"Icy Creek" - solo guitar

This one starts out slow and picks up speed as it goes - just like the creek after which it is named.  Guitar - just guitar.

A bit of classical: "Aspenglen"

When I was growing up, my parents and two sisters and I lived in a pretty small house.  But it had an unfinished basement, and my Dad gradually built that out into a family room, workspace, laundry room, and a bedroom and bath for me.

When I was about six or seven years old, he was completing his Ph.D. in physics, and would always study in the new bedroom, often well past my bed time.  So I often fell asleep with him just a few feet away, his books illuminated by a small desk lamp, and with the radio always tuned to the classical FM station.

Mom was the musical talent in the family, sang in a semi-professional choir, and was often called upon to sing at weddings at our church.  Dad couldn't carry a tune, but loved listening to music.  Mom was the one that made the kids take piano lessons, but I wonder if Dad's contribution to my love of music was having the radio on as I was falling asleep.

Anyway, I have always liked a lot of classical music, especially Handel and Bach.  I worked out this tune many years ago when I was learning to play guitar, and finally sat down and recorded it.  It's a very straight-laced Baroque-sounding piece.

It really never had a name, but I decided to name it after a favorite hiking spot - a place where the morning sun filters through a grove of Aspen trees.  So now it's called "Aspenglen".

"Flying Cloud"

Here is a new tune I wrote and recorded.  It has a bit of a rolling feel to it, and reminds me of the motion of a sailing vessel, so I named it "Flying Cloud" after the famous clipper ship that set the record for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco.  "Flying Cloud" made the record passage in 1853, taking 89 days 8 hours.  She held this record for 135 years, until 1989!

Image Source: Lubbock, Basil. The China Clippers (4th ed.). 1919 Glasgow: James Brown & Son. The image is in the public domain.

Anyway, the song "Flying Cloud" has a bluegrass flavor, featuring resophonic guitar accompanied by piano, pipes, and mandolin.  Hope you like it.

[Click on the "play" triangle at left below to let 'er rip.]