"Epiphany Road"

 

 Happy Saturday, friends.  I have something special for you today.

I’ve spun my wheels a bit on the creative front since the move to Portland.  Not surprising, given all the circumstances of course.  So I’m really pleased to bring you a recording of a new song composed by yours truly—it’s my first venture into composing instrumental music since the early summer of 2008, & a welcome return at that!

The song is called “Epiphany Road,” & I’m indebted to a dear cyber friend for both the title & the inspiration to compose the piece.  That friend is Sandy Maxey, a brilliant person who I'm fortunate indeed to know thru Twitter.  If any of you doubt that Twitter can be used to convey important information & indeed, both deep thought & observations, you clearly haven’t experienced what Sandy Maxey can do with the form.  But more importantly—as in all friendships, whether in “3-D life” or in the “virtual” sphere—there has been a chance to share on a real level.  For this, I have so much gratitude; & in the course of such a conversation, Sandy told me about a special place that she calls “Epiphany Road.” 

The name stuck with me, & I began noodling on the guitar with that conversation in mind.  This was the result—a humble piece given the amazing title, but one that I like.  It’s played on my Gold Tone wood-bodied resonator guitar tuned to open D.  It’s actually the first time I’ve ever come up with a song in an open tuning & I must admit it presents some challenges—it’s not as easy to rely on a string of extended chords to give some melodic interest for example. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have the recording equipment I used to use at my disposal anymore.  For the time being, I’m using an Olympus hand-held digital recorder—not a bad piece of equipment for what it is, but not up to the quality of the Boss workstation I’d been using.  I do have a little Sony condenser mic, which is a big step up over the Olympus’ built-in, tho again, it’s not the same quality as the mics I used when recording in Idaho.  The song is a single, “live” track.

So here is “Epiphany Road” for Sandy Maxey—& very much hope you all enjoy it too.




The photo isn’t a picture of the actual “Epiphany Road,” but rather of a road not far from where I grew up along the Saxtons River in Vermont.  It seemed to fit on a few levels.