A Light So Fair
$10.00
| Hope Sings |
| A Light So Fair |
| All Through The Night |
| Welcome, Dear Dawn |
| Donne's Passage |
| The Distant Isle |
| The White Stag |
| The River Deveron |
| Take My Life, and Let It Be |
| Bear My Harp Hither |
| The Good Morrow |
| The Twilit Vale / The Quiet Longing |
| O'er Furrow and Field |
| With Joys Reunited |
During the Alison Krauss Windy City tour in 2018, Alison suggested I record an album of peaceful, meditative guitar pieces. I took her suggestion to heart.
Usually in the mornings I spend some time in reading and reflection. For this album, I'd pull my guitar out after this peaceful, reflective time. A period of experimentation would lead into an idea for a melody, mostly simple and restful, which would then lead into an idea for an arrangement. The melodies are variously inspired by the morning sunlight on our fields in Tennessee, walks in the Yorkshire countryside, a river in Scotland behind Huntly Castle, writers George MacDonald, John Donne, and C.S. Lewis, melodies of Stephen Foster, and ballad books from the 1800s.
By late morning I would be adding another guitar, or shruti (a simple, accordion-like instrument). The idea was to let everything flow into the music from that early morning feeling of peace, focusing on simplicity, tone, and nuance, with the intention that listeners would be able to take away some of that peace for themselves.
Some stellar voices added background vocals. Suzanne Cox, Sierra Hull, Kate Rusby, Damien O'Kane, and my daughter, Erica Block, all added some lovely, ethereal parts to the mix.
For vintage guitar aficionados, most of the recording was made using my 1938 Martin D28, used on the AKUS albums Lonely Runs Both Ways and Paper Airplane.