Here’s a previously unreleased Ali McLachlan track for your entertainment. I recorded this along with the rest back in 2000 but this one never saw the light of day because I couldn’t come up with enough creative ideas for a backing track.

Anyway, I decided to blitz it in the space of a few evenings and this is what came out. It’s not perfect, but I thought it would be nice for it to get a public hearing (the message behind the song is a timely one). As usual Ali is doing the singing, and I am to blame for instruments and mixing.

You can download it or stream it here:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=36829&songID=4364917

Recording

Vocals – Ali is singing. He had to sing to a very sparse backing track. The introduction originally was over the top of some music, but it didn’t seem to work, so I ended up going for an a cappella intro. As usual Kjaerhus GUP-1 provided the compression.
Keyboards – I used the freeware Mr Ray electric piano and Organized trio organ, which both served me very well.
Drums – This was just one instance of Dimension with a SmartLoops set of samples loaded. I started off using some MIDI blues patterns from SessionDrummer and modified them to fit better. Working this way saved me a whole lot of time over my usual technique of programming all the beats by hand, and using multiple instances of Dimension for each drum.
Percussion – Triangle sound from Hypersonic, and I had to settle for using one of Joel’s toy tambourines (with only 3 jangly bits) because I couldn’t find the proper tambourine. Of course, I found it after finishing mixdown.
Bass – My Yamaha bass with some GUP-1 compression.
Guitars – All used the V-Amp 2. I wish I had used less heavy sounds for the first two guitar solos, but its too late now.
Mixing – As I was looking to finish this project quickly I just used one reverb – the Lexicon Pantheon SE and the Kjaerhus classic master limiter. Kjaerhus GUP-1 and Sonitus EQ were liberally scattered around on various tracks.

Lyrics

I’m not ashamed of the gospel,
Because it is the power of God
For the salvation of all who believe

You know you can have a bad line and still catch a fish,
You can be bad to your woman and still end up being kissed,
You can take your eye off the ball and still score a goal,
But don’t ditch the gospel if you want to save souls

You don’t have to be a monkey if you want to climb trees,
You don’t have to do a jailbreak if you want to break free,
You can do without a guitar if you want to play rock and roll,
But don’t ditch the gospel if you want to save souls

You can be the biggest loser and be on the winning team,
You don’t have to hit the headlines to end up being seen,
You can lean behind your shovel and still dig a hole,
But don’t ditch the gospel if you want to save souls

Well you can lie in bed all morning and find you’re getting paid,
You can fail in all your subjects, and finally make the grade,
You can wrap yourself in cotton and wind up catching cold
But don’t ditch the gospel if you want to save souls

Don’t tell me you got something better
Don’t tell me you got something clever
Its a stumbling block baby!

To preach the cross is crazy
If you’re dying in your sins
But to us who are being saved
It is the power of God

Well you can lose in every battle to find you’ve won the war,
You can try to find a planet, and still be wanting more,
You can be ever so unlucky and end up striking gold,
But don’t ditch the gospel if you want to save souls

If you want to save souls
Don’t ditch the gospel
Don’t throw it away
There’s nothing better
If you want to save souls