There's a disconnect between a recording of a sound event and witnessing that sound event with the totality of our senses. Eddie Van Halen (so I've heard) (in the early days) played his two-hand tapping passages with back to the audience. Rude/prescient/proprietary-but-others-were-doing-the-same-thing-two-three-decades-prior/the effect was awe and wonder, if so inclined you were...revealed, the process holds up to scrutiny, the results transcend it. Could such a game-changing messenger emerge today? Ubiquitous gadgetry now obscures what originates through the clap of sound waves and what we'll call Enhanced Reality™; they're one and the same.

On a recent trip to Asheville, luthier Harry Shaffer and I stumbled into a curious constellation when we placed a little metal o-ring on a string of my harp guitar Big Red. Actually, we placed several rings, which did little but stop the string vibrating altogether. Three rings was too many, and two not quite there. One does it. I can't explain the physics of what's happening, but the recording "Scorpy Funyuns" is better to do the talking. I recorded Big Red with a field recorder, then added a little sparkle in the computer (several degrees of Kevin Bacon). But substantively you're hearing what you would hear sitting in the room with the sounds. A new avenue of exploration for me; and the inspiration for this recording collection. Enjoy.