Breakthrough on the Mountain Road by Tony Gibbs
All rights reserved © ℗ 2025 Tony Gibbs

Snow was falling on an empty highway,
I’d been fighting just to keep my faith.
Lost in the shadows of my own heartache,
Praying for a sign, Lord, show me the way.

When the night got colder, and the wind blew strong,
I felt Your whisper telling me to hold on.

'Cause You gave me a breakthrough on the mountain road,
Lifted my spirit when my hope ran low.
You cleared the fog and let Your sunrise glow—
Hallelujah, I’m not walking alone.
Yeah, You gave me a breakthrough on the mountain road,
And I’m runnin’, runnin’ where Your freedom flows.

Every valley had a lesson waiting,
Every setback had a hidden grace.
Now I’m singing like a soul awakened—
Your love never fails, no matter the weight.

When the storm was raging, when the night felt long,
Your steady heartbeat carried me on.

'Cause You gave me a breakthrough on the mountain road…

Now I’m climbing higher than I’ve ever been,
With Your fire burning strong within—
This road is Yours, Lord, lead me again!

You gave me a breakthrough on the mountain road…
Hallelujah, I’m finally home.

Breakthrough on the Mountain Road

Under the Cover of Dark (yeah yeah mix)

This tracks celebrates the festive season around the world from many nationalities, customs and beliefs.  Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea,  US, Egypt, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Japan, German.

I'm on the G Major scale, 100 to 160 bpm.  I went heavy with a fusion of eastern traditional instruments -I focused Japanese, Korean and Chinese instruments.  I'm hoping to get traditional Filipino instruments, Vietnamese and Indonesian into the mix one day.  Vietnam, Indonesia - amazing music, people, instruments - it really is an amazing world with so many talented people and wonderful beats.

The instrument mix I was playing with (.. and which I've used in various experimental tracks recently) included:

- guzheng (Chinese zither) with koto (Japanese zither) for cascading melodic layers; 
- erhu (Chinese fiddle) with haegeum (Korean fiddle) for expressive string harmonies; 
- dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) with shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) for breathy, ethereal winds; 
- pipa (Chinese lute) with gayageum (Korean zither) for rhythmic plucking accents; 
- sheng (Chinese mouth organ) with piri (Korean oboe) for reedy, celebratory sustains;
- suona (Chinese horn) with taiko (Japanese drum) for bold, percussive fanfares.), 

With a smaller mix of western instruments such as: 
- tuba, bass-cello, alto-flute harp, jingle-bells.

I'll get more into western mixes at some point - maybe looking at groups of instruments like the wind instruments - the alto-flute, flute, piccolo or perhaps strings such as bass-cello, cello, and violin and the harp.

In fusion mixes they actually work great with eastern, traditional instruments.

Happy holiday's everyone!, thank-you so much for your support (likes, shares, comments, follows..).

Better Sorry Than Safe

halestormrocks