Copperhead Road (Steve Earle Cover) **Full Band Reproduction/Collaboration

[Ross S]

Cover of the 1988 hit "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle. Started with a simple track of acoustic guitar and lead vocal by the incredible Scott Shenk. I got invited in to add keys, and also to mix and master. Also enjoyed collaborating with these incredible musicians, Fabian- Bass (Argentina), Craig- Drums (US) .

Worked with only individual recorded .wav files from each artist, exchanged on Bandlab. All mixed and mastered in CbB. One out of the ordinary technique I tried that worked out quite well concerned Scott's lead vocal. He had recorded the vocal and guitar together, and though fine for a raw solo track, his voice was a bit low relative to the guitar for this project. I ran his track thru vocal isolation software, and then put the extracted vocal into the track. Voila, pushed it right to the front!!

 

Edited February 8 by Ross Smithe

[equality]

Great rendition. Awesome vocal. One of my favorite S E song. 

[T Boog]

Agreed. I enjoyed your version.

Btw, my older brother used to be good friends with Steve Earle's  sister Stacey. Back in the day they were both playing the clubs in Nashville trying to break into the biz. Rock On 👍

[mark skinner]

Enjoyed that.  Scott sure Nailed the vocals.  I think I would spread the instruments out a little and make a little more room for the vocals. Still .. Very good as it is.

I bought a set of bagpipes once just to cover this song. Never did learn how to play them..

Enjoyed it .   mark

[garybrun]

@mark skinner  Bagpipes.. would have loved to have seen and heard that!!  LOL

[Bajan Blue]

Great cover and that vocal is great

Very well done

Cool

Nigel

 

[Ross S]

On 2/8/2025 at 5:17 PM, equality said:

Great rendition. Awesome vocal. One of my favorite S E song. 

Thanks for the listen and comment!

[Ross S]

On 2/8/2025 at 5:57 PM, T Boog said:

Agreed. I enjoyed your version.

Btw, my older brother used to be good friends with Steve Earle's  sister Stacey. Back in the day they were both playing the clubs in Nashville trying to break into the biz. Rock On 👍

Very cool with the past connection with your bro. Thanks for the listen!

[Ross S]

On 2/12/2025 at 10:59 AM, mark skinner said:

Enjoyed that.  Scott sure Nailed the vocals.  I think I would spread the instruments out a little and make a little more room for the vocals. Still .. Very good as it is.

I bought a set of bagpipes once just to cover this song. Never did learn how to play them..

Enjoyed it .   mark

Thanks so much Mark for the listen and good feedback! 

[Ross S]

On 2/12/2025 at 5:00 PM, garybrun said:

@mark skinner  Bagpipes.. would have loved to have seen and heard that!!  LOL

Ha, yeah would have enjoyed doing more with the pipes, as per the original! Scott had just done a guitar and vocal track originally, I don't think he envisioned this growing into a full-blown thing. I didn't want to pollute the sparse guitar intro and outro he had done.

[Ross S]

On 2/13/2025 at 5:48 AM, Bajan Blue said:

Great cover and that vocal is great

Very well done

Cool

Nigel

 

Thanks Nigel, appreciate the listen and comment!

[mark skinner]

1 hour ago, Ross Smithe said:

the sparse guitar intro and outro

If you do a remix at some point  , I think I would treat the guitar differently. Maybe just a reverb ?

I built an adaptor to hook the bagpipes to an air tank. I had trouble with the pressure release valve and almost exploded them. Now they are just wall art with the other things I can't play.     ms