“tierra de paz” open G tuning
this one is also from 2008, would have been shortly after returning from Portland and experimenting further with this tuning. always liked it. very happy and pretty and idyllic.
you could probably use it after that last one.
“everybody dies alone”, open G minor tuning (DGDGB♭D)
i’m afraid you can hear me clear my throat at about 2:20.
wrote and recorded this last fall.
i don’t really know what to say about this one. hearing it again put me in a strange mood, i haven’t heard it since i recorded it. i’ll be damned, one of my own songs got to me.
i was listening to Bob Dylan at the time, and i was all ‘damn, when this dude writes songs he tells you a fucking STORY’. so i wanted to write something that told a story. although it’s kind of a strange, hallucinogenic story. i was probably looking at too many fucked up pictures on tumblr.
oh yeah, and for some reason Donnie Darko was in my head. i think lines from that movie popped into two songs in that period. i can’t remember what the other one was, though.
“portland lament”, open g tuning (DGDGBD)
it’s not really a lament, i just like the sound of it. i have a song called santa rosa lament too, which i’ve never recorded. they’re just named after the cities in which they’re written. this is a pretty happy, kick back little tune. i don’t know how to describe the mood of it.
a couple of friends of mine from high school moved up to Portland Oregon and a friend and i went up to visit them once in 2008. the one guy there, shane, is also a guitar player, and when he heard i liked alternate tunings, he asked if i ever played in open g.
i told him i’d never been able to make heads or tails of it. the fact that the low string wasn’t the root threw me off (although i’ve since solved that dilemma). “no problem,” shane said, “just don’t use it. that’s keith richards’ favorite tuning, and i think he straight takes that string off. here, i’ll show you some chord shapes.”
and from those chord shapes i wrote this tune essentially that afternoon.
thank you, shane.
“shoe tree”, DADFCE tuning (i think)
this is another song i thought i’d uploaded. written in 2011, it was inspired partly by reading apocryphal apocalyptic literature, and in part by true events. years ago on a roadtrip, a buddy and i drove across nevada and saw a random tree in the barren landscape full of generations of discarded shoes outside of a little town called Fallon. i remembered the tree and googled it one day only to find an article about it, saying it had been cut down. and it had not been cut down by walmart to build a parking lot, or by the government in some sort of bullshit highway beautification project. just some random anonymous douchebag, with nothing better to do, chopping down a local landmark.
“renewing of the vows”
DGDGAD tuning, capo on the 4th fret.
i called it “renewing of the vows” because this melody came right out after essentially not playing since last fall. i was sort of “renewing” my guitar playing, and my mind came up with that title and i tend not to question things further.
it’s sort of a finished work in progress, if that makes sense. i would typically expand on the melody, stretch it out. this is the basics. but i sort of like it as is, and have felt no need to add to it (although i may one day in the future).
“something comes; i’m torn”
this one’s from about 2010. D minor tuning, DADFAD (i think, lol)
i thought i’d uploaded it a long time ago but i went to reblog it from myself and cram your dash and it wasn’t there so i apparently had never gotten around to it.
til now
DGDGAD no 4
capo on the 4th fret.
just composed this one the other day. no words as yet, but it’s pretty as fuck.
“Superbowl Sunday” DADGA#D tuning, instrumental
this is called ‘superbowl sunday’ because i wrote it (the first part anyway) on superbowl sunday, 2010. while everyone else was shouting belligerently at the tv screen, i was working this melody out. it’s very out of character for my type of melody, so i was doubly excited. walked down to a liquor store and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate. then i had to walk back to see if they sold some kind of corkscrew, cuz i sure as hell didn’t have one.
“Incomprehensible Demoralization”
EAC#EAC# tuning (open A)
wrote this in November of 2011 (the melody is from earlier that year, maybe the spring). the song’s about facing all your bullshit (or, my bullshit) now that you’re not hiding it beneath bourbon and coke. and yes i rip off Eric Satie in the intro.
“CACGCE song” this is an instrumental that dates back to either late ‘04 or early ‘05 that i’ve always loved but just never got around to recording till now.
