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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mare of Easttown Mare of Easttown was an awesome limited series on HBO. I was emailing back and forth with my friend Derek about the finale this week. His synoptic take was better than anything I could write: “Mare of Easttown was a stunning piece […]

Flight In 2017, I wrote this song in about 15 minutes while in flow state. Artists, musicians, and creators experience the ‘flow state’ to some degree. It’s often called “the zone” — fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus. That’s how I write music […]

Rush Directed by Ron Howard, Rush is a sports biography film based on the rivalry of Formula One drivers; James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula 1 season. I love Hans Zimmer’s “driving” and thematic music. I wasn’t going to capture that on […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Journey The Journey (El Viaje) was originally written for Louis Vuitton’s Journey campaign in 2008. The video has some really class cinematography to go with Gustavo Santaolalla’s world music. This piece eventually found it’s way onto Santaolalla’s Camino album in 2014. I think it’s […]