Michael Hedges - Live on Planet X

In an effort to keep things fresh and different here I give you Michael Hedges. This comp was created at a time when the internet was mostly dial-up, Napster was still a pirate file sharing app, hard drives were measured in megabytes and CD burners were a brand new technology. Michael had only been gone for about a year or two. I was and still am a big fan. My very first CD I purchased (before I even owned a CD player) was Michael's Live on a Double Planet so it seems fitting that my first CD compilation was a Michael Hedges project that was meant to emulate that CD.

Michael Hedges was one of those rare breed of artists. Not content to play within the accepted boundaries of contemporary music Michael pushed the envelope of composition and acoustic guitar technique. He was an early pioneer of two-handed tapping most likely inspired by Eddie Van Halen and Stanely Jordan. He also employed endless alternate turnings, percussive and harmonic slaps and both fingerstyle and strumming with a pick to achieve his visions. He was a classically trained multi instrumentalist and deeply immersed in music theory yet there was a spiritual force the came through everything he did. And, he had the voice of an angel with a powerful set of lungs to boot. Michael was the real deal. Michael was only 43 when he passed away but he left a legacy that few can match.

If there is a what-if question attached to this comp it would be "What if Windham Hill released a posthumous follow up to Live on the Double Planet?" To emulate that album I tried to strike a balance between vocal and instrumental tracks and between originals and covers. I kept pre and post song chatter to a minimum and removed any gaps between songs. There are several songs here that have never appeared on any official Hedges CD in any form.

01 Eminence Front
02 Fusion of the Five Elements (10/25/96)
03 Follow Through (with Michael Manring)
04 Free Swinging Soul (07/06/97)
05 Rickover's Dream (10/25/81)
06 No Expectations (on harp guitar)
07 Sofa #1 (10/25/96)
08 India (winter 1990)
09 Ragamuffin (Kent State 1985)
10 Wondering Where the Lions Are (1981)
11 Point A » Point B (on TransTrem guitar - winter 1990)
12 Face Yourself
13 Aerial Boundaries (1996)
14 Like a Rolling Stone (07/05/97)

Reality Notes

**WARNING - NOT EVEN CLOSE TO STUDIO QUALITY!**

This was my first "mix tape" CD made on a computer. All of the tracks were downloaded through Napster or another file sharing app while working as a tutor at my college's computer lab and are all from unofficial, bootleg recordings. The disc was burned in a classroom that taught emerging technologies where the instructor's computer had an early CD burner. Because I did not have any other music production software at the time and the source material was less than ideal the finished product was a bit on the raw side. But hey, beggars can't be choosers and this was new Hedges. This was the best of what I could find at the time. Luckily I never delete anything.

Once this blog started rolling I started to think about what other projects I could do or have done that I could share. I wanted to avoid just doing my takes on the same things everyone else was doing. I had almost forgotten about this one since it has been in my digital library from the beginning but I have been wanting to clean it up a bit for some time. I took all of the original files and dumped them into my sequencer and proceeded to give this project the polish it sorely lacked.

Because these tracks came from file sharing channels there was very little info about where they were from. I included what little data was there. I could have done some research to track down more information and maybe find better sources but I wanted the project to stand on its own as it was. I wanted to improve it, not redo it.

This is more of a nostalgia piece for me so I made very little changes to the original. I kept the original running order. I trimmed the beginnings and endings to make a better flow from track to track. I cleaned, EQ'd and volume matched as best I could but with the quality of some of the source material I can only do so much. The final result is still a great improvement over the original and still a great listen. I do have a follow up to this comp which I will also post eventually. It too has a similar history and is in need of some editing and cleaning.

The cover is one of the first covers I ever made. To show its age I believe it was done with Microsoft Word for Windows 3.1.