By Jack Brolly

Has anyone in this forum ever heard Lee Underwood's collection of acoustic guitar instrumentals entitled "California Sigh"? A copy of the audio cassette was sent to me by Dan Patrick of San Jose. I asked Lee when he recorded the album, if he wrote all the songs, and which guitar or guitars he used. I wanted to know what genre he was working in. I would say: New Age/ClassicalJazz/Folk/Flamenco. Sort of Steve Howe meets Andres Segovia and Oscar Oleman.

I wondered whether there were any liner notes available for this splendid work and if the sounds of nature in the background were real or computer generated. Lastly, I asked Lee which brass-wind or reed instruments were used on "The Other Side Of Sunny" and "Midnight Blue".

It is amazing to me how sooner or later everything gets discovered. California Sigh is not widely known, primarily because it emerges from a particular stage of my musical life, one of my most cherished, heartfelt and decidedly non-commercial periods. From there, I went on to evolve in a variety of different ways.

Once I left the California Sigh zone, I did not look back. Hence, Cal Sigh has become something of a little-known open secret. I played a D-28 Martin six-string acoustic guitar on Cal Sigh, composed all of the material, recorded it in 1988, released it independently, have only a very few copies left. The masters are no longer in existence. As a result, the cassette tapes have become collector's items.

I don't know if I'm up for selling them or not. I suppose that will depend upon the individuals who want them. Synthesist Steve Roach did the engineering on that tape, and played synthesizer on Midnight Blue, which is the most active, excitement-oriented piece on Cal Sigh. All of the other pieces are intentionally soft, gentle, and mostly simple in structure, presentation and mood.

I sequenced the pieces, not in terms of commercial sensation-oriented order, but in terms of a single listening experience-candlelight, laying back, eyes closed, beginning with Gentle Rain, relaxing, moving deeper into quietude, following the line of musical development from simplicity into quiet complexity, until the final three pieces include Kevin Braheny on synthesizer and melodic Electronic Wind Instrument for the supremely gentle The Other Side of Sunny; Steve Roach, synthesizer on the intense, dark-side Midnight Blue; and pedal steel player Chaz Smith on the lyrical, optimistic, nature-oriented final piece, Aspen Trails.

The streams, birds, wind-are all real, not electronic. Everything about the album is intended to be gentle, quiet, emotionally inclusive, optimistic, heartfelt. It has nothing to do with mental stimulation, emotional disruption, radio-music or corporate ideas of what is commercial. It has everything to do with inner peace.

As a result, many listeners conditioned by orthodox, mainstream approaches to guitar music do not quite know what to make of it. They are used to short, flashy, continually changing, bombastic, thrilling, electric, sense-blistering approaches to music, often with vocals. I call my low-keyed, all- instrumental acoustic pieces meditation music or serenity music.

As you know, quietude in music is a radical departure from conventional popular music. If listeners listen to California Sigh from start to finish, they will experience it as a single musical experience, an inward psycho-spiritual journey, a heart-song as beautiful, quiet and relaxing as I could make it. I did not draw from individual or generic influences, but made the guitar stylings as personal and original as I could. I don't have favorite pieces.

For different reasons, each one is unique and special to me, rather like children. The other pieces you mentioned, Speedy Twang and Sexy Thang, come from yet another time, Santa Fe in the early to mid-'90s. It too was D-28 acoustic guitar, with amplifier. This period included Cal Sigh music, but also moved into more mainstream-oriented concepts, with 4/4 rhythms and a funkier orientation, with increasing technical flash, a different dimension, purpose and approach, accessible to more people than California Sigh.

Again, there were no reference points for me, no Jimmy Page or anybody else, just personal evolutionary inner explorations that flowered into unique guitar music. During that time, I was playing solo guitar in Santa Fe's hotels and lounges, occasionally giving concerts, having a great time. I never made a full-length tape of this period. Ah, well. I kept playing guitar until three years ago. These days, I'm into piano

© Jack Brolly/Room 109