Song-First Session Guitarist

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I’ll listen carefully to the track, take the direction seriously, and try to give you something that actually belongs in the song.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. I like amps and pedals because they respond in a way I’m used to, but I’m not precious about it. If a direct or modeled setup gets the right sound faster or fits the production better, I’ll use that.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: A common question is whether they need to know exactly what guitar part they want before sending me the song. They don’t. If you have a specific idea, I can work from it. If you don’t, I’m comfortable listening to the track, trying a few different approaches, and developing the part from there.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: That adding guitar is mostly about finding something impressive to play. It's more interesting and more satisfying to part is figuring out what not to play, where to leave space, and what kind of part actually helps the song rather than just drawing attention to the guitar.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What do you already hear the guitar part doing, if anything? Are there any reference tracks for the feel, tone, or type of part you want? Is there anything you definitely don’t want? I also want to know how finished the arrangement is and whether you want me to follow a specific idea or come up with the part myself.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Send as much context as you have. A rough mix, reference track, description of the part, or even just a sense of what feels missing can all be useful. You don’t need to know exactly what the guitar should do before you hire someone, but the more I understand about the song and what you’re trying to accomplish, the faster we can get to a satisfying result.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: I'd only take 4 pieces: Telecaster, ES-335, Princeton Reverb, and a Mogami cable (assuming the desert island has a random outlet available).

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I’ve been playing guitar for more than 20 years. Most of that time has been spent writing, arranging, recording, and learning how guitar fits into a song rather than treating it as a separate thing. Over the years I’ve moved between folk, rock, blues, soul, country, jazz, and other styles, and that range has probably shaped my playing more than any single genre has.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Melodic, roots-based, and fairly restrained. I use a lot of blues, folk, country, rock, soul, and jazz vocabulary, but I’m usually more interested in phrasing, dynamics, and how a part sits in the arrangement than in making the guitar the center of attention.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Blake Mills. His playing is distinctive but rarely dominating.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don’t assume every empty space needs to be filled.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: Mostly folk, rock, Americana, blues, soul, indie, singer-songwriter, and jazz-influenced music. I’m less interested in staying inside one genre than in working on songs where the arrangement and the writing matter.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Hearing what a song needs and finding a guitar part that supports it without getting in the way.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I listen before I play. I think a lot about phrasing, melody, dynamics, space, and how one part relates to everything around it. I like finding something that gives the song a little more movement, character, energy, or atmosphere without making the arrangement busier than it needs to be.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen to a track several times before I start recording and try to get a sense of what’s already working and where the guitar has room to contribute. If you have a specific part, tone, or reference in mind, I can work from that. If not, I’ll usually try a few different approaches and follow whichever one seems to make the song better rather than just adding more guitar.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I record in Logic Pro, primarily with a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster and Gibson Custom Shop ES-335. For amps, I use a 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb and other vintage-style tube setups, along with pedals, direct recording, and amp modeling when one of those makes more sense for a track. I also have a Martin 000-15 for acoustic work.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: I gravitate toward players who have a recognizable voice but still sound like they’re listening to the song around them. Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Blake Mills, David Rawlings, and Ry Cooder are all important to me for different reasons. As a songwriter, I’ve also spent a lot of time with Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Willi Carlisle, and other writers where the words and arrangement are doing a lot of the work together.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Most of the work I do is adding guitar to songs that already have some kind of foundation, whether that’s a nearly finished production or a rough demo. Sometimes the part is already pretty well defined. Other times I’m figuring out what the guitar should be doing in the first place, which might mean rhythm, fills, a melodic line, lead work, or something more textural.