Song Of The Week Dec 15 - Dec 21: Song For A Winter's Night

Again, dear reader, my apologies. I took a mini-sabbatical from The Sonic Landscape at the end of November, and when you take a break from something that isn't required for the sustenance of your family, it's sometimes hard to jump back into it. I am, however, pretty excited about this SOTW; it's part one of a two-week Christmas series that my wife encouraged me to write. I've noticed that things generally go better when I follow her advice.

I guess this is also a shout-out to my peeps in Canada, y'all (wait...maybe I'm not racially qualified to use that language...), since the artists involved hail from Ontario and Nova Scotia. "Song For A Winter's Night" is the name our featured track, and it was written by one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Gordon Lightfoot. Unfortunately, you probably know him because of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," but don't be afraid. He has so much more to offer. He originally recorded "Song For A Winter's Night" in 1967 as part of his LP The Way I Feel. We won't focus on that recording, but we will examine Sarah McLachlan's cover of the song from her 2006 release Wintersong.

My first exposure to McLachlan's music was when I was in junior high. My older sister got into McLachlan's fourth album Surfacing, and at the time, I didn't pay much attention. It wasn't until a few months ago that I came across the album again and realized just how good it was. It has some of the most beautifully arranged tracks I've heard, and Sarah McLachlan's voice is one of the loveliest in contemporary music. Anyway, rediscovering Surfacing was like the experience of learning a new word and then immediately noticing how often people use it; I started becoming much more conscious of McLachlan's work, and that's why I noticed her 2006 release Wintersong. Holiday albums give artists an open-ended opportunity to brand themselves as either cheesy or classy, and McLachlan definitively chose the latter path with Wintersong.

McLachlan employs her richly expressive vocals to re-tell Lightfoot's account of wintry-love-gone-abroad. When I listen to the song, I picture a mountain cabin that's been flanked by snowdrifts. Inside, we find a sparsely furnished room with a single table and chair. I also picture a dusty kerosene lamp on the table. For me, the most compelling part of the song is the fact that the lonesome narrator stays up all night as she reads the love letter she's received. McLachlan really envisioned herself in this role, and the proof is in the pudding: if you weren't familiar with Lightfoot's original, you'd think that McLachlan had written the track from personal experience. Yet another example of great musical artistry... she took an old song and made it new again, but in an authentic way. So until next week, enjoy this great version of "Song For A Winter's Night," and here's hoping that you all have someone to snuggle up to. It's cold outside.

Song Of The Week Nov 24 - Nov 30: People Get Ready

Every once in a while, songs come along that speak right to your soul. These songs feel right. They feel good. And they feel natural, even on the first listen. I found one of those songs this week, and it's one that you may have heard before. It was originally recorded by The Impressions back in 1965 and Seal has given the track new life on his new album, appropriately titled Soul. The song is called "People Get Ready," and it's the Song Of The Week for November 24 - November 30.

Seal has been one of my favorite artists since I started listening to his music in the mid '90s. In our pop-saturated sonic atmosphere, there are few artists left whose work can be called legitimately authentic, but "authentic" is the word that comes to mind whenever I listen to Seal's music. Can you really compare "Kiss From A Rose" to any other song you've ever heard? Think about it. I try to pay attention whenever Seal does anything new, because I know it's going to be unique.

I believe that even muses have muses of their own. The honest artists will pay homage to their inspirations, many times in the form of covered songs or tribute albums. Those who know me will also know that Eric Clapton is the reason I started playing the guitar. And yet, the first experience I had with Clapton's music, the Unplugged album, was actually an example of him paying his respects to his own musical heroes. As he covers songs written by his distant tutors, Clapton honors and perpetuates the music they lived. Hearing Clapton play old blues music taught me early on that the artist who remembers his musical ancestors will also be remembered. I began to realize that the music I loved wasn't created in a vacuum, but was part of a chain that had been forged almost 50 years before.

This "chain" concept clearly guided the creation of Seal's sixth studio album, Soul. He examines the music that has guided his musical wanderings and formed the foundation for some of his most memorable tunes. The album's closing track, "People Get Ready" is by no means obscure, but Seal still manages to take a well-known Impressions track and introduce it to a whole new generation of grateful listeners. It's a singular performance and the arrangement is powerful, but that's not why I love the track; for me, it was the message of this song that create immediate interest, which brings me to my final point.

"People Get Ready" is a song for all the heavy laden. It's for the people who are trying to do what's right but still make mistakes. Those people may sometimes even wonder if God's love is sufficient to save them. But the message of this song is that there is room enough for all people who are willing to do what it takes to board God's train. "You don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord" say the lyrics. The inspired words are reminiscent of Another who invited "every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." It's clear that the Lord's plan is not a game of musical chairs. Sincere participants will not be left alone. It's a truth that many people need in the world today, and it's a concept that has helped me keep pushing forward even when things were difficult.

So give Seal's version of "People Get Ready" a listen and think about the message of the song. And from The Sonic Landscape, I wish everone a very happy Thanksgiving on this slightly-more-enlightening installment of Song Of The Week. Until next time.

I Quit!!!

Some people have the ability to make me cry just by being awesome. This is one of those people. His name is Zack Kim Yong Woon, and his talent is both inspiring and depressing. He even has his own Wikipedia page. Here's a clip of Zack in action for all you Simpsons fans. Watch this video and if you feel completely devoid of talent afterward, you're not alone; I'm now thinking of taking up knitting instead of guitar.

Some REAL Music

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post something that isn't entirely related to the rest of The Sonic Landcape. But for a new father, this was music to my ears. Check it out.



This little guy's name is Jack, and he's pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread (which was first introduced commercially in the US on July 7, 1928).

Song Of The Week Nov 17 - Nov 23: Back In Black

Question: What do you get when you combine the untimely death of a lead singer, electricity, high volume, an odd affinity for schoolboy uniforms, aggressive guitar solos, Australia, and a new lead singer who sounds like he's been gargling steel wool and washing it down with broken glass milkshakes? The answer, of course, is AC/DC and their 1980 album Back In Black. This edition of SOTW focuses on that album's classic title track.

A little background first. In February 1980, AC/DC had already released 6 studio albums when unexpectedly, their lead singer Bon Scott died under legendary circumstances, a la Jimi Hendrix. In the aftermath of Scott's death, the rest of the band briefly considered calling it quits. However, an Englishman with a common name and an uncommon voice successfully auditioned to replace Scott shortly thereafter. His name was Brian Johnson, and you've probably never heard anyone with a voice quite like his. He's probably the only vocalist whose sound is simultaneously horrible and awesome, and he's been with the band ever since.

After Johnson got the nod from the remaining members of AC/DC, they got to work and a mere 5 months after Bon Scott's death, Back In Black was released as the band's seventh studio album. By the way, this album is the second-best-selling album of all time, with 42 million copies sold. It's second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller. As a tribute to Bon Scott, the band chose a black facade for the album and wrote a title track specifically for him.


"Back In Black" rocks from start to finish, and truth be told, you'd be hard-pressed to find a track that crams more intensity into 4 minutes and 16 seconds. When you've got a song with really solid rhythm, Brian Johnson's singular vocal execution, and Angus Young's gut-busting guitarwork, you've got the kind of music that instantly becomes part of the canon of classic rock. Listen to Angus Young's solo starting at 1:49. That kind of vibrato is not easy to create; even slow vibrato takes a lot of hand strength. And the riff that starts at 2:19 is unmistakable. But a track like "Back In Black" is about as subtle as an A-bomb; to really appreciate this song, you can't endlessly analyze and ponder. You must crank up the volume and remember that "Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Enjoy.

Add THIS Puppy To Your Wish List

A while back I posted some info about Gibson's so-called Robot Guitar. Well, I recently found something thank makes the Robot Guitar look like something you could win playing skee-ball down at Chuck E. Cheese's. Behold Martin's D-100 Deluxe:

Impressed by the pictures? Well, it gets better. The body of this guitar is made of Brazilian Rosewood. For those of you who don't know, the harvesting and trade of Brazilian Rosewood was banned by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in the early 1990's. Consequently, both the price and desirability of this excellent tonewood skyrocketed in the following years. Legally, you can only make an instrument out of Brazilian Rosewood if the wood was harvested prior to the CITES-imposed ban date. Since the ban, many guitar players had to settle for the almost-as-good but more-affordable East Indian Rosewood. My Martin D 16-R is made of East Indian Rosewood, and I love it.

A word about the term "tonewood": You can get different sounds from an instrument depending on the type of wood you use to build it. For example, violins are traditionally made of spruce and maple. The spruce is used for the front or "soundboard," and maple is what gives the back of a violin that cool, undulating shine. Over time, luthiers found that spruce in particular provided the clear, delicate tone that violinists sought. Guitar builders went though similar steps to discover wood varieties that yielded specific tones. For more info about tonewoods for acoustic guitars, click here.

Back to the D-100 Deluxe. As you can see in the top pictures, the wood itself (the guitar back in particular) is inlaid with semi-precious materials like mother of pearl, tourmaline and abalone. The tuning machines and bridge pins are made of solid 14-Karat gold, and perhaps the most mind-blowing of all, the nut (the part that holds the strings just below the head of the guitar) is made of fossilized mastadon ivory. That's right...elephant-like animals in the Pliocene epoch of the Cenozoic period proudly gave their tusks for the production of these guitars! I wonder if PETA has anything to say about using animal products that are 4 million years old... anyway, we're getting sidetracked again.

So what would a little six-string like this cost? $1000? $5000? $10,000? Nope. You'd have to have some blackmail-worthy material on the president of Martin Guitars to get a price like that. To take this beut home, you'll probably have to take out a second mortgage on your house. Seriously. The listed price on Martin's website is $109,999.00. Makes the $3,500 price tag for Gibson's Robot Guitar seem a lot more reasonable, huh? To get up close and personal with the D-100 Deluxe, click here. Then get back to reality. This guitar isn't for people like us.

Song of the Week Nov 10 - Nov 16: Sets Of Two

This edition of SOTW has personal meaning for me. Why, you ask, dear reader? Well, I decided that I want to start slipping one of my own songs into the mix every once in a while, so this SOTW is special because it's the first time I've done anything on a song that was uniquely mine.

It all started back in 2001. I was a junior in high school and I had already been playing the guitar for a few years. I hadn't written anything yet and was still just trying to learn some of my favorite Collective Soul tunes. I enrolled in an intermediate guitar class, the curriculum of which ended in a songwriting unit. For a few weeks, we learned about the basics of songwriting, chord progressions, lyrics, and "hooks" (catchy parts in songs). Ultimately, our assignment was to write our own song and do the best we could to use the composition tools we had been given. I worked for a week or so and eventually came up with a song I later named "Sets Of Two." It was a simple song about a guy's declaration of love for his girl, typical of high school romance. I wrote it to complete the class requirement, but fortunately I had a very supportive teacher named Mr. Murphy who suggested that I not forget the song.

I took Mr. Murphy's advice and made sure that I saved the lyrics to the song (it was a good move, because the lyrics you write aren't always as memorable as you think they are). Years went by and I didn't think much more of "Sets Of Two." Eventually I got married and as I started looking though my old songwriting notes, I found the lyrics and chord progression for the song. Understandably, my thoughs on love had changed quite a bit since high school, especially after I got married. I married one of the sweetest, kindest, most artistic girls I've ever known; she's a person who really understands what love is and how to show it. Anyway, she helped me to take a second look at "Sets Of Two" and the more I thought about it, the more fun I was having as I rediscovered the first song I ever wrote. I've included the lyrics below:

Life can be traumatic in this world of tears
It seems we all need someone to quiet all our fears
Melodies fall short and words cannot convey
The feelings that ran through me when you ran by that day

And have you ever wondered in your heart of hearts
If love was overrated, would people play these parts?
I don't want to be alone, so what I'm telling you
Is folks should live their lives in sets of two

Well, life goes on and love is strong; we will be alright
Tribulations wither as long as you're in sight
The seed of love, once planted, will slowly learn to grow
And I'm new to this love game, but when you get hit you know

And folks can't go on living without a constant friend
And you might be surprised at the pain that love can mend
So have a little faith in me; give this thing a try
Burdens will be lifted as we begin to fly

Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to record the song as part of an album called Shady Porch Sessions that I was working on. I wasn't quite satisfied with the original arrangement; I considered it a little slow, so I sped it up a little and added some bright backing guitars. I had also been toying around with a guitar part you would almost expect to hear in a punk song. I wasn't sure about including it, but I recorded it anyway and was happy with the result. This is the guitar you hear entering at 0:25.

The aspect of the tune I most wanted to emphasize was its celebratory nature; I wanted to really bring out the fact that true love can make us feel happier than just about anything else. I kept the guitars as bright as I could and used a metronome to maintain the tempo. I also worked hard to continually build the emotional progression of the song. Finally, I decided to end the song the way The Eagles ended the live version of "Hotel California" from their Hell Freezes Over album: with several rapid, even shots of the same chord. The end result almost had a front porch jam session feel, and I was happy to include it in the final album.

In closing, I hope you'll overlook the song's relative musical simpicity and juvenile lyrics and focus instead on its overall message. Personally, I'm happier now with my wife and baby than at any other time in my life, and I know that it's because I feel their love and I'm doing my best to make sure they feel mine, too. "Sets Of Two" for me is a meeting of the music and the people I care about most. So until next time, thanks for reading and we'll see you back at The Sonic Landscape soon.

Song of the Week Nov 3 - Nov 9: Free Fallin'

I begin this week's post with yet another apology. I've heard reports that my version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" isn't loading up properly. I'm taking a look at some alternate file hosting services and so I hope to have things fixed in the next couple days.

On to business. SOTW comes to us from none other than John Mayer. To me, Mayer is a contemporary example of a musician who successfully bucked the "prettyboy-pop-singer-with-a-guitar-as-a-prop" image. When he first entered the scene, critics dubbed him "Dave Matthews Lite" and truly, Mayer bristled at the label. Mayer's debut album Room For Squares was partially to blame; with its neutered guitar fills and the college freshman anthem "No Such Thing," it created a first impression that was less-than-substantial (not that the album lacked substantial sales, but that it just lacked substance). I saw Mayer live back in '02 shortly after the release of Room For Squares and it seemed from his dialogue between songs and his onstage antics that he was very anxious to distance himself from his prettyboy image. It was understandable then, that Mayer sought to create a sophomore album that brought more legitimacy to the table than Room For Squares had. The appropriately titled Heavier Things was like Mayer saying "It's not what you think!" to all those who had weighed Room For Squares and found it wanting.

Mayer did well. He was also fortunate enough to pal around (musically, at least) with the likes of blues legends BB King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton. I think this did wonders for his musical direction. Take Clapton, for example: notoriously shy, always the leader-follower in each of his bands, he managed to define himself by his music rather than by his on-stage persona. Under the tutelage of such guitar greats, Mayer's true nature as a bluesman started to emerge. The albums Heavier Things, Try! and Continuum all allowed Mayer the latitude he needed to flesh out his repertoire as he wanted to, and not merely as dictated by the requirements of his record label.

Eventually, Mayer had progressed to the point where it was time for the obligatory live album; the John Mayer version is entitled Where The Light Is. The recording was made at the L.A. Live Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on December 8, 2007. Mayer divided his concert into three sets: the first was an acoustic sampler, the second featured the John Mayer Trio (Mayer on guitar and vocals, Steve Jordan on drums and backing vocals, and Pino Palladino on bass guitar and backing vocals), and the last set included most of the musicians involved in the recording of the Continuum album. Our song this week comes from the first of the three sets. Mayer chose to end the acoustic set with a soulful cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Free Fallin'," and Mayer's version has a serious chance of becoming my favorite rendition.

Mayer's take on the track lacks the bright musical color of the Tom Petty's 1989 original. Petty's track opens with an almost-triumphant sweep of acoustics and in fact, the entire track lacks the regretful quality that the lyrics would suggest. Mayer, on the other hand, gives an amazingly genuine performance, full of remorse and all the baggage one would associate with a "heartbreaker." I like the bare-essentials sound of Mayer's take as well. By arranging the track around a simple trio of guitars and including only the occasional harmonizing vocal, Mayer pulls away all the frills and we are left with the confessional monologue of a mournful bad boy. Mayer's vocal execution is flawless as well; his gritty midrange narrates the story and when it's chorus time, his effortless falsetto is the perfect compliment to the phrase "free fallin'."

So once again, I hope you enjoy this belated edition of SOTW. I've included both the Tom Petty and John Mayer versions this week for comparison. And while the lyrics and chord progressions are identical, to me this post demonstrates that a great storyteller can take a classic tale and make it seem new again; Mayer achieves this with "Free Fallin'." Until next time, keep listening and thanks for checking out The Sonic Landscape.

Song of the Week Oct 27 - Nov 2: Telephone Line

I'm sorry. Last week was a little crazy. I usually set Sundays aside for writing SOTW but last week, my wife, son and I were mobbed by family (we were okay with that)... so consequently, The Sonic Landscape found itself neglected and alone. But I guess no one is employing me to make regular posts, so I can't be fired, right? That's probably not the right attitude. I apologize to you, my one reader.

Let's press on, shall we? I'm pretty excited about this week. My last post dealt with George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and the song we'll focus on this week was actually written by a friend of his, a bloke named Jeff Lynne. Lynne was one of the founding members of a 70's/80's rock group called Electric Light Orchestra. The premise for the band's creation was to create rock music that was infused with classical instruments like cello and violin. The idea is by no means unique with our contemporary artists, but for musicians of the late 1960's, it was still a pretty groundbreaking concept. The other band of note that had dabbled in orchestrations were The Beatles, and that was only because of the influence of the creepy Phil Spector (McCartney hated the resulting sound anyway; "The Long And Winding Road" was a prime example). At any rate, The Beatles had gone the way of the dodo by 1970 so other artists were left to continue the expedition into uncharted sonic territories.

The Electric Light Orchestra were originally panned in their native England, but soon found a loyal following across the pond in America. This week's track comes from their sixth album, A New World Record. I didn't choose this song because it exemplifies ELO's "sound" (listen to "Don't Bring Me Down" or "Bluebird" for that). I chose it because they used the sound they had already popularized and gave a really classy nod to the doo-wop style of the 50's. The result is nothing short of awesome.

The track opens with everthing you'd expect from an ELO track: electronic tones, synthesizers, and sampled telephone loops. The effect on Jeff Lynne's vocals even resembles a voice heard through a telephone. I also really like how you can hear the similarities between the writing styles of George Harrison and Jeff Lynne; when Lynne starts singing at 0:27, sing the opening lyrics to Harrison's "Something" and you'll hear that the first three chords are identical. If you listen closely, you'll also notice how the telephone effect gradually fades from Lynne's vocals, eventually disappearing around 0:41. The orchestrations surge shortly thereafter and really become a primary element, much like the strings in "Something."

At 1:32, however, everything changes. We break away from the aftermath of Beatlesmania and are brought back to the local malt shop. Lynne and company pull off a series of "doo-wops" that are so good, you almost forget that they're employing a style that was popularized twenty years before. The section is smooth, poly-harmonic, and vocally-driven--everything a good doo-wop track should be. Then, just as soon as it begins, the section ends and at 2:31 we revert back to the electronic ambience. This pattern repeats itself, and we're immersed in doo-wop alchemy again until the song fades. I love every second of this track. I've included "Don't Bring Me Down" just for reference, but listen closely to "Telephone Line" and you'll hear why Electric Light Orchestra was such a great band.

Song Of The Week Oct 13-19: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Those who know me personally are probably already familiar with my respect for a little-known foursome out of Liverpool, England known as The Beatles. You'd be hard-pressed to find another music group that wrote so prolifically or accomplished so much in such a short a period of time. In essentially 8 years together, they released 12 studio albums, 18 compilation albums, 13 extended plays, and 25 singles. 11 of their studio albums reached #1 on the charts and 27 of their tracks became #1 hits. To date, they have sold over 500 million records and continue to influence the artists of today.

Given their huge notoriety and the volume of work already dedicated to them, you may wonder why I would bother to write about The Beatles at all. I guess we could ask the same thing about Shakespeare. Only the Bible has been translated into more languages or published in more countries. Also, there are literally truckloads of scholarly work on the man and his plays. Japan alone has published nearly as many scholarly articles on Shakespeare's work as the entire English-speaking world! This is quite a feat, given the fact that he didn't write in a universally accessible medium like music; something within his work was able to survive translation and remain relevant even in cultures that were far-removed from his, like Japan. And yet we continue to quote him, talk about his life, analyze his characters, and stage his plays. Occasionally, an artist or group of artists is able to transcend normal expectations and produce something that is truly remarkable. When that happens, they create a dialogue that never really disappears from the collective consciousness. So it is with The Beatles, our "musical Shakespeares."

With the above justification, I forge ahead with a special threefold Song Of The Week. This week's edition focuses on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the 1968 release The Beatles (commonly referred to as The White Album due to its stark white cover). Unlike most Beatles originals, the song was penned by George Harrison and not the usual John Lennon/Paul McCartney duo. When I first started listening to The Beatles when I was in junior high, I was drawn to McCartney's ballads and vocal abilities, but over time, I started to realize that Harrison was the unsung hero of the band(Ringo was just lucky). This week, I've included three versions of the song: the original, an updated demo released on the album Love, and (ahem) a cover that I recorded in the summer of 2007. What I'm trying to show is that the same Beatles track continues to undergo adaptations, just as many of Shakespeare's plays have.

One of the reasons why "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is so cool is that it is a musical intersection of two of the great rock influences: The Beatles and Eric Clapton. The White Album era was a volatile one for The Beatles; Paul was becoming increasingly controlling, John was John, and Ringo even temporarily left the band (a crippling loss, to be sure; do I sound sarcastic?). In the midst of increasing tension amongst band members, George felt a sense of frustration as time after time, his material was pushed aside by the Lennon/McCartney duo. According to Clapton, he and Harrison had struck up a friendship and one day, Harrison took him out for a drive, eventually arriving at Abbey Road Studios in London. He told Clapton that he wanted him to make a guest appearance on a song they were recording. Clapton was shocked and didn't even have a guitar with him at the time; he had to borrow Harrison's in the studio. Clapton's solo is what makes the song for me; he actually made the guitar sound like it was weeping. Apparently, Clapton laid down the lead guitar in one take and that was the recording that would appear on The White Album. That is also the track I've included first on the playlist.



We now fast-forward 38 years. Lennon and Harrison were gone and McCartney and Starr were both working on solo projects. Cirque du Soleil was in production of a show called Love and with McCartney and Starr's approval, had enlisted the help of former Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles. The father-son team used elements from more than 130 Beatles recordings to remix well-know classics like "Yesterday," "All You Need Is Love" and "Get Back," among many others. Of particular interest for us was a demo version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that featured Harrison on vocals and acoustic guitar and a harpsichord as backup. The Martins cleaned up the original recording and the nearly-deaf George Martin composed a rich string arrangement to deepen the track. The resulting effect is hauntingly beautiful: we get the tragic verses followed by the major-key chorus plus an extra verse that was apparently discarded when the full band recorded the song in the studio. This version is what inspired my own cover and is also included in the playlist below.

The third iteration included here was actually recorded at a tiny apartment I lived in just after I got married. I was already familiar with the Love version of the song and while I was learning to use some new recording equipment I had recently bought, my wife suggested that I record my own version of the song. I chose a key that would work for me vocally, then sat down and began to record the principal rhythm track on my guitar. I wanted to broaden the sound of the backup guitars, so I used different chords in order to produce notes and combinations that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. By this point, the momentum had picked up and I was thoroughly immersed in the arrangement process. I started to experiment with different lead guitar lines. I wanted to create something that was like a hybrid of the White Album and the Love versions: acoustically driven, but with prominent guitar fills pushing the song forward. I also wanted to preserve that haunting quality of the Love version, so I put a lot of reverb on the tracks to create a very open, resonant sound. Finally, I took a few takes to lay down the lead vocal. I decided to include the previously-discarded last verse from Harrison's demo version. I really like the line about looking "from the wings of the play you are staging" and the lyric seems especially appropriate, given all the Shakespeare allusions I've already made. I finished mixing the track and the result is what I've posted below. I had a lot of fun with it.

This is what made me want to start writing about music in the first place: truly great songs that perpetually maintain their relevance. I could have chosen any one of dozens of Beatles tracks for this edition of SOTW, but I was fortunate enough to have had some personal experience with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Anyway, I hope you enjoy all three versions of this very cool song. Until next time.

Robot Guitar

I thought everyone would enjoy this. It's basically awesome. On Dec 7 2007, Gibson USA released a line of guitars that sported a feature previously unheard of: a mechanism that allowed the instruments to tune themselves. This is the stuff of dreams for players seeking a no-hassle approach to keeping guitars in tune or using alternate tunings. For non-players, it's still pretty cool. The mechanism comes on a variety of body styles and you can even retro-fit a standard guitar if you want to.You can also visit Gibson's website for more info and a closer look at the available styles. I guess we'll have to sit tight until luthiers develop guitars that can play themselves. Check out the video below to see the amazing robot guitar in action.

Song Of The Week Oct 6-12: Waiting In The Weeds

Okay folks, I've finally gotten around to getting this ball rolling. For my first "song of the week" I've chosen "Waiting In The Weeds" from The Eagles' recent album Long Road Out Of Eden. The album is pretty cool for me, especially given the huge gap between their last studio album and this one (about 20 years). Even cooler though, is the fact that they're still really good. By their own admission, The Eagles took a serious look at whether they were even going to push ahead with the album, given the fact that other classic rockers have employed reunion-style tactics with less-than-graceful results. Like Stallone's Rocky Balboa, The Eagles are able to prove with Long Road Out Of Eden that they're still able to "go the distance" in a way that is truly respectable.

I've chosen "Waiting In The Weeds" because I figure that people who are casually familiar with the album will have already heard "How Long" and "Just Too Busy Being Fabulous" (two of the obligatory singles from the album). At 7:46, it's by no means a radio-friendly track. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like it. "Radio edits" are a necessary evil for artists seeking airtime and sometimes perfectly good tracks have to go under the knife in order to fit time constraints. "Waiting In The Weeds" is so far over the 3:30-ish target radio time that it's pretty refreshing to hear. The Eagles let this song go as long as it needed to and the result is satisfying, to say the least.

"Waiting" has all the elements you would expect to hear on a great Eagles track: smoky Don Henley vocals, perfect five-part harmonies, delicate mandolin fills, great guitar work, and solid keyboards. The chord progressions on this track are so lovely that the 7:46 song length feels a lot quicker that it really is. Equally nice are the lyrics, especially the second-to-last stanza; the images of ocean tides, the changing moon, the ever-beating heart, and the repetitive egg-and-dart molding portray the plight of an unfortunate lover who is reminded of the constant passage of time by the patterns all around him.

I loved Long Road Out Of Eden, and "Waiting In The Weeds" is a gem among gems. Lie back, close your eyes, and listen to this great story-in-a-song.

First Post Ever

As the above title suggests, this is the first of what I hope will be a long series of posts. I want this blog to be mostly about music, but since there are some pretty big events going on in my life right now (my wife Rachel and I are expecting our first baby, due Aug 12), I can't really guarantee that only musical items will appear. Anyway, I hope that through this blog I'm able to share my passion for what I consider to be one of the most powerful media around! I'll be reviewing albums, choosing a "song of the week," sharing musical experiences, looking at cool gear... that kind of thing. Feel free to post replies and share your feelings too. Enjoy!