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This rendition of “Songbird” is a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song, closer to the style of Eva Cassidy’s version. This version combines the piano from the original and folk genre of Cassidy’s cover. The result is a light folk rendition with intense emotional depth and a little smoothness from soft cymbals and soprano saxophone.

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The tenth track on my SoundCloud Playlist is “Songbird” by Annie Karto. This song is from Annie’s CD, “Refuge” released in 2009 and was dedicated to her husband, David Karto. “Songbird” was written by Christine McVie and was featured on Fleetwood Mac‘s “Rumours” album in 1977. This song was later covered by Eva Cassidy and my arrangement for Annie is more like that version. The main accompaniment instruments on Annie’s version are classical guitar, piano and double bass. Like with much of Annie’s music, I tried to create a very light, folk-like sound. This is usually the perfect kind of background for Annie’s always sincere and spiritual vocal performance. The classical guitar was played by Peter Calo and I played the piano and double bass. John Arrucci improvised on cymbals throughout, creating a magical atmosphere. The background vocals were sung by Kati Mac. At 1:24 into the song, the music opens up with a cymbal swelling into my soprano sax solo. During this solo section, I introduced some percussion programming with modified loops from Spectrasonics’ Stylus RMX and also a Spectrasonics’ Atmosphere pad. After the sax solo, the music returns to the original instruments.

Here is some technical information about the recording:
  • Everything was recorded in my studio with MOTU’s Digital Performer software, using True Systems Precision 8 mic preamps and Mytek 8×96 analog to digital converters.
  • The piano and classical guitar were each recorded using a stereo matched pair of AKG C451B mics.
  • The double bass was recorded with an AKG C414B-ULS mic by the bridge and an AKG C451B by the neck.
  • The cymbals were recorded with a pair of Audio-technica AT4047/SV mics in ORTF.
  • The soprano sax was recorded with 2 vintage Sennheiser MD441U mics, one under the bell and one over the body of the instrument, equally combined.
  • Kati sang into an AKG C414B-ULS mic and Annie sang into a Neumann M149 tube mic.

This is one of my favorite Annie Karto recordings…

This song and the entire ‘Refuge” CD was mixed by me in my studio and was mastered by Richard Morris at Asbury Media.

For more info about Annie Karto, please visit her website: www.anniekarto.com
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