The Irving Sessions // Vol. Four: Untitled #3
02.23.2009 / Minneapolis, MN

Video:

Untitled #3 (The Irving Sessions) from David Alan Wright on Vimeo.

Audio:

Hello, and happy Tuesday. And what a good Tuesday it is: The Cavs just beat the Grizzlies and the Buckeyes took care of Penn State a little earlier on ESPN. A good time to be a sports fan from Ohio. First, a few updates to the site…

One: I came across an awesome plugin for the blogging platform Tumblr called Streampad as I was browsing Aaron Jamison’s blog With A Shout. The plugin looks for MP3s within a site and references the links for collective playback at the bottom of the page. Thinking to myself, “how cool would it be if this were available for WordPress,” I soon discovered while reading their blog that, sure enough, a beta plugin was just released. So, I’m happy to say that you can now stream all of my music via the play button at the bottom of the screen, or, if you prefer, you can open the player – we’ll unofficially call it dWriTunes – in a new window while heading elsewhere on the Web (special thanks to Dan and Gregory for getting me all setup).

Two: You can now download MP3s of the songs for easy iPod listening here. Just right click on the links that say “MP3″, select “save link as”, and you should be good to go. Rock out to acoustic guitar-based tracks while working out! On the go! Or, while at work!

Three: I’ve added a page with some links to artists with whom I’ve either had the privilege of working or are friends of mine that you should definitely check out.

Four: I bought a new microphone and I’m pumped to see where my recordings can go as a result (recording these sessions live and trying to get together a basic mix on the same night can be a bit of a challenge, so every little step helps).

With our updates out of the way, that brings us to Vol. Four: Untitled #3, a song I wrote in late spring/early summer of 2006. It was written either shortly before or after an incredible three-week trip to Europe, and right around the time of my graduation from Belmont. Though I originally intended to add words to this composition, this song is special to me as is, as an instrumental piece. I wrote this song on a guitar that was given to me as a gift in remembrance of my grandmother (my dad’s mom), and shortly after it was written it turned into a song to celebrate the life of my grandpa (my mom’s dad) as I performed it for his Memorial on July 22nd, 2006. It’s the only performance during which I remember not being able to tell my hands what to do as they shakily made their way up and down the fretboard. It’s something I’ll never forget, and as a result, this song will always be special to me.

Two weeks later I sat down in Justin Saunders’ Nashville studio to record an acoustic version to send to my grandma (my mom’s mom; that version is below), and it hasn’t been recorded or performed live since. This song is about reconciliation to me. About paths that re-converge and the journey we take to reach that point. I also find the melody to hint at hope.

On a side note, the shirt I’m rocking in this video is from the company I helped start prior to joining Target, Speakerheart. Our invite code during our beta phase was “Orange” and you might see an artist or two sporting the same model out and about in Nashville.

Version 1 / Recorded 08.01.06, Nashville, TN

Version 2 / Recorded 02.23.09, Minneapolis, MN