Kevin Ludlow is a 45-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
Please take a moment to view his complete resume for more information.
Note: the entirety of this website was architected and developed from the ground up exclusively by Kevin Ludlow.
I enjoy recording this tune every once in awhile just because I enjoy playing it so much. I wrote it back in 2002, re-wrote it in 2003, and have been playing mostly the same variation for the past decade.
Most people tell me you're not supposed to strum anything in a DADGAD configuration. Fortunately, I've never been keen on following the restrictions of "most" people.
After somewhere between 7 and 9 martinis I decided it would be a good idea to try and sing the classic Animals song "House of the Rising Sun". Since singing is one of the two things I have just had to concede failure to, this was doomed before it started.
I do however like the little drunken piano solo at 3:23.
I was days from moving and so the house looks especially bare.
I've recently been exploring with some sounds in a standard Nashville Tuning. If you're not familiar with this, it basically just means using the higher octave strings from a 12-string set in a standard 6-string configuration. I've gotten some particularly cool sounds out of a DADGAD-Nashville Tuning, but this was just a standard EADGBE.
There's a part in the middle (around 0:46) where I run some scales up around the 12th fret. What's interesting about this in a Nashville Tuning is that since the G-string is an octave up (making it the highest string on the guitar), but the B and high-E strings are standard (per a 12-string configuration), the 14th fret of the G string winds up being the same as the 17th fret of the high-E string. Basically this means that you can easily play multiple notes at the same time that would be impossible to play since they would otherwise have to be played on the same string.
This is recorded through my Ashdown Engineering acoustic amp with a standard compression pedal turned up pretty high.
Every once in awhile I like to toss something out there completely unrelated to my interest in pursuits of liberty.
I was messing around with my old 12-string in a Nashville+DADGAD tuning and came up with this little percussive beat. I wish the Apple built-in mic had a little more range, but it's good enough. For anyone who doesn't know what a Nashville tuning is, it's basically when you use the higher-octave strings from a 12-string set in just a 6-string fashion. In my case it's a bit altered even from that since I actually left the low G string in its typical 6-string configuration, but otherwise the higher octaves were switched out.
The result is a really twangy sound in place of the usual base, a base in place of the usual mids, and extra reverberation on the typical highs. And of course all of that in an open DADGAD tuning as well.
JJ Baty is performing Ave Maria in the upcoming Kujda wedding. He's a well-trained opera singer and I have no doubt that he's going to kill it. But since he doesn't really want to do it A Cappella and doesn't want to use a tape, he asked if I could play a basic background accompaniment to it.
Since he lives in Houston and I live in Austin, I recorded this quick version just so that he had something to work with. It's FAR from intricate, but should suffice for what we're doing.
Many thanks to my good buddy Preston for lending me his cherished classical guitar.
My parents have been in town helping my brother fix up his new house and so there have been all sorts of construction and arts and crafts projects happening. I've been wanting to make a pedalboard for some time now and felt inspired.
The bottom frame of the board is cut out of poplar and the top is covered in diamond board. I fastened a hearty power strip with an 8 foot cord to the top. All of the pedals are given power from a standard DC brick. There are holes drilled next to each device so that all of the wiring could be done on the bottom side. Finally the handles are just standard cabinet mounts turned the wrong way.
It was actually very difficult to find the short 1/4" cables to go between each of the pedals.
