From time to time I receive advice or comments from other musicians that this or that song of mine would suit an ensemble arrangement of some kind; a bass here, some percussion there, perhaps a fiddle or a wind instrument…

I’ve no doubt that much may be done to provide some ear candy over some of my songs; solo guitar and voice is hardly mainstream mass consumption and the buying public continues to expect a pretty full arrangement and production. A full CD of acoustic guitar and vocal might make them feel short-changed or unsatisfied, somehow - or they might find it just plain boring.

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… from my friends www.reverbnation.com:

A neat little player containing my songs (from Interim Reports). A person can even “share” by sending a link by email, or copying it the script onto a web page. Cool. Feel free to do exactly that, dear reader, and click the “Share” button on the player!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

        

… but gave it up after it flew out my fingers and struck an audience member in the eye!

Well, that’s the story I tell, anyway. Consequently, I’ve had to arrange some songs for fingerstyle which involved many happy hours of figuring out new nail-breaking preventative measures. A number of songs haven’t lent themselves to be rearranged for fingerstyle, so they’ve bitten the dust except for a few phrases that could be cannibalized and reconfigured. A few others have proven to be susceptible to recasting as fingerpicking tunes and I think have even been improved, thereby. It’s been interesting finding ways to pick out melodies with the fingers that previously had been picked with plastic which has involved using two fingers on the same string - or thumb and fingers - which, while it maybe common practice of a classical guitar player, is a bit of a unusual discipline for a “folk” guitar player who is used to anchoring fingers to particular strings.

The end result is a few songs, having been thus rearranged, that have a quirky feel. A challenge to play, yes, but worth it.