As mentioned in an earlier post, one of my missions as the “Online Troubadour”  is to share my work in progress with you – even in its rough, early stages.  So here we go, work in progress #1…

I want to perform a mix of covers and my own original material in my new solo, acoustic set.   As well as writing some new material, I am enjoying revisiting some of my old songs and seeing how well they make the transformation to the new format.

Betrayal is a song I wrote about 8 years ago.  I was very much in a blues and blues-rock phase at that time. I performed the song with my old band SkyHunter and we (the band) also recorded it in our one and only studio session.  The version performed and recorded at that time was a latin-tinged, blues-rock treatment – very reminiscent of Santana.  Indeed, my lead guitar work on the recording has “Homage to Carlos” written all over it.

I’ve done rough recordings of two solo acoustic versions of the song.  In one version, I have stuck with the original chord changes.  However, playing around with the song, I started to feel the need to add some harmonic colour to it. So, for version 2, I’ve made the chord changes a little more complex and a little more “jazzy”.  I have also altered the melody very slightly to match the new changes. It starts to sound like something Antonio Carlos Jobim might have written.

Please have a listen to the following clips and let me know what you think…

Clip 1 is the bluesy, latin rock version I recorded with SkyHunter – gracias Carlos Santana for the inspiration!

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Clip 2 is a solo acoustic take – with the original chords

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Clip 3 is the solo acoustic take with the new chords – obrigado Senhor Jobim!

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