The Edge of The World

Jim Bouchard

No artwork

Get Flash to see this player.

Description

I recorded this back in 1994 on cassette 8-track with Ken Selcer and all I had was a cassette of it. I recently got Peak Pro 6 with Soundsoap and did a little remastering from the cassette and this is the result. I don't know if my cassette player was playing this at the right speed, as my voice sounds a little off, but maybe that's just because I am 14 years younger in this recording.

When I recorded this,I'd just started writing songs again after a long time, in the middle of an unhappy divorce, and this one was inspired by a Richard Ford short story, but maybe twisted into a shape that fit my life at the time. At the time I was playing a lot of open mics and this was a sort of popular song in my repertoire at the time. I know my friend Molly Bancroft liked it a lot. I mean to do a new recording of this, but I need to re-learn it. This is step one.

In terms of the recording, this was done pretty much live in the studio with Ken engineering. The studio was his living room, but he had some nice mics and a good resume for recording my type of music.

Leave a Comment

You must be registered and logged-in to comment.

Lyrics

I'll transcribe them soon

Song Stats

Hits: 966
Comments: 12
Fans: 11
Plays: 49
Downloads: 52
Votes: 2
Uploaded: Sep 14, 2008 - 09:22:09 PM
Last Updated: Sep 14, 2008 - 09:22:09 PM Last Played: Nov 14, 2009 - 08:38:31 PM

Song License

Creative Commons License:
NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Song Actions

Comments

Joe Brady	Joe Brady said 434 days ago (September 14th, 2008)
	Nice Tune I like the melody, and the guitar pickin' is just what I like. Look forward to you giving it your modern treatment. I'll have to listen a few more times to get the whole, but I dig the off the edge of the world imagery. Joe Check out my latest song called The Refugee Blues by Feter with Jiguma

Feter

Feter said 434 days ago (September 14th, 2008)

The Edge of The World
perfect folkie tune ...there s a bit of hiss on my
headset but thats much better than any recording I did
was impressed how this so clear even if it came from
a cassette ??!!! ..the sphere of the song just so
passionate amazingly touched by it ...thnx alot for
sharin !!!!

Check out my latest song called A Night With Feter feat'(Roxylee sloparts crissew johnwhitehead and Yamin AL Yamani )

ktb	ktb said 434 days ago (September 15th, 2008)
	soundin fine not a nit with the vocal at my end, it all sounds warm and spot on. I really enjoyed the cadence and progression as well. The stops and slight pauses here and there gave it a very spontaneous feel. Check out my latest song called off the deck (w/Z293)

thoddi

thoddi said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)

nice and warm
Would be cool to see and hear you do this live. There's opened a new scene with open mic availabilities in my home town, Stavanger. So if you're in the area...

Pleasant song, great guitar picking and singing and its always nice to peak into what people here at mj did ealier on.

My brother also had a studio already in the eighties, with a Revox A77 as his first tape recorder... brought back some nice memories:)

Check out my latest song called Don't tell me what I can't w/KTB and Ingve

dolby

dolby said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)

Pretty clear...
...coming off a cassette. Nice song, full of emotion in the voice. It occurs to me - you're probably familiar with Irish singer/songwriter David Gray - well there's something in the melody which is very much like his stuff circa White Ladder - you were about 5 years ahead of his time :-))

Anyway, whatever - I like it!

Phil

Check out my latest song called You Can't Win Them All

Jim Bouchard

Jim Bouchard said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)

good call!
His first album came out around the time this was recorded(White Ladder was like his 4th album, I think), but I don't think I was thinking of him when I wrote the song to begin with, but by the time I made this recording I'd started doing a cover of "Shine" from the first David Gray album in my sets and that influence sneaked in somehow.
Some of the emotion in the vocal is due to the fact that this was tracked live, and so perhaps the performance is less than perfect, but I was going for an authentically emotive performance over perfection. That's probably why I want to re-do this. I just got the idea because I was getting a ride from an old buddy of mine that I don't see very often and he was listening to this old tape of mine that had this song on it. I'd almost forgotten about it, but he said he was really into this song, having just gone through a breakup himself, sort of.

Check out my latest song called Weather or Not w/awigze

Bob6stringer	Bob6stringer said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)
	thanks I learn things from you. Great folky as well as when you're plugged in. And yes, those mics must have been incredible. Sound is sterling. Check out my latest song called Yours and Mine

michael2

michael2 said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)

jim
you are really sounding great in this one. everything sounds great. i forgot about the hiss as soon as I started to listen to the song. your voice and guitar both sound really nice and the song itself is a great folk tune. funny how such a "dated" form of music sounds so fresh, especially when performed by someone who has a visibly genuine love of it. great job.

Check out my latest song called Behind Enemy Lines (w/Bud and Particle Dots)

jiguma	jiguma said 433 days ago (September 15th, 2008)
	Amazing sound for a cassette recording Great tune (and you do sound a lot younger). Reminds me of Van Morrison in the phrasing. Cheers, Neil Check out my latest song called Lost In Translation (w Mike Watkins)

timothy devine	timothy devine said 433 days ago (September 16th, 2008)
	Real personal Great performance I feel the blue i can relate don't touch this perfect tm it must have been so cool to get in a friends car and hear something u kind of forgot about! Check out my latest song called Mankind Needs a Change/WoodstockII

Ibstrat	Ibstrat said 431 days ago (September 17th, 2008)
	Lots of feeling in this.I never would have known it was from a cassette.I envy your songwriting and vocal abilities.Very tasty guitar playing. Check out my latest song called Blues in Bm

jgurner	jgurner said 431 days ago (September 17th, 2008)
	Wow... It's a nice, beautiful, heartfelt tune. It's amazing how quickly we forget how our voices sound after a decade or so, but yours certainly sounds great here. Lovely tune. And amazing that you got something this crisp and clean off of a cassette after all these years. Well worth the effort. Check out my latest song called Bourbon Street Dawn

Estella

Estella said 368 days ago (November 20th, 2008)

don't know if this helps...
but i heard the new version of this first, and one thing I notice hearing this, is that the words sound clearer to me in this version.

not sure why that might be. it could just be because I've heard it twice now. or it might be a mixing issue. just food for thought.

this is a beautiful vocal performance, very emotive. i can see why it resonated with your audiences.

Check out my latest song called Este Momento

Fan List

ktb

Artist Info

Name: Jim Bouchard

I have been playing music a long time. When I was growing up my brothers had a band called the Regal Tones which was quite popular in our little town in upstate New York State. They got bitten by the music bug and later went on to found the p... [see more]

Check out some of my other songs:

Genre Info

More songs in Folk (contemporary):

Chat

Alimar	67
Feter	41
jiguma	55
Komrade K	52
Moviz	30
rsorensen	27
segiperkasa	13
tonestones	4
VicDiesel	45