Solo Acoustic Guitar "This Dragon Won't Sleep"

Mike O

New member
I clearly remember the first time I saw a video of Don Ross playing live on NPR performing "This Dragon Won't Sleep". It was almost a religious experience for me. He's just an incredible player with a unique vision of how an acoustic guitar should be played. This is a typical Don Ross song which showcases his ability to play bass and melody lines, slaps/taps for percussion, harmonics and horn parts...creating a "full band" sound all by himself on one track on acoustic guitar. About a year ago, my inner voice said "you'll never be able to play like that". I watched that video for weeks before I convinced myself to try and learn this song. I found Don's web site, ordered the tabs and some of his DVD's. I worked very hard at trying to learn "Dragon". I learned all the parts, but it just never sounded right. I ended up shelving it until a few months ago, when I finally started to get the groove of the song. The tuning of the song is very different: C-Eb-Eb-F-C-D. In the midsection of the song, I have to tune down the low C to a Bb (down a whole step) and then tune back to C to finish the song all while continuing to play without missing a beat! (almost )

This week, I also picked up a good 2 channel Art mic pre-amp and a set of MXL603's and decided to give it a whirl this morning. For the first try, I'm very happy with how the guitar (Taylor 314CE) recorded with the new equipment.

http://drrufftuff.com/Mike O - Mike O - This Dragon Won't Sleep.mp3

Let me know what you think!
 
Quite nice. Nice playing.

There may be little too much highs in this. It gives the guitar a silkiness, which is good, but makes the percussion a bit harsh. I'm listening on headphones, so take that for what it's worth, but I might back off a bit somewhere in the 4-8 kHz range.
 
Thanks for listening. Interesting, the only EQing I did was to add a touch about 4.5k....... I'll listen back totally flat now. Thanks
 
Really enjoyed this!I have to agree with the previous post however that the mix seems a bit excessive in the high-end,giving this a kinda metallic sound.Great style/playing...nice job.
 
Yummy stuff...

I turned it up warmed up the lava lamp, turned out the lights and chilled.

Thanks for posting this!
 
This is great. I agree with the high end being slightly too much, but it is sweet.
 
Wow, very nice. I would agree with most everyone else here and say that the mids are a bit high. But then again, you're playing a Taylor and they have that "sizzle" in their tone anyway.

Nice job of playing that song. Are you a fan of Preston Reed as well? He plays with a similar style. If you can, check out his song, Slap Funk.
 
I think the people that like the sound of a Taylor (I'm one of them) will like it. I'd probably let it run flat. If there's anything a Taylor doesn't need, it's high-mid boost. 603's are pretty bright, anyway. You didn't write the song, so I guess it's irrelevent that I think it needs a bridge to break it up. Did you use a click track? There are parts where the rhythm is perfect/stacatto, and other parts where it sounds like you went off the track and had to work your way back. Tuning up and down while you're playing will sure as hell do that to you. Vey nice work. Thanks for sharing- Richie
 
Thanks variaxman, Rami and Punkin.

CKGdrums - Yes. I am a Preston Reed fan for sure. I was a bass player for about 25 years until I got tired of gigging a few years ago. I got to see Preston live 8 years ago at a free guitar clinic at Mars music on Atlanta (remember them). He totally blew me away. I had just started learning AG at the time. He really inspired be. I do play a few of his songs now; Accu-Fuse, Mermaid Eyes and I'm currently working on Ladies Night which really showcases Prestons unique style.

Richard - No click track. I'm sure the tempo wavers from time to time. The tempo for this song S/B around 75 - 78 BBM. Its tough for me to stay right on through the whole song. I do this for S&G anyway. I would take a few more years of had work to get this play this tune at a true pro level like Don Ross.
 
You're dancing on eggs...don't mess with it too much more. It's very very nice...there's just a bit of noise in the dead spaces...most notably at the beginning but I'd hate to see you use noise reduction filter or something like that.

That's really nice work...I'm gonna keep it for my listening pleasure if you don't mind.
 
Very nice playing Mike, sounds pretty sweet to these ears!

A slight boost by a few dB's in the lows would just fatten it out a touch!

Thanx for sharing with us Mike! :)
 
Very tasty indeed.

I cant comment on the mix since I am a noob at this stuff, but sounds real good to me and some very nice exquisite playing ~
 
On a side note, I have never heard or heard of Don Ross before, but after listening to this, I had to go hear some...

Man, Don Ross has some tatsy tunes eh? I may have to buy this CD now.

Thanks for turning me on to some tasty music...and great job again on the cover ~
 
Good feel to the rhythm on this Mike. I think the EQ balance of the second version is better... and perhaps the 4 kHz area could even come down a dB or two more. Good verb too.

Tim
 
I think that the playing and sound quality of this is top notch!! I would love to get my hands on some break out tracks of original stuff by you and try to remix it. Putting some beats and stuff behind beautiful guitar stuff like this could be a fresh sound. Let me know.
 
Man, this is cool. I think the second mix is slightly less toppy than the first, so is probably better. I'm going to check out Don Ross and Preston Reed. Another guy who I saw a few years back was Adrian Legg. Kind of reminds me of him too. He'd actually use the tuners as part of the composition, on his guitar in the middle of a song.

It secondly reminds me of Antonio Forcioni - he'd do a lot of that slapping and percussion stuff. Awesome, awesome. :-)
 
Nice intro Mike O,
A whole pile of proggies would like this to be the beginning of a deep analysis of the relationship of mother earth with the flowers that bloomed benaeth the mother ship.
Well played & recorded. You managed to tame the tap/slap too - I was afraid it would become more & more precussive.
The second mix is nicer - you've captured the harmincs very nicely.
I can really hear a band taking flight from this though - too many of those little black pills in the 70's I suppose.
Congrats on the whole thing - it held my interest throughout & with an attention span shorter than a trip to the urinal, that's an achievement.
Cheers
rayC
 
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