Recent music #7 - Close the Book

For this edition…

we’re going to look closer at my new acoustic album, Close the Book. I’m going to share some of the music with you so you can give it a listen. I’ll also tell some of the stories behind the songs. This music is the first part of a bigger series of music I’d like to record and produce in 2024 and 2025. Please consider purchasing the record (or any record of mine!) to help fund the next project.

Thanks, Mike

PS… apologies for the imposing product buttons below but they’re a necessary evil I guess. I am trying to make a living doing this after all.

Close the Book is a new album I made during the first week of July 2024. All of the songs on the album are about a person I was in a relationship with that had a particularly significant impact on me in ways I carry with me daily. If I were a better lyricist, I might write words to these songs. If I were a better singer, I might sing them.

It’s also a chance to explore my acoustic guitar playing, something I do all the time at home but have only just started to try out in public. I’m lucky enough to own 3 Martin guitars and I love playing them…each guitar has its own feeling and character. These songs were recorded on a custom shop Martin that I’ve had for about 10 years. It is essentially a OOO-28 but with some extra appointments.

This record came about very quickly. With all of the changes in my life and career in the past 16 months or so, I’ve had a lot of trouble moving on and taking steps away from the past. This recording felt like an essential effort to move on and “turn the page” or “close the book” if you will. I recorded everything in a week and then left for tour. When I came back, I listened to everything and decided to release the recordings after a few extra takes and a little bit of editing.

The first song I’d like to highlight is one of the older songs on the record, “Renovated Heart.” There’s something really exciting when you first start connecting with someone and everything seems like it’s sparkling. This song spontaneously emerged out of that feeling. Check out an earlier performance of the song and compare it to the acoustic version on the album. We’ve been playing this on trio gigs and I just love digging into the song at a deeper, more interactive level.

There’s also a ghostly version of “Renovated Heart” on Close the Book. I used the plug-in DRIP to create an echo of the song…sort of a reflection or a memory of the song.

Another feature of Close the Book is it’s lack of improvisation. The songs are played in an off-the-cuff manner but there is little soloing in the jazz tradition found in these recordings. “We Used to Talk All the Time” is an exception to this. The title makes the subject rather obvious. It is hard losing connection with someone that you used to share everything with. Or someone you would turn to for advice. That’s what the feeling of this piece is about. This song features some rather comforting textures on the guitar that I think I leaned into because I needed comfort at the time of writing it. I think this song was just made for acoustic guitar though it works well on electric too.

The title track, “Close the Book,” is the most recent piece on the record. The bones of this song have been kicking around since the summer of 2020. The most recent file I have saved on my computer had the name “Very Amidon,” reflecting how I felt some of the sounds resonated with the sound of Sam Amidon’s music and arranging. The recording on the album is an improvised form pulled from the guiding material I composed. I figured that however long or short the phrases came out was how long or short they needed to be. After improvising this form, I transcribed the arrangement and began playing it with my trio. You can hear the “off the cuff” version next to the debut trio performance of the song and keep score for yourself.