Music

The audio files below represent some basement recordings I've accumulated over the years. I've done my best to put a "final mix" on them and release them for all to hear.

All musical instruments and drum machine programming on these tunes were performed by me, with the exception of "Tim & Carina" which features my dear friend Matt Daly on drums and percussion.

The audio files are offered in Windows Media Player (.wma) format. You can also save the files to your local hard drive and add them to your iTunes library.

To request these tunes on a CD, please email me.

I hope you enjoy them!

Liner Notes

20 Weeks

Written: c. Nov. 1994
Recorded: March 16-17, 1995 at Columbia Avenue

This was an idea I'd been kicking around for a while in late 1994 and early 1995. The recording was done while I was visiting my brother around St. Patrick's Day 1995. It just so happens that my sister-in-law's birthday is also March 17, so we celebrated both occasions with a big party at their house.

The next morning, we all went into downtown Chicago to watch the city's annual St. Pat's parade. I was so groggy from the night before that all I remember was standing on Dearborn right by what is now "Chase Plaza", trying to maintain my composure… and these guys were walking around with huge silver coffee backpacks on, dispensing free coffee samples to the bystanders. They looked like space-coffee-people to me. Man, I drank a lot of that coffee!

I was supposed to arrange this tune for my college fusion ensemble, complete with a Tower of Power-like horn section. I either got too lazy to do it or decided that this guitar-only version was sufficient. Maybe one day I'll get around to the complete arrangement.

Gear Notes: This, along with Columbia Avenue, was recorded without any of my own gear. I used my brother Don's maple-neck Telecaster and Mesa/Boogie Mark III amp.

Over the City

Written: February 1999
Recorded: February 1999 at Columbia Avenue

It was a very cold winter in Chicago and I was itching to record something new. I thought, "man, I should try to write something in a different meter, maybe 6/4 or 5/4." I was dog/house sitting for brother Don and sister-in-law Tresa and laid down this tune.

Gear Notes: The acoustic guitar you hear in the right channel is my brother's Martin HD-28. I remember him saying around this time, "you know, what makes a recording really sound professional is the presence of an acoustic guitar."

Columbia Avenue

Written: c. July 1994
Recorded: August 1994 at Columbia Avenue

During the summer of 1994, I was attending classes at Morehead State University and living in a house with a friend on the east side of town. One afternoon while walking home from class, I was riffing in my head and came up with the "C" section of the tune (first appears around 1:34). The rest of the tune was basically written around that.

Big nod to John Coltrane in this tune's "B" section; I was studying "Moment's Notice" around this time. In addition, this was around the time I first started getting into Mike Stern. There is a direct quote of "Jean Pierre" from "We Want Miles" in the second solo.

"Columbia Avenue" is the street my brother Don and his wife Tresa lived on in Des Plaines, Illinois. Almost all of this stuff was recorded in his basement there.

Gear Notes: Like 20 Weeks, none of my own gear was used on this recording. The guitar tracks are my brother's maple Telecaster, some recorded through a Mesa/Boogie Mark III, others directly into the board.

Nienke

Written: Mid-1996
Recorded: September 1996 at Columbia Avenue

I worked as a musician on this cruise ship from March 3, 1996 to March 30, 1997. There was an extremely attractive Dutch crew purser named "Nienke" whom I was quite impressed with... One day, going into port in Sint Maarten, I started hearing this sing-songy "Nien-ke……Nien-ke……" melody in my head, and the tune was written around that.

It was recorded while I was on an eight week vacation from the ship, visiting Columbia Avenue in September 1996.

There is no "guitar solo" as such in this tune. I didn't think it would make any musical sense to have one.

Gear Notes: I'm using an Ibanez nylon-string acoustic on this tune, which my brother owned but later gave to me for my birthday. The same guitar can be heard on the Mabel Mabel tune "This Time." The synth sounds that you hear on this tune and on "Over the City" came from a Boss DR-5 Doctor Rhythm.

Our Best Time

Written: c. 1992-1993
Recorded: Over Thanksgiving weekend 1993 near Columbia Avenue

This is the oldest tune in this collection and the only real "Kentucky Neil" representation herein. I was still living in Kentucky, wearing a rather striking mullet, and playing in a country band 4 to 6 nights a week when this was written. So, I think you can hear a certain "countrified" element, although it is also heavily influenced by Metheny's "Secret Story" (note the nod to "The Longest Summer" in the solo).

This tune was written during a 2.5 year relationship with a very lovely young lady, and recorded in the midst of break-up darkness!

Gear Notes: This was the only tune recorded at my brother's house on Cumberland before he moved down the street to Columbia Avenue. So, it was near Columbia Avenue, but not actually on Columbia. The lead guitar is Don's Ibanez Roadster recorded through my Zoom 9002 processor. The main rhythm guitar is my Telecaster. If you listen closely you can also hear that Ibanez nylon-string guitar in the right channel.

Red Shift

Written: c. Apr 2003
Recorded: May 2003 at Columbia Avenue

This tune was conceived during the first half of 2003 when I was planning to move to Los Angeles. In astrophysics, objects moving away from an observer produce a red shift (more here).

I had moved out of my north-side Chicago apartment and was actually living on Columbia Avenue for a couple of months until I headed west. However, it was not meant to be, and I'm still here in lovely Chicago!

This tune was actually inspired by listening to Van Halen's "Push Comes to Shove" from "Fair Warning." It is influenced by Steely Dan's "Haitian Divorce" as well.

Gear Notes: This is the only tune of this collection where my entire current rig is represented: the rosewood-fretboard Tele through a Boss Overdrive, Ibanez TS-10, Vox wah, and '65 reissue Twin reverb.

Tim and Carina (Wedding Song)

Written: Early 1994 and January 2003
Recorded: May 2003 at Columbia Avenue

This was also recorded during the first half of 2003 when I was planning to move to Los Angeles.

The composition of this tune spans almost a decade. The "A" and "B" sections were things that I had messed with in my college dorm room around 1994, although at that time they were in 4/4. They never coalesced into a complete tune.

Years later, my friend and one-time roommate Tim Wingate asked me to write a song for his wedding. I was very honored by this request. He suggested that the tune should be in 4/4 or a waltz.

It was in January 2003, flying back from L.A. to Chicago on a 757, that the "C" section entered my head, and it happened to be in ľ. So, I changed the whole tune to ľ and combined the other pieces that I had written years earlier.

This is the only tune in this collection that another musician played on. My very close friend and excellent musician Matt Daly played drums and percussion. There is no telling how much beer we drank during this session. He showed up with a bunch of "Oranjeboom," which I had never heard of. It was quite good. Shortly after we were finished recording, we took this photo.

Gear Notes: The only six-string guitar on this tune was brother Don's HD-28, which I first used on "Over the City." This is also the only tune with a synth bass and without a bass drum. I left the bass drum out because I wanted a dreamy, airy quality.

Last Trip

Written: April 1997
Recorded: August 1998 at Columbia Avenue

Most music written in this world has at least something to do with the opposite sex, does it not?!

I had just ended my run with Royal Caribbean and was back in Kentucky for a few weeks before moving to Chicago. I wanted to visit a female friend of mine with whom I'd had a rather fractious relationship. So, I took off on the interstate to look for her. All I had was an address - I had no idea whether she still lived at that address or if she would be home when I got there. At one point, as I was driving east on I-64, it occurred to me just how ridiculous the whole excursion was! I thought, "This is the last trip I'm ever gonna take to go see her!"

Of course, there were a few more trips before I moved to Chicago.

Ironically, the music that was going through my head on this trip was a different ending vamp section to this tune that was scrapped and never recorded. The chord changes were very similar to Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Aguas de Marco," which in my opinion is the best tune ever written. I think I was influenced by "Aguas de Marco" before I even heard it.

Gear Notes: The electric guitar rig used on this, as on "Over the City," was my main rig for a number of years: the Telecaster through the Zoom 9002 into the Roland Jazz Chorus 77. The Zoom was eventually replaced by a Tech21 SansAmp in August 1999. I thought it sounded good, but the whole thing just didn't have enough power for me -- my stage volume was getting buried in certain situations. I remember riding to a Mabel Mabel gig with bassist Randy Henry discussing this problem. I said, "Maybe I'll upgrade to a Jazz Chorus 120; it's the same deal, just louder, right? That's what I need." He replied, gently but firmly, "dude, you gotta get some TUBES, man!" The Twin Reverb was purchased not too long after that.