There isn’t a huge backstory to this other than to say that I am playing guitar on the attached recording with one of my favorite local bands from the 1980s, The Effects. I am not playing the live show though—I was never anywhere near that good! The Effects were a Phoenix-area band that played an infectious and very danceable (to me at least!) blend of reggae and ska with a definite rock edge. I was a regular fan since I moved to Tempe in 1983, and I got to know the guys in the band after showing up at so many gigs. They kind of disbanded in 1985 or so, but I had the pleasure to record a live show they did around 1986 or so for some private event.
That turned out to be a great opportunity, ironically because of the lousy sound quality in the hotel ballroom they played. I brought my old-school Teac Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and a couple of Shure 57s and tried to capture their live sound the best I could. The only problem was that the guitar wasn’t miked properly (if at all) in the PA, and the room was very boomy with too much bass and reverb, so I really couldn’t hear Kirk Hawley’s guitar on my recording to any significant degree.
I’m a guitar player, so the fact that you couldn’t hear the guitar made the recording somewhat useless, and I let it sit on the shelf for a year or so without giving it much thought. About a year later, I was recording some other stuff on my 4-track in my living room “studio” (hahahaha!) and the idea popped into my head that I should try learning one of my favorite songs off the old Effects tape and overdub a guitar part that you could hear. I learned their encore song of the night, “Tears of a Clown” and it was off to the races. I had two of the four tracks available, so I overdubbed my rhythm track on one and my lead on the other. As I said, I’m nowhere near as good as Kirk (or Donnie Dean, the Effects’ other guitar player), but I gave it the old college try in terms of doing my best to capture the groove and spirit of their vibe. As always, you be the judge…
Great solo!
Thanks, Man! The joys of the “studio.” You get as many takes as you like!