Here is an alternate take of the Bach Cello Prelude (BWV 1007) on guitar. I fell in love with the Pablo Casals recordings of the Bach cello suites a few years back. The prelude to the first suite is oft adapted for guitar, but it’s still a great piece to play. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 912ce (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD Light strings) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
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.
Here is an alternate take of “Punahoa Special,” this one recorded with a Telefunken M60 microphone. Punahoa Special is a signature showpiece of legendary slack key master Fred Punahoa. This is a song I was fortunate enough to learn directly from Led Ka’apana, one that Led had in turn learned directly from Fred himself. Though Fred Punahoa never made a full album under his own name, he did make a notable appearance on the Waimea Music Festival album, in addition to fostering amazing talents of the next generation such as Led and Sonny Lim. “Punahoa Special” is an often covered song in the slack key canon, and might also be the most popular song in Mauna Loa slack key tuning. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and a Telefunken M60 microphone.
For your listening pleasure here is another collection of Ki Ho’alu a/k/a Hawaiian Slack Key guitar instrumentals. This compilation is an alternate mix from another one recently posted on my other channel (Blue Sky Guitar), and includes a few classic chestnuts – or rather, kukui nuts maybe – as well as original songs. The songs here are both energetic and relaxed, though I’d say the overall vibe is relaxing. I like to listen to some of those longer “relaxing music” videos while working on the computer and became inspired to produce some videos featuring my own performances. Hope you enjoy.
Here is an alternate take of a slack key song I wrote called “Fronds in the Wind.” 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 11/23/15.
“Meadows” is an original song I wrote during a full moon in Kailua-Kona. I think the song was influenced by the night air and night sounds – the occasional chirp of geckos, the distant sounds of traffic on Mamalahoa Highway and the waves in the ocean. This version was probably recorded within a year of when I wrote it. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Sapele/Spruce, Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 10/9/07.
Here is an original fingerstyle tinged slack key song I wrote a number of years ago called “Lily.” Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 912ce (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb HD Light strings) and a Neumann TLM 102 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.
For your listening pleasure here is a collection of Ki Ho’alu a/k/a Hawaiian Slack Key guitar instrumentals. This compilation includes both energetic and relaxed tunes, though I’d say the overall vibe is relaxing. I like to listen to some of those longer “relaxing music” videos while working on the computer and became inspired to produce some videos featuring my own performances. Hope you enjoy.
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.