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Track Covered: Caught By The River
prAnkster lives by the sea in the South of England. He has had a number of guises, both solo and as part of a band, but prAnkster is home to all the orphaned songs that don’t have any other outlet.
the songwriting began many years ago…it all started with a reel-to-reel four-track, a cheap chinese guitar and a Casio VL Tone synthesiser.
this gave rise to literally hundreds of songs. some of these songs have seen the light of day through the internet, through CDs passed from friend to friend, or through live performance.
a multi-instrumentalist, prAnkster blends vintage and modern, classic 60?s Organs, 70?s guitars and the latest electronics have all taken a beating. always a case of friendly fire.
All of this adds up to a diverse range of music spanning genres; from alt rock to breakbeat to folk, there is no specific style and there are no rules to what comes out…just whatever fits the emotion of the moment.
Why Caught By The River?
I was torn between which track to pick…The Cedar Room would have been fun but I didn’t want to mess with it. I thought of tackling 10:03 and giving it an electro twist, but wanted to go back to the earlier stuff.
There are a few tracks that I always go back to give myself a lift, songs that were made to be sung or played along to, and Caught By the River is one of them. It lends itself to harmonies. It’s the only cover I jam on to warm up before a session. So it was the natural choice.
The song is beautifully bittersweet; setting meloncholy lyrics to an uplifting, almost anthemic musical backing, turning the narrative into an outpouring of soul.
This was one of the songs that cemented my love for the band, as the Doves proved their worth and showed there’s no such thing as a difficult second album.
This is my humble take on it, I had planned to do it with a band, but it ended up being just me, every single part me. Hope I did it justice.
prAnkster on the web:
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