Author: Ralph Cetola

Sonoma Sun is a song that was put together from the pieces of three different tunes I wrote on my guitar when I was a teenager just learning how to play. Sometime in 1984 those 3 parts came together while sitting on the porch at the Art Farm. I had many artist friends and enjoyed talking to them about Shadows and Light. There are times when the  Sunshine in Sonoma Valley is like no other place. It’s hard to describe but you know it when you experience it…so I put it in a song. The music tells the story better than words… 

I traditionally got the band to play something they had never played or heard before when we played at the Annex Wine Bar in Sonoma CA. Best practice place in Sonoma. ‘Let’sJust Rehearse at the Gig!!!’

Enjoy!

In the Key of ‘D’

I wrote this song that I never really named . At the time I just thought of it as “skipping along in the Key of ‘D‘”. It was bouncy and fun. Kids always liked it when I played it. they would either freeze and listen or start dancing around, its catchy that way. Anyhow, I set out to start working on this tune again for this particular recording and when I plugged in, this piece is what came out.

It isn’t bouncy at all! It’s kind of moody and slow. But it is in the Key of ‘D’. I play lots of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir licks as well as some Jaco Pastorius influenced stuff and who knows what else, but I definitely here those guys in some of this. I did not plan any of it, it just came out the way it is. No editing. Then I recorded another guitar track playing along with the rhythm track. so it sounds like 2 guitars playing together, but don’t be fooled.lol

 

More Rambling Guitar riffs.

This one is longer, not for the faint of heart.

… about 12 minutes in you get to a song of mine called Long Road Home. And it sure seems like a long road home listening to all this guitar practicing just to get to a song. It’s a pretty good version of this song, though. I originally wrote it for or about my dad even though it has no words and I don’t know exactly what it has to do with him but that was what I thought when I came up with it ..I like playing it.

Guitar Students may like this stuff.

here are some rambling guitar riffs.

starts off with a flurry of notes, sounds like it may be turning into a song at one point, but doesn’t last that long, then goes into arpeggio runs across a major scale, key of G, then a flurry of notes again…typical of me sitting around practicing ‘whatever‘ kind of stuff, hoping something new will come out that may turn into a song or the seeds of a new song…or whatever