Up to the end of the first chorus

Yes, as you can tell by the slightly surreal title, I've managed to transcribe The Wailer's Kinky Reggae from the introduction, though the first verse, up to the end of the first chorus. Its deceptively simple drumming, with lots of inflections and little touches. Those fills are tricky! Bass drums in strange places, let alone the cross-sticks... It doesn't help that I'm counting in half-time, so what feels like sixteen-notes are actually eight-notes. Why count in Half-time? Reggae is half-time, is why! Slow slow slow. The guitar plays the backbeats and the drummer plays the snare on beat three. Give it a listen and count along, if you can.

Anyway, yesterday we finished off recording overdubs on our new Mojo CD. As well as re-recording harmonica parts, I overdubbed maracas on Bo Diddley (by Bo Diddley of course). The man used a drummer and dedicated maraca player to play his clave-based songs. The maracas are an important part of the sound, providing high-end sound to the drum beat.

Tonight I'm at Barwell with Mojo and Chris and Ruth George are coming down. I haven't seen Chris in six months so that'll be cool. Another chance to use my new piccolo snare drum to play the blues, this time with slightly looser snares. So hopefully an even fatter sound then.

Music-wise, I'm listening to Edward II.