A couple of years ago, when I was thinking of re-releasing my "Out of the Blue" album, I wondered if I'd be able to rescue its songs from off of the old master tape. It was tricky but, with the help of some recording studio programs and a patient friend, I was able to work a little digital magic on the old tunes and ended up being quite pleased with how it all turned out. I'd even managed to get them to sound better than they had on the original cassette album. There was one exception though. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the last song, "One Storm Away," to sound as good as the other eleven. The vocal was distorted and I couldn't get rid of the problem.
I suppose I could've tried re-recording it from scratch but I felt that all 12 recordings should be from the time of the first release, 26 years ago. Also, I figured that the original recording of the song was the version that everyone who already owned the cassette of the album would expect to hear when they switched to the MP3 format. The third reason is something to do with how I've always felt about recording live music. Given the choice between different takes of a song, rather than picking the perfectly performed or recorded one, I'd always choose the one that had the best emotional content, the one that just felt right and had the right energy that put across, in some way, what I was trying to say. "One Storm Away" was always a problem song, but this is the version of it that, for me, captured something.
Recently, someone asked me if I'd like to sell CDs of my albums in their shop. It got me to thinking that maybe I should try to fix the song again. It was still really tricky and took quite a while but, this time, I managed to improve the sound quality. So if you downloaded "Out of the Blue" before March 3, 2014, and would like to replace your copy of "One Storm Away" with the improved version, I've put a download link at the bottom of this page. The album download itself, on the "Out of the Blue" post, now contains the new version of the song and a new jewel case cover (also available below). The back cover was black-and-white and a little plain, so we've changed it to colour. It also has a new photograph.
If you've never downloaded the album before, here's your chance to check out a free sample of another of its songs.
And, as a previous purchaser of this fine product, well, it goes without saying that this replacement song part is, of course, covered by your used album warranty. It's in the fine print under "Third Time's A Charm."
Click on this link to download a copy of One Storm Away.
Click on this link to download a copy of the Out of the Blue jewel case cover.
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