Just let the tape roll while practicing improvising with this backing track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1P8yc3WH4

Dorian Vamp

This is a song for my youngest son, who turned 10 today and is fascinated by space, physics and the endless possibilities the universe might hold.  The title comes from an evening when we were looking at stars and the milky way.  With wonder, he exclaimed "Those stars are mere light years away!"  I filed that in my brain for later.  A couple weeks ago as I started writing this song, it began to feel psychedelic and spacey, and my son's declaration came back to me.  With that, I decided to turn it into an epic piece worthy of our inevitable journey to the stars.  Enjoy!

Mere Light Years Away

Madre E Hijo.  Mother and Son.  On August 3rd, my mother passed away peacefully as I held her hand.  Six days later, I sat down at the piano and this started gushing out.  I recorded it the next day, and now present it to the world.  This is for you, mom, and anyone who has had to endure the long goodbye for someone they loved dearly.

Madre - E-hijo

Doing some soloing over a backing track with my 1993 Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean.  Just getting to know this guitar, but I already like it a lot.  This track kind of reminded me of Purple Rain, so I used Prince as my inspiration here.  Or maybe it was David Gilmour.  Or Neal Schon.  Oh, well.

Anthemic Rock Solo

What do Stevie Ray Vaughan, Linda Ronstadt, Nile Rogers, Enya & Sade have in common musically?  They are all some of my musical influences, and their influence all came together in this song that at times feels sensual, at times hopeful, and ultimately painful.  All feelings felt when you give yourself fully to one who is not deserving of such a gift.

You're No Good

This porch is where I sit, look at the mountains, listen to the sound of the farm, pick up my guitar and write music.  This song came to me recently on one such occasion, and I decided to make it about the farm itself.  I hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Rusty Horse

A jazzy & bluesy backing track for a solo guitar show I'm putting together.  This is centered around E-minor, but shifts between the keys of D, G and A.  It can have 5 scales played over it at different parts of the song, but Em pentatonic works over everything and can be a life raft if you get out over your skis playing the changes.

E dorian
E aeolian (natural minor)
Em pentatonic
Em blues
E mixolydian
Bm pentatonic (over end)

Miles & Miles - Jazzy Backing Track - 90BPM

This is a backing track for a solo improv guitar performance I am putting together.  It is centered around D-major, but varies a bit between the key of G and D (except for the interlude).  You can play D-major pentatonic over everything but the interlude as a safe zone, but depending on where you are at in the song you can play D Ionian (major scale) or D myxolydian, with the only diff being the the 7th or flat 7th.  As neither of those notes are in the major pentatonic, it fits over all the chords.

At the interlude, I switch to the key of A and you'll want to play A major/D lydian over that section.

Sangre Stomp - Backing Track - 100bpm

An improvisation session with my Gibson Tennessean and its new Fralin P92 pickups.  I love the sounds of these.  Unfortunately, this is just the audio track of a video captured from my phone, so sound quality isn't great.

Tone provided by my Axe FX 3 using a Fender Bassman amp model & cab.

Video here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i5668DAojM

Fralin - P92s

Acoustic - Pick - Strummed

Tone Demo of my Duesenberg Starplayer TV+ against a droning D chord.  I play some runs and chords with roughly 5 pickiup/tone combinations here

0:04 Neck P90 + Full Piezo into Martin OM impulse response
0:42 Neck P90 into Fender Vibrolux
1:08 Neck P90 into Klon Centaur into Fender Vibrolux
1:33 Neck P90 + Bridge Humbucker into Klon Centaur into Fender Vibrolux
1:55 Bridge Humbucker into Treble Booster into Klon Centaur into Fender Vibrolux

Love the sound possibilities with this guitar...

Duesenberg Starplayer TV+

FirstKeyboardJam.mp3

A simple song I wrote about the rural valley where I live.  Photo credit to Drew Stawin (https://www.drewstawin.com/)

Wet Mountain Valley

This is an orchestral/symphonic piece I composed and recorded about the arrival of Spring.

Herald Of Spring

An instrumental anthemic ballad I wrote.  Get your lighters in the air!

Wayfare

Covid-19 can't kill creativity! This is a new song I've been writing and finished a final mix of today. It is kind of a mutant Pink Floyd (Breathe in the Air), Neil Young (Killer Cortez) hybrid with a walking bass line that swings to some interesting places. At least to me!

El Paseo - Final Mix

World? funk? hip-hop? irish folk? jazz?  All of the above?  This track has got a little of everything in it.  Is it a mess or a masterpiece?  Its a messterpiece!

Neo Aquarian Exposition

An all acoustic track inspired by the view from my deck.  Recorded using Garageband playing a Takamine G300 with Dimarzio Black Angel pickup through my Line 6 Helix LT.

Montane

I have always been a big spaghetti western fan, and thus a huge Ennio Morricone fan.  This song, while perhaps overly ambitious, was inspired by Ennio's scores.  I was already composing and recording it before his recent passing, which seemed a strange coincidence.  At any rate, here's to you, Ennio.

Spanish Gypsy Jihad

El Paseo V2

A very prog-ish song about a fool's Quixotic journey, their tribulations along the way and eventual arrival to where they should have been all along.

Promised Land (parts I-VI)

This is a guitar improv done with my strat using Fralin Vintage Hot pickups.  A sustainer pedal is used to give a bagpipe droning type of effect while playing melody over it.  A couple bars of the melody are shamelessly stolen from the song Sgt Mackenzie.

Sgt - Mackenzie - Improv

To find ‘the place where the sky and the earth touch,’ and open the mysterious gateway which separates this world from the other.

—Camille Flammarion

Piercing The Veil

I am a musician & producer with influences from rock, R&B, funk, metal, jazz, folk and Americana.  I enjoy making my own music, and collaborating with others.

DevQuixote

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