Here’s another inspirational one for you.

About a year ago, a guy named Chuck came on board BGU. He was one of the first onto the BGU Member Forum when it started, and has been steadily working his way through the course while sharing moderator duties with John, Mike, and me on the forum.

As a cool way to give himself a little incentive, Chuck wrote a tune called Dark Days and enlisted all of us to play on it. Rather than my long-winded explanation, here’s Chuck’s post about it from the BGU Member Forum:

Happy Birthday Forum Members!  It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already. I’ve met a lot of new friends and have really improved my Guitar playing. Unbelievable!

The Lyrics to “Dark Days” was my attempt to do something like Bob Coult and Russ have been doing here on the Forum. Most of it was written on a long rainy drive home from work. Bob also contributed the 3rd verse in the song.

John, wanted to do a project a couple of months back and “Dark Days” is the result of that.

John did the Drums, Bass, Lead intro, Lead backing on the 3rd Verse as well as the 3rd lead/outro.

The first Lead Break is none other than Griff Hamlin himself! (Wow!)

Mike sang the Lead Vocals and performed the backing lead to the 1st verse.

I played the Rhythm Guitar, Lead backing on the 2nd verse, the 2nd Lead break and Backing vocals.

Turn it up!

And there you have it. Chuck was gracious enough to let me share it with everyone in hopes that you would see how much you can accomplish in a year, and to show what a great community we have of people all working towards playing blues guitar a bit better.

Just right click on the link and save it to your computer, or just click on it and depending on how your browser works it might just play.

Dark Days by the BGU Forum Moderators


    20 replies to "Griff & The Moderators…"

    • Corky

      Dark Days is a COOL song and the has some very nice emotion in it. GREAT JOB Guys!

    • […] Griff & The Moderators… – The first Lead Break is none other than Griff Hamlin himself! (Wow … and to show what a great community we have of people all working towards playing blues guitar a bit better. Just right click on the link and save it to … […]

    • Fred Drew

      A terrific indication of what can be done when they apply themselves. I’m 65+ and though today’s guitar gods try to machine gun riffs to the extent that you can’t understand the words with such loud strings playing. Don’t get me wrong Gary Moore, SRV, Buddy Guy, EC and compared to me, almost anybody else who can play is admired, I’m stuck in the 50s, 60s and 70s and I love it here. When you compare those melodies to todays melodies that era showed that less can be better (BBK is proof of that. Except for the beginning of this song where it sounded like someone was trying to put 2 pounds of whatever into a 1 pound bag the pacing of the music and the toned down riffs so someone could understand the lead singer was fantastic as were the solos.

    • Cynicure

      Great song guys! One of these days…

      😉

    • Rick

      Not sure where this Bruce guy, who thinks ” n ” is a word, gets off laying that kind of critique on a first project. I enjoyed it immensely. Yes there is a musical difference between Griff’s solo, and the others, but after a year to be on the same recording as Griff, that is so cool. If a year from now, I could meet Chuck, John, & Mike and have the skills, or even the guts to try, to play on a project like that. What you did is a great inspiration to all of us starting out. Thank you for sharing it. Great job. ‘N toss that other n review.’

    • Mark Eldon

      Man, I don’t know where this Bruce Sankey above me here is coming from! For some guys putting stuff together after only working a year on the course, I think is was awesome! You guys did a fantastic job!

      If that’s what I’ll be able to do after only a year or so of the course, then I’m in!

      You guys Rocked!

    • bruce sankey

      Sounds awkward, n off center some, despite the good musical performances. l mean the song structure its self just sounds to chiched, n forced , or rushed. lt does’nt seem to want to resolve itself normally . l think it needed more work on just the song itself on acoustic guitars before going to recording. Also the lyrics sounded to chiched , n thrown together. Just compare it to say clapton songs , or allman bros for example.

      • david moon

        well bruce, post a link to something you’ve done, besides being a critic

        the structure is a standard 12-bar blues

        The recording was done by different people at different times building up the track. There are some spots where a player gets a little off the rythm. It’s easy to happen if your “feel” is a little slower or faster than the track. Have you recorded yourself playing along with a backing track?

        also “to cliched” should be “too cliched”, and n is not a word, what’s so hard about typing and?

        This is still going on at the BGU Forum on the Virtual Jam Room. People post tracks and others jump in with solos. You could probably find a target-rich environment for your snark there.

    • Fumble Fingers

      Man!! THAT just blows me away. You boys are just TOO KOOL and we all need to get together and contribute to a pot to buy the guy who wrote that a pair of chrome shades! That is GREAT STUFF and thanks for posting it here. I really enjoyed it and it gives me inspiration to try to do that too.
      ________
      If it ain’t blues, it ain’t real music.

      Dave

    • Fumble Fingers

      Man!! THAT just blows me away. You boys are just TOO KOOL and we all need to get together and contribute to a pot to buy the guy who wrote that a pair of chrome shades! That is GREAT STUFF and thanks for posting it here. I really enjoyed it and it gives me inspiration to try to do that too.
      ________
      If it ain’t blues, it ain’t real music.

      Dave

    • jack

      whow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i BET HES PROUD. n0 MORE DARK DAYS FOR HIM
      HE HAS GOT IT!!!!

    • Kurt T. Horchheimer

      Hey Griff, I like your demeanor and your most generous clips. Your honest approach to teaching folks is commendable. I am soon to be a customer.

    • Terry

      I just like to say hi new to this so far I like what I\\\’ve seen My name is Terry and just got Griffs latest news letter about riffmaster pro and have another one I\\\’m running this one is a audio editor works very well the name is
      ( Free Audio Editor) and it is truly free with out nags or anything else
      I\\\’m on the side lines watching and learning

      Terry

    • Dave AKA Bluewater

      Wow the boys did a great job!

    • Gaylyne

      Wow sounds great. I really like

    • Steve the Brit

      That’s pretty impressive! I’m still a beginner but I’m really enjoying the course. I bought a couple of old guitars to work through the course with and I hope I can make either one of them sound like that! Inspirational guys. Makes me want to pick it up again and practise, but it’s midnight here and my neighbours bigger than me!

    • Garry

      More please.

    • black sheep

      nice action…….thats where Iwant to be……

    • Stacie Moore

      Props to all involved on this song! I’m not much of a blues guitar player (yet), but I am a producer and songwriter who is learning the blues guitar to be able to record more of my own stuff… There’s power in that.

      Thanks Griff for your program, I hope in one year I’ll have as much success with my new Gretsch G5120… Rock on dudes!!!!

    • Ron Hogue

      First time in for me.

      Dark Days is great!!!

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