Earlier, I transcribed a version of In the Pines.

I had been playing it well enough on my own, and enjoyed it.

Tonight, Jeremy brought over a violin. That, combined with Maynard playing bass, made for an excellent test of my transcription.

We rocked the living fuck out of it. You might say to yourself, “Self, how can adding a violin be ‘rocking the living fuck’ out of something?”

The answer is that the song is not about “rocking”. It’s about experience. Lanegan’s version is angry; Cobain’s is almost psychotic. The way we were playing it was . . . sadder. I’m not pissed at my girl for sleeping out; I’m sad about it.

It was interesting how the violin worked. It was both “lead” and “not lead”. I don’t say it was “rhythm” because it can’t be – not with its treble – but it could drop to the background and let another instrument come forward.

We experimented a lot with the song itself and discovered that it had a lot of room for exposition in all areas. Between the more “obvious” verses, we could drop into long, winding jam sessions. As long as one of us kept the basic four or five notes in sequence, the others could walk all over town.

I’m really digging on the bowed instrument additions.

We’ll have to get some amplification on vocals for it. Though, to be honest, I’m actually not sure the way we played it requires vocals. Maybe only a single verse, spoken or sung cleanly in the right place.

I do know that my vocals sounded about four million times better when I sang from my heart rather than trying to mimic Leadbelly or Lanegan or Cobain. I am sadder than Lanegan or Cobain, with less baritone.

Totally happy about it.