Guitar Emporium

It runs across the northern coast line of Spain - I don't enjoy driving much these days - but here you can't help but enjoy these surprisingly uncluttered roads,that stretch right across the top of Spain from Cantabria through Asturias and into Galicia.

A recording with 6 string Spanish bass guitar from about 2003.

The number 5 seems important. The best days of the year have a 5 in them . As a child I loved bonfires night and Christmas. This tune takes a small snippet from Villa Lobos prelude no.5

The Choro by the Brazilian Edmar Fenecio sits well on a jazz guitar - recorded in about 2004.

I am by nature a botcher - I find a solution to something and then try and find an easier way of doing it. I can hear myself saying it - "That'll fix it " . It invariably doesn't work .

The thought of walking away from difficult situations is always appealing. Leave it all behind. A Friday song.

The Brazilian Celso Machado has composed some great guitars pieces. This is a part of the tune Algadao Done for two guitars. I could be very badly wrong but I think it means Cotton Candy.

The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station in the UK that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.When I was in the hills of Asturias recently a Spanish lady had Radio 4 on whilst she was gardening. It seemed the Home Service was really doing its job - a comfort and a source of info.

In the early 2000's I worked with a very good drummer, Brian, bassist Jack and pianist Stephen on putting this 6 movement concerto together. We also performed excerpts from Picnic Suite with the flautist Roz.We only recorded 3 movements in total - I'll put them up as we come towards the end of the year.The piece was first recorded in the 1970's with Alexander Lagoya on the guitar- crossover music was on the up at that time - John Williams band Sky were doing it- putting a rock feel into class...

This is a John Etheridge piece which he composed for a series called Guitar Styles. I added a bass line with a 6 string classical bass guitar in about 2005. Its a live sounding recording which has a nice feel to it - if not such a clean sound..

A theme taken from a piece called " Orange Squash". The extract is worked and re-worked.

I have never been terribly interested in the tourist hotspots - particularly ones where the Brits.go. Moonlight in Magaluf would be close to a nightmare in my little world.

Probably not even a real word - but if you've listened to a couple of pieces on the podcast these sort of ideas come up again.. and again

To go with Samba 1 of 5 November ..

'Mangoré' being the name of a caciqueof the South American indigenous group Timbú - or so says wikipedia..Any way this is a piece which draws on one of Agustin Barrios Mangore's most famous tunes La Catedral. Hear a good guitarist play the original if you can - my piece just takes little snippets of the original and mucks around with them. Apologies to the purists.

In about 2005 I seemed to get a lot of work as a jazz player - which I am not. It was enjoyable and I wrote a few tunes including Samba 1 & 2 . Here's no.1 .

She is here! All fit and well and a new addition to the world.

This is the backing track to a song thatI haven't quite finished yet. Its all about calling it a day, quit while you're ahead, or maybe quit whilst you're not too far behind...

I put up some awful bits and pieces over the summer - some of the pieces about the Olympics were truly really poor. Apologies.I can't say any of the future stuff will be any better - I will Keep on keeping on - for the time being anyway,,,

She's arrived

The second of the same idea different melody, Bury it 2

Two tracks with a different theme overlay - Bury it 1

Over the Rainbow is one of those timeless songs - I'm teaching it once again this term. This tune has very little in common with the original song except maybe a message of optimism.

Good memories - but I would have liked a few more . Turuelles - a wonderful place

Last full day - and one more walk on the beautiful unspoilt Luarca beach.

A rather morose 3rd tune of the five. Many regrets.

A few bits to tidy up and no doubt some bills to pay before I leave Spain on Sunday..

The dream of a life in Spain comes to an end and I'm clearing the house of what I can before saying farewell to Asturias. It was a lovely dream.

My son plays Emanicipator fairly regularly and I keep having a go at that very smooth cool approach. No success yet . Elaboration turned out cheap and cheerful. Ah well until the next time and I'll try again..

Of the great flamenco guitarists Paco Pena sticks in my mind. I saw him play when I was young and later tried to study some flamenco. Like so many of these music styles it takes a lifetime and I play a few "pastiche" type pieces. This is one of them. I've recorded it as a solo, song and a band piece. I like this one the best at the moment.

Ventura Highway was the first tune by America I heard on my brothers album Homecoming. I later heard the ever famous Horse with no name and many others. The first configuration of the band with acoustic guitars was great. Homecoming uses a few of their ideas.

Roy Wood was one of the founders, I think, of the Electric Light Orchestra - or ELO as everyone came to know them. Later the front man of Wizard all face paint and crazy costumes. He apparently played the Mason Williams piece Classical Gas alot. On ELO's first album he recorded a piece called First Movement (Jumping Biz) - which has many similarities to Classical Gas. I put together a tune called This Classical Bizz that derives from both tunes. I first recorded it in the mid 1970's

Like lots of employees I have to do compliance training - modern slavery is one of the topics I had to look at. In my ignorance I didn't know the scale of it. I'm not sure about the music but the subject is significant enough to warrant something...Don't sit down

The closing section of the "No Suite" No Logic. So many things that go on defy it..

A more upbeat tune as part three of the "No Suite" - No consolation.

More flute in the second piece of the No Suite - the slightly despairing - No Way Out

Piece No.1 of the " No Suite" . - No reservation. A piece featuring the flute as a soloist .

The latin rhythms return for this recording.

Hubert Rostaing on clarinet replaced Stephane Grappelli's violin playing in the quintet Hot club de France during the Second World War.Django Reinhardt's path, because of gypsy background, was not easy during this period. His brothers continued to play along with him and he survived only to die in 1953 at the young age of 43.

Look after yourself - keep some things to your self.

The introduction is taken from an arrangement of "In the bleak midwinter" I did in the band Crunch ( I know terrible name ) which became MCC briefly in the 1970's.The rest of it just developed over a very long time.

Lifting the chord sequence from Brian Protheroes late 1970's song Pinball ( I think ?) formed the basis of the chord structure and rhythm of this guitar piece.

Everywhere seems to have had some really bad storms in the last month. We complain. as always, in the UK but some countries have experienced some terrible life threatening conditions. I hope that you've been able to pick up the pieces and put everything back together.

Three contrasting characters all going their own way. The piece was written in about 2005 when it was very evident how different they were from each other.Its still very evident with I hope a thread of decency to each other and all around them running through.

A Polish composer and admirer of Chopin. The piece uses the melody of one of his preludes and the chord sequence of Alexander Tansmans " Variations on a Theme by Scriabin " .

The contrast between the sections of society is about as stark as it has been since the 19th century in the UK. Rich man Poor man contrasts the behaviour and attitudes of the two sections of society.

Based on a tune called The Roundsman this is is the instrumental version.

We have our own in the uk Nigel Farage - migrants eat pets, two speed policing, etc etc...

A short improvisation around longer nights shorter days - colder mornings chilly nights - Autumn has started.

Not a particularly inspiring title . But chords with added notes and a scale working in a modal form was the intended rather pretentious starting point for this tune .

I think we all have something that acts as a Hook - always catches us out- an achilles heel. Regardless of the obstacles we pursue it relentlessly sometime with no favourable outcome.

Regression was a part of the maths studies I did a very very long time ago. Finding relationships between variables. I tried applying it to musical ideas and got very confused. The tune has, in the end, resolved itself from the original idea in about 1986 to a re-recording in 2022. I hear you say " can't you make it any better than that ? " Nope - is the reply.

This tune benefits from the mastering that buzzsprout offer as an add on - I've had it for a while but not when this tune came up.

The piece I loaded up had some problems - not all associated with my playing .. This replaces the study in G minor - I'll check out what went wrong on that and put it up again sometime.A Sunday morning piece- Dr Jekyll and the other bloke - a piece with two slightly contrasting sections - done to death

I recorded a collection of pieces in the late 1990's at the recording studio in Shaftesbury School Arts Centre. John Pickard very kindly did the technical stuff for me. This recording kept appearing for a while.

Digital effects are great - but I grew up with analogue stuff and I still like the old pedals. My old friend is offloading his gear on me and this tune is a self-indulgent piece of nonsense using a Boss Super Chorus CH1 pedal - a real Friday afternoon piece. I know - I know I repeat the riff 5 times in the piece in under 4 minutes ! Happy weekend. If you play it - play it loud...

This is meant to be ironic. Young people are told to wait in line and accept all kinds of rubbish and prepare for the mediocrity so many of us except without question - don't let the side down - Do the right thing . I disagree completely - Find your own way - take no notice of all those so called adults leading you down a path that is completely worn out.

From a CD Can't Stop in 2008/2009...

Facade is that conscious or maybe subconscious barrier/presentation we all put up when we're trying to show a picture of ourselves that you want others to believe. I'm sure you've been there - and if your haven't perhaps I'm nuttier than I thought I was..

David Cameron and George Osborne were a British comedy duo that largely escaped under the radar in relation to blame they share for austerity, inequality, and low growth in the UK. They had this marvellously irrelevant smoke screen called Big Society which they used to cover their tracks. Like Levelling Up it never happened - in fact I think the country suffered almost as much social disruption under that regime than the rule of St Margaret of Finchley.This tune used the sentiments of Ralph M...

My wife found the lyrics and tune to this piece in her mums house in Bamburgh Northumberland. I put a melody to it. Rob and I played it at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.It didn't go down all that well. Apparently it is sung as a comedy song at Festivals on the east coast where the audience throw water at the performers.My ignorance - Grace Darlings life was rather sad after the rescue and she died very young. Anyway here's my version.

This is the title song of a CD from 2009 I think. The premise of this tune is that I'd hit a certain age and I either gave up and accepted that I'd gone as far as I could or kept going. Realistically I was never going to stop.

A piece generated from listening to quite a bit of West African music and Ali Farkre Toure and Toumani Diabete. Its more a use of the spirit of the music rather than any specific idea. I thought it worked at the time - about 2009/2011. I played it with Clive at Towsey folk festival in maybe 2013/2014.

Days Gone By was a recording from 2011 - some issues with balance but the first version of a tune I looked at over a couple of years

The piece is from a live version Rob and I did in 2013 as part of a live CD recording. The piece uses a chord sequence from Emilio Pujols guitar method - a Galician Folk Song.

I'm paying long outstanding debts to Spain where we lived briefly before covid drove us back to the UK. I'm nearly there but inorder to transfer a relatively small amount my bank want to do a biometric scan. Take a hike ...

The old way of paying - when you worked a weekend or holiday - that was your reward. Now slipping out of use in a rigmarole of shifts and zero hours contracts. Come on sort it out.

In our part of the world the end of summer was marked by some quite heavy storms. Not exactly of biblical proportions - but so - I exaggerate.

I've just been repairing a Hamer "Slammer" electric guitar - really nice little instrument - twin hum buckers for those remotely interested - like an inexpensive Gibson SG without the price tag.

This is a take on Cat Stevens song Father & Son. I haven't taken the musical idea but really the thought that Fathers ( and children ) so rarely get it right. I like to think I got it OK as a Dad but I certainly didn't as a Son.

The song became much more reflective later on - but this was its original idea- based on a plea for young children to get to sleep . 2012 a CD called Days Gone By ....available at all good charity shops and occasionally on eBay... A really rough noisy recording - apologies

I've never go much on the class room creep - even from school days - unfortunately they carry themselves over into adult life- Bosses Man or indeed any gender you want - we're all capable of it .

I was experimenting with percussion and wanted to use more adventurous beats to support songs. This was a song to the boys who were finding their way at the time .

About 2012 - a CD with some instrumental and some songs. Oracion was original recorded fro a CD of Latin American music in about 2005 but I was hopeful we could put percussion with it and use it in the folk " set " - It worked for a bit.

London - Wednesday ; Birmingham - Thursday - .. Although I live in the West Country I'm a real suburban boy - generally terrified by big cities .Still am - but I was nicely surprised by Pleasant Place in Islington. All seemed very harmonious.

In 2013 Rob and I got booked to play at Shrewsbury Folk Festival - a big booking for us. Rob really liked this song but I left it out of the set - not sure why . One of those rare recordings with Rob on cajon and singing !

This is taken from a 2005 CD called St.Aidans Dance . When the children were young we used to spend part of every summer in Bamburgh visiting my wife's Mum. St. Aidans is the village church we were married in.Henry's Lullaby was written for my Dad who , towards the end of his life, used to get very tired and had this wonderful trick of dropping off to sleep when he couldn't maintain his interest in what was going on around him..

I recorded two quite serious classical guitar CDs in about 2004 - 2005 and I've put a few of the pieces up in early podcasts.I was working with a very fine Latin American style player called David Caswell in the late 1990's and he influenced a number of compositions. This is not really a rumba and its not really a blues either- but I'm sure you'll get the gist.

An unlikely title and not really fitting the tune - but in view of all the talk about Oasis getting back together maybe good timing. I think they'd laugh that whilst they are still thinking about getting out there again Alex James the Blur bassist is making a rather nice wine called Britpop from his farm in the Cotswolds - Gawd help us ..At the time I had a beautiful Martin Taylor Yamaha semi acoustic guitar as I occasionally had some jazz band strumming to do ... It had to go in the end I co...

From a millennium project - but finished in 2002 ( I always was a bit slow on deadlines ) - working with a midi nylon string guitar called a Godin Multiac and a Roland GR 33 guitar synthesiser.

Theres a great birthday card for an oldie ( as long as they're not too sensitive about their age) of two oldies racing downhill in their electric mobility scooters. Its all downhill - its meant to get easier !

Discussin the aging process with a 96 year old is a humbling process. My 96 year old Mum hasn't missed a trick - she has Lived the Life.

I had some equipment issues when initially recording this track - but nothing has changed in the intervening months.I make no pretence that I understand the worlds conflicts nor do I offer any solutions. Its just such a waste.

This is a re-mix of a tune about the frustrations of youth - particularly at a time when its so hard ( in the UK ) to make your own way without some heavy financial muscle to get you underway...

Another one of those phrases - I see it as taking everything into consideration.

Choice is a funny thing - sometimes you think you have a choice when you don't really - its all just make believe.

With all this holiday stuff I'm inclined to forget - we go back so very soon. Looking forward to seeing all that youthful enthusiasm once again..

The whole of this old saying is "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"A bird in the hand is a sure thing; it’s in your hand. You already have the bird. If you try to catch another, however, you risk losing the bird in your hand and also whatever it was you were trying to catch. Now you have no bird in hand, and there is no guarantee that you will get the two in the bush. In other words, it’s better to be sure about something smaller than to be unsure about something bigger.That was the...

They are magnificent birds - we had one living in the eaves of our house for a while . She guarded her nest ferociously.

We have grandchildren - great stuff - I feel very privileged . BUT we have no rights to see them any more than we're invited to . I remember the boot being on the other foot with my parents. How hard is it to empathise with the older generation ?

The first thought is always always the best one. As soon as you think about things too much - you water the great ideas down. !

Lots going on Super Moons, peace talks, incursions its endless...

The clock - it is relentless never stopping, never slowing down it takes no account of age health or wellbeing

White noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. Yeh - didn't understand much of that - but its a sound that helps you relax - running water a vacuum cleaner a crackling fire.BUT also its the sound of people talking but not making much sense - ideal to zone out to.

I will stop after this tune banging on about the Olympics - but it was good. This bit in the cycling competition I never got the hang of ..Ah well 4 more years.

One of the less pleasant things I've heard of late was the above quote uttered by some entitled plonker about us. I've just seen a photo of the "Farmers" taking full advantage of the Counts facilities whilst the miserly so and so is sitting somewhere very hot ( I hope ) counting his money. Enjoy it while you can and make hay while the sun shines guys !

Having had a man flu/ heavy cold/ covid type thing over the past few days induced by smoking far too much when on a long late drive I loved the end of the Olympics - so many sports I've never really experienced - and some I'm slightly less enthusiastic about.

I remember when I was younger the oldies used to say how " time flies". I couldn't agree. I agree now - time goes so quickly from week to week , month to month .. and so on

The holiday month. The End of August ( 1982)was the title of one of Philip Catherines many good instrumental albums following the two other albums I have of his Guitars( 1975) and Splendid (1978) with Larry Coryell.Listen to his stuff if you get the chance.