"If you ever get the 'peace and contentment blues,' remember, the key
words are PEACE, and contentment.  After all the crap we've been
through, the blues are the easy part.  Don't you think?"
Invisible Manifesto For A Rising Outlaw Nation (Take 3)

I recorded "Peace & Contentment Blues" at a friend's apartment in Hollywood over Easter weekend of 2004.  I was living in my car, and my friend and his wife offered to let me crash for the weekend, so I wouldn't have to spend the holiday on the street.  They were friends of mine from First Baptist Church of Hollywood, the only church where I've ever been a member.  I walked into their spare room, and not only did they have a nice condenser mic set up, but also a recent version of ProTools.  I was recording All The Diamonds You Can Eat at the time, in sporadic intervals on another friend's broken 4-track, with dollar-store cassette tapes.  This was an opportunity I couldn't resist.

I was extremely unfamiliar with real recording equipment at the time, and it took me all weekend to record this song.  I may have snuck "Sleeping Sea" in there when I wasn't looking.  "Sleeping Sea" is the only other track on Diamonds that was recorded in a clear pond, instead of under a waterfall of lo-fi noise.  I got as much done as I could, and only started songs that were easy enough to mix and master in a matter of seconds, in case it got weird.  My friends weren't particularly happy with me.  I spent almost no time hanging out with them.  It was definitely rude, but not antagonistic.  I couldn't help myself.  God knows when (or if) this opportunity will present itself again.  I have to get this song FINISHED before I move back into my car.  This weekend is the only chance I will ever have to record this song.  I have to get it done.

And I did.  It cost me the friendship, but I finished the recording.

There are some amusing idiosyncrasies in this recording.  During the recording of the weird, crazy growling background vocal track, you can hear the girl in the next room, screaming at something on TV.  Fortunately, the scream was captured on the mic.  It is timed perfectly, and my crazy-guy track laughs in response.  I also had to use layered humming vocals in lieu of a bass track, since they didn't have a bass guitar.

The rest of the recording is pretty straightforward.  The video above is an edited version of "Portraits," a 1972 short film by Barbara Meter.

Thanks for listening.

Peace & Contentment Blues

Ain't no one here to hang on
ain't nothing new I need to know
ain't nothing for to worry
ain't no place left to go

All alone in my contentment
I am stranded in my bliss
sometimes there ain't nothin'
I wouldn't give
to stand back on the edge
of that beautiful abyss

This peace & this contentment
they are driving me insane
how can anyone be happy
when it's sunny every day?

©2004 Nathan Payne