya Kaye at our church.

I had an idea for the song, but the lyrics didn't work out like I wanted. Then, Indi rewrote the lyrics and the song came together.  My friend Chris Juel added an awesome and soulful guitar track.  I wrote a little horn arrangement, which I recorded together with my two sons (then ages 13 and 11).

In January 2005 came the hard drive crash, and my recent backup dated just before the recording of this song.  Luckily, I had exported a snapshot of the song to an mp3 file.  Since then, I've made a couple of attempts to re-record the song, but I preferred the old draft mp3 file to the newer recordings, despite several things that I would have wanted to change.  After more than two years, I decided a brand new recording wasn't going to happen, so I took the old mp3 file, added an electric-piano solo, some additional percussion, and called it a wrap!

Enjoy!