That's The Way by cuthbert for ZepFest/DroneFest

[hooper]

Love the arrangement... very well planned and executed. And always fun to hear from your eclectic collection of instruments. Creates a really interesting soundscape. Very,very nice job on this one!   

[T.C. Elliott]

You've nailed this one. Seriously nailed it. It has the soul of the original but still has your stamp all over it. Like 64g said, those layered vocals are nearly perfect. In fact I'd take some more of them. I've been digging all of these zep fest entries and this is one of my favorites.

[SwanSong]

Cuthbert this is utterly fantastic . glad I caught this as there are so many
fine songs on this forum  u did a great job on this cover. I really enjoyed
the vocals and the harmonies from the mix. at least it sounded to me that
way . great guitar work all around a great tribute and masterpiece cheers
NEIL.!!

[DeificDave]

Greta version, Zeppelin is not an easy band to cover but you have done something really quite wonderful with this song! Love clear recording, everything sounds just right, well done!

Hats off to Cuthbert!

[Speed Demon]

Awesome craftsmanship displayed on this tune. Vocals and instruments are all things of great beauty.

A pleasure to listen to. Soothing and ephemeral.

Take a bow!

Well done!

[Gnasty]

i`m stunned and losfer words. Just excellent in every aspect. The instuments shine throughout but the vocals
are really amazing. I always love and enjoy your posts Cuth. Amazing cover!

[Rolow]

Jimmy sure likes stringed instruments.  And so does Cuthbert.

Very well done, a great sound and follow through.

Here in Apalachia we see the dulcimer get taken out quite a bit, and you did a fine job.

Well done.

[Blooby]

Back for more. Just great.

Blooby

[cuthbert]

Thanks folks for all the wonderful comments - they are very much appreciated.

So I broke down and picked up the remastered release of Led Zeppelin III on CD last weekend, and after listening to the album again a few times was a little surprised to find I seem to have internalized bits of other Zeppelin songs which appeared in this cover. For instance, the handclaps & fingersnaps seem to my ears to have a bit of the 'Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp' in them, and my ending vocals may have some of 'Going to California' (from Zoso/Led Zeppelin IV) as well as 'That's The Way' in them. There are likely other happy accidents...

I especially like that harmonic (I assume) at the end of every other bar.

Thanks, 64G. Those are some dulcimer "zings" (upstrokes playing a high D note and a middle G). I had also hit the high G on guitars, but I thought the zings added a little something extra. Glad you liked it!

JS and I were planning to cover this one, but I suppose both of us were too lazy to tune to open G.

I hope you guys do cover this someday! The open G tuning was a bit of a revelation for me. I hadn't played with it before, but found it to be relatively easy to learn the chords used (getting the timing as close to "right" as I could required much, much more practice). It's a tuning I plan to use again, hopefully on an original. Finding different-sounding chords this way is a lot of fun!

...even more impressive that it was done on the MBR.

Thanks, Andrew! Yes, the shiny little box continues to inspire.  I didn't do much track house-cleaning on the MBR while recording, and some tracks were not used in the final mix or only partially used, but I ended up using every virtual track between recorded tracks and bounces - yes, that's 32 tracks in all. I think that may be an all-time record for me...  

Sounds like it was recorded as an out-take for one of Love's early albums........who was a huge influence on Jimmy Page and the boys..........so it's like you brought it back home.

Thanks, Dave! Love is one of my favorites bands, ever. I had kind of forgotten that they were an influence on Led Zeppelin...everything is connected.  

On the subject of offering the best quality, I've always been a big fan of alonetone. I upload all my 320 mp3s to alonetone and the occasional one to Soundcloud and can always hear the difference between the two hosts. Soundcloud tends to do that horrible 'washy' thing to the high end...

Thanks, man. Don't know why I don't post to alonetone more, and I agree with you about the SoundCloud washy thing - their mp3 compression isn't great, nor is it controllable. Think I'm going to heed your advice and start posting to alonetone again for the longer songs.

Here in Apalachia we see the dulcimer get taken out quite a bit, and you did a fine job.

Thank you, sir! I don't get to hear much dulcimer music up in these parts (New Hampshire's got the nearest chain of Appalachian mountains where I live, about 90 minutes drive to the White Mountains), and so I appreciate your kind words. One of these days, I'm going to try to learn how to play this thing properly...  


Thanks again to all for listening and for your comments,
cuthbert

[Farrell Jackson]

This is first class all the way cuthbert! From the dreamy sound scape...the droning harmonium, the smooth acoustic strums, the cascading lap steel, the ease in which you sing the lead vocal, and the excellent outro harmonies. Combined makes something worth listening too many times over!

Farrell