Irish Well Wishes is an improvisation inspired by my love of Ireland and the Irish people. When I recorded this, I had recently been reflecting on my visit to Ireland years ago; the beauty of the land and the warmth of the Irish people is often talked about and portrayed in various films, etc., but actually traveling there I found it really did meet and exceed expectations (and yes, it really was ‘that green’). Also, at the time of recording this, I had been listening to a fair amount of Tony McManus and Martin Simpson – all of this gave rise to the improvisation here around some pieces of melody from Danny Boy and various other Celtic guitar ideas. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.Music by Nick Borho, all rights reserved.
Acacia Improv is an outtake of some improvisation done one day while I was recording “Acacia Just Noticed.”That song as well as this short little improv were meant to highlight the koa guitar’s warm low-mid tone with a touch of sparkle in the treble register, to bring out the characteristic warmth and sweetness of the wood.Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 103 microphone.
Acacia Just Noticed came to me one day while improvising on my koa guitar.Once aged a little, koa (part of the Acacia family, thus the titular play on words) imparts a warm low-mid tone with a touch of sparkle.Sometimes, depending on how you’re playing, koa can be a little thin and bright, but here I’m playing without a pick and using part of the pads of my fingers to soften things up – especially useful with some of the snappy parts here.Along with that, I feel like the the two sections of this song are played in registers that particularly lend themselves to bringing out warmth and sweetness of koa.The overall combination of these elements melds together in a way that I felt made the wood shine through, thus the nod in the title.Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Line Audio CM4 small diaphragm condenser microphone.
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.
Like many, my first exposure to Cyril’s solo recordings came through his amazing albums recorded for the Dancing Cat label, including the “6 & 12 String Slack Key” album on which “Young Street Blues” is featured. This particular song was highlighted for me in Mark Hanson’s excellent book of slack key transcriptions, which featured this among other songs by Cyril and other slack key legends.
The liner notes to the album tell a story of Cyril writing the song at a recording studio on Young Street in 1991. I seem to recall another story, told by Cyril at a performance, about Cyril living in an apartment on Young Street and feeling kind of restless. Young Street, starts (or ends) in Honolulu’s Mo’ili’ili neighborhood, running between King Street and Beretania, through Makiki, to Thomas Square Park near the Honolulu Museum of Art. I recall Cyril talking along the lines of how Young Street was sandwiched between these prominent streets and landmarks in a kind of limbo, being neither here nor there. I think the song (and ‘that note’) speak to such a restless vibe… but also a sense of playfulness.
Unusually for his solo work, Cyril uses Taro Patch tuning – the most common slack key tuning, but not one featured as often as the C and D tunings Cyril favored. Cyril’s style is at once both muscular and nuanced, with deep tunings and sometimes the added jangle of a 12 string guitar – it’s a ‘large’ sound. I tried to capture that feel here by tuning down to a lower register. This song was fun to play and record. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Telefunken M60 small diaphragm condenser microphone.
Alternately titled “Paia Morning” or “Paia Kakahiaka,” the song “Morning in Paia” began life as the harmonic laden intro/outro figure and grew into the mellow yet energetic song here. Paia Morning captures some of the mellow yet entrancing vibes of a morning in Paia, Maui: you start out strolling the sidewalks – still sparsely populated this time of day – perhaps pick up some fresh fruit from Mana Foods while catching a little bit of local news at the North Shore outpost, or head up the road a short ways to Island Fresh Café for some breakfast nosh. Next, travel back down the road to grab coffee at Paia Bay Coffee or Anthony’s, maybe taking a meditative stroll along the sand at Paia Bay before wrapping up with lunch at Flatbread Company or Café des Amis. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Telefunken M60 small diaphragm condenser microphone.
Here’s an isolated track that I recorded for a collaboration a few years ago. That particular collaboration didn’t end up coming together, so I thought I would release this track as a stand alone piece. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Line Audio CM4 microphone.
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.
Here’s a recently found recording where I’m improvising some ideas around Leonard Kwan’s classic slack key song Opihi Moemoe. One of the most popular songs in the slack key repertoire, this song has been covered by everyone from Ledward Kaapana to Chet Atkins. Opihi MoeMoe is a fun piece that lends itself well to improvised variations, and everyone seems to bring something a little different to this deceptively simple song. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir HD Light gauge set) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.
Here is an early version of my song “Fair Wind,” recorded not long after I wrote it. There is a boat of the same name that ran snorkel / dive cruises to Kealakekua Bay out of Keauhou Bay – still does – and my parents took me and my friends for a cruise on it for a number of my birthdays.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir strings) and a Line Audio CM4 microphone.