Bassoonery

Say hello to the Badass Barefoot Leather Babe and her Really Nice Bassoon!

I have not played in years, but after thinking I heard a bassoon in the bass line of "Is the Sky the Limit," I suddenly wanted to play again. This is not the first time a brush with Grant Hart's music has prompted me to dust off an instrument I haven't played in awhile, so I figure I'll go with it and see what happens. I've gotten as far as ordering some new reeds, so as soon as they arrive, I'll give it a whirl. It's going to take a bit of time to build up my chops again, but it will be worth it if I end up being able to, say, use the bassoon for simple bass lines in my own recordings.

Grant, predictably, will not tell me if I really heard a bassoon or not, but what he did say leads me to believe I'm right.

"It might not be a bassoon, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."

So, I do think we have a bassoon line in the song. That warm, reedy timbre cannot be faked or synthesized. Now, what I want to know is if Grant played it himself, or called someone else in to do the job. Since he seems able to play every instrument he puts his hand to, I'm guessing he also played the bassoon line. Hopefully, the credits on the album will reveal the truth!