I Think I May Have Just Co-Written a "Power Ballad"

[toomanycats]

All the dirty guitar is a Jackson Pro Series Soloist with a Bogner Ecstasy Blue overdrive pedal in front of my 65 amps London rig.
The clean guitar on the left side is a Harley Benton Rosewood Tele with a 70s Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phaser in front of a Blackstar 6L6 Studio Ten.
The bass is a Schecter J-Plus plugged straight into the board.

[Narsh]

Getting the Heart or Vixen vibes for this one. She has a little Steve Nix thing going too. Loving it.

[toomanycats]

Getting the Heart or Vixen vibes for this one. She has a little Steve Nix thing going too. Loving it.

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree with you're observations. When we were putting the song together Amanda specifically mentioned Joan Jett and Lita Ford as the feeling she was going for. I was thinking 80s Heart, especially after I added the keyboard part. There's almost always a Stevie Nicks thing under the surface with Amanda's voice, mostly in the vibrato, which some people have referred to as the goat sound. LOL.

What has been unique and challenging in this particular musical collaboration is the fact that I'm working with somebody who does not play any instrument or have the slightest understanding of music theory. She is a lyricist and vocalist who brings raw words to me, "poems" if you will. I coax her to sing those words in a simple melody, to which I then apply a tempo and time signature, then add chords and extrapolate an entire harmonic structure. From there the whole thing evolves organically with her voice and my guitar acting as foils for one another. I typically have a pretty good idea early on of what I want the final product to sound like, and this serves as a type of lodestone guiding me to completion of the piece.

I would love to hear what @Narsh + a vocalist would sound like. You can stand alone as a guitar player in the same way that Jeff Beck, Via, or Satriani can. The guitar is your voice, and it is eminently recognizable and powerful. But in addition to being a world class guitarist, you're a skilled producer, composer, and arranger. You're also insanely prolific in ideas and output. It is rare for a guitar player to have that entire skill set. I would love to hear what you could come up with with a vocalist added to the mix.

[tonebender]

Good stuff.

[Narsh]

Getting the Heart or Vixen vibes for this one. She has a little Steve Nix thing going too. Loving it.

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree with you're observations. When we were putting the song together Amanda specifically mentioned Joan Jett and Lita Ford as the feeling she was going for. I was thinking 80s Heart, especially after I added the keyboard part. There's almost always a Stevie Nicks thing under the surface with Amanda's voice, mostly in the vibrato, which some people have referred to as the goat sound. LOL.

What has been unique and challenging in this particular musical collaboration is the fact that I'm working with somebody who does not play any instrument or have the slightest understanding of music theory. She is a lyricist and vocalist who brings raw words to me, "poems" if you will. I coax her to sing those words in a simple melody, to which I then apply a tempo and time signature, then add chords and extrapolate an entire harmonic structure. From there the whole thing evolves organically with her voice and my guitar acting as foils for one another. I typically have a pretty good idea early on of what I want the final product to sound like, and this serves as a type of lodestone guiding me to completion of the piece.

I would love to hear what @Narsh + a vocalist would sound like. You can stand alone as a guitar player in the same way that Jeff Beck, Via, or Satriani can. The guitar is your voice, and it is eminently recognizable and powerful. But in addition to being a world class guitarist, you're a skilled producer, composer, and arranger. You're also insanely prolific in ideas and output. It is rare for a guitar player to have that entire skill set. I would love to hear what you could come up with with a vocalist added to the mix.

Man very kind of you to say. Last time I worked with a vocalist was with @deeaa and it was loads of fun. Always down to collaborate.

[tobijohn]

Any plans to do anything live anytime soon? One of these days I've got to visit a sister in Hendersonville, and it wouldn't be too bad of a drive over to your turf...

[toomanycats]

Any plans to do anything live anytime soon? One of these days I've got to visit a sister in Hendersonville, and it wouldn't be too bad of a drive over to your turf...

Amanada has her own band that gigs and our association began when she contacted me and asked if I would join. She sent me the set list and the majority of the material was from the 90s and 2000s, which is music I'm not interested in playing. While I declined the opportunity to join her band, I proffered that her and I work together as a studio project writing and recording original songs. I've tried to guide her in the direction of blues and rock, which I believe is the sweet spot for her voice.

There has been talk of her and I performing as a duo, which presents one small problem, and that is that she doesn't play any instruments. Of course, I could play guitar and she could sing, though that would deny me the ability to play lead guitar with rhythm accompaniment. I've thought about the possibility of using a looper pedal or even backing tracks, but quite frankly I have an antipathy for both of those things. Live music to me means "live," with no tricks or bs.

But I suspect we'll be performing live together in some capacity in the near future, and I'll keep you posted.