This evening I created a demo of a piece of music I wrote this afternoon with my hollowneck guitar. The goal was to memorialize the song before it evaporated during the long work week that lies ahead.

In keeping with the premise behind Breathe, I kept the instrumentation sparse for the demo, using just my 2003 Industrial Guitars lap steel in E and my 2009 Warr Guitars Artist 8. I ran both instruments through the POD X3 Pro with my favorite JC-120 model. The tone of the lap steel was exquisite, crisp and clean and present. And the Warr, 'nuff said.

The arrangement will most likely change when I record the song for the album. During today's writing session I approached the hollowneck as "the small orchestra" and I may be inclined to distribute the arrangement between lap steel, electric guitar, fretless guitar, and Warr Guitar. Plenty of time to worry about that later. For now I'm delighted with the piece as its taking shape and glad to have captured it in Pro Tools.

From the perspective of technique, my recent noodling with the hollowneck has been designed to bring another perspective to my lap steel playing. I've been enamored with playing open strings, often as drones, on either side of the neck and using the bar to play chords or melodies on a subset of the strings. Most of my work on lap steel has been non-traditional, as One Feather Shy listeners will attest, but this latest obsession is opening up new avenues for exploration. Good stuff.