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The Wexford Carol has, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful melodies of any song in existence. Haunting, in parts…joyous, in others. Certainly one of my all-time most-loved songs, especially as Holiday tunes go. So it was a real thrill to be working on it for the upcoming new Christmas CD.
The Irish/Celtic influence is obvious in the Wexford, and it is usually played in the key of D. That key lends itself to the very signature Irish “droning” kind of chord structure.
Meaning, if you imagined something like bagpipes playing, they have a melody going on, but also have that ever-present droning “D” sitting up under it all. For stringed instruments (like the guitar, dulcimer, dobro, etc) that play that style, they’re typically tuned to an open chord which is some variation of the D. For me and my guitar, it’s a dropped-D tuning, which is what you hear, here. Very typical for this style.
So you have all that (just in case you actually wanted to know) plus a little bass, lead & BGVs, plucked harmonics, and some heavily reverbed “thumping” on my guitar body. :-) 8 tracks in all, which is about all my brain can keep up with in any given session, but I think, just right for this.
So…this is a sampling of things to come on the new Christmas CD, which will be released in a couple of months. Until then…please enjoy!
And if you like what you hear thus far, please tell me...AND...tell a friend too!
Thank you!
-Ricky
*** And if that gets you in the Holiday mood, then CLICK HERE to check out out last year's Acoustically Christmas CD on iTunes! ***