This is an instrumental piece --well, you'll hear a woman singing but she's a sampled voice that comes with Logic and is played with a keyboard. This was written during the insanity of the war in Iraq in late 2006, titled 'stay the course' after the Bush administration's public 'strategy'. For this one, I had the title first, then came up with the music that's based on a single 'E' note being played on the piano for the whole song, with shifting chords and changing instrumentation layered on top: first piano, then acoustic guitar, then cellos, then climaxing with over-the-top electric guitars. The last few overdubs (guitars and vocal sample playing), arrangement changes, and mixing took place during a week in November 2006 when my dad died. The "gospel singer" samples (called 'shouts' in Logic's EXS24 presets) are particularly haunting, singing phrases like 'heaven' and 'and in the end there is love'.

Recorded in mangobananas studio, Ithaca, NY. All sounds played by Andy. Includes sampled instruments from Logic: piano (3 tracks), cello (7 tracks), bass, drums, singing chorus, and singing 'shouts'. Two electric guitar tracks played in the box with Guitar Amp Pro in Logic. Two acoustic guitar tracks recorded with two microphones.

From the instrumental 2010 album cymbal monkeys.

Thanks for listening!

-Andy