"Where's the Plane" is a song by Voodoo Shilton that I first heard two weeks ago when he debuted it. What first struck me was the anguish in Voodoo's voice as his singing style is usually gentle and melodic yet this came as an explosion of feeling. His first cry of Where's the Plane was shocking as in wow, I have never heard such emotion in this way from Voodoo before. He almost screamed the words and this was a great surprise as Voodoo is not given to over-stated displays of emotion.
Voodoo performed the song again on Friday. He had been out due to previous commitments the week before so this was the first chance to hear it again. I had mentioned to Cat earlier in the day that I wonder if Voodoo will bring it back and what he may do with it this time. Sure enough, Voodoo did not disappoint.
While the intensity of the initial cry was reduced, the aura around the song is very much present. The vocal is dramatic and accompanying is music that is deliberately disturbing. It's a complex thing to play music that's deliberately 'bad' as one's first intention musically is usually to smooth things, find peace, and find the light ... all that hippie stuff. Making music go in the other direction is a quite an exercise of will as not only must you develop the music but also fight the desire to 'fix' it.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the song is that Voodoo calls on The Necromancer for the words he needs to say. It's very much a song of crying out in the darkness as it's not one for formal lyrics and he looks for inspiration while he plays. It may even be an audience-participation thing as Voodoo called out, Where's the Plane, Silas. I wasn't sure if it was rhetorical and didn't say anything as where the hell is this plane. Maybe the question is supposed to hang in space.
Subjective interpretations come strongly with this song as it makes me wonder about a great many things we are not told, why we are not told them, who came up with the order that we should not be told, etc, etc. Mysteries come for which there are no satisfactory answers. A huge aircraft disappears with no apparent trace for no apparent reason. It's flown for hours before it finally crashes so it makes no sense a terrorist did it or something would have happened much sooner. Where is this plane and how can this possibly happen. We ask that about a great many things: how can this possibly happen.
This venture into darkness is a different approach by Voodoo but there's all kinds of voodoo in the darkness so there's no telling what may come.
Voodoo and I talked a bit after his set and some information you may find interesting is, in part, not surprising as he has been learning the finger picking style for twenty-six years. He must have started young as he's still a young man now. Something that did surprise me is that he has only been using a flat picking style (i.e. using a guitar pick instead of fingers) for about two years. He feels much more comfortable picking with his fingers than with a pick. It's interesting to me as it's the reverse of how I play, finger picking is mystifying but flat picking makes sense.
We talked a bit of changes he may make to his set but it's best to leave that to him as that's more personal than really needs to be spouted here. Something else you may find trivial but is interesting to me is that we were talking about the best pick to use. I was saying I like a thin pick and Voodoo was saying, oh, no no no, you need a heavy pick for the best control. And I was saying, oh, no no no, with a thin pick you can bend it to get precisely the level of attack sound you want from a string.
There is huge superstition in this. With me, it can't just be a thin pick, it must specifically be a Fender thin pick as this has the exact number of atoms a thin pick needs to be. Your fingers are incredibly sensitive to this kind of stuff and they can tell. It surprised me that Voodoo uses a heavy pick as he plays electric with great nuance. I had thought heavy picks were for the Megadeth bands that play really, really loud and also eat raw bats but that's not it at all.
Voodoo performed the song again on Friday. He had been out due to previous commitments the week before so this was the first chance to hear it again. I had mentioned to Cat earlier in the day that I wonder if Voodoo will bring it back and what he may do with it this time. Sure enough, Voodoo did not disappoint.
While the intensity of the initial cry was reduced, the aura around the song is very much present. The vocal is dramatic and accompanying is music that is deliberately disturbing. It's a complex thing to play music that's deliberately 'bad' as one's first intention musically is usually to smooth things, find peace, and find the light ... all that hippie stuff. Making music go in the other direction is a quite an exercise of will as not only must you develop the music but also fight the desire to 'fix' it.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the song is that Voodoo calls on The Necromancer for the words he needs to say. It's very much a song of crying out in the darkness as it's not one for formal lyrics and he looks for inspiration while he plays. It may even be an audience-participation thing as Voodoo called out, Where's the Plane, Silas. I wasn't sure if it was rhetorical and didn't say anything as where the hell is this plane. Maybe the question is supposed to hang in space.
Subjective interpretations come strongly with this song as it makes me wonder about a great many things we are not told, why we are not told them, who came up with the order that we should not be told, etc, etc. Mysteries come for which there are no satisfactory answers. A huge aircraft disappears with no apparent trace for no apparent reason. It's flown for hours before it finally crashes so it makes no sense a terrorist did it or something would have happened much sooner. Where is this plane and how can this possibly happen. We ask that about a great many things: how can this possibly happen.
This venture into darkness is a different approach by Voodoo but there's all kinds of voodoo in the darkness so there's no telling what may come.
Voodoo and I talked a bit after his set and some information you may find interesting is, in part, not surprising as he has been learning the finger picking style for twenty-six years. He must have started young as he's still a young man now. Something that did surprise me is that he has only been using a flat picking style (i.e. using a guitar pick instead of fingers) for about two years. He feels much more comfortable picking with his fingers than with a pick. It's interesting to me as it's the reverse of how I play, finger picking is mystifying but flat picking makes sense.
We talked a bit of changes he may make to his set but it's best to leave that to him as that's more personal than really needs to be spouted here. Something else you may find trivial but is interesting to me is that we were talking about the best pick to use. I was saying I like a thin pick and Voodoo was saying, oh, no no no, you need a heavy pick for the best control. And I was saying, oh, no no no, with a thin pick you can bend it to get precisely the level of attack sound you want from a string.
There is huge superstition in this. With me, it can't just be a thin pick, it must specifically be a Fender thin pick as this has the exact number of atoms a thin pick needs to be. Your fingers are incredibly sensitive to this kind of stuff and they can tell. It surprised me that Voodoo uses a heavy pick as he plays electric with great nuance. I had thought heavy picks were for the Megadeth bands that play really, really loud and also eat raw bats but that's not it at all.
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