This is a cover of a David Lindley/Henry Kaiser cut from the Werner Herzog film, Encounters at the End of the World.  Watch it!

Just got my first Weissenborn from Paddy Burgin (http://www.burginguitars.co.nz/) 5 days ago. It's a hauntingly beautiful instrument! I don't have experience as a lap steel payer and this is my first attempt at a song. What better than to try to imitate the best? Thanks for the beauty and inspiration, Mr. Dave.

Ants and Chimps

Ants and Chimps [Cover]

Cover of the Bill Evans composition. 

Bass track provided courtesy of @MrSunnyBass https://youtube.com/@mrsunnybass?si=cDHgj5F_FXF-DwW7

Interplay

A rough demo covering the Kenny Burrell classic

Midnight Blue Demo

Cover of the Kenny Dorham classic Blue Bossa

Blue Bossa

These are 7 demo tracks, covering 7 Jazz and Blues standards. Chillin' & groovin'

Midnight Blue

Stella By Starlight

Black Orpheus

What is this thing called love?

What Is This Thing Called Love

Cover of the Duke Pearson composition and as performed by Grant Green

Idle Moments

Road Song

Experimenting with guitars and tons of echo.

Natural

An experimental drone groove with static, sampled metronome, lots of guitars, echo and reverb.

Radio Free

Demo track of an idea for this Sam Rivers beauty, Beatrice.

Beatrice Maybe (Demo)

Experimenting with some conversational ideas for Solar  (by Miles Davis).

Solar Maybe (Take 4)

Experimenting with cassette tape loops and a tone row vamp. It went sideways a bit, but I liked it.

Tone Row Vamp with Tape Loop

I recorded a very vocal mockingbird in a field in Virginia. The field recording is slowed way down and accompanied by a couple of tape loops and an improvised guitar track with liberal use of a volume pedal and magnets.

The Mockingbird

Straight No Chaser

Cover of the Kenny Burrell classic — 1963

Chitlins Con Carne

By Harry Warren and lyrics by Mack Gordon — 1942

There Will Never Be Another You

By Marvin Fisher and lyrics by Jack Segal — 1956

When Sunny Gets Blue

Blues In The Closet

Testing the initial idea by recording separate guitar tracks one at a time. Each subsequent track was improvised and responding only to the previous track (not all tracks)

Murmuration 1, a Sketch

This piece is built from 13 improvised tracks, each recorded in sequence and each responding only to the track that came immediately before it. In practice, that means the ear never listens to the full structure — only to a single sound in the moment, and then reacts.

The mix follows the same rule: volume and panning respond solely to the previous layer, creating depth and dimension from a chain of one-to-one interactions rather than a top-down design.

What results is a kind of emergent form.
What’s the shape — the motion — of the piece when each gesture only knows the one that came before it?

Murmuration 2, for 13 guitars

This is a rough sketch of an idea for an upcoming film project.

Baja Dream

Baja

A sketch with backwards guitar feedback, bass, uke, flute, lots of echo, and a fast bop drum loop.

Cry Baby

Baritone guitar (aka "tic tac" bass), with mucho reverse feedback pads. All tracks are analog guitars with some mixing trickery.

Antietam

improv sketch with 2 sho-bud pedal steel tracks and 1 yardsale acoustic track

somebody stole my mojo

My brilliant son’s original composition from many years ago.

5 Mins Of Pure Glitches

These are my explorations in sound painting… plus a song or two that accidentally resemble actual music. This is less like a record store and more like stumbling into an artist’s studio: things in progress, things half-finished, things I’m still trying to understand myself.

I’m a guitarist, improviser, and composer based in the Washington, DC area — a Berklee grad from way back when I still thought knowing modes and chord scales would fix everything. I now split my time between two worlds: textural, experimental solo work and the more traditional jazz language I explore with my trios.

In the solo pieces, I chase self-organizing sound — music that tries to form itself without asking my permission: fluid, dynamic, occasionally confused, but alive. With the trio, the focus shifts toward groove, swing, and melody, though improvisation remains the one thing I haven’t managed to ruin.

Both sides come from the same place: curiosity, listening, and trusting the music more than I trust my own plans.

If any of this resonates — or if you just want to talk shop, collaborate, or say hi — feel free to reach out. 🙏

Billy Shelton

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