I hope the audio quality isn’t too bad. I wanted to record it in the radio station for noise cancellation but I couldn’t get in there for a while so I had to record in my dorm. I’m also not used to ballad style singing so it’s really not great, please don’t judge me too hard on the song itself. I tried to make something that sounded like a ballad and was based on a prayer from a slave in the spirit of Equiano. I originally wanted to tell a fast paced revenge tale with gritty vocals and some folk metal influence but that just didn’t fit the story. Instead I made the song about a deliberate lack of revenge and choosing the high road. I also had to go through a couple different methods to complete and upload the piece. I originally tired to use Sound Cloud but I couldn’t figure the app out so I went with uploading to YouTube since the file itself couldn’t just be imbedded in the post.
The genre of the blues/ folk ballad that I ended up going with fits the theme really well however and I don’t mind that I had to change from my original thought. It really wasn’t easy making something in a whole new style or with a subject that I just can’t identify with but it was a good challenge even if the end product isn’t amazing. But the history that I am trying to represent fits. Early African Americans wrote and sang these ballads to tell stories and reflect on their situations. Often these ended up bluesy because of the situations, not just because people were sad back then. That tradition of music carried over and has lasted long after slavery and still exists today. The second link down below will take you to an NPR article and recorded broadcast from 2006 about a recent “Black Ballad” that you can listen to there. I think that for me, I think of music like “all along the watch tower” or really any song from Django Unchained when I think of this sort of music but the roots go much deeper and It’s really interesting stuff to learn about.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5437133
Equiano is a good tale and I have a lot of respect for the restraint that he shows but writing this song really made me wish he’d have just killed some people and made the story more intense. This is my first time doing a ballad and I know my singing wasn’t great and I wish I could have made something better but I’m so used to songs with emotional connection and either a much faster or much slower pace. Either way I think the writing was fine for this song and I hope it isn’t too terrible to listen to. I always hate listening to recordings of my voice anyways, I’m sure I’m not alone on that front. I appreciate any kind of feedback and even though it was stressful I think this was a fun project.
Sprockets and Springes 