An early draft of a composition I’ve since refined, but haven’t yet rerecorded. Uses the “Rain Song” tuning (CGCGCD), which I was in love with at the time, circa 2007.

Latitude

Another piece that I had posted on my Associated Content page before their purchase by Yahoo. Recorded in February 2002, just two months after my thirtieth birthday, it was the culmination of my many influences and experiences from the previous decade. There’s elements of grunge, alternative, classic rock, a whole bunch of new age, some hippie jam, and probably some other things as well. The mood of the tune ranges between angry, sad, thoughtful, and triumphant. A perfect summary and bookend to my Twenties. 

Cactus

Another piece I did during the early 2000s using just a guitar, chorus pedal, and computer.  I always felt this had a laid back, lounge feel, hence the name. This tune was part influenced by my interest in Dave Matthews, and part a self education I was doing at the time in classical guitar. As is usually the case when I learn real technique I completely bastardized and misused what I learned and came up with my own “thing”. I make no apologies.

The song was recorded in one take in my apartment bedroom, and has a few errors that still erk me, but there is a run that appears twice in the tune that I am particularly proud of. There is a high melody line the ascends while the bass notes conversely decend, which was my tribute to Bouree in E minor, the only classical tune I ever fully learned.

Smoke'em if ya got'em

Did this one around 2001 using just my guitar, my computer and a Danelectro chorus pedal. Didn’t know much about proper EQ in those days, hence the high treble factor, but I still really like this one. Falls into my “Songs without words” category of original material, of which there is a lot of.

Authors note: There actually were lyrics written out for this by my friend and collaborator Thad Ekdahl, and is where the title comes from. That version of the song had a significantly slower beat and more of a folky tempo. While still good, I always preferred this more pop-rock oriented version of the tune. I’ll probably post the other version of “Monkey Mind” up here at some point.

Monkey Mind

A fast moving, acoustic-electric instrumental piece that blends my interests in bluegrass and rock, and for some reason always sounded a bit Irish to me. Hence the name.

The Jig

Was recorded at Cricket On The Hill in Denver in 2001. My friend and collaborator Thad composed and performed the lyrics. This song was my first attempt and making a single acoustic guitar fill the room. I think I was fairly successful. A frenetic, exhausting piece to perform, it's still one of my favorites.

Kay Oss

A piece I did for a Digital Audio class I took at the University of Denver in 2002. Mixes my acoustic guitar rhythms with some harmonic generators from Audio Mulch, and a Casio keyboard run through my Danelectro Cool-Daddy chorus pedal. All the track were recorded separately with the same Metronome, and then mixed together to see what resulted. Other than  fade-ins and fade-outs there are only two edits that exist in the tune. The rest is pure subconscious synchronicity.

I originally composed this tune to justify every Winamp visualization ever made. It still holds up.

Spacefaring Troubadour

Another one from the vaults, circa 2002. The first song we recorded in a studio. I have mixed feelings about my overdubs in this. The original song had a very simple but catchy guitar rhythm, but with this version I added several “lead” tracks to it. And I can’t really call them leads, they are more jangly arpeggios (a la R.E.M.). But in hindsight they were unnecessary. I do still like the octave solo I added at 1:50, and the by the end of the song I’m using less arpeggios and more strumming, which is how the song should have been from the beginning.

I Dont Care

Recorded during an open mic night at Cricket On The Hill in Denver, 2001. The super-fast guitar part is mine, and was written during my "fun" period. And I should also point out, the person speaking is not me, it's my friend Thad, who composed and sang the lyrics of this song.

Ain't Comin' Back (Live)

Another Acoustic - Digital piece from my old Digital Audio class at DU. Sleepy music.

Tom Welty