© 2014
Jeff Wyatt (SOCAN). All arrangements by Jeff Wyatt.
**************************
Album
Title:
MY CHRISTMAS GUITAR
Label:
Cardboard Alley Music
Catalogue
No.:
CAM-009
Release
Date:
November
15th, 2014
Availability:
This album is available by contacting this website only at
this time
Produced
by:
Jeff Wyatt
Recorded
at:
Cardboard Alley Music recording
facility, Burnaby BC, between 2011 and
2014
Engineered
& Mixed by:
Jeff Wyatt
Mastered
with:
T-RackS 3
Deluxe
Art
Work & Cover Design by:
Janice and Jeff Wyatt
Photography
by:
Janice Wyatt, John and Marianne Wyatt
CD
Replication, Printing & Packaging by:
Disc Makers
Particulars:
6th solo album. Vocals, Guitar and Keyboards performed by
Jeff Wyatt. Digital percussion programmed by Jeff Wyatt.
Recorded on a dual processor PowerMac G5. Software used
included
Digidesign
Pro Tools,
Reason,
Miroslav Philharmonik
and a
host of IK Multimedia processors
available in
T-RackS 3
Deluxe.
MY CHRISTMAS GUITAR is a contemporary approach to some
popular Christmas favorites, with an obvious emphasis on
guitar as the featured instrument. Electric and acoustic,
finger-style and slide; the guitar playing styles vary, but
the BLUES influence is evident. The works are all
adaptations and arrangements of Christmas carols and songs
from the Public Domain.
The album begins with an electric blues slide guitar
instrumental version of John Wesley Work Jr’s GO TELL IT ON
THE MOUNTAIN, along with upright bass and drums
accompaniment. And later the album concludes with a vocal
arrangement of this same song. While WHAT CHILD IS THIS and
AULD LANG SYNE are given a more traditional acoustic
finger-style approach, and CHRISTMAS GUITAR MEDLEY
maintains a ragtime blues acoustic finger style (somewhat
similar to Big Bill Broozy), we hear more electric slide
blues guitar (and even some vocal) in SILENT NIGHT.
OH CHRISTMAS TREE is what might happen when you combine
open tuned electric blues guitar with classical piano. It
might be the captured result of Ry Cooder and Wolfgang
Mozart casually drinking a few friendly beers and jamming
in the studio, while unknown to them the engineer had
pressed “record”.
OH HOLY NIGHT (previously released by Jeff as a single for
Christmas 2013) and THE FIRST NOEL have a different, but
still bluesy electric feel due to Jeff’s use of a Fender
Stratocaster, bringing to mind some of the ballad laden
riffs of Jimi Hendrix and Mark Knopfler. Orchestral
accompaniment adds a colorful backdrop to both of these
tracks while the Stratocaster overlays it’s prominent brush
strokes.
1.
Go Tell It On the Mountain (Instr) __
(John
Wesley Work Jr)
2.
What Child is This __
(William
Chatterton Dix)
3.
The First Noel __
(Traditional
Adaptation)
4.
Christmas Guitar Medley __
(Traditional
Adaptation/Compilation)
5.
Oh Holy Night __
(Adolphe
Adam)
6.
Oh Christmas Tree __
(August
Zarnack, Ernst Gebhard Anschutz)
7.
Silent Night __
(Franz
Gruber, Joseph Mohr)
8.
Auld Lang Syne __
(Robert
Burns)
9.
Go Tell It On the Mountain __
(John
Wesley Work Jr)