In 2014, I happened to be playing an R&B gig in a club. Matt Greco, a local sound engineer, was in the audience there and came up afterwards to ask me if I would like to play some guitar on a country music project. I said, “Sure.” This is part of the session that followed, with me playing Matt’s Telecaster.
Blackbird
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 – Live at Lunch
Swing Essence performed as a quartet at times for local dance events in Fort Collins, frequenting a venue called Club Tico. In this case we were invited to play a concert for a lunch event at the highly applauded Lincoln Center there. This is a medley of clips from that gig, featuring Andrew Vogt on sax, Gene Libbea on bass, Oscar Dezoto on drums, and yours truly on guitar/vocals.
Swing Essence in Telluride
In June of 2007, we played a wedding at the luxurious Telluride Conference Center. The videographer and bride were kind enough to share some video. The reception recording was a line out of the P.A. mix, so the instruments are quieter than actually heard live, but the visual is lovely. On stage were Andrew Vogt (reeds), Adam Vogt (bass), Sally Herried (vocals), John Olson (drums), Ben Haugland (keys), and yours truly (guitar/vocal). This was just before trumpet was added to the band.
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.