DESCRIPTION:
Ledward is quite the gym rat and enjoys a brisk walk around the neighborhood as well. I've been showing him some of my favorite trails, and he came up with the idea of shooting a video up on the scenic Acalanes Ridge. We packed up guitars, cameras, mics, and recorders and hiked up into the hills on the Mt. Diablo - Briones Reservoir Trail http://www.ebparks.org/parks/trails/briones_mtdiablo The day was one of the warmest so far in 2013, and we arrived just as a hang glider was finishing up his ride on the thermals at the peak of the ridge. We found a comfortable spot on a magnificent spreading live oak, set up the gear, and played through a few of our favorites. There was a lot of traffic on the trail with dog walkers, hiking groups, photographers, and exercise buffs passing by with big grins and thumbs up.

"Aloha `Ia No `O Maui" is a classic Maui praise song composed by Alice Johnson, telling of famous and beautiful sights on the Valley Isle. http://www.huapala.org/Aloha/Aloha_Ia_No_O_Maui.html Ledward recorded the song as an instrumental on his Grammy-nominated CD "Ki Ho`alu - Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" and I fell in love with it the first time I heard it.

We're both playing in taropatch or open G tuning, with the strings at D G D G B D from low to high. Ledward is using his 90s era Martin 000-16. I'm playing a Composite Acoustics OX Raw, my tuning is actually one whole step low, or F taropatch, so I'm using a capo at the second fret to sound in G.

The video was captured on a Panasonic Lumix GH2 and a GoPro Hero HD3. Audio was recorded using miniature omni mics taped to the guitar and connected to Zoom H2 and Sony PCM-D50 portable recorders. All editing was done in Edius Neo.