Buckley (abridged)

In 1996 I formed a short-lived duo project with vocalist Myra Thurner. We went under the name Thar She Blew!, which I still think is a great name for a music project. Thar She Blew! was mainly an exercise in what I called "collaborative composition by correspondence", meaning we'd both write and record independently, with collaboration in mind, and then work on each other's pieces with little influence from each other. Usually this involved me writing and recording something akin to a standard song format piece, complete with verse and chorus sections etc, and dropping a tape in her letterbox, Myra would then work on her bits, then we'd get together a week or so later to hear the result. And that's exactly how this song came together. We did only one gig, a small art gallery opening for the Nova Fringe Festival, but it was a very worthwhile endeavour regardless of lack of live exposure.

One of the challenges of this project was trying to translate duo singer/songwriter type music for a bass guitar and the piece here was one of my first attempts at chordal style playing in an attempt to get over that hurdle.

This piece, Buckley was written the day of Jeff Buckley's death, May 29 1997. The title was obvious once it was written, however it was not directly conceived as a tribute, hearing only of the news shortly after. The original complete song was longer, repeating the verse and chorus sections to fit the lyrics. Without vocals (or another melody instrument) I prefer it short and sweet to avoid too much repetition. Imagine someone singing over it to get an idea of what Thar She Blew! sounded like.

And I flub a few bits, but who cares.

Hedging Your Bets - an original composition in memory of Michael Hedges