This one came together in a couple quick tracking sessions with the PureSalem Mendiola. Notably some parts in tracking just seemed to stretch on for a while, as ideas kept appearing. There's a middle section that is a bit more in the direction of the spacious thing I'd been thinking of.

No inline effects, but some convolution reverb send and the usual compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from Newtown, near the A590.

This one was tracked in a few short sessions in and among life responsibilities, back on the just intonation Tele Deluxe. Once again, I went in thinking I'd do something more sparse, but ended up filling in the spaces. As it came out, there are waves of more-busy and less-busy, moving between assured and wistful. Some of the measures flowed more naturally when truncated by a beat, or allowing the next measure to start earlier.

There's the usual signal chain: no hardware effects, just guitar into UA Volt with the convolution reverb send on each of three channels. There's also the usual stereo compression/eq.

The title comes from the town of Morecambe, where the A589 road leads to the shore.

Each week I think I'm going to do something very minimal and spacious, and each week I end up filling the rests with notes. This one's no exception, but given the busy tax-preparation weekend, I'll take what music shows up in the ether.

For this one, I impulsively did something I haven't done in five years: changed strings on the PureSalem Mendiola. Admittedly, I like the sound and feel of old strings, though this old set had a layer of oxidation and a ding in one of the plain steel strings, so it was time. While I did that, the neck wasn't under tension for a while, and it bowed back just a little...so there's some additional fret buzz in there. (I've loosened the truss rod a little; getting closer to ideal.)

The vibe here is contemplative, with some resolve. I'll take it.

The usual no-effects inline, though there's convolution reverb send from each track, and compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from the Irish town of Clonakitty, which is at the end of R588.

A return to fingerpicking on the just-intonation microtonal Tele Deluxe. This one took two quick sessions, late Friday and late Saturday, with an editing pass on Sunday, I was lazy once again, doing guitar straight into the UA Volt.

This one started with the fast pattern you hear at the beginning, which shouldn't have been as difficult to play as it turned out--I was ahead of the bar lines, behind the bar lines, all over the place. Was this in some odd meter? Not that I could tell from counting it out. So I left the notes in place rather than trying to fix them.

Variations were a bit of a challenge, and I ended up varying the density and implicit tempo for different sections. Ultimately it feels natural.

There's the usual convolution reverb send for each of three channels and compression and EQ on the stereo out.

The title comes from Michigan's Port Crescent State Park, 587 feet above sea level.

Like last week, a slow three-guitar piece on PureSalem Mendiola. This guitar in particular invites barre chords, and I have a fondness for playing over a major/minor progression. Wistful, but finding some strength somewhere. This one came together quickly--rather more so than some recent weeks, so it's getting uploaded a bit earlier.

No inline effects, but the usual sonic profile: each channel is a different pickup combo. Each channel gets some send to a convolution reverb (theater sized), and the stereo mix gets some compression/eq.

The title comes from the river in Ireland, which at some points flows alongside the R586. Apparently its water is notably clean and clear.

Three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, some of it through the Reuss Effects Understate clean boost pedal. This one's gentle and slower, after an intense week.

As usual, there's a send to convolution reverb on each channel, and compression/eq on the stereo mix. Also as usual, the panning is static--one track in each position.

The title comes from the meaning of the place name Cousane in Ireland, along regional road 585.

Another one-guitar fingerpicking piece, on the microtonal Tele Deluxe in microtonal just intonation. There's a nice sparkle to some of these intervals. No inline effects--just straight into the UA Volt, with one channel for bridge, one neck, one both pickups. There is an additional couple of chords from the bridge in two places when the original line was a bit sparse.

There is the usual convolution reverb, and some compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from the Lough Allua, near Ireland regional road 584.

This week's track is a return to the fingerpicking guitar trio thing, this time with the Just Intonation Tele Deluxe. Digging into the mechanics of performance, there are hammer-ons I'd like to perform, but find difficult--at the nut, the neck is narrower than a few of my more-fingerpicking-compatible instruments (parlor guitar, PureSalem Mendiola). So it's interesting.

This one was a bit tricky to edit together--many parts begin on an off-beat, and recording over two sessions meant that the feel between some parts ends up quite different.

In any case, there's a gentle, contemplative vibe to this.

The title comes from the minor planet 583 Klotilde.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual no-effects approach. This one uses the microtonal just-intonation-fretted Tele Deluxe through the Reuss Effects Understate and Moyo passive volume pedal to take off the string attack. From there, the signal goes into a patch I've been working with in Max/MSP. The patch uses some tone-shaping (AudioThing Reels) and eight delays set to different long values, usually over 20 seconds and less than a minute. I'll assign each progressive note to a different delay, so the next repetition will have them appearing in a different order. Each delay has a send to a convolution reverb, here using an impulse from the Dan Harpole cistern.

The title comes from minor planet 582 Olympia

Stylistically this is in keeping with the recent all-guitar pieces. I'd started with the thought of something sparser, but in the actual playing, things got a bit busier. Time for a change soon, I think.

Three tracks of microtonal Tele Deluxe parts caster fretted with just intonation intervals, going through the Reuss Effects Understate to give it a bit of sparkle.

In Ableton, there's the convolution reverb and a bit of compression/eq.

The title comes from the River Yarrow, which tracks alongside the A581 for a while.

Edit: updated the file to fix a couple too-obvious edits.

In a couple of short late-night sessions, I came up with a few themes that had a bit of a resonance. I was interested in doing something with varying levels, but abandoned most of that, with the exception of a pedal tone audible in a few places. (Maybe next week's will follow through with this.)

This one's three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola straight into the UA Volt, with some convolution reverb and the usual compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from a small town at the northern end of PA Route 580.

Quite a lot of activity this week, so this track is what felt achievable with the energy available. This one uses $60 Univox hollowbody in Bb F tuning, so it lends itself to fingerpicking and barred strumming. As I've been doing lately, I've tended toward phrasing with a rest or natural fade at the end. It's a bit sparse in places, and in two of them...it was a bit too sparse, so I added a some duplication of notes in the editing, copying one snippet and delaying it by a sixteenth note or two.

The world's a mess, particularly my country, and writing this doesn't directly fix any of those problems, but I hear a kind of hopefulness in this music, despite our surroundings. Let's find hope where we can, enough to keep ourselves going, so we can make things better.

No inline effects, but there's the usual convolution reverb and a bit of compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from the river in Ireland that in some places runs alongside the R579.

Last week, I was hearing the music channeled by the PureSalem Mendiola in standard tuning, and hearing it again this week. This past Friday was also the 50th anniversary of Keith Jarrett's famous concert in Köln, so I started this one with an Am7 > G motion, to see where that would take me. As it turned out, it took me somewhere melodic, through gentle expressions of several emotions. I could easily have made this longer...but thought to keep it under four minutes.

Three channels of PureSalem Mendiola with five-year-old strings, direct into the UA Volt. Some large-hall convolution reverb, and the usual multiband compression/eq on the stereo main.

The title comes from minor planet 578 Happelia, a tiny thing with (possibly) a tiny moon.

After several weeks with the microtonal Tele, I thought to return to the standard-tuned PureSalem Mendiola, and see that effect that would have on the music this week. The music that turned up was very clear about what it wanted to be--strong and assured. The first two themes here appeared Friday night, with the other sections appearing in a quick Saturday night session during which melodies just kept coming: I had to add a fourth part in two places. This was something of a homecoming--fingers happy to play on this guitar's neck. (Having listened to it multiple times, I'm unsure if I'm lifting some melodies from other pieces I've written, but that could just be the new parts becoming familiar.)

The signal chain uses the Reuss Undertone in two places: the first and second themes from Friday, but the rest of it is straight into the UA Volt, for logistical reasons. There's some convolution reverb send on each track, and the usual compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from another name of Maryland's MD577, Reliance Road. I know I've been relying on music of late.

More all-guitar, and once again the Tele Deluxe fretted for 24-to-the-2/1 just intonation. I'd wanted something a bit more spacious than the last few, which manifests in the pauses for notes to fade out. Like last week, this also makes use of the (Reuss Effects Understate)[https://www.reusseffects.com/en-us/products/understate] for a bit of tone-shaping before it hits the UA Volt.

The title is from the River Allow, which is crossed by R576 at Kanturk. (I probably should have saved this title for piece 579.)

Happy new year! This one is similar to the last few years of guitar-only pieces I can put together in a few sessions, though there's a bit of a departure: I'd wanted to build a guitar with a neck fretted for just intonation, so I could experiment with precise intervals and precise difference tones. This piece started with the fingerpicking pattern you hear first, which foregrounds some of those difference tones, rather than sticking with consonance. Timing is a bit loose; I'd wanted to play with a little more elastic quality.

This ended up being a bit tricky to edit: initially, it was about six, seven minutes, though I reduced all of the sections to half, and took out a few. While I liked the suspension of time there, it maybe got a bit too meander-y at this slow tempo.

For this piece, I'm also reintroducing a pedal--in this case, the Reuss Effects Understate, which is a clean boost. The parts panned center and left get this, while the bridge pickup (panned right) does not. Otherwise, everything's straight into the UA Volt, which has a pretty good overdriven sound you can hear on some peaks.

There's some convolution reverb send, and the usual light compression/eq on the stereo channel.

The title comes from the somewhat arduous process of finding places with 575 feet of elevation above sea level. I ended up throwing in the towel and going with Presque Isle's Gull Point, which does have some patches surveyed at 575.

52/52! A return to three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, recorded in two quick late-night sessions Friday and Saturday. It's been...a week. But here we are.

There's a bit of line hum audible in places; it's weird that that's not typically been the case for a while with this guitar. Bridge, neck, and both-pickup tracks, with some convolution reverb and the usual effect rack on the stereo out.

The title comes from a little town in Pennsylvania, on route 522. (Not far from week 475's namesake Meadow Gap.)

A couple late-night tracking sessions and a bit of aggressive editing resulted in this brief four-track piece. All PureSalem Mendiola, neck pickup, bridge (two tracks), and both. The starting point was moving around an arpeggiated 7, and it developed from there. Unlike some recent ones, there are opportunities for full rests here and there.

The title comes from the minor planet 521 Brixia.

Three tracks of $60 Univox hollowbody in modified Fahey tuning (Bb F Bb F Bb C, compared to CGCGCE). Fingerpicking, with the barred sections being played as one finger moving a barre around. Somehow this came together quickly, over two short late-night sessions. There's the usual convolution reverb and compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from the interesting galaxy cluster Abell 520,

I'd wanted to do something slower with a bit more space. This one again is three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, straight into the UA Volt 1. Slow, but there's a vibe. There's the usual convolution reverb and compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from the minor planet 519 Sylvania.

The three-guitar-piece series continues. This time it's low-tuned Univox hollow body, in a variant of Fahey C tuning (in this case, Bb F Bb F Bb C--the same tuning, but a whole step down). I tracked this in two short sessions--one late Saturday and one Sunday afternoon...though finding the right through-line took a while. There's a sparse gentleness to this one.

No inline effects, but some compression/eq on the stereo out, and convolution reverb.

The title comes from the asteroid 518 Halawe.

This week's track is another intentionally shorter piece, trying to make use of some silences and space. Initially I'd tracked a lot of different phrases in a different key Tuesday evening, a more aggressive approach that I'd liked...but it didn't lead to satisfying development. Finally, a more sparse combination of phrases in a different key seemed to lead somewhere, so I followed those, abandoning the first set. (I did keep them, though they're not used at all here.)

Three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, with the end of one phrase bumped over to an additional channel, to allow for a note to decay across the beginning of the next phrase. Straight into the UA Volt-1, bit of convolution reverb on the channels and compression/eq on the stereo out. There's a bit of a vibe to this one.

The title comes from a village along England's A517.

Guitar-only with PureSalem Mendiola, three tracks (bridge, neck, both pickups). Recorded in three short sessions, though a bit longer to edit into shape. There's the usual signal chain: UA Volt, Ableton, some convolution reverb, and some compression/eq on the stereo.

There's a short clip on a fourth track to allow one note to fade over the next phrase on the source track.

The title comes from Arouca 516, one of the world's longest pedestrian bridges.

Again with the three-guitar approach, done quickly in a few tracking sessions. This one's back to the PureSalem Mendiola, straight into the UA Volt 1. The signal chain in Ableton is the usual one: some sends to convolution reverb, stereo bus eq/compression, but nothing special in the channels.

Also again with the minor-planet-related title, though it's probably a better inspiration than Roman taxes.

This past week I had two live, in-person performances, and spent some time with tracks from earlier this year--it's the first time I've officially released any of the weeklies. Laodica is a collection of 10 guitar tracks from this year.

So...that all leaves not a lot of time for a new track, but I managed to fit in a three-track guitar thing. The usual signal chain, and PureSalem Mendiola.

The title comes from Ontario's Parry Sound, which has highway 510 running nearby.