New Cover out Friday 27.3.26 Dry The Rain - The Beta Band

I saw The Beta Band at T in the Park in the early 2000s and was hooked. The 3 EPs was one of those albums I played on repeat. I remember being amazed that those sounds and the incredible audio craft came from somewhere so close to me (in Fife if I remember right!). It’s great to hear they’re back on the road.                                                     

I really tried to get into their production style and figure out how they made this track. The double-tracked vocals are tricky to get right. The one thing I couldn’t do myself was the slide guitar. I have the same slide I bought from R&B Music in Aberdeen around 2002. I bought it to try and play what Kirk Hammett does in between The Thing That Should Never Be and Fuel, on S&M live, and I’ve never really learned anything else. It’s followed me around ever since and I still can’t play it.                                                                             

So I asked my friend Jon Mackenzie to help. He’s the godfather to my oldest son and a top guitarist who plays with Kirsten Adamson and others in the Edinburgh scene. This tune needed that slide part and Jon nailed it.                                   

I bought a new Taylor classical recently, but for this recording I played a bashed-up old Yamaha C-20, the kind of battered classical you see in every Scottish school. It did the job. Classical guitars sit in a mix differently from steel strings; sometimes my Lowden can sound harsh when strummed on record, and on this song the old classical won out.

So I hope you enjoy my take on “Dry the Rain,” shaped by those early festival      

 memories, the production curiosity, Jon’s slide, and that old Yamaha. Have a listen.                                                 

 — Calum