Songs on this page: 34

Instrumental Songs

In writing instrumentals, you have to think about what it is you want to say to people. Tell them a story. Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Usually there is a quiet comfortable start to get people hooked regardless of what mood they might be in at that moment. Make it emotionally accessible to everyone. Then you start to build it. You explore some different thoughts, move around and convey some ideas. Then start building the powerful part. Sadness, Happiness, Anger, Fear, Loss, thrills, Joy, Love, Sex, whatever the emotion is you want to express – then think of expressing that musically. What would that emotion sound like? The whole real point of music (or any art form) is to communicate what is in the soul of the artist to the audience. Any soul is just as valid as anyone else’s – whether famous or not. BB King doesn’t have a bigger soul than you. Nor does Buddy Guy. Nor Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck. Your soul is equal to anyone’s. If you learn to express it well, then your art will be equal to anyone’s. If you are not communicating some emotion or message to someone, then all it is - is just noodling. And that is only suitable for background music to dinner conversation. Important and worthwhile music has a message. It touches people. Hopefully, some of these instrumental pieces touch you.

"Just Passin' Thru", version 3, 02/17/2008. This is a jazz-rock instrumental, in a high-energy, Johnny A. sort of style. It actually cames from a blues idea. I caught about 5 minutes of an SRV concert on the TV one night and they did a riff run at the beginning of a slow blues tune, where the whole band does the run together. That reminded me that I used to do that years ago but hadn't done it in probably 20 years now. So I wrote an intro using that technique that I thought would have some impact, and then grew the rest of the tune from there. The concept of the title is about how while I was playing on the road full time, I would come across these tiny little towns that time had forgotten. They were fascinating places to me. Those were the days before the internet came so they were relatively cut off from civilization in a sense. they tended to look like stepping into history of 20, 30, or 40 years before that time. Things were different in those days. But each time I would get used to the town and the buildings and the stores, and the people, then our week was up and it's back in the truck and heading on to the next town and the next gig. Almost every place I went, I felt like I wanted to plant roots and start a life there, but I was Just Passin' Thru. It made me feel as if I shouldn't connect with anyone too closely, so there was always a distance between us. We moved along quickly and so does this tune.

"Stealin' Time" version 3, 02/17/2008. Here we have an up-tempo instrumental tune. This came about because there was an interesting Johnny A tune that I was considering as a cover tune for my band to play. So I sat down to learn it, and when I learned most of it and was just polishing off the last few details, I noticed that it sounded very similar to my style on a number of tunes. In fact, often, when I have put one of his tunes on as a test of the sound system, people mistake it for one of my tunes. So I was starting to think that I could write something with a similar feel and probably close to the same quality, and then we'd have another original tune in the set list, and also I would have another tune for my latest album. Also, it occurred to me that whole purpose of putting in cover tunes in the setlist is to play things that people are familiar with. In the case of Johnny, he's a great guitarist, but most people would not recognize his music, so there was really no point in having the band spend the time in learning his tune, when they could simply spend the time learning a new one. So I wrote this one which is of course completely original, but it does have that guitar-oriented slant to it, and it does have a very up-tempo beat. It feels a bit like a Johnny A tune, so it has the same effect on the energy flow of a set that that one tune of his would have had. It's danceable.

Beyond Words - Some things are beyond what words can express. This song is a blues piece that musically expresses a story about sex. Specifically, it is a story of a man and woman who meet, do that little dance around each other as they each try to position themselves, and then they fall in love. Then it builds to a sexual crescendo orgasmic climax, and then suddenly they are in the afterglow after the climax. This then leads into another session of sensual passion which then builds to yet another climax. Then it begins again. Done in a blues style - hopefully the message comes through in the music.... Some say it comes through loud and clear. The original version had slide guitar in the third section, but I was told that that was bordering on pornographic, so I had to get rid of that......... Blushing faces....smaller version

"The Touch" version 5, Feb/05. This one is a little intense once you know what it’s about. This is an instrumental that tells the story of two people who meet online. They come to know each other and understand each other, then care for each other and eventually fall in love – all from talking with each other online. Then one day they finally make plans to meet. She is in a hotel room waiting as he arrives and phones her from the lobby. She tells him the room number and he makes his way up the elevator to his floor. He walks down the hall looking for her number. Finally, he is there. He knocks. The door opens and she is there. They do not speak. They simply stand there drinking each other in, in silence. He steps in and they close the door. The room is quiet. They want to kiss and hold each other but the moment is too powerful for that. They know each other so deeply now that every movement, every motion is pregnant with depth and meaning. He lifts up his hand and reaches out toward her. She lifts her own hand to meet his, and their fingertips touch. They extend their sensitivity to their fingertips and feel the reality of the other person through this slight contact. It is enough to satisfy that the other is not just an image on the screen, but is a real person. A person live and in front of them now. He extends his consciousness, his energy into her fingers, and moves up into her hand. Feeling her hand from the inside, his energy moves deeper into her wrist. Deeper up the core of her forearm. Then swiftly along her upper arm, and into her shoulder. He feels the heat of her body. The movement of her internals as his consciousness moves deeper into her chest to find her heart. Now he feels her heart beating, and she, sensing his presence in her body, quickens her heartbeats and she now extends into his fingers and his hand, and up the strength of his arm, through his shoulder, and she pushes her energy deeply inside him and enters his heart. His soul. They stand there locked. Staring into each other’s eyes, with their feelings and senses extended deep into the other and feeling the other’s sensing back into their own body. In this continuous loop, their love is welded into a oneness. They weep for the time wasted apart in this world and for the beauty of the time yet to come – together. That is the story of this song.

"Goodbye" version 1, 04/08,06. This instrumental piece is dedicated to the memory of ev Brown, a friend who passed away in February, 2006 at the young age of 45. She will be remembered fondly and will great respect. Sometimes it's easier to speak with a guitar than with words. This was one of those times. This tune is a soulful, quietly touching introspective piece.

"Second Wind" version 7, 03/25/06. A guitar instrumental with a rock feel. This is meant to be highly melodic. I do tend to enjoy guitar-oriented instrumentals from Jeff Beck and especially David Gilmour because they are very melodic. It's not about playing fast - it's about the music. This song has that feel. Those easy-to-identify-and-remember melodies. This has a very deliberate melodic design. Overall, the theme is feeling that inner source of energy. Sometimes when you are tired and you think you just can't go any longer, a new breath of fresh air comes and you can tap into a depth of power you couldn't even see a moment earlier. The so-called 'second wind'. That secret source of energy that comes when you really need it. The inner well. It's possible that's where our creativity comes from too. This is not a heavy song, but it does have energy. Drums are by Mike Wynn.

"Honeymoon Suite" version 4, 03/19/06. After a solo guitar intro, this suddenly becomes a funky, danceable instrumental tune. I had in mind drums from Peter Gabriel, bass from Stanley Clarke, and guitar from Jeff Beck. With touches of Pink Floyd thrown in for good measure. That sort of mix of textures. This one is sexual in the way it moves. Hence the name. This starts off with innocence and purity with a solo guitar entre, but then it really gets down to it before long. I have always liked those instrumentals that have a strong guitar theme melody, so I did that here. This is a bit of a jam piece, actually. Unusual for me, perhaps, but then I do like a variety. I hope this one doesn't stretch the theme of the Soft Lights album too much. I may decide to put this on the next album instead. Drums and percussion by Mike Wynn. The texture of the song changed with Mike's approach to the drums. Originally it had a more tribal rhythm. Now it has more of a straight-ahead rock feel. The drums now sound more dynamic than before.

"The Sun Through The Trees" version 4, 12/25/05. This is an acoustic tune with two acoustic guitars, with a little bit of flute helping out in the middle. Picture a walk through the woods. You look out and the sun is shining through the trees as it begins to set on the horizon beyond. Spackles of light and shadow cross your face as you walk beneath the trees. Looking up, there are bands of fire as clouds are ignited by the last orange and crimson flames of the sun. The trees stand witness to the art of the moment as this sound gently floats through the trees filtered by sunlight and you try to capture this moment in your memory for later when you know you'll need this to look back on.

"Seems Like Only Yesterday", version 6, 10/08/05. I have always been a sucker for the "sad-but-beautiful" type of song. I wanted to make this song sound 'achingly beautiful' if you know what I mean. I touched on a 60ish sound a little in parts because that gives a bit of nostalgia to the emotional mix. I gave the lead guitar a story to tell, that starts simple and beautiful, and then gets intricate and dances for you, then moves down and gets a little nostalgic, then moves into a stronger, faster passage, then suddenly pulls out and slips quickly up into the clouds to delicately touch a rainbow, then smoothly glides down through the air again, but this time with a mate. Together they dance and swirl through the air, and they fly together off into the sunset. I think about that while I'm playing it. The song speaks emotions better than my words do. There is an expression of thoughtful, quiet sadness. But also unspeakable, ineffable beauty. It is my vocabulary of beauty. I see a vision of beauty and out comes this sound. The beauty is beyond my ability to describe it - like trying to describe the taste of chocolate. In this case, it is visual, though. It is lights, and curves, and delicate turns. It is similar to the cover picture on the album 'Soft Lights' that this song appears on. It is the beauty of creation. Of exploration. Of insight. Of understanding. There is detail. There is texture. There is pure energy. There is past, present, and future all at once. Words fail. And so I must use my guitar to describe this level of experience. Drums and percussion on this piece are by Mike Wynn.

The Hero Tells His Tale - This is an epic adventure told by music only. Picture a village in the times of the world well before Christ. There is a hero of the village who, with his best friend and the other men of the village decided to go off and forestall a pending attack the next morning by an army of raiders, by attacking them the night before in the dark. They sneak up on them and encroach their campsite. They come rushing down out of the hills to kill the invaders, and then, at one point, the hero’s best friend is killed by the invaders. This makes the hero go crazy! He becomes a spinning instrument of death and launches himself into the midst of the enemy who are falling left and right from him. He is unstoppable in his screaming fit of frenzied remorse over the loss of his friend. He single-handedly kills half the enemy and the other half run away leaving their horses and tents and things behind. After he calms down, and they watch the enemies run away over the hills, his friends bring him back to the village, where he must recount this tale for the village elders to explain what happened. But he is not a man of bragging words, he is a man of action. So, back at the village campfire, he only reluctantly tells of his brave deeds, while some of the other men recount the parts he is too modest to tell fully. This song is of that telling.

"Best Day Of Your Life" -Sample only. To make this one, I took a rock sound, layered it onto a funk beat, using jazz chords and blues riffs, then I thought about sex.... It's an instrumental with a funky, but rockish, high energy feel.

You Make Me Feel Good - Sample only. This is an instrumental that is about that good, warm feeling that you can get from someone. That 'happy inside' feeling. There is no story that this song tells - just a feeling it describes.

Yavanna Smiled - Sample only. Yavanna is the goddess of living things and the bringer of light to Middle Earth (The world of J. R. R. Tolkien). This tune is a fusion-rock piece with an up-tempo high energy beat and a latin flair in the second half.

The Dance of the Shakti - Shakti is the Goddess spouse of Shiva. She is a sex goddess. This song is a slow, sensual strip tease/dance by a woman who is imbued with the spirit of a sex goddess. From time to time, all women have been in this spirit. All women have it within them to be this sex goddess. To touch this immortal power, and to weild it.

"Yavanna Dreamed" Version 3, 01/05/05 - This song was previously titled "Pillow Full of Dreams", but since this is an instrumental, that meant that I had to give up the words I had written for PFoD, and so I decided to make that into a separate piece with vocals - yet to come. This piece is now re-titled to "Yavana Dreamed". In the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien, Yavanna was the goddess of living things and brought light to the early world by creating two trees. Laurelin (the golden light of day) and Telperion (The silver light of night) similar to the sun and moon which were created later to replace the original trees of light that were destroyed by Melkor and Ungoliant. These trees were the only source of light in the world and brought a time of happiness and the counting of the days. This tune represents the peaceful dream of Yavanna, the goddess that made it possible.

Moonlight - Usually, I create songs that express some internal idea or concept or emotional panorama that I want to depict. This time I wanted to create a song that filled a need for other people. While writing it, I pictured a couple stepping out on to a patio on a warm clear night and dancing to soft music while looking up at the moon and the stars. Part of the backdrop for a romantic evening. Originally, this was called "On The Patio" but a friend who really likes this one suggested I make this the title song of the CD. He also wanted me to make it longer, but to do that I'd need to re-record it from scratch, and there is actually a lot of work in this one. You have to listen closely to tell, but there are many guitar tracks layered together and they are all playing jazz runs in synchronized and harmonic structures. Kind of complex. I'd not like to have to play this live.

Billy Goes For A Drive - Sample only. This is an instrumental rock song with a 'southern roll' to it. Good Driving music... Billy was a friend of mine who later became my boss. He bought a beautiful new Mercedes S500, and yet because of his constant travel to San Francisco every week, he rarely ever got a chance to drive it. Sometimes when he was home on a weekend, he would take it out - just to DRIVE it for the pure enjoyment of driving a fine car.

Anthem - Live - Sample only. This was performed live at Madison Square Gardens in front of 50,000 excited screaming fans. Well, ok - maybe not 50,000. How about 10,000? How about 200? ....Ten?.... ok - the truth is I did the whole thing in my home studio at 5am on a Sunday morning in total outward silence while my daughter slept in the next room. I used various sounds from a synthesizer to get the crowd sounds. Ahhhh the fun things you can do with technology. I had SO much fun doing this song. I couldn't believe how real the crowd sounds here. High energy rock with harmony leads, etc. Used a Les Paul - White Magic.

Gas It Up - Sample only. Funk it up baby!!! This was meant to be a showcase for funky bass playing. It is a layered piece that really shows how I layer on one tracj after another to create these songs. Ths one moves!!! I could think how to end this one and it just sort of trailed of at the end, so I created a unique ending by putting a cymbal build to a huge gong. Worked perfectly.

Brasil - Picture an evening in Rio De Janeiro. People walking in the streets. Hot latin music for a hot latin night. You are driving with friends in an open car. You find a club and go in. It's all about atmosphere. It's about the moment. The memories of hot times with cool friends.

Fire In The Field - There are two stories to this one. The story of what it is about, and the story of how it came to be. First the story that it tells. Imagine a meadow at the edge of a forest. It is a quiet, peaceful afternoon, with butterfliesfloating on a soft breeze. There is a scurrying of small animals as they come running by. Then larger animals. Then very large animals come tearing out of the forest running from a blaze. It is a quicking running flame that devours the trees and quickly spreads out into the grasses an shoots across the field. all is bedlam as every living thing races to escape being consuming by thjis spreading and unthinking beast. Finally, the flame washes over this land and all it blackened and dead. Then, slowly, after a while, life begins to emerge again and the cycle of life begin anew. The other story about this piece is how it was written and performed. I was on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. We were on a long leg of the 2 week jurney and they arranged on-board activities for the passengers. One nit we had an amateur talent night. They looked for volunteers. I put my hand up. The guitar player from the band loaned me his Ovation, and I spent a couple hours in a janotor's closet behind the stage, creating this piece in an open tuning - which I had never used before but wanted to try. That night, when it came to be my turn, I walked up to the stage, and pulled out the stool. The place was full of hundreds of people all making noise and laughing and drinking as they had through all the other performances. This actually made me feel better. I thought maybe I could get through doing this, finish up and then go sit down without anyone noticing at all. I began to play lightly, softly, just harmonics. People stopped talking to take notice. They wanted to hear and so they had to be quiet to hear it. Then, as I moved into the piece, they became completely silent and listened intently.The room was hushed as the story progressed. It worked slowly from the slow, wuiet afternoon sound to the rushed, frantic running as the animals ran for their lives, and then when it ended and the last harmonics rangout into the rom. There was complete silence. You could hear a pin drop. I looked out at them. They all looked back at me. After a moment of this total silence, suddenly there was an explosion of applause. The place went crazy! I said thank you and went back to my table with my friends. They said they were mesmerized and couldn't believe it. They said they'd never seen anything like it before. After my bit, the show continued as before with everyone making noise through all the other performances. That was a special night for me. and this piece brings that special moment back to me.

"The Elegance of Trees" version 1, 03/10/2007. This is a solo electric guitar piece. I waould say rather changing and whimsical. It is brief, only just over 2 minutes. It is fairly saturated in effect. This shows some of the ringing tones I like to incorporate where possible. Usually, there is a whole band of instruments playing and so much of it is lost, but in this case, the guitar stands alone and so many of the nuances of these tones are retained. One take, no overdubs/multiple tracks. This is just me playing one guitar for 2 minutes. On the subject matter, I do love the look of trees. I always have. They seem so elegant. Quietly observing the world around them. The seasons and years come and go and still they stand there, deeply rooted in the world and their place in it. They belong to the place they are. They help form the place they are. And there are such elegant shapes.

Little Angel - This is a classical-sounding piece I wrote for my daughter. It was originally meant as a piece for her to play flute on, but she never got that chance. She's STILL too busy. Oh well - it works as it is. It is a single guitar working alone. Songbird (a Chet Atkins) strung with nylon strings.

The Prisoner Dreams - This is about a man who’s body is in prison, but his mind is free to walk the world when he sleeps and dreams. He can climb to mountain tops, walk deserts, play in the surf. Stand at the edge of an ocean and look up and watch the seagulls swoop and dive. He is trying to taste life to it’s fullest freedoms – but it has to be all in his mind because his body is locked away in prison. This song is the adventure his mind goes on, and underneath it, the semi-hidden realization that he can’t REALLY do those things…

Waking From a Dream - How do we really know if we are awake or if we are still dreaming this?....The concept I am trying to convey here is of awakening from a deep dream, and then discovering that the reality you awoke to is really just another dream, then waking from that into another, and then another. The dramatic shifts from one type of sound to another in the song are intended to portray that transition from one dream to the next. In the end, we are never sure if we have awakened all the way out to 'reality', or if we have simply passed into another dream. For those who dream intensely and realistically, this is sometimes the situation. In the larger view, we never really know if we are experiencing 'reality' for sure do we? Or in fact, if such an objective level even exists at all. It keeps us sane to think that it does exist and that we do live in that world each day. Consistent with this concept of indistinct thresholds to dreams and reality, I have deliberately placed "The Road Not Taken" immediately following this one on the Moonlight album, and made the intro to that similar to the acoustic passage of this one, in order to somewhat blur the distinction between the songs and thereby continue the effect. Other than a slightly longer gap between songs, it is difficult to know if you are out of the dream yet.

Dance Like No One Is Watching - I didn’t really know what I was doing here. I just came up with a funky kind of rhythm and went from there. I don’t really play keyboards, so I just kept practicing the piece I worked out till I could play it. I wanted a funky, tight piece with horns. This is my second attempt at a piece like this. I will probably do more. Until I get it right. The real interesting experiment for me is to construct an overall rhythmic pattern from several different other rhythms layered on top of each other. It's a real mental exercise to envision the overall composite effect while you only play a single part of it. All part of the challenge of making music by yourself. Few people realize this when they are listening to my songs. It seems like a band is playing.

Driving With The Top Down - A pleasant latin-flavored drive through a gorgeous afternoon in an open convertible. Stopping for lunch in a garden café. Soaking in the ambiance of a relaxed afternoon, with not a care in the world. The work is done, all bills are paid, the house is clean, phone calls all returned, all debts are paid off, nothing is left half-finished. You've had plenty of sleep, you're healthy and comfortable, you're in a good mood, and there's nothing left but to drive through the world and speculate philosophically about your place in it. Enjoy the fantasy - the real world will return soon enough.

Just Before The Storm - instrumental version - I love that moment just before a storm comes. You can see it in the sky, and you can smell it on the air. The world is quiet with anticipation. This is a jazzt tune which I did with both lyrics and as an instrumental. The man and woman are trying to get home in that unnatural quiet. They are racing against time to get inside before the rains come....

The Memories Come Rushing Back - instrumental version - - This tells a blues story in a film noir style. It's a story about himself as he walks into a busy restaurant and sees his old love across the room. The memories come rushing back as he thinks about what happened. How they met and fell in love. And then how they drifted apart. He never ggoes to talk to her. They both just sit there awash in their memories and thoughts. Finally gets up and walks out, taking his pain with him as he moves out into the streets.

Greensleeves - A traditional classic for Christmas time.

"Star Spangled Banner" Version 1, 01/24/2005. Sample only. This is the quiet little finale for the album "Light Em Up!" for the 101st Airborne going to Iraq. I originally intended to do this as a 3 or 4 part harmony of lead guitars playing together. But as I was working out the harmony lines with the melody lines, this sound came out of one single guitar playing. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say this sound is all in the hands. I wasn't intending to do this style, but I ended up liking this better. I am slightly embarrassed to admit it, but I got emotional while I was playing this. I couldn't see the fingerboard of the guitar anymore, so I had to play the second half just by feel with my eyes closed and a lump in my throat. In my mind, I was remembering Jimi Hendrix playing this same song at Woodstock in the vietnam era. His was a wild version, full of the noise of battle. He imitated bombs and planes, etc. This version is different, however. It is not his approach, nor is it the traditional approach. It is just what came out when I stepped up to play it.. Remembering Jimi's performance though gave me an image in my mind as I played this. It was an image of me playing a concert for the troops stationed in Iraq. It was a hot night with no breeze. There was a crowded huge field full of soldiers, men and women. It was the end of a great show, everyone had a great time, and this was the last thing they would hear before they leave. As I played it, there was not a sound. I have stood in the New Mexico desert and heard a thunderstorm from a hundred miles away. It just echoes across the desert. The sound of this guitar was doing that. The sound left the stage speakers and moved out over a sea of silent faces. All listened to this song. Some of them for the first time. There was total silence in the desert that night as just this one single guitar washed out in waves across the crowd of hearts and minds bound them all together. It was just one of those moments. You had to be there to understand.

"Thinking of Home" Version 1, 01/08/05. Sample only. This is a solo acoustic piece. It may sound like two guitars, but it's only one. Played once. No overdubs. I have simultaneously miked it, and connected it directly, so there are two feeds into two separate tracks. Then I pan them apart to create distance and space, and then add a touch of delay to create depth of field. This is the first piece recorded with this new guitar. This piece is a moment of reflection for a soldier far from home. Thinking about what his family and friends are doing right at that moment. He remembers some fun times and close moments. He remembers swimming one day last summer, and what it felt like to be immersed in clean, clear water. Cool and refreshing. He picks up his head, looks out at the dangerous night, feels the heat and feels a little homesick.

"A Moment of Clarity" Version 2, 02/23/05. A solo acoustic instrumental. This piece is the musical representation of that moment in every person's life where they look in the mirror and suddenly see themselves as others see them. That epiphany of realization is what this song is about. A moment of reckoning. That moment when you look into the mirror and look deep into your own soul and see yourself for who you are. You see all your flaws. You see where you have failed. A dream not pursued. A problem not solved. A good deed left undone. An opportunity passed by. You see what you had planned for the future, and for a moment, you see that that future has drifted away. But then, on the other hand, you also see what you HAVE done. You look back and see how far you have come. You see the good, too. The wonderful surprises, and the help unlooked-for. And when you put the whole picture together, you realize that it was supposed to happen this way. You did the things you did because you were meant to. And the people in your life are there for a reason. In the midst of all the noise and confusion and smoke and distractions of the rush of our days, every once in a while, there is a moment. A moment of silence. A moment of truth. A moment of clarity.

"You Can See So Far From Up Here" Version 3, 02/21/05. A solo acoustic instrumental. Two friends climb a mountain. Each helping the other get to the top. There are chasms to leap, overhangs to navigate, log bridges to walk.. It takes considerable time. They camp out for the night half way up. In the morning they continue climbing up, but somewhat lighter because they are leaving their camping gear in place for the trip down. Their conversation evolves as they climb. In the lower levels, it's all about sports, and their daily activities. As they get to the mid-mountain levels, they do more thinking and less talking. Now when they speak, they speak of larger issues. Politics, the economy. On the second day, as they finally near the peak, and now they begin discussing the largest issues. The world, history, people, human nature, destiny, God, the universe. As they rise up, their vision expands. Finally they reach the very peak. From here, they can see forever.