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I travel a lot and find myself playing in solo or duo formats much of the time, so it’s no surprise that the acoustic side of my material has plenty of chance to blossom over the last few years. A lot of people have asked me why I don’t have a recording of some of these songs, so as I make the transition from studio rat to performer, an EP of stripped-down acoustic tracks seemed to be a natural place to start. I’m proud to give you my first recording as an artist – ‘Sparks.‘

The EP consists of three songs of my own and three covers, performed with acoustic guitar, vocals, bass and drums – and a few other subtle elements thrown in. The musicians were members of my longtime band that gigged around LA for years as Heliotrope, so the musical chemistry between us was as relaxed and intuitive as ever.

THE SONGS

‘Unseen Hand,’ (endearingly referred to as ‘Unsigned Band’ by a fellow band mate) is a song I wrote back in 1997 as I made the first steps to getting off the road as a sideman and focusing on my songwriting career. I’ve never gotten tired of this one, because it came from a real place in my life… I was going through a huge transition and the song seemed to help me through it. Whenever I sing it during my shows it seems to strike a similar chord with the audience.

‘One Of These Days’ is a song I wrote with KC Porter and Carlos Santana for the 2002 Santana album ‘Shaman.‘ It’s a cool story – I was in a deep Nigerian Afro-beat phase at the time, and I noticed Carlos had every Fela Kuti album on vinyl. So rather than try to write Carlos the proverbial pop hit, we went for something much more raw, political, and in line with the Afro-beat feel. We even had the guys from Ozomatli come down and lay down the bass, percussion and horn parts, which created a pretty monstrous sound. Our song was a bid for a large 6-minute chunk of real estate for a commercial Santana album… and the record company hated it! The only reason it made it onto Shaman was that Carlos loved it so much he went to bat for us, dug in his heels and insisted it stay on the album – with my vocals! So for this EP it only seemed fitting to re-imagine it and come up with an acoustic version which I could perform on my own (sans 12 Piece Afro-Latin Band). It definitely acquired a unique vibe through the process of acoustification… I hope Carlos digs it…

‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ is one of my favorite songs of the 1980′s, which while I admit to being my least favorite decade of all time musically and otherwise, still had some great songs. So when this bluesy groove came out of my guitar one night, I figured it was time to let the healing begin. Obviously nobody can mess with Annie Lennox, but I think I snuck through by being a guitar player… and a dude. Girl, you know it’s true.

‘May This Be Love,’ usually known as ‘Waterfall,’ is from the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album. There are a lot of versions out there, and as a HUGE Hendrix fan, I’m always glad to see Jimi get his due as a songwriter (in addition to being the Greatest Guitarist Ever). It’s a gorgeous song that is about daydreaming, or love, or spirituality or whatever that ‘waterfall’ may be. My version is inspired by Brazilian guitar music — through my Euro-Canadian hands, of course.

‘New Creation’ is a recent song that comes straight from the overwhelming feeling I get when I contemplate the Unknowable Creator of Everything Ever (including quasars, blue whales, the Grand Canyon etc.). I’ve always had a hard time imagining myself being transformed by Divine forces, but… that’s the whole point of life, right? Anyone who’s ever stopped to try and deal with that, especially as a flawed, floundering human being, might relate to this tune. (Anyone else can imagine it’s about cooking.)

Lastly, my take on the old Johnny Mercer tune made famous by Frank Sinatra: ‘Summer Wind.’ I first heard it as a teenager in the movie ‘The Pope Of Greenwich Village,’ and it’s been in my head ever since. I wanted my version to carry a sort of haunting feeling to it so I married the lyrics to these dark, romantic chords that remind me of a faraway place… it’s one of those songs I wish I’d written. So I did the next best thing!

Next Episode: The Sessions…

I remember playing at the Grant Street Dance Hall one time down in LaFayette, Louisiana. This was the mid-90′s, and it was my first time hanging out in the Deep South… it was a particular thrill for me to be playing in Cajun country, and I managed to sit in at a juke joint where some local bluesmen were doing their thing after hours. Someone was talking about Sonny Landreth, and I asked the one question you don’t want to ask a musician in LaFayette or maybe anywhere else in Louisiana:”Who’s Sonny Landreth?”

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I received an education in short order. He’s only the baddest slide player in the world, they told me, the Hendrix of bottleneck, former right-hand man of Zydeco superstar Clifton Chenier and official Native Stepson of this proud part of the world. His lyrics tell the story of these people, and the moan of his slide guitar embodies all the mystery and mojo that’s conjured up when you hear the word Bayou.

Whenever you hear guitar players talk about Sonny, it’s always in hushed tones and superlatives. He’s even Eric Clapton’s favorite guitarist. So… what’s the huge deal? Is it how he invented a way of opening up the fretboard to slide guitar by fretting notes behind the bottleneck, creating chords and runs that live well outside the usual open tunings? Is it his tone, which seems to combine the perfect balance of Stratocaster sting and Dumble creaminess? Is it the fact that he can play rhythm like a Cajun accordionist and wail out leads that sound like Bessie Smith at 3 A.M. on a Friday night?

All of the above. Like everybody else, I can’t shut up about Sonny Landreth.

I recently decided to get over my fear of slide guitar playing, which began when I tried to nail Ry Cooder’s song ‘Feelin’ Bad Blues’ at the age of 16. In retrospect, I actually did OK, but for some reason I never really got up the nerve to embrace slide as a serious undertaking. 2 things changed that: one was when I decided to put a slide solo on the ‘Trash Can Song’ from my album, and felt like it was one of the coolest things I’d ever recorded. The other was when Eric Dozier and I began the Moanin’ Sons project, which needs slide guitar like biscuits need gravy.

I did a little research online to see if Sonny had ever given any advice on the subject, and sure enough, Guitar Player magazine had done a whole series with him geared towards people in just my position. But the news wasn’t good. He said you have to learn to mute each string with each finger of your picking hand until it sounds as seamless as someone playing scales on a piano, lifting a finger off as the next one goes down… but inversely, because you’re plucking instead of pressing. It does make sense, because your fret-hand string muting, which is kind of what separates the men from the boys on guitar and takes 10 years to learn, is suddenly out the window the moment you put a glass tube across all 6 strings. Brutal! But there it is. I’m trying, Sonny. I’m trying.

The good news is that my online search wandered into his current touring schedule, and he was playing here in Portland that night, in a tiny venue that was almost sold out. So I ran out of the house and drove the way I learned to do in Mexico, and got there just in time to be the last guy they let in. It was meant to be, of course. What better way for a slide newbie to get initiated than to have your face melted off by 2 hours-plus of Mr. Landreth’s Strat/Dumble onslaught, all at a distance from which you can measure his string gauge?

Between that and catching Warren Haynes a few days later with Gov’t Mule, I had enough inspiration to walk around the house for a month, playing muting patterns with my right hand while making coffee and breakfast with my left. I figured once I got the inverse piano-action trick down, I could worry about little things like slide intonation and re-learning the whole fretboard in three different open tunings.

So Sonny, if you’re out there… and I know you are… I am officially ready for my lesson. I will come to you. Just send me an email and name your price.

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