Sleep Walk - Santo & Johnny

Sleep Walk is a beautiful instrumental from 1959 featuring the tranquil sliding steel guitar of the Farina brothers, better known as Santo & Johnny. This song has always been in the background for me and one that knows how to kick in during nostalgic moments. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a friend's covers band playing Sleep Walk at a local gig recently - they did a great job of it, too.

Sleep Walk featured as the recurring theme during the nightmare sequences in La Bamba, the 1987 movie about the life of Ritchie Valens. It never fails to slow me down and momentarily take me to a peaceful, reflective place.

Mary Had A Little Lamb - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

I was taught to enjoy Stevie Ray Vaughan by my musician father, who has every one of SRV's albums, copies of which have made it onto both of my iPods over the years. There is almost too much to say about Stevie Ray Vaughan, the roller coaster lifestyle he led and his massive contribution to modern blues guitar playing. Like many, I vividly remember being touched by the news that SRV had met an untimely death in 1990.

The guitarist in my former band was the ultimate SRV fan and it showed in his playing. On the tragic day of SRV's death, his wife set up his guitar in the lounge, arranged candles, flowers and all his SRV albums around it, creating a little shrine for the man. Apparently that was going a step or two too far (the emotions were pretty raw) but it's a story we've all dined out on for years. However, thanks to him and my father, I have an ongoing love of all his music today.

There's another story in our musical circles about the time that SRV played a concert in Wellington several years ago (still the loudest concert my father has ever been to). Another guitarist from our band insists he was jamming in The Rock Shop, or whatever it was called in those days, alongside an American guitarist who had wandered in. It turned out to be SRV himself. How cool is that!

Mary Had A Little Lamb, released in 1983, is not my favourite Stevie Ray Vaughan song but is incredibly memorable for me, my family and our bands. We played this version of Buddy Guy's arrangement as part of our fourth bracket for years for purely indulgent reasons; it was our excuse to play long and loud, with each of us enjoying a solo or two on a simple bed of twelve bar blues. Hearing it again today takes me right back to those late nights and good times. Once again, listen to this one loudly.

Breezin' - George Benson

My iPod selected Breezin' as background music for my lunch time walk yesterday. It was a great choice; I enjoyed it three times in a row before returning to my desk. This instrumental is from the album of the same name and released in 1976 by jazz guitarist George Benson. It is pure listening pleasure as the main theme cycles over and over, with each iteration adding a tiny variation, an embellishment or a full on guitar jam.

Breezin' was naturally one of many highlights of George Benson's concert in Wellington a few years ago, and he pretty much played it note perfect. It's hard to tell what comes first with Benson's improvisations: vocals or guitar lines. His style of singing along to the improvised solos he plays shows that a guitar is as much a natural extension of Benson himself as his voice. It was absolutely delightful to see and hear all this from our seats just six rows away from the stage. It was even better when Benson introduced Stanley Banks, the original bass player from Breezin' who had been playing with Benson since the 1970s and is still a member of his backing band today.