Category Archives: Classic Rock

LIVE 157 • Meditation on Which Will (Nick Drake Guitar Part)

Nick Drake’s guitar parts (and music in general) seem to live in their own magical realm that we can tap into whenever listening to an album like Pink Moon.  I was trying a new recording set up one day and decided to see how it would sound playing my version of the guitar part from “Which Will,” which is not really meant as a note-for-note copy of the original guitar part.  Rather, I wanted to do a sort of meditation on the part and just enjoy the mellow vibes that Drake’s music always impart to me.  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 312ce (Sapele/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 103 microphone.

LIVE 149 • Bron~Yr~Aur (K22ce Alt Take)

Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song.  Written by Jimmy Page about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it.  This is an alternate version recorded on my Taylor K22ce.

Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze HD gauge set) and a Telefunken M60 microphone.

LIVE 137 • I’m on Fire (Alt Take, 412ce)

Here’s an alternate take of my arrangement of the Springsteen classic I’m on Fire.  This is a really cool little song – almost a sketch at under 3 minutes long, but it really creates a great atmosphere in that short amount of time.  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone in Honolulu, Hawai’i 2/26/15.

LIVE 141 • “Horn” Improv – Nick Drake Uke Cover

Here’s an improv around Nick Drake’s “Horn” I recorded one day between takes of another song I was working on.  Appearing as a sort of interlude on the Pink Moon album, Horn is a fascinating little study of a song in its own right.  I love the simple, atmospheric melody, and think it translated well to ukulele.  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Kamaka Koa Deluxe Tenor ukulele (Kamaka HF-3D, high G with Uke Logic Soft Tension strings and a Thomastik-Infeld CF-27 flat wound third string) and a Telefunken M60 microphone.

LIVE 140 • Bron Yr Aur (K22ce)

Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song.  Written by Jimmy Page about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it.  This version was recorded on my Taylor K22ce.

Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze HD gauge set) and a Telefunken M60 microphone.

LIVE 129 • Rumble (Link Wray, Solo Ukulele)

The restless crowd.  The slit in the speaker cone.  The distortion.  The rock glory.  One of the most influential guitar songs ever, the story of Link Wray’s “Rumble” is the stuff of legend.  I’ve always loved the song, and have covered it on guitar (and taught it as a guitar teacher), but something made me want to try it on uke to see if some of the attitude would still filter through – regardless of the instrument.  I think it does.  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Pono Acacia Tenor Deluxe (ATD) ukulele and a Line Audio CM4 microphone.

LIVE 134 • Every Breath You Take by The Police

Here is a fingerstyle cover of “Every Breath You Take,” the hypnotic signature tune from The Police.  Many stories surround the writing, recording, and subsequent success of the song – for example one interesting tidbit is that Sting apparently wrote the song while sitting at Ian Fleming’s writing desk on his famous Goldeneye estate in Jamaica.  With its classic guitar part, “Every Breath” has a mellow / dreamy feel seemingly at odds with its borderline creepy lyrics – though some may find the song is a tad less sinister as an instrumental 🙂  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) a single Beyerdynamic MC 930 microphone in Honolulu, Hawai’i 8/25/14.

LIVE 108 • Wonderful Tonight Remix

Here is a remix of my fingerstyle rendition of Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.  Eric wrote the song about his then-wife Pattie Boyd, who had already inspired great songs from Eric and previous husband George Harrison.  This song has been the theme to many a high school prom, and its simple yet tasteful melody has held up over the years.  In keeping with that, my arrangement here is fairly straight forward: it doesn’t move around the neck very much or have any unusual chord voicings.  Hope you enjoy it.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone in Honolulu, Hawaii 4/27/15.

LIVE 111 • Harvest Moon (alternate take)

Here is an alternate take of my fingerstyle arrangement of Harvest Moon, the titular song from the great early 90’s Neil Young album.  In era when some of his peers were merely coasting along, Neil was doing some of his best work.  Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone in Honolulu, Hawai’i 9/7/15.

LIVE 103 • Bron-Yr-Aur (912ce)

Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song. Written about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it. This version was recorded on my Taylor 912ce.

Recorded with a Taylor 912ce (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD Light strings) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.