Brokeback Mountain Suite About 10 years ago, Gustavo Santaolalla performed the Brokeback Mountain Suite for the Latin program, Encuentro en el Estudio. To date, it’s his best performance of the Brokeback Mountain score (and I’ve watched them all). The guitar tone is gorgeous. You’ll notice […]
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Hurt Hurt was originally written and performed by Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor). It was actually a pivotal NIN song long before the seminal Johnny Cash cover. [The dissonant note in my intro is an ode to the NIN original.] In a similar but reverse […]
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Wicked Game For my money, the two greatest unrequited love songs are: U2’s With or Without You, and Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. The former can prompt one to hold a lighter in the air and bellow “…and you give yourself a-way-a”. The latter makes (me) […]
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All Gone (Seasons) The Last of Us Volume 2, is the supplemental soundtrack for ‘The Last of Us: Left Behind’ – downloadable expansion content that would be later bundled into ‘The Last of Us Remastered’. The music features compositions from the game, composed and produced […]
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Breathe Me Sia’s Breathe Me, is from her 3rd album, Colour the Small One (2004). The song was used to great effect in the poignant finale of Six Feet Under — a landmark HBO drama that premiered 20 years ago last week. Created by screenwriter […]
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The Departure HBO’s The Leftovers begins three years after the “Sudden Departure” — where 2% of the world’s population suddenly vanished. The series focuses on a police chief (played by Justin Theroux) and other grieving families as they struggle to adjust to life after The […]
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Wonderful Tonight Wonderful Tonight is far and away Eric Clapton’s most famous song — and one of the most romantic songs ever written. I’ve had this arrangement in my back pocket for 20 years. I had been developing and playing it at wedding ceremonies for […]
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Chevaliers De Sangreal Chevaliers De Sangreal (The Da Vinci Code) is a glorious piece by Hans Zimmer. He has this knack for writing film music with a slight pop sensibility. If we think of Gladiator, Inception and Interstellar — the underpinning of the music is […]
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Schitt’s Creek I’m definitely late to the game with Schitt’s Creek, but I love it so far. My wife and I are on season 4. Interestingly, the quirkiness of the central theme is totally lost with my sober guitar style. Although it’s note-for-note, my arrangement […]
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Song to the Siren Zack Snyder’s Justice League was incredible. I watched it in two nights, but the 4 hours flew by. I highly recommend the 3 hour director’s cut of Batman v Superman as well — also on HBO Max. Song to the Siren […]
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Waking Up Waking Up is a piece of music from the film, Lone Survivor. This is an awesome movie about the lone survival of Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell — after his 4 man reconnaissance team was chased up and down a mountain side by scores […]
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Arrival of the Birds I’ve always liked The Cinematic Orchestra, and their piece, Arrival of the Birds, was recommended to me by a reader. Such beautiful music. It instantly became on one of my favorites. This song is from Disney’s The Crimson Wing: Mystery of […]
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