Indian Paintbrush from Paint With Sound (Jimmy Bear Pearson)

An indian paintbrush is a beautiful yet resilient splash of life. Wanderings through the west and northwest areas of Wyoming and Montana brought chilly weather with clear blue skies. Even though some places in our walks were stony or were devoid of larger plants, the Indian Paintbrush would pop its head up in the most interesting of places - even when weather is harsh or conditions are less-than-favorable.

Indian Paintbrush was a piece of music I performed and recorded just after my return from a Wyoming/Montana trip. The little colorful and lively flowers made an indelible and lasting impression on me. I was in a wonderful place sitting and watching them sway in the breeze - almost in awe. They are an inspiration and a beautiful remind of what is right in the world.

Indian Paintbrush was recorded with an Ibanez Artwood AW40 acoustic, an Ibanez ExoticWood EW20 acoustic, and a Fender standard fretless electric bass. The acoustics were recorded with a Shure SM57 dyanmic microphone with no dedicated preamp, direct into my M-Audio MobilePre computer interface. The bass was recorded by direct-instrument-jack to the MobilePre.

Indian Paintbrush was donated as openly available in the Wikimedia Commons here.

Hot Air Balloons from Paint With Sound (Jimmy Bear Pearson)

Hot Air Balloons is lilting comfortable acoustic piece that describes a beautiful and serene experience: I was sitting on the condo's porch during the vacation to the Grand Tetons, a cool (almost chilly) fresh morning. Sitting in a rocking chair and just breathing and being... no hurries, no cell phone, no electronics, just the sky and gorgeous mountain ranges spilling around in front of the view.

Some time during that restful moment, extremely bright and colorful hot air balloons were being inflated and were flying away from the beautiful valley below. The balloons could be seen close enough to see the people in the baskets, but far enough way to take in the vista in awe. The whole family had the luck of watching a hot air balloon festival take place - as if for us and us alone. Tears came to my eyes while recording this music and remembering those moments.

Hot Air Balloons was recorded with my Seymour Duncan Woody soundhole pickup in my Ibanez Exotic Wood acoustic, the existing electronic pickup in the Applause Ovation acoustic, and Ruby - the Squier Affinity Jazz bass (complete with new strings and a new strap!) All the parts were not mic'd or processed in the recording software in any way. The combination of the sounds were "as played," with no refinement.

The Old Stone Gate from Paint With Sound (Jimmy Bear Pearson)

The Old Stone Gate is a peaceful trio. The fretless Fender Jazz bass adds some nice smoothness to the underpinnings of the piece. This was a nice, sit-down-and-record-it-in-one-session tune.

The story of the tune tells about standing near the beautiful stone structure of the gate - looking in towards the part at mountains, crisp air, and blue skies with puffy white clouds. It was an inspirational moment. The entire family had just walked by resident deer standing nearby (unconcerned about our presence, even unconcerned about the car I was in).

Although the piece is a trio, four instruments were used to create the sound: Polar the white Fretless Fender Jazz, Mountain the cedar-topped Takamine GS330s for the later center channel guitar, Buffalo the Ibanez Exotic Wood guitar for the right-side color guitar, and finally the Applause Ovation for the left-side melody guitar at the beginning of the piece. The acoustics were mic'd with a dynamic Shure SM57 at extremely close range (so the kids weren't in the recording as they ran through the house! :-)). The Jazz bass was recorded directly into the piece through the M-Audio MobilePre with no pre-amp.

The inspiration for The Old Stone Gate was the result of a short trip to the far north entrance to Yellowstone National park.

(The excellent stone gate image is copied from user "yunner" in Wikipedia.org page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yellowstone_North_Gate.jpg)

Rooftop Sparrows from Paint With Sound (Jimmy Bear Pearson)

The Paint With Sound album came about as an audio painting of a trip through the beautiful Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National parks. Many hundreds of moments were enjoyed through a week of time wandering some of nature's most beautiful accessible lands.

The mountainside condominium in which I was staying was home to a large community of western sparrow birds. These small birds had lovely cheerful songs, and were delicate and light. Interestingly enough, even though condominium management had placed barriers to prevent the birds from nesting under the eaves of the rooftops, the little birds adapted themselves and used the barriers as a means to build stronger, warmer, more expansive nests. Nature always seems to find a way.

The Rooftop Sparrows tune is an impression of sitting out in the clean cool mountain air (on the condo's mountain vista porch) - and watching the sparrows come and go as they live their lives. Truly beautiful sounds and sights shared with them: gorgeous Rocky Mountain ranges, blue skies, and the sweet chirping of little winged wonders.


Rooftop Sparrows was recorded with the single setup of a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone combined with the built-in piezo bridge pickup of a beautiful red Applause Ovation. The Applause was used to record both the "color" sound in the left channel in the left channel and the song-melody in the right channel. The bass part was played with a wonderfully simple and easy-to-own Squier (built by Fender) Jazz electric bass. All parts were recorded via my old M-Audio MobilePre USB computer interface. I used GarageBand on my Macintosh desktop to capture and edit the music as I made it.

Album: Paint With Sound 2005

The album Paint With Sound was the second album I composed and recorded in my home "studio." A week-long visit to Wyoming and Montana left me breathless and transformed. Even though I've been to the Tetons and Yellowstone area several times, this time I got to share it with my kids.

This time, I had returned to music in my heart and had been playing guitar and recording music for about a year. During the entire stay in the upper west, I did not have access to music or guitars - so I experienced the land and mountains and rivers with a great deal of imagery. I captured as much feeling and impressions as I could - as I experienced the world I stored them in my heart and mind

Paint With Sound is a culmination of the wonderful expressive and vivid impressions I felt while out in the wild country. How do you capture mountains that rise endlessly into a deep azure sky? How do you remember the brightly-colored hot air balloons taking off from a meadow at the foot of the Grand Tetons? What about the wandering tiny roads that go through the hidden recesses of the mountains like Moose-Wilson road? So many wonderful things, from the lake in the mountain to the beautiful Indian Paintbrushes, to the gorgeous Fire Canyon Falls, and even to the old stone gate from the original entrance to the Yellowstone park... How? With an open heart and an eager curiosity towards the nature and intense beauty of a primordial wilderness...

Each piece of music in Paint With Sound represents a significant inspiration, impression, sight, or experience during my journey. The titles of the tunes give a hint as to what the music means. Each piece was lovingly crafted from stored-away memories - wandering trails with the sound of my soul as I did when driving and hiking through the region.

I recorded the entirety of Paint With Sound with a few acoustics, a little electric bass, a Shure SM-57, an M-Audio MobilePre USB interface, my old Macintosh Mini (G4), and a Seymour Duncan Woody soundhole pickup. A unique combination of acoustic (mic'd) recorded sound, analog electronic recording with the Woody (and even a little piezo pickup recording from my Applause Ovation six string) lent themselves to truly unique sound characteristics. My intention was not to record an incredibly life-like guitar sound for the sake of recording guitar sound... It was my intention to literally paint sounds with as many canvases, colors, and brushes to which I had access...

Overall, the album took just a few scant weeks to compose and record, all of which occurred after hours from my full-time job, a small business to run, and raising a couple of awesome kids. There wasn't any time to practice and ultra-refine the technical aspects of the music. The time was only enough to capture the raw impressions of the music in my heart and soul.

I'm very happy with the result. It's my best-selling album to date.

From a gear point of view, I used beginner's instruments to record the album, including an Ibanez exotic wood laminate guitar, an Applause Ovation acoustic, my only bass at the time - a Squier (made by Fender) Affinity Jazz, and a Squier Affinity Stratocaster. The recording equipment and software were a mix of work on my Macintosh with GarageBand, my M-Audio, a microphone and stand, and my Seymour Duncan Woody.


The sounds came not from technical details, but from heart, soul, and hands.


iTunes: Paint With Sound on iTunes

Also available on Rhapsody, Amazon, Spotify, Napster, and so very many more wonderful ways to stream music.
Also available in signed copies directly from Vivid Peace... just click the contact link and send us an email.