NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW…NEW

The following tracks have all been recorded at home using my PC, Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0, a Line6 Pod XT or Flextone II XL combo and guitar, bass, keys and, on occasion a vocal mic. I have a small studio where I record my stuff and the aim is to record material for both myself and other artists and I’d also like to get an album of original guitar instrumental material recorded and released sometime during 2006. (Looking like 2007 at this rate!)

A few of the tracks were done as collaborations with people I’ve met by hanging out at www.guitars101.com. There are some VERY talented individuals from all round the globe at this site and e-mail and the Internet means that we can write and record together without even meeting. Check the site out and you’ll see what I mean.

You can read about the gear that I use by clicking here You’ll need a media player to play the MP3's and I’d appreciate any comments you have by leaving them in the message board …I’ll always reply to any questions you might have regarding gear, technique, how I got a certain sound etc. Thanks for listening.

NEW STUFF...NEW STUFF...NEW STUFF...NEW STUFF...

APRIL 2006 NEW MP3’S!

ORIGINAL MATERIAL

This is stuff I’ve ‘written’ over the last 18 or so months as I’ve got into the programming of the POD xt. Some of it was to royalty free backing tracks so that’s why I’ve used the term ‘written’ loosely. What I’ve written is the hooks and solos and twins that make the track into more than just a 5-minute guitar workout. The main thing I’m looking for is MELODY. That wins hands down over shred everytime for me though I do enjoy stretching out and attacking the guitar where it fits.

1. Chris Watson - High 5 (4.27mb)

I recently bought a Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro Rackmount and wanted to try the bass settings out. I suppose this one was written backwards as I thought of a bass line THEN wrote the drums and finally came up with the guitar! I'm a big fan of Doug Aldrich and I was trying to get his kinds attack on the pinch harmonics...not quite as violent as Zakk Wylde but plenty of attitude. Used my PODxt and a Peavey Wolfgang on this track. The bass is a very cheap snot green Wesley that sounds and plays amazing for £70! Download

2. Chris Watson - Slowburn Sunday ((4.95mb)

I had a backing track that is VERY Jeff Beck and wanted to try both my Levinson Blade Texas Deluxe and a new patch I'd been working on the PODxt that has touches of SRV about it but also had a real shimmering like a Lesley cabinet. This worked well with the Rhodes style electric piano on the track. I used the volume pot on the Blade to bring this up and down gain wise...not much but just enough to let it start to sing. Download

3. Chris Watson – Stevie's Dream (5.57mb)

Another mild one that was written with the bass in mind. A big tribute to SRV but sounding nothing like him! I tried once again to bring the gain of the guitar up ever so slightly as the song progressed. The end starts to kick almost jazz style but I can't play jazz to save my life! Melody over thrash everytime tho' I do love HEAVY guitar as long as it's done with taste. Download

4. Chris Watson/Jeremy Martens – Ridin’ High (3.73mb) Download

Done as a collab with my guitar buddy Jeremy…or J-Mart as he’s known on the ‘net. We do these tracks now and again and I’m always amazed at how natural the playing flows into one another as we don’t know what the other person is bringing to the table most of the time. Jeremy is a very talented musician and we just dig each other’s style. I did the twin leads and Jeremy starts off the leads on the D sections. We did another track last year which is now the theme music to the ‘Old School Metal Show’ on Hard Rockin’ ‘80’s Radio show in the US on www.hardrockin80s.com. Check it out, it’s a great show ran by my friend Grinder!

5. Chris Watson/Danny Peel/Phil Sloan - Blues ³ (5.40mb) Download

Another collaboration written with two extremely talented young guitarist/musicians from the North East of England…Danny Peel and Phil Sloan. We each do a couple of minutes on this slow blues track...Phil starts thing off, I follow and Danny finishes the track with a bang. Again, this was fun because no one knew what the next person was doing and it just gels so well together. It was good also to do a track with two other players from the North East. You can check out Phil’s band at www.tokyoband.plus.com

6. Chris Watson – Close To Tears (3.71mb) Download

Just a slow blues thing with my strat and a more subdued tone. Was thinking Stevie Ray meets Dave Gilmour. It’s nice to go slow and feel the music some days. My strat is a bit noisy these days so I have to be careful what sound I go for, as the 5-way switch is only quiet on two of the settings time... for a rewiring I think!

7. Chris Watson – Breeze (3.78mb) Download

This was a bit of an experiment with a new guitar. I recently got a Jackson DK2S…the ‘S’ at the end of the model number stands for ‘Sustainiac’. This is a device similar to the ‘Gizmo’ from a few years ago that produces a vibration thru the strings that allows sustain to be instantaneous and produces the actual note, the harmonic of the note or a ‘fifth above’ harmonic. This was the first time I’d plugged it in and it gives great results. Guitar has gone as I couldn't get away with the neck but I'll be looking out for a sustainiac cos it was a really cool item to use.

8. Chris Watson – Pacific Highway (2.51mb) Download

Thin Lizzy were the influence for this one. Named it ‘Pacific Highway’ because it feels like a driving song to me and the Pacific Highway on the Big Sur is a stretch of road I wanna travel down. There are touches of Steve Vai on the trem work but I think it sounds like me overall.

9. Chris Watson – Vegas Viper (3.15mb) Download

Renamed from 'Wah Wah Frenzy' after much discussion and a competition to win a mars bar!. I used the neck pickup on the Peavey Wolfgang, which made this sing in places. Part of this is very Old School style Frank Marino, Jimi Hendrix blues-rock but then the verses are much more restrained and controlled picking and legato runs. This one won me the Guitarhoo Showdown Champion Award for January 2005! Check the site out at www.guitarhoo.com

10. Chris Watson – Hope (4.29mb) Download

Written on New Years Day 2005, this is a ballad that came out after thinking about the South East Asian Tsunami crisis, which finished off a bad year for mankind. This was played in the dark, late at night after way too many brandies. I didn’t think I’d saved it to my hard drive and was surprised to find it come up when I opened my recording software the following morning (with a stinking hangover!). I played it back and thought that though it was a bit rough in places, it had a lot of feel so I kept it.

11. Chris Watson/Doc Code - Reach (4.7mb)

Doc Code is another Chris I met on the Guitars 101 website. I think he's from Portland, Oregon and he is such a tasty player...I feel we have a similar taste in melody. He's a big fan of Paul Gilbert as am I (he can just play the guy's stuff whereas I don't know where to begin!). We traded solo's on this one...I went 1st and 3rd and he went 2nd and 4th. Again, I was thinking of classic Dave Meniketti from Y& T when I was playing this one. Great stuff and thanks Doc. Download

 

NEW BLACK ROSE MATERIAL SNIPPETS

These are new demo's that we're working on in Black Rose. All the stuff is done ovr the net cos we live so far apart. Not sure if anything will come of these but we'll wait and see.

1. Love Addiction (demo) – Black Rose 2005 (0.97mb) Download

This has a real DLR meets Motley Crue vibe (we think!). Basically a rock and roll song!

2. Better To Burn Out (Than Fade Away) (demo) – Black Rose 2005 (1.38mb) Download

Very different feel for us…more of a slow burner. Let us know what you think of these?

3. Twice Shy - Once Bitten (demo) - Black Rose 2005 (1.50mb)

Mid-paced rocker with a strong chorus hook...very '80's but that's what we are about! Download

4. Twice Shy - Once Bitten solo (demo) - Black Rose 2005 (0.7mb)

Just the solo from the same song. Was thinking Dave Meniketti of Y & T in a bunfight with Gary Moore when I wrote it! Download

COVERS AND TRIBUTES

all covers and tributes are done simply because I love the artists and for no financial gain at ALL!

I’m a fan of so many guitarists, it’s not true! It may be their entire career or one track but if I feel they have done the work with passion and verve, I’m hooked. I have a decent ear for how to play a certain way or find a certain tone but I hate to copy stuff note-for-note unless it’s required. I’d much rather play in a certain style and add my thing in that style than tie myself up in knots trying to sound like the person I’m trying to copy. So, these vary from very close to not bad but they’re all played with the original artists feel if I can get it.

1. AC/DC – Highway To Hell (Scott, Young, Young - 4.04mb)

This must be the original with Angus removed because I ain't heard anything as close to Bon Scott as this! The main tone is again the PODxt and I used a Marshall 45w Plexi sample for this. Great song that never seems to get old to my ears?! The best rock n roll band on the planet by far... Download

2. Thin Lizzy – Still In Love With You (Lynott - 7.33mb) Download

Yep, a collab…this time with a great singer from Norway called Roy Bratbakken who has a Sammy Hagar/Chris Cornell/Klaus Meine type of voice to my ears. This is a tough one to sing as in my opinion, Phil Lynott made this very emotive without doing much AND the backing track I found was in F# instead of the original A, making it VERY low down range-wise. I’d done the guitar work about 3 months earlier and had even tried singing it myself (not good!) when I suggested Roy try it. He did his thing rather than try and do a ‘Phil’ (which wouldn’t have worked) and I think he has made it his own song. This has always been a very special song to me and I’ve waited a long time to do it…it’s finally finished!

3. Van Halen - On Fire (Van Halen, Van Halen, Roth, Anthony - 3.68mb)

Done with Johnny Lokke (see below), again trying hard to get the classic Van Halen tone from the first album. It's getting closer and Johnny is morphing into Rob Halford...classic metal vocals! Download

4. Joe Satriani - Mountain Song (Satriani - 3.26mb)

I'm probably not the closest Satch type player but I love this song and the backer was good so I thought I'd give it a go. Was hard work but enjoyed it very much...especially the section from 1:18 onwards. Download

5. Vinnie Moore - Rain (Moore - 5.07mb)

Funny story with this one. I heard this and thought it was Satch...I know, sounds nothing like it BUT thats what my mate put on the cover of the cd he burnt. So I'm raving about this and a friend who is a huge fan of Joe Satriani (Axeshredder from New York) said, 'that's NOT Joe'. So then I had to find out who this was. Now I had Vinnie's early album's but nothing on it was as beautiful as this so when I found out, I was determined to have a go. Lot's of phrases are mine because the guy is so good. Also my good mate Chris Newey from Birmingham put a sitar part on for me which has made the track in my opinion. Easily one of my fave instrumentals and glad I had a go at it. :) Download

6. Pink Floyd - Have A Cigar (Waters - 7.0mb)

Done with my good net buddy from New Orleans, Sergio Davini (3fingers), this is a track from my fave Pink Floyd album. Serge is not only a red hot guitarist, he also sings for his supper! While millions adored 'Dark Side Of The Moon', I always thought this was a more complete piece of work. Had a great time trying to re-create the segued ending with all the radio static into 'Wish You Were Here' which we may do at a later stage and tag onto the end of this! Thanks Serge...great work. Download

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand The Weather (S.R. Vaughan - 4.34mb)

This is me trying desperately to get to grips with both SRV's guitar playing AND his vocals...needs more work I reckon! I'm not the most confident of singers and haven't much of a range but this was fun even if the recording isn't brilliant. Stevie is one of my top 3 players because he puts so much passion into every note...the guy just couldn't play half-assed if he tried! I'll come back to this one day but for now I think the strat tones sound quite beefy and twangy on the opening stuff. I wanted a vintage tone and I think on the most this sounds quite convincing for a modeller...any thoughts? Download

8. Steve Hackett - Firth Of Fifth (Banks, Collins, Rutherford, Gabriel, Hackett - 7.80mb)

Done as a collab with my good friend from Oz, Synthz Suliwan. This guy is amazing...he did all the instruments on this and I just added some jangly rythm and we shared solo's. I love the way he gets his synth to sound like a guitar but I also love the orchestration he gets with the different instruments...Hackett is a fine player and this was a real challenge to get something as smooth as him. I just winged most of the solo's once I'd got the main phrases at the beginning of most of them. Great stuff. Download

9. Van Halen – I’m The One (Van Halen, Van Halen, Roth, Anthony - 2.70mb) Download

Done with a guy from the US called Johnny Lokke…check him out at www.johnnylokke.com He’s a very Geoff Tate/Rob Halford type of singer and this rocks! Once again, this is the POD xt and this particular setting is called…’Eruption’! Well, it would be wouldn’t it!

10. George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Harrison - 5.33mb)

One of those songs I promised I'd get round to doing after first hearing George, then Jeff Healey and, finally, Vinnie Moore. To be fair, this is prolly closer in sound and style to the Vinnie version but I just played my own licks. George Harrison was a legend and had prolly the finest slide guitar in the world where it never sounded like blues...just something stunningly original. This was really hard work because of all the twin phrases I put in but I was really happy with the end result. R.I.P mate. Download

 

BLACK ROSE (older material)

These following songs are from the Black Rose ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ album that I recorded with the band back in 1984…old school rock! This album is pretty hard to get hold of these days and fetches a fair bit on eBay when it comes up. Vinyl rules! Also a demo from 1986…

1. Black Rose – Baby Believe Me (7.76mb) Download

This was during our ‘We love Y&T’ period! Loved ‘em and wanted to do a ballad that was similar in style. Steve Bardsley came up with most of the hard work but I added my ideas for wanting an acoustic start into a chorused electric. Spent a lot of time on the solo as well to make sure I could live with it 20 years later! Gibson Melody Maker and Marshall 100w Master Volume top thru a Vox Distortion for those who care less!

2. Black Rose – First Light/Burn Me Blind (5.91mb) Download

I’ve included this one because it has a bit of everything; 12 string acoustic intro, twin leads, driving riff and (at the time I thought) a sort of Alex Lifeson style solo. The acoustic thing was tagged on because we were a song short for the album so I was told to stay in and write something! It was a LONG night!

3. Black Rose – (Get Off Your) High Horse (4.08mb) Download

Recorded at Fairview Studios in Hull in 1986. We were very happy with the way this came out but this track is copied from a very old tape so the quality isn’t very good. However, you can hear the band was going less metal and more anthemic party style…we were listening to a lot of Ratt, W.A.S.P etc.

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