Tag Archives: tranquil song

LIVE 083 • Wonderful Tonight (Alternate Take)

Acoustic, Classic Rock, Liveacoustic guitar, apogee one, Elixir HD Light, Eric Clapton, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, love, Neumann TLM 102, Pattie Boyd, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor, Taylor 400 series, Taylor 412ce-R, taylor grand concert, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Here is an alternate take 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 066 • Brownsboro Road, Original Fingerstyle Guitar

Acoustic, Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, Elixir strings, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Today’s song from the vaults, Brownsboro Rd., is one of the earlier fingerstyle songs that I wrote. The recording was made in an attic apartment with the windows open on a warm night and features the sound of crickets in the background. Brownsboro Road was the second track on a project I had called Signs Music Has Changed Your Life. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded in Louisville, KY. Mixed and mastered by Kevin Ratterman.

LIVE 061 • New Day

Classic Rock, Live1968, big island, Fender, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, Holualoa, Jimmie Vaughan, kailua kona, late 90’s, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Robert Keeley, stratocaster, thumbpicks, tranquil song, TS808, TS9, tubescreamer, VibroChamp

Here’s a demo of a song I wrote on electric guitar a while back. Then, as now, I played and recorded mostly acoustic fingerstyle tunes. This is one of a relatively few demos I made on electric guitar from that period in time. Hope you enjoy.

Setup is a late 90’s Fender Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster, through a Keeley tubescreamer (either a TS9 or a TS808) into a 1968 Fender VibroChamp. Recorded in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on 5/3/06.

LIVE 058 • Raindrops (Original Fingerstyle)

Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, guitar sound effects, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, raindrops, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Today’s song from the vaults, Raindrops, starts with the eponymous sound effect of individual raindrops made on the guitar. The rest of the song features recordings I made of light rain and a storm as a backdrop for the song. Raindrops was the closing track on a project I had called Signs Music Has Changed Your Life. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded in Louisville, KY. Mixed and mastered by Kevin Ratterman.

LIVE 054 • Jonquils of Spring

Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tuningsacoustic guitar, altered tunings, apogee one, Elixir HD Light, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, john hardy preamp, love, Neumann TLM 102, original fingertyle, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor, Taylor 900 series, Taylor 912ce, taylor grand concert, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

An improvised portrait, Jonquils of Spring features a melody outlined with harmonics and played with a slightly wobbly tempo. A cool sunny spring day helped bring out the mood, and relatively fresh set of strings helped bring out the chimes. Hope you enjoy.

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

LIVE 051 • Hand Dancing

Acoustic, Liveacoustic guitar, big island, fingerstyle guitar, hand dancing, Hawaii, Holualoa, kona coffee, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Taylor 310, tranquil song

Hand Dancing started out as an introductory fingerpicking study I wrote for students back when I was teaching guitar full time at a music store. I kept the song in my set for a number of years, playing it on both nylon and steel string. This version was recorded as a demo for my “Awake Again” project. The wallpaper shows me with my old Taylor 310ce that I used to record this song. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 6/20/09.

LIVE 047 • Keiki Slack Key on Steel String Guitar

Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tunings, apogee one, Elixir HD Light, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, Ki Ho'alu, love, nahenahe, Neumann TLM 102, open G, open tunings, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor, Slack Key, Taro Patch, Taylor 400 series, Taylor 412ce-R, taylor grand concert, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Not long ago, I posted a nylon string version of the Ray Kane classic “Keiki Slack Key.” Here is a similar version recorded around the same time, but on steel string guitar. Keiki Slack Key (not to be confused with the Sonny Chillingworth song of the same name) is one of the first slack key songs I transcribed, and has stayed on my setlists ever since. To me, Ray Kane is probably the best example of an ‘old style’ slack key player, and his tracks are always nahenahe. I never got to take a lesson from Ray, though I did get to speak to him and his wife Elodia on the phone once, not long before he passed – a cherished memory. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, Gotoh 510 tuners, strings are Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

LIVE 045 • Transition One (3/16/09)

Acoustic, Blue Sky Guitar, Liveacoustic guitar, big island, Elixir HD Light, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, Holualoa, kailua kona, kona coffee, love, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Here is an improvisatory piece recorded for a project I had a few years back. The idea behind the project, called “Awake Again,” was to have a handful of songs that were connected by mostly shorter and improvisatory ‘transitions’ that would act as both glue and palette cleanser between the slightly more structured songs. The wallpaper shows me with my old Taylor 310ce that I used to record this song. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 3/16/09.

LIVE 044 • Makalawena – Slack Key Guitar

Acoustic, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tunings, anchialine ponds, apogee one, big island, classical guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, Fingerstyle, Hawaii, Hawaiian coot, kailua kona, Keahole Point, Kekaha Kai State Park, Ki Ho'alu, Kona International Airport, love, Mahaiʻula Bay, makalawena, mauna loa tuning, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

I named this seemingly easygoing yet still restive song after a charmingly beautiful and relatively isolated beach on the Kona Coast. Makalawena is part of that long stretch of white sandy beaches you see right before landing at Kona International Airport at nearby Keahole Point. The beach is generally accessible via a short hike from the neighboring Mahaiʻula Bay section of Kekaha Kai State Park. I remember camping out at Makalawena as a kid, exploring the rare anchialine ponds with their delicate red shrimp, and swimming in the waters of the bay. Today still, the neighboring marsh is a protected nesting ground, home to rare birds such as the Hawaiian coot. The song’s bridge seems to capture the strange sense of converging energies that I feel in special places such as these. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 043 • Earlybird Sunrise

Acoustic, Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, altered tunings, celtic guitar, Elixir strings, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, love, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, taylor 310ce, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Today’s song is a demo from years back called “Earlybird Sunrise.” Earlybird is a fingerstyle song with an expansive palette and ambitions of invoking a wide landscape. I also thought it would be fun to pull an old photo of myself – replete with long hair – from around the time I recorded this song. I have my old Taylor 310ce in the photo – a trusty guitar – but Earlybird was probably recorded with a budget model from another brand that was nonetheless fairly playable. It’s in an alternate tuning that I haven’t used since and I can’t recall how to play the song, but I still find it fun to listen to and hope you will enjoy as well.

BlueSkyGuitar.com

Slack Key and Fingerstyle Guitar