"No Sky To See" a Hook original for LITLR2Fest

[Hook]

Wrote this yesterday in the car, recorded it on the BR80. I used my Puerto Rican Cuatro this time around.

No Sky To See

written & performed by Hook

Does the past return
does it really ever leave  
Darker than itself
Grey sky breeze

Can you ever start again
Could we dare believe
Darker than the deepest night
Black sky forsees

What lies ahead
And what we will confront

Does any of it really matter
Take away our moisture are we not dust
Darker thank my darkest thought
No sky to be seen

[leighelse]

I learn so much through Songcrafters. I've just discovered the cuatro! How many strings does yours have, Hook?

This is a catchy little song, and a very clear recording. Nicely done.

I was playing a couple of your tracks to a musician friend the other day and mentioned that you often record in your car. She was completely non-plussed.

[Mach]

Cuatro sounds nice and crisp. 10 string?
You wrote this in the car...man that car is an inspirational compartment.
How do you come up with these tunes so quickly?
Great lyric and cool arrangement.

Mach 

[Groundy]

Nice clear recording,
Really well done,
You do so well in your car, all I ever wrote in mine ,was my name in the steamed up windows...

  Hook..


Alex

[bruno]

 I love the sound of the Cuatro brother - its a lovely unique sound - super great sound. I've got a problem with the HTML player where it randomly restarts the tune at the moment - its very odd. Well its just returned several times to "Can you ever, can you ever start again" - well I guess yes, oh the sweet irony :-) Made me smile anyway. Love the tune. Perhaps we should have a recorded out side of the studio-fest
B

[Johnny Robbo]

Classic Hook! You are constant source of inspiration, mate!

[Hook]

Thanks friends for the kind words.
Yes the  Puerto Rican Cuatro is 10 strings, tuned like a 5 string bass- BEADG. It is strung similar to a 12 string guitar, in courses. the B& E strings are octaves and the rest are unisons.The cuatro name comes from it being tuned in fourths rather than the amount of strings. The Venezuelan Cuatro is 4 strings and more similar to an ukulele, AD F#B, the A & B are tunes an octave lower. I'm starting to think (as I type this) that I need a Venezuelan one.

As far as recording in the car goes, I've done it for so long now (6years maybe) that I don't think about it much. I have 4 kids (6-15), so recording at home is difficult. As soon as the little ones are down the older ones need some time and then I'm struggling to stay awake. I've been getting more time in my home studio lately because my project is work based but it's currently hard to justify any serious home time to Hook songs. Thus the car. I often find 30min to an hour or 2 in the car and I figured out years ago how I could use that time. I've now tried just about every small recorder on the market, PS-02,portastudio 5, DP004,H4n, M8, MBR, DP008 & BR80. I've enjoyed all of them and am currently pretty happy with , for all its short comings, the br80. I do hope perhaps to be able to, now that I'm more comfortable with my DP24sd, import my tracks on to machine and mix at home.

Seems like I've gone a little overboard with my response, so to summarize...
My Cuatro-10 strings, action is a bit high, questionable intonation.
GAS-now for a Venezuelan Cuatro.
Car recording is necessity for both creative outlet and sanity stabilizer.

Thanks again for the listens!
Rock on!