what do think...be honest

[Dobber]

northern/rare soul has been in my blood and my passion since i was 15,and we all know that once your in...your in for life!

anyway ive had a secondary passion alongside my northern soul life which is songwriting! i also think that northern soul fans have the finest ears and the best taste anyone could wish for.

so im gonna ask the most vulgar question...ive recently started uploading songs on youtube,i value your opinions,these videos are just bare bones me and the old guitar,i aint a great singer,and im reasonable on the guitar,but i reckon i can knock out a pretty good tune!

so please be honest...i can take it! haha

 

[Mach]

Nice one mate..

[Dobber]

5 minutes ago, Mach said:

Nice one mate..

thankyou mach,very nice of you my friend!

[Andy Reynard]

Well from a Yorkshire bloke

I think ya did very fair there Lad 

 

Edited January 6, 2016 by Andy Reynard

[Jaco]

2 hours ago, dobber said:

northern/rare soul has been in my blood and my passion since i was 15,and we all know that once your in...your in for life!

anyway ive had a secondary passion alongside my northern soul life which is songwriting! i also think that northern soul fans have the finest ears and the best taste anyone could wish for.

so im gonna ask the most vulgar question...ive recently started uploading songs on youtube,i value your opinions,these videos are just bare bones me and the old guitar,i aint a great singer,and im reasonable on the guitar,but i reckon i can knock out a pretty good tune!

so please be honest...i can take it! haha

 

'I'm an ugly boy'

Well you got that right mate 

??

Couldn't resist that!

I have a great admiration for anybody that's got any form of musical talent so well done you.

Theres probably 99% of the folk in here who couldn't carry a bucket never mind a tune, and a self penned one at that.

Supergroup with Carl Dixon, Autumnstoned, Kris Holmes, all of whom can play I think? 

[Guest Carl Dixon]

Never underestimate your talents. Anybody with a notion to write and perform needs any encouragement available. Your material is now on the world wide pedestal of YouTube. If you listen to many soul records, you can hear the basics from those on the session, not being in the business on a professional level etc. Back beats late, drum fills out of time, piano chords in the wrong place - and thank God. That is what makes the music organic enough to fall in love with. Not that you are any of these, but it is easy to be discounted by those who think people like Norman Whitfield didn't struggle at one stage to get notoriety (maybe!). Weldon McDougall (Harthon/The Four Larks) struggled forever until the UK embraced his material from 60's Philly, pressing up only 300 records at a time just hoping for a hit.

Your next step is to record the songs for real and release them commercially. Don't let anybody say you are doing it 'just for fun'. I had that rammed down my throat since I learnt where middle C was. If you want to take it more seriously, become a member of the PRS and PPL for your royalties and get some airplay. Easier said than done. Bit of a nightmare but recommended. Clearly you have a flair and like certain artists performances etc. Exploit that and go to the next level. I have been going to the next level since 1973. It's a long process with lots of sand in your face. One of my tracks 'Festival of Love'/Bandtraxs a la Philly 1976, I spent a considerable amount of money on real horns, drums, three guitars, bass guitar etc, to get just one cent, yes $0.01 streaming royalty in over 18 months. It is soul destroying. Once, I nearly deleted all my masters and called it a day. BUT...I didn't and things are looking up. 

Keep pursuing and if you need any help with the admin side I can assist. Paul Mooney is a top bloke on here too. He is very encouraging and highly respected.  Don't ever think you are any better or worse than others.

 

Edited January 7, 2016 by Carl Dixon

[Guest Johnny One Trout]

Well I like them, good songs, good delivery of the lyrics and fine Geeeetar playing, vocal is a little too white for me (but you can't help that)  that said the singing is more than acceptable, well done that man.

 

Trout Out

[Mickjay33]

much better than the crap on x factor  well done

[Pete S]

Well done mate, you've got real bottle to do that, you CAN sing, and if I had half as much talent I'd be happy.

You know my address to send the cheque to :

[Mark S]

Its a yes from me you,re through to Bootcamp. ;)

Edited January 7, 2016 by Mark S

[Kris Holmes]

nice, "changed your mind again" & "let love in" are my picks.  "Breathe" suffers a bit from the weak rhymes in the verses which make it sound a bit clunky at first impression.  Good singing, good guitar.  

(one of my jobs for the last 15 years has been teaching songwriting, judging songwriting competitions & assessing songwriting students at secondary & tertiary levels).

 

[Tattoodave]

A good voice and guitar playing, I like the 1st and 3rd song, thought the 2nd could be improved on lyrically, but fair play it's much better than most can do.  Good luck with the song writing, I hear you can make a few bob if you're good at it, and a couple of yours are good enough.

[Dobber]

wow! i cant believe these comments,your all very generous,full respect to you all,i knew that comments from soul lovers would be the finest ears to look to for an honest opinion,you guys whom have grown up on northern/rare soul have a particular fine tuned ear,that your probably unaware of yourselves! and its certainly to appreciated with full trust

thanks gang,it really does mean everything to me

lee

[Guest Carl Dixon]

The most important thing Lee, is passion. Some of my favourite soul tracks are because somebody tried somewhere, to compete with the big labels and try and have a hit, because they thought they could do it. For most it did not work out, and we have rare soul or northern soul I guess. I am no expert, but what I do know is that most songs written, the writers want it to be a hit or popular to make money some day. Frank Bendinelli, who co wrote 'I'm gonna love you a long long time' performed by Patti & the Emblems told me he wished it had been a hit! He didn't realise the definition of a 'hit' to some, is that it fills the dance floor 40 odd years later and gets him residuals from all sorts of compilations!

Keep pressing on with the writing. Record whatever you can. Keep a tangible copy for copyright purposes and don't be afraid to change the songs, take chords and melodies from another, amalgamate and evolve the songs. Tweak as you go along. You never know what may happen. A couple of years ago, I decided to write, produce, sing on, mix, master and release my own material. It's very satisfying when the likes of Surf 97.3 Flaggler Beach have one of your songs on rotation as the Carolina beach crowd like it (Libby, let's leave it at that'/The Delgonives), or Craig Charles plays 'Loving you always came easy'/The Delgonives too, on his soul & funk show. And heart warming to get a co write on the Diane Shaw album recently. There is very little money in it for me right now, but things are bubbling nicely. 

A very important thing for me is that I write material as though it was produced in the 60/70's. I may tag as Philly, Motown, Beach music etc, but it is not. I can never be Motown, or TSOP, but...I like to think that maybe one day 10 or 15 years after it was released and failed, a youth culture comes along and embraces it, playing it at events where they dance the night away, to get away from the misery of work and 24 hour news channels lol!

Edited January 8, 2016 by Carl Dixon

[Westender]

Good on yer, Lee.  Ballsy move to put up your songs for review!  They sound pretty decent to me. There's enormous satisfaction in creating your own music. I reckon anyone who does it deserves encouragement and a big pat on the back so just keep working at it. 

Best of luck.

[Ian Parker]

As a fellow 'muso' I can only commend you for posting on here,

Ive said it many times, going on a stage, especially solo with a guitar in hand has to be nerve wracking to say the least....

 well done mate, I'm happy to sit at the back hitting stuff with bits of wood ,