Sign of the Times Harry Styles’ moonshot is much like Robbie Williams’ ascension in the early 2000’s: former British “boy-band” member goes solo, combining songwriting chops with sensational stage presence and charisma. The American version of this story would be Justin Timberlake. Songwriting craftsmanship is […]

Cover Me Up Cover Me Up was the song that first introduced me to incredible singer/songwriter Jason Isbell. Forget the writing – the raw honesty of the song, and power of Isbell’s voice is what captured me. It’s just brutal in every good sense of […]

cardigan I’ve always liked Taylor Swift. In fact, she’s responsible for most of my physical lesson business. In the mid 2000’s, mostly boys (and very few girls) played guitar. That suddenly changed around 2007 when Taylor Swift became the biggest star in the world. Ever […]

The Water Lets You In Bloodline (2015-2017) is a Netflix original thriller-drama. The series co-stars one of my all-time favorite actors, Ben Mendelsohn. The theme song, The Water Lets You In, is a deep-bayou Americana riff by the defunct LA band, Book of Fears. I LOVE […]

Paint It Black (iconic riff starts at 0:23) While playing around with the Paint It Black riff — my guitar (with a mind of it’s own) — decided to toss in The Night King by Ramin Djawadi, and a little bit of the James Bond […]

Joga Jóga, was Björk’s first released single from her 1997 album, Homogenic. It fuses electronic with baroque and classical motifs. Jóga was critically acclaimed — praising her powerful vocal performance, composition, and production. Lyrically, the piece is an ode to Björk’s native land, Iceland. You […]

Young and Beautiful The Great Gatsby is a film based on the 1925 novel of the same name. The film follows the life and times of millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his neighbor, Nick Carraway. A decade later, a classic image from the film […]

Mad World Although written by Tears for Fears, I based my version of Mad World on the stripped down Michael Andrews & Gary Jules performance from 2001’s Donnie Darko. To me, the song is haunting and sort of eerie –as it delves into themes of […]

Where’s my Love SYML is the solo venture of Brian Fennell, who was previously part of the indie band Barcelona. His music and singing voice are incredible. I love this song, and just about everything SYML does. For a love song, Where’s My Love, has […]

everything i wanted It used to be, in the early days of this blog, I would routinely perform Lana Del Rey’s music. At the time, she was the only stylistically (and melodically) compelling artist. Her music worked perfectly through the filter of my single acoustic […]

Life on Mars? When distilled to a single guitar, you can really see the otherworldly musicality of David Bowie. He was only 24 when Life On Mars? was released in 1971. This arrangement is based on Trent Reznor’s variation from HBO’s Watchmen. You might also […]

Daily Battles Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Edward Norton. It’s based on the 1999 novel (of the same name) by Jonathan Lethem. Motherless Brooklyn is set in New York City in 1957. The film follows a […]