Opening If you’ve been a reading my blog for any length of time, it’s not hard to figure out that I’m a Gustavo Santaolalla superfan. It all started with the Brokeback Mountain score: acoustic guitar, empty space, minimalism. I had never heard anything like it.  […]

Chichina I performed Chichina this blog about 7 years ago, however my audio quality was dated and not up to my current standard. I’ve been on a quest to redo the songs that inspire me to play guitar, and Gustavo Santaolalla’s Chichina is one of […]

Visions of Gideon Visions of Gideon is a song by the New York based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. His songs from the film, Call Me By Your Name are atmospheric and layered. The soundtrack also features avant-garde classical works and music by composer, Ryuichi […]

Lady Bird The Lady Bird soundtrack is from multi-instrumentalist composer Jon Brion. Brion’s niche is in creating “unsentimental” scores that fit hand in glove with indie drama/comedies. The music bounces along — like a Beatles song without vocals — never interfering with the scene. Contrast […]

Amores Perros Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Amores Perros (2001) is an ambitious story of lives that collide in a Mexico City car crash. Inventively structured as overlapping and intersecting narratives. Gustavo Santaolalla initially said no to this project, because he was too busy producing […]

Hawkins Hawkins, Indiana — the setting of Stranger Things — is actually a fictional small town invented by the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers. In development, the series was originally to be called Montauk, a real-life coastal town on Long Island, New York — and […]

Hell or High Water Hell or High Water is a 2016 American neo-Western crime thriller film directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan. The film follows two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank robberies to save […]

Very happy that M. Night Shyamalan is doing well again. Split, starring James McAvoy, has excellent reviews — much like his 2015 “found footage” thriller, The Visit. Ever since I saw, The Sixth Sense on a date with my girlfriend (now wife) M. Night has […]

True Love Waits “True Love Waits” is a song by English rock band Radiohead. It was first performed live in 1995 and has been a fan favorite ever since. However, it was not officially released until 2016 on their ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped […]

Riding Horses (This post and tab have been updated as of 8/31/20) Riding Horses is one of my favorite selections from Gustavo Santaolalla’s iconic, Academy Award winning score for Brokeback Mountain. It’s truly one Gustavo Santaolalla’s most beautiful melodies. The actual piece is two separate […]