Tag: Studio Albums

New Release: Music for Poochy Patrol

 in News

| | |

“Music for Poochy Patrol”, the 3rd installment in my trilogy of instrumental guitar albums, is out today! I play or program every instrument myself, and this time I even had to sing a few tunes.

I started writing, arranging, and tracking an album titled “Music for Poochy Patrol” in early 2019. I planned for it to be a set of original instrumentals featuring some of my favorite musicians. And I was going to use my favorite photo of my dogs Rockett and Charlie (aka Poochy Patrol) on the cover. COVID changed those plans a bit. I instead played or programmed every instrument myself. Then, when Rockett died that November, I decided to instead dedicate the album to him and it became 2021’s “Music to Squeak By”. I still had unrecorded charts, and Charlie needed a cover spot, so 2022 saw “Music for Chasing Squirrels”. This album collects the last of the tunes so it’s finally time to use the original title and cover photo.

Since the start, I’ve watched Poochy Patrol and myself change. Rockett and Charlie made a host of new friends, some of whom are pictured on the back cover. I’ve made new friends as well, playing with a host of new musicians in new venues. So this project, instead of collecting the past, is about the future. There will always be new tunes to play, new places to see, and a host of friends to meet along the way.

Hope to see you along that path soon, and, as always, thanks for listening.

-Vic Dillahay

New Release: Music for Chasing Squirrels

 in News

“Music for Chasing Squirrels” is here! A follow-up to last year’s “Music to Squeak By”, it’s another album of guitar-driven instrumentals with odd and unexpected twists.

First off is “Mrs. Harvey’s”. Named after Longmont’s historic bakery, it’s an up-tempo tune in mostly 6. “Nines”, the second cut, is a funkier version of Graphite Addiction’s “Mental Morphology”. “Cibeles” and “Blues for Phrygia” are two sides of the Phrygian Dominant coin, one an uptempo Latin and the other a Swing Waltz. Side A ends with “Dearest”, a ballad in memory of lost love or alternately a lost invoice. Same difference.

“Fossil Creek Tunnel” starts Side B with its portrait of an incomplete trail. “For C and D” features C major and D minor triad masquerading as a jazz standard. Almost 21 years in the making, “Near Majority” is a musical joke taken much too far. “Somewhere West of Wichita” is a welcome return to normalcy. Almost. Continuing on that road, the record closes with “Actually, Actually”, which as close to country as I dare venture.

Check it out today streaming, at Bandcamp, on CD, or on lathe-cut vinyl. Thanks for listening!

-Vic Dillahay

| |

New Release: Music to Squeak By

 in News

New today is “Music to Squeak By”, my ninth solo album. Inspired by the classic guitar instrumental albums of the 50s and 60s, like those of Howard Roberts and The Ventures, it runs the musical gamut from jazz to blues to funk. There’s even a somewhat-warped boogie thrown in for good measure. While it was originally intended as a vehicle to collaborate with a few old friends on some of my original tunes, the shutdowns caused by COVID-19 changed it into a more solitary project. I wound up playing or programing all the instruments on this recording, for a very personal take on these compositions.

The record opens with “Grin”. A fusion tune that manages to evoke both Pat Metheny and Toto, it sets the mood for a sometimes cerebral set that still cracks a smile. “Penguin Eddie” follows, with an instrumental funk tribute to a tale of attempted penguin abduction. From its smooth harmonies and dulcet tones, “Laetitia’s Lost Chords” would be firmly in the easy-listening camp if not for its constantly shifting meter. “Serva Jugum” continues to warp time, but with a hard-driving gopuccha yati-inspired groove that gives way to solos on a funk waltz. “Kiddo” closes side A with a 12-tone row disguised as a swing ballad. It’s a tribute to my grandfather who was both a lover of irony and completely tone deaf.

Side B opens with “Smolkin’s Boogie”, a quick boogie-woogie blues that wanders through a few more keys than usual. “Half The Times I’ve Failed”, originally written as a example for lessons, is a study in melodic constraint and the lack thereof, as it moves from moody monotone to free noise. “Frickle Frackle” is a minor blues because every guitar album needs one. A tongue-in-cheek take on the exotic guitar genre, “Somewhere East of Omaha” intentionally misses a smörgåsbord of world influences, landing somewhere else entirely. “Ricky Loves LuLu” closes the album. There was a bridge by Erie, Colorado with these words graffitied on it that I would drive under on my way to college in Denver. When the railroad repainted it, “Ricky Still Loves LuLu” appeared the next week written in the the same handwriting. I think that deserves a song.

It’s also my first release available on lathe-cut vinyl, for the true vintage experience. Check it out on the streaming service or disk of your choice and thanks for listening!

| |