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Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

Night Wind – The CD

Night Wind – The CD – Guitar Instrumental

Night Wind CD CoverNight Wind

Composer – Don Rath Jr.

Release Date – Never

Genre – Solo Classical Guitar –  Instrumental

Purchase CD – Out of Print

Night Wind the CD

Night Wind, Guitar Instrumental was my very first effort in recording music and making a CD for solo classical finger-style guitar music. There are 19 compositions on this CD as listed below. Every one is a rookie at sometime in their career:)

My intention was to make a Demo CD so I could have some documented evidence that I did indeed, at some point in my life, wrote some music. To me and just as important was learning the process of recording music and learning what was all involved in making a CD from scratch. Night Wind is the result of that effort.

I set out to conquer the world with a dozen+ songs, my guitar and high hopes of completing a CD project quickly, but, as fate would have it, there where mountains to climb before I could complete the CD.  It was a matter of circumstance that just prior to leaving work one day, I was involved in an industrial accident that crushed my left hand and shattered the first bone of my middle finger of my left hand. As a Guitarist, this is a huge problem as one would guess. In between corrective surgeries, yes there were a few, I was able to use the guitar as a form of physical therapy. My doctor, Dr. Jeffrey Copeland out of the St. Charles Missouri area, saved both the effective use of my hand and finger as well as, in many ways, my musical life. So a huge thank you to his incredible skill as a surgeon. My guitar skills were somewhat lessened but I somehow managed to make some recordings anyway. I even recorded one of the songs in between surgeries. The results were not first class but they were none-the-less good enough to document some of my music. The CD was never commercially released, at least to date that is.

The first recordings for Night Wind were completed at Prizm Studios in St. Louis Missouri and recorded by James Gast, he was also my sound engineer. This was done on May 12,1994. I later recorded some more songs in Madison Wisconsin at the Madison Media Institute on July 30, 1995. Jennifer Collier was my sound engineer, at that time. With Jennifer’s help I recorded several more songs basically in one recording session. It was Jennifer who prompted me to continue to push myself and to make more music. For this I am forever grateful. Thanks Jennifer!

A while later, I completed the recordings for Night Wind in Rockford Illinois at In Flight Productions. Here, Greg Skolaski was my sound engineer and he helped me to produce the final CD including the graphics for the album cover. The concluding recording sessions that took place over a four day period, August 23 through August 27 in 1997. The recording sessions, at In Flight Productions, were quite the learning experience. The end result was Night Wind, my very first CD project and finally some evidence that I could and actually did write some music.

Night Wind – Included Compositions

Here is the track listing of the recordings included on this CD along with the length of each piece;

Jasmine – Length: 02:29

Prisms – Length: 01:47

Trail of Tears – Length: 01:51

Psalm of Praise – Length: 02:54

Leprechaun Song – Length: 01:21

Close To Home – Length: 02:28

Dedication to Trees – Length: 01:23

Mad About You – Length: 01:52

Carousel – Length 00:56

Come To Me – Length: 02:23

In The Glen – Length: 02:29

Lonesome Rider – Length: 01:45

Requisite For Rainbows – Length: 05:00

Sea Scape – Length: 01:56

Night Wind – Length: 03:31

Waltz in A Major – Length: 01:20

Simple Lullaby – Length: 01:59

Celtic Swirl – Length: 01:06

Bouquet – Length: 01:36

Requisite for Rainbows, Reprise – Length: 02:15

As time went on, I did complete a rewrite of all of these compositions for solo guitar and now I have also arranged them for the string quartet and for small group ensembles, some still remain only for solo guitar.

…and so it was, my first steps into what it takes to record a music album. When I began, I had no idea as to what was involved, how long it would take, what trials I had to endure and how many decisions a person has to make in order to produce a single CD. I didn’t think I would tackle the process again, but, that was three CD’s ago and more than ten years have past since I first stepped into the Prizm recording studio in St. Louis Missouri.

At this time, I have not made new recordings of the Night Wind CD as I had intended. The original is out of print, sadly. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the studio to finish this work. Please be patient. I will get it done.

Please feel free to check out my other CD’s too! – Heart Strings, Dawn of a New Day and Colors of Cello

Night Wind – Don Rath Jr