Classical Guitar Music

Enjoy this wonderful collection of acoustic Holiday music that is never loud or fast but always soft and soothing!The Story Of The CD…by producer Darren Curtis SkansonIt has again been a very busy fall at CCM both in the recording studio and at the label. We have been working on this new Christmas CD and we finally finished it. It is called Acoustitherapy “The Holidays: A Guitar Collection”. We would have had it ready for Thanksgiving weekend if it had not been for mister obsessive-compulsive here not being able to let it go until everything was juuuuuuuuuuuust right! Sorry about that.

I have so many wonderful musical friends, especially in the guitar department. So we decided to pool our talents and create a holiday CD that not only featured the guitar but also stayed with the Acoustitherapy theme of “Always Soft and Soothing”. So looking for songs in that vein, I had always wanted to do Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song” or you might know it as “Chestnuts Roasting By An Open Fire”. So myself and Tom Capek my producer and Wayne Templeman, one of my cellists, did that one. Then I also worked up a great medley with my guitar duet partner Gregg Hansen. We took “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and put them into a six minute epic version that not only plays both songs but also combines them over the top of one another. Whew! That took us 3 months just to get that arrangement!

After I had those two big selections handled, I started asking other guitar friends of mine to be a part of the CD. The response was great! Latin Jazz guitarist Manuel Molina contributed a wonderful solo jazz guitar version of “Jingle Bell Rock” and did an instrumental version of “Burito Sabanero” which is a very popular Christmas carol in the Latin community. My duet partner Gregg Hansen did a tune from Alabama’s Christmas CD called “Angels Among Us” and then he put the bow tie on the record with his Celtic flutist Cynthia Jaffe when they contributed “Auld Lang Syne” for the final cut of the CD. Andrew Harling and Jeff Wahl also contributed with solo guitar versions of White Christmas and the Peanuts cartoon Christmas song “Christmas Time Is Here” respectively.

Not to hog the whole CD to us guitar players, we also had great a contributions from Acoustic Eidolon doing a version of Silent Night where the cello did the lead melody. We also featured lead strings on an acoustic trio version of Morning Has Broken and the Italian Christmas carol Gesu Bambino where Kevin Johnson, the cellist that plays live with me, was featured. There is also a soothing almost haunting version of “What Child Is This” done on nylon string guitar with Native American flute. Thanks to Winds Of The Spirit for that one.

Lastly, the very first song on the record (yes, I know it is starnge to say ‘lastly’ and then talk about the first song but I am an artist, cut me some slack). We needed a lead off tune that not only started the CD strong but also reflected the start of Holiday season especially since we were going to end the CD with “Auld Lang Syne”. We searched for a tune that sort of highlighted the thankfulness that the start of the season is all about. We came up with “Simple Gifts” the Shaker hymn that has the words ” Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free, ’tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.” Aa a unique component to this classic tune, myself, Andrew, Gregg and Andrew’s duet partner Keith recorded an arrangement I did for guitar ensemble. 3 classical guitars with steel string guitar accompaniment made the arrangement so humble and honest! I just love it. After the tracking, I added some bells and it all came together.

Anyway, check out the new Holiday Acoustitherapy disc. I am so proud of it!

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