stefkeB

When my father-in-law was planning his retirement from the University where he was working, he asked us to play at his celebration.

I was to play the guitar, Marnix (the other son-in-law) also played guitar, my father played the piccolo and (originally) nephew Jan was to play the violin, but due to work obligations he was replaced by Hilde, who was a friend of the family.

After some thinking, we decided on three songs.

Two irish traditionals: "Napoleon crossing the Alps" going directly into "The Pullet". Again, from our final rehearsal.

Our version of Concerning Hobbits, by Howard Shore, from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. This is a recording from our rehearsal.

Originally from Willem Vermandere, from the "Omzwervingen" album.

A recording during an improvisation, together with Jan. I was recording my new Marshall for the first time and it took a while to get the best connection. I think I found a better connection afterwards: the amp has an emulated Cabinet (4x12") output, which I can connect using an XLR cable and a plug to a Jack-connection into my audio interface.

The lyrics were already written and during a break at noon I recorded them. I used my Sure SM58 (for which I have reasonable hints that it's a fake).

On may 26th, we played our arrangement of "Concerning Hobbits", during the wedding ceremony of my sister in law.
It was not perfect, but everyone was so delighted to hear it. We surely made a good impression.
I've also played the Harry Sacksioni arrangement of "Here Comes the Sun" from George Harrison and got good comments about it (although I did play some slight errors).
You can hear a recording of our rehearsal.

The result of our final rehearsal, before we were going to play live, during the wedding ceremony of my sister-in-law.Recorded with my new microphone using Ableton Live and then adding a slight compressor and a subtle reverb, to have some more ambience. Not perfect, but some of the players hadn't touched their instruments for a couple of years.