The Music of the Night My Dad was a massive fan of the arts — specifically music and poetry. As an early adolescent (in the late 80’s) my family belonged to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. I was fortunate to see every Broadway show you can […]

I Get to Love You As I write this post, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Harrisburg PA on New Years Eve. I’ll be performing ‘I Get to Love You’ as a bride processional this evening for my wife’s cousin’s wedding. I guess that […]

Fantastic Beasts The Fantastic Beasts movies — as with the Harry Potter predecessors — seem to be set in winter more often then not. For that reason, I think of the films, and the music by James Newton Howard, as seasonal. To me, it only […]

Spectre This song was commissioned for the 2015 Craig-era James Bond film, Spectre. The song was rejected by the film producers, and Radiohead released it as a B-side to the 2016 single ‘Burn the Witch’. Initially, Radiohead had offered Man of War, a song written […]

Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi (Nursery rhyme from another summer, the afternoon) is a piece of music by composer, Yann Tiersen. As the principle song from Amelie, it’s by far his most popular song at 326 million plays […]

Harry in Winter The fourth installment in the Harry Potter series, Goblet of Fire, marked a significant shift in tone and theme. Composer Patrick Doyle took over from John Williams, bringing a fresh, Celtic-infused soundscape. The standout piece is Harry in Winter, a haunting and […]

The Kiss The Kiss is the up-tempo, and secondary cue from The Last of the Mohicans. Another (nearly identical) version of this cue is entitled Promentory. Both songs are actually a Celtic violin motif entitled “The Gael” by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean. The Kiss can […]

D U N E Hans Zimmer’s DUNE soundtrack is absolutely gnarly — and it plays out brilliantly in the film. I’ll be honest: I don’t know much about the book. The synopsis is incredibly dense, and it’s clearly been a difficult story to bring to […]

Futile Devices Futile Devices is a song by American singer songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. This song is from the soundtrack of, Call Me By Your Name; a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Sufjan Stevens has such a peculiar musicality. He has the linear […]

Léon Starring Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman — Léon: The Professional is an amazingly casted and highly entertaining crime thriller. When it was first released on VHS in 1994 is was simply called “The Professional”. I believe they released a special edition (or […]

The Princess Bride Mark Knopfler wrote the score for The Princess Bride (1987) — not a typical Hollywood hire, which tells you exactly what kind of off-beat film Rob Reiner was making. The main theme, Once Upon a Time…Storybook Love, is built around Knopfler’s signature […]

Outer Banks: Midsummers (guitar theme) NEW Acoustic Version This piece is very obscure — and I had a bunch of folks request this all at once on YouTube and Instagram. Although it’s a great guitar riff, it might only appeal to fans of the Netflix […]