I was inspired to arrange this instrumental version of Paul McCartney’s wonderful tune, Blackbird. The intro was inspired by something I saw Martin Taylor play. I asked him about the intro, and chuckling, asked him if I could steal it for my own use. He said, “Sure, I stole it from Johnny Smith”. Martin and I shared a number of such stories in that time period around 2011.
Bright Size Life – Solo Guitar Version
This solo version of Bright Size Life, by Pat Metheny, is one of my most played videos on youtube. Pat’s clever tunes are always interesting to work on and always a pleasure to revisit.
Playing “True”
This song by Martin Taylor is fun to play and has a beautiful melody. It’s a wonderful piece to know on the guitar. I have a written arrangement for it as well.
Mood For A Day
This is a favorite solo guitar piece that I learned a long time ago. I think I was fifteen when the Yes album, Fragile came out, which included this tune by Steve Howe. He was one of my favorite guitarists at that impressionable age, so I immediately took on the task of figuring out how it play it. It remains in my repertoire to this day. My version of it has probably evolved a little over the years.
Swing Essence at Spotlight Music
In February, 2011, my band had a rehearsal and demo recording session at Spotlight Music in Fort Collins, CO. This was the 5 plus 1 format with Andrew Vogt on woodwinds, Ron Holleman on trumpet, Rob “Oscar Dezoto” Wojtowick on drums, vocalist Sally Herried and yours truly on guitar and vocals. Here’s a sample from that day.
Swing Essence – Jazz, Dance, & Party!
Swing Essence is a band I formed in 2004 in Colorado. We had a great run for 8 or 9 years and played many wonderful events. I so enjoyed arranging the music and leading this group. Here are a few demo tracks from rehearsals recorded in 2007. We did several of these sessions to try out new 7 piece arrangments. Here was the line up of musicians who played.
Vocalists: Colleen Crosson, Sally Herried
Bass: Michael Olson
Drums: John Olson (no relation to Michael), Oscar DeZoto
Keyboards: Dave Roberts, Chris Hatton
Trumpet: Mark Dorn
Saxophones: Andrew Vogt
Kevin Karrick: Guitar/Vocals
Christmas Medley
Featuring T.J. Wessel on Violin, Mark Chase on Bodhrán, and Kevin Karrick on Guitar
I was attending a church while living in Fort Collins, Colorado and for at a time, participated in the music program there. This particular holiday season, 2010, music director Mark Chase encouraged me to try something original, something different as part of the Christmas concert. This show ran three nights and included a choir and a full orchestra, so I was honored to be called upon along with T.J. I wrote this medley taking some artistic liberties with time signatures and improvisational segments for T.J. It was a big hit and I think Mark and T.J enjoyed it as well. Many thanks to the orchestra for their patience, while the three of us played this nearly nine minute piece.
In The Studio – Sweeter All The Time
In 2003, I put together an album of my originals with this wonderful crew, recorded at the UNC studio in Greely, CO. Pictured (left to right) are Jessy Lucas (bass), Mark Raynes (drums), Greg Heimbecker (engineer), Mark Sloniker (piano), and myself (guitars). Byron Hamer (not shown) contributed on flute and tenor saxophone.
The Happy Guitarist
Here is one of the cuts from that album, featuring the crew in the photo.
Moody’s Mood – Featuring Chrissy Faith
This is a little piece of a demo that I recorded, featuring vocalist Chrissy Faith. Chrissy was a popular and highly employed backup singer in the 80s and 90s and nominated for best rock vocalist for a voice over she did in the movie, No Small Affair. She went on to singing jazz where we hooked up in Portland, OR in 2000-2001. This piece also features my good friends Gary Irvine on drums and Dan Davis on bass.