owenshire's video: Owenshire: Wendell Gee R E M cover

Artist: Owenshire Track: Wendell Gee [R.E.M. cover] Album: Remember Every Moment (2016) Credits: Clive Butler (all instruments); Robert Muhlbock (all vocals). Notes: gonna miss you boy Instrumental: http://notboundtofollowsuit.blogspot.ca/2013/12/wendell-gee.html Commentary: CLIVE: My motivation for covering Wendell Gee was to actually have a go at singing it as it's a song that I can do a half-decent job of singing and it's within my vocal range. But, as is often the case, what might sound good in my head when I'm singing in the car or around the house sounds very plain when I listen back to an actual recording! So for that reason, it was a classic case of "stick to what you do best" and this idea was abandoned. It's a bit of a no thrills backing track though I'm proud of the overall feel of the track. Sometimes when I'm recording myself playing guitar I get so uptight and I think this is reflected in the overall sound. Here, I made a conscious effort to play lazily and do it in one take and, in doing that, it has a kind of bluesy late night feel to it! It's based purely on the Athens demo of the song not the actual album version, hence there being no piano parts and no banjo in the middle 8 (not that I own a banjo!). ROB: I had no idea what Mike Mills was singing in the background of this song until I found it---of all places—in the comments section of a Youtube video: “We’re gonna miss you boy.” And right there, this song became richer for me: the idea of Wendell Gee affectionately referred to as “boy” gives the song an even more sentimental touch. As most people know, the song takes the name of a real person—a used car dealer, no less—and invents an entire dreamlike narrative around him: pulling strings that held trees? Building tree trunks with chickenwire to climb inside? Look, that’s the weirdest most abstract shit I’ve ever heard, but I still love the song, and it all works. Even the chorus seems fresh—you’d think in a world where the phrases ‘whistle while you work’ or ‘whistle while you walk’ are time-tested clichés that Wendell Gee’s version of “Whistle as the wind blows with me” would get bogged down in such predictability, but no—given the song’s title and ‘narrative,’ the lyric rises above. Heck, it’s even cliché itself to end an album with a ballad, but Wendell Gee’s appearance on Fables—banjo solo included--is both welcome and appropriately placed. It’s a tender song that closes a beautiful oft-misunderstood album.