Photo by Laura Louise Grimsley | Unsplash Memoria Memoria is a pretty motif from Gustavo Santaolalla’s Narcos: Mexico soundtrack. He’s actually playing an electric guitar that’s doubled with a violin. Given that dynamic, Memoria sounded better on a nylon string, as a lone guitar performance. […]

Wild Life When the Surf Comes Up is a motif by composer Gustavo Santaolalla. The piece is from, Wild Life, a documentary directed and produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo). The film follows conservationists Kris Tompkins (CEO Patagonia) and her husband […]

Zlatan y Guillermo “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.” ― Milan […]

Photo by Casey Horner | Unsplash The Whirling Ways of Stars that Pass The Whirling Ways of Stars that Pass is from Johann Johannsson’s 2014 Golden Globe winning score for, The Theory of Everything. It’s a beautiful piece of music that turned out to be […]

Photo by lauren lulu taylor | Unsplash Never Let Me Down Again Never Let Me Down Again, is a song by the English band Depeche Mode, who were pioneers of electronic and “alternative” music in the 1980’s. This song is from their 6th album, Music […]

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash The Poet Acts Philip Glass (1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass is the godfather of the post-classical movement – as his music is […]

Photo: Hu Chen | Unsplash 1923 1923 is a Yellowstone origin story, where the Duttons face challenges to the ranch, in the early 20th century. I particularly like the character of Spencer — a WW1 soldier suffering from PTSD who’s biding time as ‘man-eater’ hunter […]

The Pale Blue Eye I was REALLY excited to see The Pale Blue Eye – as the whole thing was shot around my hometown of Pittsburgh. Western PA is filled with well-preserved colonial sites that are located within state parks. Specifically, I spend a lot […]

Silent Night I really love this understated arrangement of Silent Night. Everything is in the right place. Guitar doesn’t have to be complicated to be beautiful. In fact, I would argue that simplicity in music is virtuous, and we should all be striving to play […]

Photo by Linus Nylund | Unsplash The Whale The Whale is a film directed by Darren Aronofsky, and stars Brendan Fraser as a reclusive English teacher, who tries to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Brendan Fraser is easy to like. His career is in […]

21 Grams I completely lifted my right-hand technique from composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. He effectively arpeggiates chord shapes by rolling through them with his fingers. This is a beautiful way to voice chords, and pretty easy to do with a little practice. The best way to […]

The Banshees of Inisherin The Banshees of Inisherin, is a 2022 black comedy written and directed by British-Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh. The film follows two lifelong friends (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) who find themselves at an impasse, when one abruptly ends their relationship. The predicament […]