The Legacy Music Project: Blue Night Blue

In 2023, after regaining some of my confidence in composing music, playing the acoustic guitar, and developing my skills on electric guitar after losing everything to a dementia diagnosis and basically starting over, I began to write instrumental songs. This one, Blue Night Blue, is one of the earliest attempts to express myself without lyrics. To my surprise, the composition began with a lead part, a riff. This was completely unexpected, because in all my years – 59 – of playing guitar, I was always the rhythm guitarist. I didn’t think it was in my capabilities to compose or play leads!

Before I knew what was happening to me, harmony lead parts were being created. I went from never playing leads to composing multiple layers of them! Somehow, in my particular dementia profile, I was acquiring new skills, not just slowly losing the ones I’d previously had. Impossible, or at least highly improbable. But, there it is. To date I have written 11 instrumentals. Some are less than two minutes long, others exceed five. Without any forcing, they all seem to reach a point where they are a “complete thought.”

Blue Night Blue owes so much to the seminal music artists who have left indelible stamps on my own playing and writing. A careful listener might hear a reference to Jerry Garcia’s lead work. You may not recognize it, but there are pieces of Tom Petty, Keith Urban, Bruce Cockburn, Dan Fogleberg, Joe Walsh and The James Gang, Daniel Lanois, David Crosby, and even Grand Funk Railroad here. My gratitude to all of those artists for filling my head with their musical creativity.

I hope you enjoy this new trajectory. Let me know what you think, if you are inspired.

Gratefully,

Ned Andrew

Blue Night Blue

Recorded at: Azalea Studios, Nashville, TN

Engineering, & Production: Fett

Executive Production: Gina Lynette

Acoustic & Electric Guitars & Humming: Ned Andrew Solomon

Bass & Percussion: Fett

Drums: RP Chester

Videography: Bernie Lynette

Video Production: Dottie Lynette