Recording for Songwriter Erin Reilly

For the last few years I’ve recorded guitar work for a talented Virginia-based musical artist, singer/songwriter/musician, Erin Reilly.

Erin is a musician and songwriter from Manassas, VA. In her years studying music, she was trained in classical and jazz music as a violist and pianist. She served as principal violist of the Allegretto Youth Chamber Orchestra, and the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. She founded and performed in the Bluefire String Quartet where she arranged jazz standards for string quartet and taught jazz improvisation. She also performed as a pianist in district jazz bands and the Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble. She has toured around the world, performing in Canada, Spain, and Taiwan. Through the many versatile ensembles she’s played in, she has worked with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Alan Baylock, Jan Wagner, Che Hung Chen and Jeff Williams.

After graduating as the Outstanding Graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory in 2016, Erin went on to teach elementary orchestra and pursue a passion for songwriting, singing, and music production. At the end of 2020, she felt a calling to use music as a means to share the gospel and let everyone know about the love of Jesus Christ. She has been writing original Christian music ever since.

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 for her, which is the main reason I became interested in contributing my guitar work. I share those same missional convictions regarding faith and music which made it a fruitful area for me to invest my musical efforts.

A Fun And Musically Rewarding Work

Because there is a fairly high level of sophistication and complexity in Erin’s music, it’s been both fun and a great musical experience for me.

I’ve originally heard some of Erin’s jazz-styled music that she posted in a social media forum for Christian musicians and songwriters and when I heard those, I had to offer my help. Since then I've played on a good number of her songs.

Below are videos of just a sampling of Erin's songs with my guitar work. There are more of course which can be heard on various streaming platforms as well as YouTube. All the links to her song videos and audios are at the bottom of this page. Complete albums can be heard on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming platforms. You’ll appreciate her talent as a composer, instrumentalist and singer in her versions. Personally, I've become a big fan of her music.

As a ***Bonus***, I've provided a link at the bottom of this page where you can check out the original pre-production demos of Erin's songs that highlight my guitar work more predominantly. These are the versions of the songs prior to her adding additional instrumentation, vocals and studio production elements.

BONUS - The Raw Guitar Demo Mixes of Erin’s Songs

Click Here to hear the early recorded versions of the raw mixes of my guitar work on Erin's songs that I’ve played on. These are the demos (rough musical draft) that went back to Erin after my guitar work was done on a song. They're not the finished product (as in the video recordings below) that Erin released with the additional instrumentation, vocals and production work. They feature Erin’s vocals and instrumental playing but the guitars are punchy and predominant in the recordings which come across edgier and aggressive.

Jim Cruz, Guitarist