It is all happening today. We had a great first night in Birmingham with June Tabor and Oysterband and I am looking forward to coming back for my solo show at The Red lion on the 16th.
Today is also release day for the single project I have been working on during the summer. Bob Jensen is a Canadian poet and singer and Annie Gallup is an American singer songwriter. We teamed up to make a version of the Lennon-McCartney classic Eleanor Rigby. How did we do? Here is the video, you can judge for yourselves.
When Bob suggested we make a version of Eleanor Rigby with me recording lots of cellos I was initially hesitant; the original is a pearl of recorded music with the best strings ever and can never be bettered, although I had no doubts that Bob could deliver the singing well. However, I started to work on a new slower arrangement, initially with six cellos, then I paired it down to three and adding xiao, a Chinese flute, for contrast. The xaio is reminiscent of the mellotron The Beatles used on many recordings, although not on Eleanor Rigby. Annie added some great singing and the song evolved until it became a kind of three way conversation between the three of us’
The track on Spotify, just search for Jensen Cooper Gallup and also on CD Baby, you can download it or stream it from most digital outlets
