The Free Radical

The story of this recording’s very existence doubles as its excuse for its poor sound quality. It was recorded in 1997 onto cassette tape from a radio in the Columbia Valley as it was airing live from Calgary. It then spent a few years rolling around the cab of a friend’s pickup before I was able to digitally transfer it here… for your enjoyment.

CJAY- Missing Peace Live (acoustic)- So I

Them boys is just having fun!

Cory and Niels playing acoustic guitars, Shane singing, David bashing quietly in the background with a snare and one cymbal, and Ian playing valiantly along on bass… without an amp (in other words… silently). Who knew that Calgary’s Best Rock was bring-your-own-bass-amp? He was very good I assure you!

The DJ was Ben Jeffreys. We were clustered around two microphones.

After the interview we were let loose in their record library with the explicit instruction “Take whatever you want.” They had just made the switch to CDs only. All of their vinyl was up for grabs! Unfortunately, we only had about 15 minutes before we had to hit the road. In a room filled with thousands of records spanning the legacy of rock for decades I had a bitch of a time trying to think of things to grab. It was too overwhelming! I think I made off with a handful of Jethro Tull albums, a few old Pat Metheny and Lyle Hayes, a couple of Jeff Becks and perhaps a half dozen others I don’t recall.

Note: I did eventually get my hands on the original cassette that we were given at the radio station, but it was in worse shape than the one I already posted.

Update March 24, 2012:

After being missing-in-action for 12 or 13 years (nobody can quite recall)– anyway, the studio beds for this song have surfaced! We hadn’t heard this in over a decade! So in this recording, only the drums are keepers here. My guitar and the bass will be overdubbed. We’re just playing along with the drummer so that he knows exactly where he is in the song as he lays down his tracks (6 of them… the drum kit has 6 different mics). This is very likely something we can build upon to finally do this song justice. Sorry there’s no vocals or lead guitar at this point… but that gives you a reason to check back periodically.

So I – studio version (beds)