Reginald Bigsby

A Chris Hillman tune from the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album:

Thank you for your kind words concerning my music. Very much appreciated! I really enjoyed the Khruangbin video. Unfortunately, the other video you posted was not available for me to view. Your portfolio is beautifully done! I listened to your bass and beat demos and watched a couple of the videos for which you had done the musical editing. Excellent work! I assume that with your impressive skillset (including acting!), you are in demand for audio and video production, and that you are earning a living doing so. Kudos to you! As for my approach to sound, and what I use for recording and production, I use Logic Pro X as my DAW, and everything is pretty much digital except for instruments such as guitar, bass, and keyboard (although I do also use the synth that is built into Logic), microphones and interface. I mostly use the plugins that come with Logic for processing, but I've found that Ozone and RX plugins from Izotope to be especially helpful in post production work. When I started recording back in the early 1970s I used multi-track reel-to-reel tape decks. I still think a quality reel-to-reel tape machine produces the best sonic results as an audio recording medium, but the inherent mechanical maintenance issues such as tape head alignment, electrostatic and oxide buildup, tape fragility and expense, and the difficulty of splice editing make working in the digital realm much more appealing to me. And, the results with digital can certainly rival those of tape. It was also back in the early 1970s that I tried to do music as a full time career. In those days that meant joining a band and performing on a regular basis, which I did. It took me about a year to figure out that I hated touring, and so I made the decision to find some other way to make a living where I could have a stable home life. But, I never stopped writing, playing and recording music. Through some extremely good luck over the years, my musical skills got noticed by some very talented folks in the music industry, and I got the opportunity to work on my own terms with them in various capacities. I hope that you'll find success and contentment with a career in whatever creative endeavors you choose to become involved in. Just remember to trust your talent and your muse. Cheers!

Hola Karhala! First, let me say that I'd be happy to share some of the details of my personal music history with you via private messaging if you're interested, but I'll tell you now that creating music has not been my main source of income for most of my life. That's not to say that music has ever been anything less than my one true passion. Having a reliable source of income other than music has allowed me to be true to my muse and to never have had to compromise my artistic vision for the sake of money. If you'd like to check out my content on bandcamp and YouTube, you'll find the links below, and I thank you for your interest. I hope you'll like what you hear/see. https://waltleuzinger.bandcamp.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv3zdNRU_QGS0VB0W4rHGgA

Well, I got "pinged" so I feel like I should respond. After reading through the thread, I'm convinced that I'm in a really different place with my music than most here. I'm old and have been writing songs, performing and recording for almost 60 years. Although I've had the good fortune to work with some high profile artists over the years, I've never had the ambition to promote myself. My satisfaction comes exclusively from the process of artistic creativity. If others appreciate what I've done, that's great, if not, that's okay too. Because of this, I'm completely ignorant of how one would go about promoting their own music. I have no social media presence and my bandcamp website and YouTube channel are merely places that I use to archive my music. On the other hand, I really enjoy discussing songwriting and music production, and I feel my experience and knowledge in that area could be helpful to others, and I've tried to do that here on songstuff. On a final note, I want to add that one of the main reasons I enjoy songstuff is being exposed to other songwriters' music. I've really enjoyed listening to the original music that DIY artists around the world are creating, and there are some terrific talents here.

If that's your "least try-hard effort", then I suggest you're trying too hard most of the time. 😁 It's a beautiful song with a wonderful melody and chord progression, and one that in no way sounds like it was just an afterthought or throwaway.

My recent discussion with @buckoff in another thread concerning the relative merits and possible motivations of John Lennon gave me the impetus to post this Schmeatles (my alternate ego Beatles cover duo) cover of one of my favorite John Lennon driven Beatles songs, Norwegian Wood.

After more than 55 years of songwriting, that's a difficult question to answer. As I've had no significant commercial success with my music, it's tempting to choose the song that I consider to be my best effort with regard to the craft of songwriting to be the most successful, but I'll go with a more objective assessment from another source. In the early 1990s National Public Radio began the process of creating a show that was to feature independent musical artists (the term "Indie Artists" hadn't yet caught on) who were unsigned by the major record companies. NPR put out word on the air and through various music publications that they were seeking new music for a program to be entitled "Unheard Of" and asking for submissions by artists/bands who fit that description. As a result I submitted a song (on a cassette tape) I had just written and recorded called 'Keep That Monkey Tied Up'. Much to my surprise and delight, I subsequently received a letter from the producer of "Unheard Of" telling me that my song had been selected to air on the program's first show. After several months of waiting and not hearing anything more about "Unheard Of", I wrote to the show's producer to ask about its status. About a week later I received a call from the producer who explained that unfortunately the program had been scrapped. He did mention that the first show had actually been recorded but would not air. He expressed his regrets about the show not being picked up, mentioned that he thought my song was a standout and hoped I'd have some success with it. Of course I was disappointed that the show was not happening, but I was encouraged by the producer's words, and a few years later I created my first home produced CD album (with CD-writing Corel software on my Windows 95 computer) featuring 'Keep That Monkey Tied Up' along with ten other original songs. At that time, there weren't nearly as many resources for independent artists to promote their music as there are today. I also had a day job that was very demanding and time consuming, so a move to a music center like New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville was out of the question where I might have had a breakthrough was never realistically going to happen. Here it is: https://soundcloud.com/walt-leuzinger/keep-that-monkey-tied-up-41820-1117-am

Hello. I have come here to learn and share some music. Please be gentle. Thanks.