Saturation Mix

Well, this time I came through on my promise. I finished four more guitar/drums duets this weekend--enough to round out an album of these. I did the mixdowns this evening and will master and upload them tomorrow.

But, you ask, haven't I abandoned the idea of the album? Isn't that what this very blog is supposed to facilitate? Well, sort of. However, I can't get over the album as a cohesive presentation of music. It's still a very convenient way to frame an hour's worth of music. And the hour of music I just completed is one I'm calling "Saturation", after the ridiculously saturated distortion that drenches the guitar sound on every single track. Way over the top. You've already heard six of the tracks on this site and can tell what I mean, hopefully. It's also "saturation" in the sense of trying to push things to the extreme of free playing. Just press play on the record and go for as long as feel like it. I imposed time limits in a few cases, but on others I just went where my mind would go.

This material will the first on my upcoming bandcamp.com site, which is a music site that allows artists to upload music in high quality, lossless form, with much longer permissible song lengths than SoundClick allows. It's pretty much made for what I do.

I'll have more to say about all this tomorrow.

I'm back, with music!

Hi, Internet! It's been awhile. I've been bad about not posting and not playing for the last month or so. Well, I've played a little bit, but I do need to get my chops going again. I'm hoping to get some more guitar/drums duets recorded this weekend, as well as maybe work on another long-form piece.

Speaking of long-form pieces, I finally got a file-sharing account going so I can share my long pieces with everyone. It's not as good as Music V2 was, but it does the job. Unfortunately, I can't post a link to a central page with all of the long pieces, so I'll have to post individual song links, as well as a streaming player for them. Right now, I only have "One Day in August" going on the site, but that's ok.

Here is the link where you can download One Day in August.

And here is One Day in August in the streaming player:

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

It's gone!

Well, Music V2 is officially a thing of the past now, so you can't download the full 48-minute version of "One Day in August" at the moment. I've been scouting around, and it turns out there are plenty of free file-sharing services available that will allow me to upload my long-form musical monstrosities for you. I've just got to choose the best one. I'll do that tonight, time permitting.

I've been practicing a whole bunch, and I'm starting to feel like a guitar player again. I'm eager to start recording some more music!

NYC musical weekend

Had quite the musical time of it this past weekend. I went up to NYC to check out two shows by legendary Deep Purple/Trapeze singer and bassist Glenn Hughes. He's been a favorite of mine for many years, but I never got the chance to see him live until now. Simply awesome! While I was in New York, I also managed to catch a set by drummer Johnathan Blake's quintet at The Jazz Gallery. Johnathan is a fantastic jazz drummer who put together a smokin' band including Jaleel Shaw on alto sax, Chris Potter on tenor sax, Robert Glasper on piano, and Joe Martin on bass. All those guys are first-rate players who also lead their own bands. I saw Glasper's band a couple of years ago at Bonnaroo and knew I'd have to check this band out this weekend. Glad I did. The weekend was almost too much music to handle. And I can't forget the trip to the Downtown Music Gallery to pick up a whole bunch of avant-garde CDs. That place is dangerous to the bank account, man!

I haven't played anything myself for over a week now. I've just been feeling a bit hollow musically. Not sure why. Between the music I saw this weekend and reading Bill Bruford's illuminating autobiography, I'm starting to feel the need to create again. Being in NYC for even just a weekend clarified my love of exploratory music and my intense need to be musical. Now I just have to get back in the music room and get my guitar chops back.

In a slight bit of bad news, it looks like Music V2 is apparently going down the drain--that's where I host my long-form pieces that are too big for SoundClick to handle. I'm currently searching for an adequate replacement. My V2 page is still up, and you can still download from there at the moment, but I suspect that won't last long.

Sorry for the radio silence

I was having a bit of a dry spell, there. I've got the intro down for my little rock number that I mentioned last time, but that and the idea to use lots of cowbell throughout are about it. Fortunately, I spent a bit of time in the last few days playing both bass and guitar. The bass playing was inspired by seeing Stanley Clarke in concert this past week. He played acoustic upright bass only, but he might actually be better on that instrument than on electric bass, for which he is better known. His fingers absolutely fly across that big old bass fiddle!

Check this stuff out!

Rock out, man!

I'm starting work on a new rock instrumental. This is the first one of those I've done in a couple of years. I'm sure it'll have some jazzy bits, but I've been getting some of the rock feel back in the last few weeks and have the need to express that. I'm envisioning something fairly lean and mean.

To get myself in the mood, I just listened to a big dose of Kansas on the stereo. Great '70s, man!

New songs: Millennial Muse Parts 1 & 2

Millennial Muse Part 1:

Millennial Muse Part 2:

Yet more guitar/drums duet stuff. These are the first pieces that I've recorded with my Heritage Millennium DC semi-hollow guitar. I used the same amplifier setting as the other guitar/drums duets, so see if you can tell the difference. Personally, I think the Millennium gives a richer, more lustrous sound, but takes away a little bit of the bite that the Heritage Les Paul adds. Two different voices, and both very cool.

I'll have more to say about the Heritage Millennium, and all of my guitars, in the coming weeks. The weather is finally getting nice enough to do some outdoor photography of all my lovely guitars. I still intend to do a "Guitar of the Day" feature soon. Maybe I'll start tomorrow.