Although I have never been particularly interested in country music, I find myself attracted to many aspects of the guitar playing: the control over string bend intonation; the pedal-steel emulations—oblique motion where one string remains stable while another bends; the polyphonic potential of hybrid picking; the open sonorities of the double and triple stops. Country Roads explores these techniques, re-contextualized in a contemporary setting and augmented with electronic elements. The first movement is largely concerned with string bends. The second movement employs Travis picking in the right hand, a classic country fingerstyle developed by Merle Travis. Movement three reveals itself to be a duet of sorts; the left hand plays solo while the right hand renders the other part by bowing the lowest string with a drumstick.
Studio recording with video score: