Recording for Songwriter Erin Reilly

For the last couple of years I’ve partnered in recording guitar work for a talented Virginia-based musical artist: singer/songwriter/musician, Erin Reilly. Erin is a music educator and has a degree in music from Shenandoah Conservatory/Shenandoah University. Ironically, Shenandoah was where I was planning to pursue my education in music after I graduated High School in NY, but that’s a whole other story.

Her song writing is a unique fusion of different styles. Her arrangements are sophisticated, musically progressive and her lyrics are well-written and gospel-centered. Her Christian convictions come through strong and clear in her songs. The purposeful delivery of the Gospel message in her music is a priority to her, which is the main reason I became interested in contributing my guitar work. I share those same convictions regarding faith and music which makes it important for me to contribute my efforts to her music.

A Fun And Musically Challenging Work

Because there is a fairly high level of sophistication and complexity in Erin’s music, it’s been both fun and challenging for me to work with her. The fact that she is able to provide me with charts of her compositions in actual musical notation, rather than guitar tab, is another reason I like working with Erin on her songs. I prefer to read music than read guitar tab. Some of the artist I’ve contributed guitar work only send me the demo and I have to spend a little time charting out the music by ear.

I’ve originally heard some of Erin’s jazz-styled music in a social media forum for Christian musicians and songwriters and I offered my help. But it turned out that she also writes in an edgy rock style mixing lush jazz harmonies in her instrumental arrangements along with rich background vocals. The need for having a “live” edgy rock guitar sound in her songs, rather than a synthetically-created sound done with her keyboards, was the reason that she was interested in my instrumental contribution. The hard rock guitar stylings she was looking for in her music were styles that I haven’t played for a number of years and I’ve had to get reacquainted with playing like that. In my own playing, I’ve straddled the fence between jazz and some mild rock playing with a strong emphasis in blues. Erin’s songs required heavy rock guitar and grungy stylings. Fortunately, I have the guitars and equipment to produce those sounds so I didn’t have to dig very far to pull it out of myself.

Below are a few of Erin’s song videos that I’ve contributed guitar work. The videos are Erin’s final finished versions which she has released in both audio as well as video versions. All the links to her song videos and audios are below. Complete albums can be heard/purchased on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming platforms. You’ll really appreciate her talent as a composer, instrumentalist and singer in her versions. Also below are a few of my demo mixes of her songs that highlight my guitar work in the mix and will be more predominant than her completed final mixes in her videos and audios. Check both versions out as they’ll give you a glimpse of her music from 2 different musical angles as you see it go from the demo version to the lush, completed arrangement. One thing you’ll see about her song videos is that she’s also talented in video production as well. They are really well done. If you’re interested in hearing more of Erin, the links at the bottom of the page will allow you to Erin’s other songs for listening or purchasing them for download.

The Raw Guitar Demo Mixes of Erin’s Songs

Click Here for recordings of the raw mixes of my guitar work on most of Erin's songs that I’ve worked on. These are rough demos (rough musical draft) that are not the finished product that Erin released with the additional instrumentation, vocals and production work. They feature Erin’s vocals and instrumental playing but the guitars are predominant in the recordings and come across edgier and aggressive. You can listen to them here.

Jim Cruz, Guitarist