| AMAZING GOSPEL TUNE Instrumental by Steve Man STEVE: All right, fancy instrumental. He plays his beautiful instrumental, “Amazing Gospel tune.” Applause at the end. VOICE FROM THE AUDIENCE: What was the name of that? STEVE: That is a Gospel Tune... David, did you sing...”Charlie James”? Steve used to just call this piece “Gospel Tune,” but we gave it a more distinctive title when we copyrighted it recently. He was a little embarrassed to admit to his audience how the arrangement came about, since it evolved from another song. After he plays it, he changes the subject right away by asking lf David Cohen was in the audience, and had David sung the song Steve planned to do next. (Were they sharing the show that night?) Anyway, here is the story about the Gospel Song (over thirty years later). How “Amazing Gospel Tune” Came to Be As told by Steve This instrumental in 3/4 or slow 6/8 time started out very straight with just major I, IV and V chords. It actually began as a simple accompaniment to the old Appalachian hymn “Amazing Grace.” Sometimes hen I work out an accompaniment for a song I start adding a note in the bass line , which suggests another chord, and a piece of music can be moved in another direction that way. With this one I gradually found myself adding a few diminished chords and then more piano-type licks, and I realized I was beginning to play it like a gospel song. That sounded kind of good, and then I eventually wound up arranging it to fit “Drown in My Own Tears,” the way Ray Charles sings it and plays that song on the piano—Gospel style. I can now sing the song “Drown in My Own Tears” over this accompaniment. But then I found the accompaniment was getting to be so much fun to play, I could just keep the guitar part as a solo piece and do it without the song. I didn’t have a name for the solo, so I just called it a Gospel Tune, which is sort of generic, but that’s what I called it. When Janet at Bella Roma Music heard about the origins of this piece, she suggested we call it “Amazing Gospel Tune,” and let there be three different pieces of music; One: a folk song, ”Amazing Grace,” an Appalachian hymn which still sounds great unaccompanied, although I don’t sing it myself anymore. Two: the song ”Drown in My Own Tears,” with words and music by Henry Glover, (which is very beautiful) and which I used to sing and play sometimes Three: “Amazing Gospel Tune” a guitar instrumental by Steve Mann, —SM and JS |