Stefanos Alexiou – A Million Miles Away

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Since I started playing guitar, 4 years ago, I’ve been asked to play something from Rory Gallagher, the man whom Jimi Hendrix once called as the best guitar player ever.

A while back I had made a video of the clean studio version of Rory’s “A Million Miles Away” played on one guitar over the original song as a backing track. That video was removed from YouTube almost as soon as it was uploaded thanks to Mr. Gallagher’s publishers.

A Million Miles Away (Dual Guitars & Drums)

Stefanos Alexiou - A Million Miles Away

Stefanos Alexiou – A Million Miles Away

This time, in order to avoid another video deletion, I added my own backing track by playing the drums, replacing the bass with a rhythm guitar and playing the lead guitar based on a mix of Rory’s several live performances and added my own flavor on the solos plus some volume swells for the intro.

During the final mix, the rhythm guitar was panned mostly to the left while the lead guitar solos & intro swells remained on both channels and made a bit wider.

The video remake of “A Million Miles Away” was uploaded on Youtube on January 16, 2014.

Stefanos Alexiou – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

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This Year for Christmas I got a record player and a few old vinyl records. Among them a couple records from The Rolling Stones which I’ve been listening on a daily basis.

I especially love their “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” song so appropriately this would be my first cover song for 2014.

Stefanos Alexiou - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Dual Guitars & Drums)

Stefanos Alexiou – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Dual Guitars & Drums)

The Making of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

Started by playing the Rhythm guitar on DSL’s crunch channel with no other effects present.

Stefanos Alexiou - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Rhytm Guitar)

Stefanos Alexiou – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Rhytm Guitar)

Then I played the drums to keep the rhythm, each one of them individually miked and some reverb added to the snare.

Stefanos Alexiou - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Drums)

Stefanos Alexiou – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Drums)

Finally, I played the Lead guitar improvising a lot, especially the parts where a sax is used on the studio version.

Stefanos Alexiou - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Lead Guitar)

Stefanos Alexiou – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Lead Guitar)

This time I chose not to include bass guitar…

Can’t You Hear Me Knocking: Final Mix & Video

Mixed the Rhythm guitar 60% to the left, Lead at 40% to the right, added some stereo reverb to the whole track and here’s the complete video that was uploaded on YouTube on January 7th, 2014.