(05-13-2012, 10:46 PM)john Wrote: I think Keith Phelps was a great find for Haley. I hope he sticks around.
I agree with you there.
I like to stay positive but I commented more than a few places that they needed a change at keyboards weeks before the change of musicians .
I know comparing a road version of a song 2 months ago to a more recent one might be unfair, but I'm not trying to make a point Neara vs Keith but more Neara vs the support I thought a key board needed to give on the demo tour. I really felt that the keyboardist needed to give Haley a lot more kick.. Both in terms of enthusiasm in the rhythm and answer to her phrases of some sort giving the support of each phrase as a backup singer was.
Below was a Neara performance of wasted tears (yes it was early , yes she might have gotten different directions or only later got directions etc)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYxJpYbB62M
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CYxJpYbB62M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here is a recent version with the new promotion tour musicians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNOyfnxTbEo
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TNOyfnxTbEo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In the first one , Haley introduces it as having some groove to it and said "we're going to have some fun with it" and (to my ear) it ended up almost dirge-like.
Listen to the actual notes and attack on the notes espeicall near 1:40 in to both performances. The Recording of the two makes it more difficult as the keyboard is too soft in the first and too loud in the second but its not the mix I'm talking about that had more to do with the placement of cheap fan recording devicies.
We have no idea what the directions were from producers or comfort level was mixing it up etc. Perhaps Haley or someone should have been explicit to Neara that they wanted her to try to bring something more.. or to ok it.. but for whatever reason it wasn't working back then.
I don’t think that its a matter of waiting to be directed to do something. I figure it would be more of a feedback loop where there is a lot of "how about this " and mixing it up till they find what's comfortable .....very especially so with live shows. That can change day to day if Haley say’s , "I've gots a blues vibe today", the keyboard player has gotta feel that and go more blues but is she’s saying soul, its going to need a different kind of pop from him/her. Different crowds or atmospheres will dictate different takes on the same songs.
Not being there we'll never know and it’s not fair to guess exactly. Neara could have been pushing all sorts of creative ideas and discouraged from trying things out.
I will say that I like the more recent accompaniment much more than the past even whether or not that change meant changing the musicians. Personally I still think there is a fair bit of room to grow but that could just be my taste what I want a live performance to sound like.
