I.S. Greetings to all of my fellow music nerds and all you Melomaniacs.
My lovers of liner notes, shoe gazing, pedalboard, pundits, vocal bagabons, face-thumping
bohemians, knuckle-dragging drummers.
Love you guys.
This is the Phantom Power Music Review.
We geek out on songwriting, production, music theory, all those little details that
make great songs what they are.
We don't care about De genre, we just celebrate the art of making music.
And we know, as musicians, we're really the glue of the world, right?
We know that.
So this is a listener's supported value cast.
You guys know there's no ads, there's no commercials, there's no sponsors, it's all
value for value.
If you like it, if it brings value into your life, we'd love it if you could give some
of that value in return, be it with your talent or your treasure.
That's what value for value is all about.
And of course, I'm splitting this with all of the artists that you're going to hear on
this show.
So we're going to dive into the theory and the composition and the recording of some
of these songs, talk about them, love to get your feedback.
You guys can always find me on Noster, Telegram, Instagram, Mastodon, yada yada yada, always
open to your suggestions.
Let's dive right in, shall we?
Let us check out a song called "If I Could" by an artist from Ohio who goes by the name
of Embelton.
And then we'll break it down.
Everybody groovy?
Got your wallets ready?
Let's go.
♪
Times have changed, I count my blessings
At the end of every day
I don't worry 'bout the future
It just scares me playing too dead
But I'm learning not to let it
Get the best, and it's dead
I'm getting quick to save for you
For the things out of my head
All I need is what I have now
In the room for my head
As long as I can pay the rent
And tug of my children into bed
I can control the future
And I don't think that I would
I couldn't make it any better if I could
Times have changed, and I'm still kicking
Same old dreams, all down the lane
The only difference is the price I'll pay for over a year
'Cause I'm not the only dreamer
I'll teach them all I can
How to be quick to save your brain
For the things out of their hands
All I need is what I have now
In the room for my head
As long as I can pay the rent
And tug of my children into bed
I can control the future
And I don't think that I would
I couldn't make it any better if I could
Oh, I'll do the best that I can
Oh, when I break things make amends
Oh, you're scared of me making up out of you
Oh, I'll do the best that I can
Oh, I need is what I have now
In the room for my head
As long as I can pay the rent
And tug of my children into bed
I can control the future
And I don't think that I would
I couldn't make it any better if I could
That is Embleton
with "If I Could" on the Phantom Power Music Review Episode 21
I love this track
I think it is such a wonderful example of Americana today
I think that it's beautifully constructed
It's beautifully layered instrumentation choice is fantastic
We're in F-sharp about 126 BPM
Versus 145-155
Right? So you would call it in the Nashville numbers
You'd probably say 145-15 because you just to indicate that you're sharing the last
phrase of the one on the five there
Corus is 41-51
Solo section 14-15
Beautiful chord change
He switches over to a 64-15
On the in that solo section kind of like a shout-course bridge
After the line make amends
And that's like a crowd-caller that whole section right there which I just think is fantastic
The building of the second half of the first verse
stands out to me
The baritone guitar tones are fantastic
I love the two acoustic parts that you hear in your cans
Drum choice is spot on I mean it's this is all very mumphored in sons right
But it and I love that band too
It's just so well constructed it's just so well done
The lyrics obviously for those of us who have kids
And who go through this struggle they hit home
I think he nailed it
Such great storytelling
Americana to me is really two things one it carries it's it's a modern take on country
But it has a more modern organic modern acoustic sound
If that makes any sense
And of course the lyrics in the storytelling are just as important as they are in in country
The top of this guy's range is just crystal clear
Like when he's belting that line over the over the 64-15 on the make amends part
It's fantastic
And then I love the way he ends it too a beautiful soft landing drops that you know he does a cut time
And ends it all on the two chord
Just loved it really loved it
Great example of Americana
Great production I don't know where he tracked it
He bounces but from what I can tell on his socials he bounces back and forth between Ohio and Nashville
Sure as hell sounded like he tracked it here with the best of the best
But you know these days he he probably could have done it in his basement and Akron and played all the instruments himself
But I really hope you share that song with anybody that likes Americana music
Because I think that that is just a fantastic example of how to do it right
Great layering great structure wonderful chord choice exceptional melody
And most importantly a message that will stick with you and resonate with you
Like whenever you're going through those feelings of being a parent
And the struggles of it you know you go back to a song like this because it just makes all the difference in the world
And that is why we write music and share it
So embellton man beautiful tracks or just absolutely lovely
Lovely all right let's move on let's check out let's uh let's completely strip the gears on this car and do something completely different
Let's check out a track called sweat by mr. Chris Nichols on the phantom power music review
Hey mama I'm going to the bar
What you going in the bar for boys I want to dance my
You can dance where you want dance to the beat of your heart boy
Oh I never thought about that my heart hey
You can dance where you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
Dance where you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
You can dance when you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
Dance where you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
I'm at the lady down New Orleans she got a polka dot dress and she like to swing
I'm at a sweetie in my tomorrow she gon' drop them night till she can't know her
I saw you the end of the home her tangle was a dance man I thought I saw you
So my next wife she was down on ten but she got me a pound eyes and she like the salsa
I found a lady in Boston she loves them jazz black shoes and bow tie and dance
Maybe I'm a lucky turner I've done you done a girl you've been tortured
You're shaking up on a bow and I'll sweat for me
I'm not sweat for me
You can dance when you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
Dance where you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
Now let me tell you all something
I'm about these women that was only one girl I was gonna dance with
Let me tell you something hey
There's a gypsy girl down in Texas hell she could dance she could shake their knees
She could die reached dance only took one grand ten of starting to squeeze
Not sweat for me
I'm not sweat for me
Just sweat for me
You can dance when you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
Dance where you want to do the beat of heart with going back to the bar right apart of that
There was Boston in Texas barbed in more of the homer
Tampa in this course on the way the only damn girl down in Atlanta long
There's a sweet gypsy girl got me wanting some more and I'm not sweat for me
I'm not sweat for me
Mama told me use the beat of my heart so I'll follow the beat of Texas if I'm your sword
The beat of my heart team mama was a wrong cause of a star and she switched on me
She switched on me
Ah
So
What do you think?
What do you notice about that one
What is that song having common with chain of fools by Ruth Franklin or Papa was Rolling Stone
Or even who do you love by Bo didley or loser by back
Get the party started by pink
Did you figure it out?
It's one chord all the way through
All the way through right now you guys know I love to geek out over chords and melodies and harmonies and all that stuff
This is a great example of keeping it simple I freaking love this it's funk it's all about the groove
It's all about the groove it's the groove in the fun lyrics
Sometimes you don't have to be Steve Lucathur or getty lead to pull off an amazing song
You can just focus on the groove
This is chain of fools
Papa was a Rolling Stone
Or even like look at some of the stuff the Beatles did
Like within you without you one chord all the way through right
The vibe
Mona at midnight howl and wolf get the party started
Loser a lot of Bob Dylan songs and gives one chord all the way through
Because this is funk and it's all about the groove and it's all about shaking your rub
Right and I just love it
It's so simple but I love it
And I absolutely love all the geographical references in the lyrics
I mean like what a great way to endear this track to the entire country right
That's a smart lyrical trick
So Chris I love this track man great job
And I don't know where you got that voiceover or whatever that was
At the beginning of the track where you're quote unquote talking to your mama
But it's perfect it fits so well
So sometimes songs don't have to be
You know Leviastron Giotto
Stir with a heaven
Sometimes they can just be one kickass groove all the way through it
I really wanted to celebrate that with this particular song
Just a great classic funk
Like I can see Bootsie Collins playing this
You can see George Clinton putting this in the set
It's right there
It's right there it's fantastic
So Chris thank you for that
Thank you for reminding us that
Sometimes you just get you can you can keep it simple and still have a brilliant beautiful song
That's a lot of fun right on
All right next one
Let's let's bring it back here to
Nashville
Let's look at red light
From Tony Salimoni
Ready?
Here we go
[Music]
Sitting up on a fan side
I'm home but my hands up to the sky
A bell face first into the concrete
Now I'm running with a black guy
Sly of things on the stranger
Had the bleak feet times to check my sides
And do you like a little danger
Ooh, 'cause I'm running through the red light
Ooh, I don't know the reason
And maybe it's a feeling now
Yeah, ooh, the man in the pieces
Baby look, we're feeding now
Send me outside the night
Ooh, somebody through the red light
♪ I live through the red light and a blue moon. ♪
♪ Walking into a lane called into my brain. ♪
♪ I live in a cloud that's a prima, prima, prima, ♪
♪ my brows. ♪
♪ Ooh, but a fibrillated light. ♪
♪ All my kindness changing you. ♪
♪ Everything is taking a shape of you. ♪
♪ I'm gonna get too high a night. ♪
♪ Ooh, so running through the red light. ♪
♪ Ooh, I don't need a reason. ♪
♪ Baby, it's a feeling of love. ♪
♪ Baby, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
♪ Baby, I'm not feeling alone. ♪
♪ Time we all find a light. ♪
♪ Ooh, 'cause I'm running through the red light. ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
(upbeat rock music)
♪ Ooh, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
♪ 'Cause of a natural vision. ♪
♪ They tell me right by way to the sun. ♪
♪ I'm gonna be better than a fetter. ♪
♪ Ooh, so running through the day's dream. ♪
♪ Ooh, I don't need a reason. ♪
♪ Baby, it's a feeling of love. ♪
♪ Yeah, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
♪ Baby, I'm not feeling alone. ♪
♪ Ooh, I don't need a reason. ♪
♪ Baby, it's a feeling of love. ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
♪ Baby, love, moving in the places. ♪
♪ They tell me I'm not feeling alone. ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm running through the red light. ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, moving in the places. ♪
♪ They tell me I'm not feeling alone. ♪
Tony Salimone with red light here on the Phantom Power music review, episode 21.
Come on, Acha in G-Sharp Minor, not just any minor, but a harmonic minor.
And we'll get into that here in a little bit.
Uh, chord changes, 1734, pretty much all the way through, but he does,
he turns on the, on the dominant, he turns on the five every now and then, right?
This is a really great Nashville pop rock track.
It's a good, it's a really perfect for the Nashville sound these days.
And a lot of people don't realize that Nashville really has a budding rock and pop scene.
Um, lots to, lots of things to love about this track.
Um, let's go through some specifics here.
Really good crunch on his voice, but then you've got a clear harmony in your other ear, right?
Um, the entire track is exceptionally EQ'd, um, but I want to talk about the vocals first.
And it's, and it's funny too, like when you, when you pull that trick, like where you have,
have some crunch, some distortion on one and then the other, the other vocal track,
the harmony track is clean, like your mind can kind of play a trick on you and make you think that,
oh, that baseline must be dirty too.
No, it's not.
There's like, that's a clean, bass picking part, very well EQ'd.
Great separation to, um, in the background vocals, not only in the EQ, but in, um,
the mix placement and the note choice of the harmony parts.
And he's really got a great harmony ability, you know, especially like when you hear that,
woo, woo, woo, those, those are hard to pull off.
Um, very well done.
The, the other part that I, like, that the mix that I actually kind of want to focus on a little bit here is the,
is the mix of the drum kit.
Um, great focus on the kick and the snare, of course.
Like I, I love the kick tone.
I would love to know what beater they were using.
I would love to know how big the kick drum is on this.
But interestingly enough too, like I, the, the symbols and the tambourine are kind of,
are, are back further in the mix and not as bright as you would typically expect them to be.
And I think that that was absolutely intentional, um, to reflect kind of the darker edgy or
energy of this track, right? Like a lot of high tempos stuff, uh, will tend to be very bright,
uh, just because there's so much going on and it's, and it's happening so quickly that you want to
try and really create a lot of separation in your mix.
Um, but I love the fact that they did not do that on this and I believe it to be absolutely
intentional because of the darker elements of this track, the darker energy of this track.
I really enjoy the fact that the drums were not as bright as what a lot of people would think
they would be and that stands out to me.
And then there is also a nice little change in that down chorus if you guys caught it, uh,
after the solo, um, you know, it's kind of like a low-fi drum kit sound, uh, before the whole band
comes back in. Fantastic. Um, so the drum mix was really exceptional.
Um, guitar tones, great too. I love the note choice in the guitar solo, the good, and I don't
know who laid the track. Maybe Tony did it. Uh, he's, he's primarily a keyboard player. Um,
but if you go back through and listen to that guitar solo, who never played it, they picked out a
couple of the lead lines from the melody and, uh, of the melody and of the verses and the melody
of the chorus, but they also added in just enough like it of, of, uh, improvisation.
It was really smart, really smart, uh, tone choice in the solo. Um, did you pick up on the, the bass riff
that happens in the first verse, right about 31 seconds where there's actually a dropout, but then in
the second verse at, uh, minute 27, it's just to touch more detail than the first verse. And I really
love attention to detail like that when, if you don't know how all of this works in the studio
these days, but when, when you record digitally, you can quickly and easily cut and paste parts,
right? Like literally just like you would on an Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Word. Oh,
that's a nice paragraph. I'm just going to use that again. So it, it can denote laziness, right?
Because you can literally build a great verse and then just cut and paste and use the whole thing
again. And, and they do that a lot in, in pop. But what I love what Tony did here is he really paid
attention to some minute details to create some subtle differences to make each section a little
different than the last and create some nice layers. That is the difference between someone who
cares about the craft of songwriting and somebody who's just desperate to release a shit ton of music
and try and make some money. I, I really love that attention to detail. You hear it also yet,
you hear it in the guitar solo when the chord changes are slightly different, even though it's the
same pattern, but the, when those changes happen, they're slightly different than the rest of the song.
You also see it in the third verse when there's a couple of pauses in the track. Um,
now let's talk about the, the, the really cool choice of the harmonic minor. Um,
let me turn my piano on here. There we go. All right. So with the harmonic minor on this,
that it, you know, you've got a regular like a natural minor like this,
right? But the harmonic minor has a raised seventh, so it's going to sound just a little different.
[piano]
You're going to have a little bit of a pull in there. And I really love the, the five chord choice
coming out of the chorus because it, that, that major three that comes off of that five chord,
in this instance, it's a G natural. That is a wonderful tease. It's a wonderful pull.
You don't hear a lot of the harmonic minor in today's pop and rock. And I always love it when
somebody pulls that trick. So kudos to Tony for attention to detail on this high energy track in G sharp
harmonic minor. He might disagree with me. He might say, well, it's actually a flat, whatever.
G sharp a flat. Get the point, right? Um, so that is red light from Tony Solomone here in Nashville.
So before I read off some boosts and zaps and thank you. So I wanted to remind you of two things
coming up in Nashville, in July at, uh, that's happening during the Bitcoin conference. Number one,
we are going to be hosting a stage at the embassy suites Thursday, Friday, Saturday, July 25th,
26th and 27th in between like 11 and 4, 11 and 5. Um, so please go to our website, phantompowermusic.io
and register. We've had a really good response so far. I know we're going to have some names up there
that you are familiar with. And we hope to introduce you guys to some new folks as well. And we've also
got some podcasters that are interested in doing a set while they're there. So we're going to announce
the lineup for that in June and we're looking forward to that. Number two, uh, Joe Martin is going to
be headlining a gig at the vinyl lounge on Thursday, the 25th. Uh, Anzli is going to go before him
and opening up for Anzli is just loud and there is going to be a special guest as well. And then
capping off the night, um, a rock and roll karaoke live band with Satoshi Rokamoto. So that is going to
be a hell of a lot of fun. So make sure you are checking out our site and all the master channels
for all of the information on those great events coming up during the Bitcoin conference. Um,
wanted to give out a couple of quick shout outs here and thank yous for the following people
who have sent in a lot of sat over the last couple of days, uh, from all of our shows.
Rod Reach music, Just Listening, Sir Bill, Weirdo, Eric Pp, Adam Curry, John SB RT, Chad F,
Just Listening, Joel W. Borson Galover, Alan C. Paul, Dude with Ears, Nicholas B-58,
Sandy Meyer, Billy Bond's, Three Cospeel and, yeah, thank donkey, her before band, love you guys,
Tamarack, um, there's circus media, there's been a lot of sats and boost coming in and I thank you
all for that. If this show brings value into your life, uh, would love to get some of that in return.
I love doing these shows, but as I always love to say, daddy needs a new microphone, right?
Um, thank you guys so much for listening. Please tell all of your Bitcoin friends about these apps
that you are using to listen to the show. You could be listening on CurioCaster, on Fountain,
Podverse, True Fans, Podverse, Podcast Guru, we need more people in this space and we can,
we gotta build the audience, so please help us out and tell all your friends, wake the kids,
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take care.
[music]