My entry to the Marty Friedman solo contest. 

Marty Friedman Inferno Contest (Kevin Wale)

An old Air Supply song that I always thought had a fantastic guitar solo. I also always thought it was quite the rocker for a soft rock group. This is a mixture of the famous HBO live special version and the album version. David Moyse played the solo, and it was very influential on me as a guitar player, so I kept it fairly true to the original with a little extra spice. The out solo was played by Rex Goh, also a huge influence, but I pretty much improvised this version since it was less constructed anyway. 

Sweet Dreams (Cover)

When I was 3 years old, REO Speedwagon released an album called Hi Infidelity. Almost everyone knows at least a couple of songs off this album as it sold 10 million copies, and spawned the mega smash, likely father of the power ballad "Keep On Loving You." Not long after I got my very own record player and found myself jumping up and down on my bed playing air guitar to that REO Speedwagon record singing along "...don't let him go."
The guitar player for that not so little band was the curly headed smiling monster named Gary Richrath. During that time Gary became my first guitar hero, and just about anything good anyone would ever have to say about my vibrato, intonation, and sense of phrasing probably came from trying to master this guy's guitar playing. Groove isn't a good enough word for his massive rhythm playing. Likewise, tasty doesn't quite describe how yummy his little melody lines were. And TONE... good lord the tone.
I know I dreamed it, but somehow it didn't seem like I ever dreamed that I'd be opening for REO Speedwagon almost 30 years after that album was released. Playing a song on stage and seeing Kevin Cronin bobbing his head to the beat while watching us play is probably still the only time I've had a freak out moment on stage since the first time I was ever on stage and my guitar squealed before we started. A good way to get the worst part of stage fright over with for good. The significance did not escape me that my first major music business moment would involve that band...
Gary died the other day. Sunday, September 12, 2015th to be exact. So, it only made sense that my next cover should be something off that record. Here is the only tribute I could really offer to my first guitar hero, and one of the finest guitar players that ever walked this planet. RIP Gary, and thanks for sending me out on this insane musical journey.

Out Of Season (cover)

Proof I'm still working on it and busy busy busy. :) lol

CALLING ON YOU SOLO SNEAK PEEK

Added some vocals... LOTS of vocals. LOL Gave the 414 and my vocal chords a workout to say the least. Michael Sweet is one of the great rock singers and great rock guitar players and definitely doesn't get his due. Hopefully I'm not butchering this too much. LOL It has been A LOT of fun to say the least!

CALLING ON YOU solo and big choir break (cover)

This is the first draft mix for room and system testing. 

CALLING ON YOU (First Draft Mix)

This is my submission to Ken Lewis' mixing contest. I entered for a few reasons. He is giving a lot of mix critiques to quite a few entries, I LOVE the song, and since I got in late in the going, it gave me a shorter deadline to meet. 

I must admit, I consciously went for a Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" vibe. Emotionally, this song just took me there. Rule The World is one of my favorite songs ever and it takes me on a journey every time I hear it, and this had a similar effect. Especially after I started adding effects. 

I also went for a warmer vibe than Steve Nathan's mix as it seemed to fit the 80s thing that struck me. So, the mix is a bit softer feeling. Oddly enough, I didn't really add that many effects as there was already a delay on one of the guitars and one reverb send went a long way. Only the snare and overheads got a bit of a short delay added to the verb, and I added two delays. It sounds like there are reverbs and delays everywhere, but a lot of things are sharing. I added a phase type effect on one of the synths, and a backwards thing on the tag vocal the first and last times. I didn't really balance their volume with my ears in the loud/soft sense... I just balanced everything to where that warm fuzzy feeling took over... I was surprised at how much of an emotional response I had, and it was great for focussing on emotion rather than technical mixing doo dads. 

I'm sure the other entries will be stellar as I'm entering in the pro category since I am a working musician, and hopefully I'll get good enough at this mix thing to add that to the working part. 

DON’T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS - NOTHING I COULD DO KEN LEWIS CONTEST FINAL MIX

I decided to give this a much needed remix. I did the first mix in 2008 or 2009, and I really had no clue what I was doing. Sadly, or not so sadly really, but for the sake of which mix is better sadly, it is on a tribute to Deliverance CD that was endorsed by Deliverance. But, a few years, and hopefully a bit of knowledge later, here is what should be a much more exciting mix that might do a very cool song justice. Oh, and Amber knocked the vocal out of the park!

The Call 2017

Let Her Know By IVO Softube Contest Mix

This is an old Ebenezer Church (Brad's band in the 90s) track that we rearranged in Bipolar Echo featuring Brad on lead vocals. Brad had co-written the track, and we worked it up a little heavier, and changed the guitar solo structure. We recorded this to have some original demos. I found the session and decided to treat it up and mix it proper.

That Sinking Feeling

Here is one I produced and mixed for Madi Rae Hughes. She sang (of course), Tiny played bass, I played guitar and sang backing vocals, and a session drummer for Steven Slate played the drums. Ha ha. The vocals were recorded with an AKG 414.

MADI RAE HUGHES WALKIN AFTER MIDNIGHT DooWop Mix

What if the Bee Gees decided to cover Metallica?

For Whom The Bell Tolls - BeeGees/Metallica Mashup Cover

I've been thinking about the Great Steve Clark lately, and as big a Lepp fan as I am, I've never done a cover. This is my favorite cut off of High N Dry, so it made sense to give it a go. There aren't as many layers as Hysteria era songs, but there was still a lot of recording involved... in the backing vocals especially. It was extremely fun to say the least.

Mirror Mirror Def Leppard Cover

Tiny and I wrote this a couple of years ago for a project we're calling Soul Resolution. One day we'll get it finished and release an album or something, but I worked up this demo, and thought it was worth sharing in this day of Soundcloud and interaction. It is VERY Gary Moore influenced (hense the title harkening to Parisienne Walkways)  because Tiny's bass line he was playing kicked in my Gary Moore guitar melody mode, and it went pretty quickly from there.

BACKSTREET WALKWAYS

I wrote this in early 2013 I believe. It might have been 2012.  I was a road  sales rep for a music store at the time, and I had a moment on the road where this idea of finding a sweater while cleaning out a house to sell sparked memories of an old girlfriend. All that was left was a title, and something made me think of the ocean so viola. As I tend to do, there is a fairly unexpected turn, and of course, a gratuitous guitar solo. LOL

Kevin Wale

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