Every songwriter should be entitled to at least one tell-off song. I Hit the Brakes (She Hit the Beer) is mine–a fanciful piece of comeuppance set to a rowdy, roadhouse shuffle.

I Hit the Brakes started life as a stripped-down acoustic number that I wrote for my musical alter-ego Peetie Nixon. On this new recording, I revamped I Hit the Brakes into a blend of Texas blues and honky tonk country. Stylistically, it resides somewhere on the metaphorical, musical highway between Lightnin’ Hopkins and Lefty Frizzell. (With apologies to both, of course!). As a result, this one is probably more Americana than straight-up rock and roll.¹

The Arrangement and the Equipment

The Guitars

Speaking of Lightnin’ Hopkins, he’s among the biggest influences on my guitar playing. His influence is all over the lead and rhythm guitars on I Hit the Brakes.

Rhythm Guitar: (Mainly Left Channel)

I love the tone Lightnin’ got from electrified acoustic guitars. The rhythm guitar here is my rough approximation. I used a 2009 Martin D1 with an aftermarket Fishman pickup in the sound hole.

The Martin D1 is an obscure creation from Martin’s storied history. Martin introduced the D1 during the Great Recession.² Martin intended the D1 to be a stripped-down American model that would retain the most essential aspects of Martin’s quality and sound, while saving cash-strapped customers money by cutting down on niceties. Most notably, the D1 has a composite neck.³ It also has sapele in place of mahogany, a satin finish, and minimal ornamentation. The D1 is probably my favorite guitar for sentimental reasons. I learned to play on it. I also wrote most of my songs on it (likely including I Hit the Brakes). But the Martin D1 is also a darn-good guitar! Does it have the richness or depth of a D-18 or a D-28? No. But I like the feel of the D1 about as much, and it has a great sound in its own right. Mine has aged nicely and sports a dry, crisp tone that reminds me of a baked potato chip.⁴

For an amp, I used my faithful Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (Texas Red), which has appeared on other projects. I set it to be pretty clean. I achieved overdriven tone by feeding the D1 through my Nocturne Brain Junior Barnyard Pedal. The Junior Barnyard is named after western swing guitarist Junior Barnard and emulates the warm breakup of a 1940s Gibson amp with octal tubes. The Junior Barnyard is really the defining tone of I Hit the Brakes. The low, saturated tone that resulted from the combination of the D1 and the Junior Barnyard was so thick that I didn’t even need to add electric bass to fatten the bottom-end of the recording.

Lead Guitar (Mainly Right Channel)

It was tricky coming up with a lead guitar tone that would complement the vintage, low-fi rhythm guitar. At the time of recording, my other amp and pedal combinations sounded a bit too high-fidelity or modern, and they clashed with the 1940s sonics. After some trial end error, I decided to stick with the same amp and pedal for my lead playing: the Nocturne Brain Junior Barnyard into the Hot Rod Deluxe. To make sure the lead guitar wouldn’t blend in too much, I used my American Telecaster Ultra Luxe (discussed here). That guitar has a tone that’s vintage-appropriate but also sharp enough to cut through a mix. Plus it’s a very easy guitar to play! You’re hearing the Telecaster’s neck pickup on all of the lead guitar parts.

Drums & Percussion

As with my most recent DIY Rock Experiment, I used three tools for the percussion on I Hit the Brakes.

1. I used the Singular Sound Beat Buddy Mini 2 to create a glorified click track or metronome. I then overdubbed all of the other instruments including the percussion, and then deleted the click track (so you’re not actually hearing the Beat Buddy Mini 2 on the final recording).
2. I overdubbed an original drum track with my Yamaha FGDP-50 finger drum pad (set to the oak kit). I was initially frustrated to discover that I’m not good enough at “drums” to crib the Beat Buddy’s country shuffle. Ultimately, I think it was a good thing, because it forced me to create an original drum pattern full of fills and shifting patterns. The “drummer” sounds a tad inebriated. But hey, it’s a song about beer!
3. My hands were the third percussion tool. I recorded some clapping on the backbeat in a few passages.

Vocals

A half-dozen songs into DIYRockAndRoll.com and I finally cut one that’s in my actual vocal range. What a nice change of pace! I added a touch of EQ and some slapback in GarageBand.

Recording Equipment

The usual stuff: Focusrite Scarlett 4i4; Shure SM57; Shure SM 58; GarageBand.

Album Art:

I had a lot of fun making the album art for I Hit the Brakes. The first step was making my own personalized beer can. I created the label on Photoshop and printed it. I cut it out, colored it in by hand, and taped the label to an empty beer can. I then posed the can all over the house and got a bunch of weird photos. For example:

After some trial end error, I taped the can to a white piece of poster board which I had attached to an easel. I snapped a picture on my iPhone and edited it in Photoshop. Unfortunately, I Hit the Brakes brand beer is not available for purchase in stores. But if it ever is, please drink responsibly. The blues content by volume is 56%! Pretty strong stuff.

1. That’s why I’m not designating this as a full-on DIY Rock Experiment. ↩︎
2. There was an earlier version of the D1 too, which I don’t know much about. ↩︎
3. I believe it’s called “Stratabond.” ↩︎
4. This comparison makes no sense to anyone, but I stand by it. ↩︎