Excellent playing and singing as always.  I really do love your voice and style.  I think I agree with Danny's comments on lead vocal level.  
 
Beautiful stuff.
 
Rimshot
 

Really enjoyed this - great mix, great lyrics. I can see the Jon Anderson and Yes comparisons but it's more of a 'reminscence' than anything concrete. 
 
Marvellous.
 
Cheers,
Terry.

 
My ears liked this, I heard a bit of RUSh along with Yes in the opening.
 
There is absolutely nothing I could say that would mean anything.
 
Thanks for sharing your talents.

wow guys, i appreciate all the comments...
 
i've been out of town, someone in the family died, had to fly back east from salt lake and deal with all that...
so i've been out of pocket.
 
i'll reply individually shortly...

Great song! I thought it was really original. The mix sounds great--everything sounds unified to me
(if that makes sense). I found this song relaxing (not boring, mind you). To coin a phrase perhaps overused: sweet...

I don't know how you do it - you continually put out some of the best music around - this is really one of the best I've heard in a long time - love this.

waltenstein
thanks for listening, and the comments.
i have to embrace this 'yes' thing, i guess.
heheh
honestly, i don't hear it at all, but that's cool, i like yes..
and jon anderson, i'd never aspire to sing his stuff.
he's to unique to try to copy....
 

theguitarplayer
you know, this song was written as an instrumental long before i came up with the melody for the lyric,
but once i got the basic first line down, the vocal part came together almost immediately,
like there was no other version of it in my head.
LOL
doesn't happen like that very often, not for me.
 

STARISE
glad you like this one, and yeah, the guitars are clean, but have a bit of edge to them, i'm just not hitting them hard.
the bass: i used my Carvin LB70 on this one, tried to get it beefy without being woofy.
without any percussion or drums, i really needed something like that bass line to tie it together.
i never know about mixes like this, until after it's done.
i'm just shooting from the hip with it, and change it until i can live with it.
LOL
 

danny
thanks for the nice review...

and all the opinions on the mix and sounds and whatnot...
whether i use any of them or not, they are a great sounding board.
i mean, everything you say, triggers a synapse or two in my grey matter,
and makes me think about possibilites i maybe hadn't come across.
it's all good.
 
you know, i spent several weeks mixing this, you know, an hour here, live with it for a day..
come back a couple of days later, start over, try something different....
etc, ad naseum..
so i had a version louder vox, and for some reason, my voice just got on my nerves.
LOL
 
so, i ended up with a compromise between what I thought really worked with the overall mix, in a BAND setting,
and what i thought some real producer would have made me set it for a 'VOCAL' only setting, with the music as backdrop.
i just can't get away from the fact that i'm always going to prefer vocals that are blended into the music, because for me,
the vocal is just an extension of the music i hear in my head, and it's integral with the backing tracks.
it'd be like mixing a guitar solo too loud, which i try not to do anyway,
because then it's too obvious i'm favoring guitars!!
heheh
 
but i had not thought about a nylon string guitar approach...
not just because i don't happen to have one right now, i could get one to use.....
that's an intriguing idea.
i might re-visit that.......
if i do it, i'll give you a production credit!

speedtom
no drums, yea, that's kind of a weird thing, i know.
one of the reasons i tried it, was just to see if it would work.
the demo i have of it, the original, has full drums, sounds like maybe an old eric johnson style song.
but i stripped it down to this...
glad you dig it.

champchas
thanks man. the harmonies were easy to write, but hard to get on mix!

batsbrew
danny
thanks for the nice review...

and all the opinions on the mix and sounds and whatnot...
whether i use any of them or not, they are a great sounding board.
i mean, everything you say, triggers a synapse or two in my grey matter,
and makes me think about possibilites i maybe hadn't come across.
it's all good.
 
you know, i spent several weeks mixing this, you know, an hour here, live with it for a day..
come back a couple of days later, start over, try something different....
etc, ad naseum..
so i had a version louder vox, and for some reason, my voice just got on my nerves.
LOL
 
so, i ended up with a compromise between what I thought really worked with the overall mix, in a BAND setting,
and what i thought some real producer would have made me set it for a 'VOCAL' only setting, with the music as backdrop.
i just can't get away from the fact that i'm always going to prefer vocals that are blended into the music, because for me,
the vocal is just an extension of the music i hear in my head, and it's integral with the backing tracks.
it'd be like mixing a guitar solo too loud, which i try not to do anyway,
because then it's too obvious i'm favoring guitars!!
heheh
 
but i had not thought about a nylon string guitar approach...
not just because i don't happen to have one right now, i could get one to use.....
that's an intriguing idea.
i might re-visit that.......
if i do it, i'll give you a production credit!

First off, I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss. I just lost 2 myself. It makes me not even want to sign on to Facebook because either someone is sick, or someone passed away. :( So I can relate.
 
Cool....I'm sooo glad you took it the way I intended. I almost wasn't even gonna give you a "here's my take for what it's worth" because honest when I tell you, it was perfect just the way it was delivered. I wasn't meaning to nit-pick at all, honest. I was just listening and thinking....man, this is blending SOO good...I might raise the lead vocal just a bit to even it out with the guitars. You know, just for that "impact".
 
I was doing the blend thing also in my mixes (which I personally prefer over a vocal that's too loud) and then I started hearing from credible people that my vocal could come up a db or so. So I started bringing it +0.5 louder once I got it to the level *I* liked. It felt a little too loud to me, but it really did give my stuff a little more impact. A lot of that (in my case at least) is due to me knowing the words and what comes next, ya know? Like a person (or producer) mixing my song would probably bring the vox up a little louder than I would. And, I hate my voice more than I like it so I'm a bit conservative as well at times.
 
Your voice is awesome...but I know how it goes with the whole "my own voice can annoy me" situation. If you were here in the states, you could sing and play guitar in like 3 cover bands and make about $3000 a week with your talents. LOL! Add in doing a YES, Rush or Triumph specialty show and you could be a very well-off guy around here. Hahahahaha! You probably already are over there....and if not, you should be. :)
 
Yeah, I loved that guitar solo...nice and creamy, good licks, you played for the song (you always do anyway) and showed great restraint. But as I was listening, that nylon thing kept on going through my head and I figured, heck, maybe he'll take it as "ok I never thought of that...cool idea" which is how you took it. But honest, again I stress...this was perfect the way it was on all levels. I really shouldn't have mentioned anything at all...but I'm glad you took it the way you did as I have nothing but major respect and admiration for you. :) Great job and thanks for sharing.
 
-Danny