Manuel... and Scott:

My old arranger is used for songwriting. I spend lots of time "tweaking" styles so that the songs I write don't re-use the same sounds over and over again. Sometimes it works and sometimes I have to improvise by playing the intro, instrumental and/or ending just to avoid repititious sounding work. Since I never perform in public, I have much more time to devote to style arranging, etc. than those of you who have the talent (and guts) to perform in public.

Finally, I never do "cover" songs so whatever I do to my own material is inconsequential. My goal for August is to cross the 400 song mark. (Just completed number 387 today!) I work in several genres but my first album on CDBaby is "Country" because of my immediate regional market.

Wish I had the singing and playing talent of Scott Yee and Don Mason. Those guys are awesome.

All my best,

Dave Rice http://cdbaby.com/cd/daverice

Dave, just had a chance to listen to your album "CDBaby". VERY Kool collection of winning songs. I love your offbeat imaginative (kitschy) lyric writing style and how your able to so successfully utilize such a variety of different styles to your songs. I'm only sorry that "CDbaby" (aka : Adult Country Music in a Plain Brown Wrapper) is now "Permanently Out Of Stock".

Scott

PS: Many thanks for your compliment about my music. I feel humbled to be placed in the same standing as Don Mason, whom I so admire & respect as well.

Scott:

Thanks for the nice comments about my digital album at CDBaby. It is permanently out of stock because I signed up for digital distribution only. (Trying to attract the iPod crowd.) I just did not want to get into a situation where I had to press a few hundred discs, jackets, etc. This album is primarily to "test the waters" before I put another couple of albums on the same site.

All my best,

Dave Rice

Don't use an arranger for 50% of my jobs. When I do, I use left handed bass and drums only for 50% and arranger functions for 50%. Never use SMS/sequences at all. That's as much a function of the type of jobs as anything else.

Russ