A new Gregg Miner single, out of the blue and out of the past!

“REDWOOD” is now available to stream and download everywhere, though the preferred option is of course full resolution at my Bandcamp page.

\And for those who now prefer to “watch” their music, I’ve made a simple, inspirational video.

Give it a listen; I don’t quite believe it myself!  If you enjoy it, please share the links, comment on the YouTube page, and spread the word!

THE BACKSTORY

SO – I’ve been going through and cleaning up old original tunes recorded on various reel-to-reel machines in the 1975-1985 period.  I haven’t been able to salvage as many as I’d hoped.  But the vague memory of this one has always haunted me, so I decided to revisit it purely for nostalgic reasons.  It was a lousy recording and unfinished as well; drums were always imagined to have played a big role, but I never got around to that.

Revisiting this proved to be extremely enjoyable and cathartic, and I am very pleasantly surprised by the results!

1975-1976 BEDROOM

I still have near-total recall about how the tune originally came about.

In my Illinois bedroom, where I grew up, I had been listening to Joe Walsh’s 1972 solo album Barnstorm, which I just loved, especially “Turn to Stone.”  Slow, heavy power chords and that insane fat explosive snare.  I was by then focusing on acoustic music (still mainly plectrum style), and one day I happened to wonder if it might be possible to do a Joe Walsh-type ultra-heavy thing but with acoustic guitars (sans any pickups or effects).  Well, the answer was, and is, probably “no,” but that didn’t stop me!  Just a couple first position chords and simple riffs on a 6-string and 12-string, then a simple bass.  That was three tracks on my TEAC 3340.  I had one left.

So, what might go over this?  What instrument?  And what kind of melody or hook?

Ah – well, I was then in the thick of my love affair with (the late) Allan Holdsworth, the impossibly creative and fleet-fingered guitar god.  But, in case anyone’s forgotten, this was Allan in his “slow period” which I have always preferred.  In 1975, I finally got to see him with Tony Williams New Lifetime at Chicago’s Quiet Knight club.  Their album had just come out – only the second Allan band/recording we in the States had heard of.  Nerdily pestering Allan at the bar before the show, he told me that after Tempest he played with Soft Machine, and so I soon tracked down their “Bundles” import LP (his albums with Gong would follow).

On those early albums, Allan would of course play ridiculously fast (he would influence future fusion shredders by the thousands), but often he played extremely slowly.  To me, that’s where his true lyrical gifts shone through.  I heard many of these improvised Holdsworth solos as “melodic narratives” – where certain phrases or particular note choices might contain as much humor, character and drama as Prokofiev’s entire Peter and the Wolf!

(That was my reaction then, and belief still today.  Just my personal taste and opinion.)

I never actually learned or tried to play any of Holdsworth’s music or solos; I simply absorbed it all on an instinctual – and passionate – level.  But one day, I had an idea.  I tuned up my abandoned Les Paul Black Beauty (bought new in High School, then stupidly sold after just a few years).  I queued up the “Redwood” tape and immersed myself in it, while trying to channel my inner Holdsworth.  I wanted no specific “tune” or main melody; instead, over the next few days I improvised > composed one long, themed melodic “story” (with the giant sequoia concept in my head).  That’s the only way I can describe it.

50 YEARS LATER

I couldn’t salvage that old demo…was the tune even worthwhile? Don’t know, didn’t care; it was pure nostalgia.  I winced at the occasional ill-advised musical choices – but I also found myself appreciating (loving?) the naivety and “honesty” of that untrained 20-year-old “me.”   So, I kept 95% of the original solo intact.

Believe it or not, I haven’t owned an electric guitar for forty years, so had to go out and buy one (the entry level PRS in the photo), plus a small amp.  Great fun, not that I’ll be joining a local “grandpa band” any time soon.

I now had a whammy bar, which Holdsworth also had at the time.  I had a blast playing my amped guitar, literally on “10,” as I was trying for sustain and occasional feedback accidents.  The acoustic guitar parts were done almost verbatim with some additional interplay as I used my (upgraded) Guild 12-string and two Knutsen harp guitars (again, everything played with a pick).  I did throw in a few sub-bass notes, which were promptly buried by the (electric fretless) bass and drums.  Yes – I would finally see if my “rock drums” idea held up!  I sent everything off to the always fantastic MB Gordy back in L.A. who followed my notes and crude chart almost exactly as my 20-year-old self imagined it.

This whole experiment took a while but I’ve felt 20 years old the entire time!

Joe Walsh, eat your heart out!