Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
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The Man Hunt

By Matt Patrick on March 31, 2012 1:11 pm

All last week my studio was being rewired forcing me to record at home on my Mbox.

I couldn't record any drums so I had to get creative.
The bass drum is merely my finger tapping gently on a folding chair with a c1000s microphone laying on the padded seat. Other than that, it was lap slapping, and one of the shakers was my finger rubbing against a canvas bag. Everything except for the vocals and one shaker were recorded at home.

The song itself was inspired by and adapted from a poem by Madison Cawein entitled The Man Hunt (Public Domain). Before I had written any lyrics, the music had an eerie feeling of stillness, like the calm before the storm. I found this poem, which conveyed exactly that and I used it as a basis for the tune. Later that night my wife and I went to see the Hunger Games in the theater, which basically is a man-hunt story. The majority of the movie is based on people trying to stay in that place of stillness so they can survive.

The Man Hunt

The wood stretches wide through the mountainside
The brush there is deep where a man may hide
The sound of the hounds released is like
A thunderous clock ticking away at life

Three times they circled the trail and crossed
Three times they found it and thrice they lost
They sniff through the pines and the underbrush
Bellow and bay through the covered hush

You run from your shadows, you run from your foes
Hide all that you’ve damaged under the bones
   
A cave in the thicket he lays his head
But the pulse of his heartbeat could wake the dead
The blow of a rifle shatters his dreams
He stares at the blood flowing like a stream

You run from your shadows, you run from your foes
Hide all that you’ve damaged under the bones

How do you rise at the dawn of the day?
How does the sting from your past stay away?
Innocent daughters and innocent sons…
Will decay by the deeds you have done.

Based on and adapted from the poem “The Man Hunt”
by Madison Julius Cawein (Public Domain)
www.your-content.net/madison-julius-cawein/man-hunt-11107

Recorded at home and at the Library recording studio
All instruments and voices by Matt Patrick

Instruments used:
Lap, chair, bag, shaker for the rhythm
Fender Stratocaster through my pedalboard and into a Peavey Classic 30
Yamaha nylon string acoustic
Fender Jazz bass
voice

Audio works licensed by author under:
Copyright All rights reserved

man every piece you put out has this amazingly polished quality but not overly so. inspires me to want to do better

It amazes me that you can write a good quality SONG, a genuine song with lyrics and all of the rest of it, each week. Not to mention record it and polish it up. I can only assume that music is your livelihood? If you don't mind me asking, that is. And I know assumptions are bad.

Dude - this is so so so so good.  Awesome kick too!  So much awesome Fender Strat sounds coming though.  Oh the chorus.  Love the way it falls back into the a verse.  Massive fan right here!!  If you have any releases out there, please let me know.

Gosh, thanks for the super kind words. I am sincerely honored and humbled.

Vinpous, I have indeed been a full-time musician for the last 12 years. The last five as a full time record producer in my studio but I also have several other musical outlets that I play live shows with fairly often. cTrix, I did put out a couple albums, one back in 2000 and another in 2005. Unfortunately they aren't really released anywhere.

Thanks again for the nice comments. This is such a good community of folks...

very smooth, I really like the transistions too. sounds so great for being in one week!

this kinda reminds me of six blade knife by dire striaghts, which is awesome. great job man.

Awwww, so good! It sounds liek "Mumford and Sons" x "Maps and Atlases"

Back for about the 6th listen.  Really should just download (yup!).  Can't get enough of those harmonies on the chorus.

Back for my (about) 20th listen.  Showing friends this constantly.  It's truly an amazing tune in my view.

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