High Road

This page follows the creative journey of High Road ~ from early acoustic versions and the story behind the song to the recording process and how it continues to evolve.

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Early Versions

High Road ~ Song Intro/Back Story

Originally named “Scorched Earth”, High Road is another song that will be part of my album Slow Burn. This one will be more on the bluesy – hard rock side of things.

High Road ~ Solo Acoustic (March 2020)

This is the first version of High Road. As you progress through these videos, you’ll be able to see how much this song has evolved ✨

Recording the Song

High Road ~ Recording Booth Footage

Here’s a work-in-progress recording of High Road, a song I wrote mid-pandemic. The song was inspired by something I heard Marc Maron say on his podcast WTF. He was talking about a relationship and how he was trying to “take the high road.” I could very much relate to what he was saying 😅

Marc had a tour in 2009 called “Scorching The Earth” ~ right after his divorce from his second wife.

So I incorporated the phrase “scorching the earth” into this song that I wrote about my own relationship struggles.

My part in the recording session that day was creating "scratch tracks" of guitar and vocal, while my drummer Jimmy Paxson recorded the drums for the final recording. Once drums were recorded, Seth and I were able to take our time crafting and recording various "keeper" guitar and vocal parts back in his studio.

High Road ~ Jimmy Paxson Drums Session

Here’s some video footage of Jimmy Paxson recording drums for High Road.

For this album, drums were usually the first thing we tracked, and we'd build the song from there.

Live Performances

High Road ~ Guitar Therapy Session 2

High Road is a song from my upcoming studio album. We’re still not quite there yet with the final version, but it’s such a fun song, I decided to include it in the Guitar Therapy sessions. 🤩

Lineup

This first audio was a work-in-progress recording of High Road.

This version was really useful for me to hear what was working and what was not working with the arrangement of the song. The final recording will have an ending that's a bit different from this version.

This second audio is the version of the song I recently shared with comedian and groundbreaking podcaster Marc Maron, who inspired the song and will be playing guitar on it as well. We recorded Marc’s guitar parts a couple of weeks afterwards, which you’ll be able to hear in the next audio player below.

The crazy guitar sound you hear in the beginning is my electric guitar going through this Soviet-era tape delay/fuzz box that producer Seth has. We’ve used it on a couple of my recordings and it’s fun to use cuz it’s so unpredictable in the sound you get. 🎸

Here’s the almost-finished recording of  High Road, including the newly-recorded guitar solos from me and the song’s muse, Marc Maron (pictured). Something Marc said on his WTF podcast years ago inspired this song, and I’m thrilled to be featuring his guitar playing, along with my own, in the solo section.

Right now, the solos aren’t as loud as they will be in the final mix, but you can hear the difference between my parts (heavily effected with octave and tape delay effects) and Marc’s parts (more traditionally bluesy-sounding). Marc brought his 1965 Champ amplifier to the studio, along with a gorgeous Gold Top Les Paul that he used on the tracks.

We had a professional video recording of the session, and I’m looking forward to sharing the footage with you as well, at some point in the future. 🤩

Here’s an almost-complete mix of High Road, featuring Marc Maron on guitar (and me on guitar too ~ we do dueling guitar solos)

Seth will be taking a little more time to perfect the mix, and I’ll let you know when it’s done so you can hear the official version we’ll be releasing on the album

This is Seth's mix of High Road ~ everything is balanced and in place, but it hasn’t been mastered yet, so it’s a bit quieter than the final version will be.

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