Syberia

In the Summer of 1981 after WHSPR was pretty much wrapped up Leslie Ridgway and I formed a duo called Syberia. We played gigs, mostly weddings, until 1983.

I really liked playing in this Duo. We played lots of diverse material (pop, jazz, prog rock, rock), Leslie's Singing was always excellent, and I was very focused on being a great accompanist. I worked very hard at trying to integrate as much as possible of the original arrangement into my guitar parts, which were often very complex. I was also experimenting with different alternative tunings. In an original song that we wrote "Just a Bird", I'm playing in an alternative tuning and I used interesting rhythms and time signatures wanted to push the boundaries a bit on what could be done with an acoustic guitar. Sometime during this period of time, the first Michael Hedges album came out ("Breakfast in the Field"). I really resonated with this album because so much of it was similar to what I was trying to do on the acoustic guitar. I think that this was the album that I listened to the most in the 1982/1983 school year. As a footnote, when I first moved to the Bay Area I used to go to the New Varsity in Palo Alto to listen to this guitar player who could play Michael Hedges tunes. About the 3rd time that I went to see him play, I finally realized that it WAS Michael Hedges (RIP)!

Mission Plaza Tracks

Track	Length	Orignal Artist	Notes
Trouble Child	3:23	Joni Mitchell	I integrated Tom Scott's sax arrangement into my part.
Here Song	1:37	Heart	Nice little song, nice chords
Lover Arrive	3:08	Ambrosia	We also played this song at Chuck Whitaker's wedding.
Just a Bird	5:24	Syberia	Written by us. I'm using an alternative tuning, and interesting rhythms and time signatures. This was written before I heard the first Michael Hedges Album.
Mistral Wind	4:41	Heart	Love this song. The original is for big guitars. I liked that we had adapted it for acoustic guitar.
Morning Song	0:26	Pat Scandalis	Small segment of a classical guitar piece that I started writing in 1979. The full piece is on my list of things to record in the next year or so.