Heralding the Dawn

You know, it just keeps getting harder and harder to find or even make the time to work in my studio, but here's my latest offering. I intend to use it as the opener for my next homegrown album. I'm also considering it as a possible candidate for my entry into that contest I mentioned earlier.

The tune is called Herald of the Dawn. I was in the mood to do an upbeat, guitar-driven piece, and that's what it is. I mean, there is nothing but (lots of) guitars, bass, drums, and "vocals". (I thought about putting a sax solo in the middle, but recording in the middle of the night led me to decide to stick with guitar.) I actually pieced it together out of two separate, incomplete song ideas that seemed to segue well into each other. I originally intended to write lyrics for it, but I was feeling very uninspired. Besides, I think the hummed chorus I finally put in works better, anyway.

The drum track worked very well with none of the problems I encountered with "Give Us Back". I think the chief difference was that I made it directly using Sonar (with quantized real-time recording supplemented with some step programming) instead of importing a generic MIDI file. I consider it a valuable lesson learned, though it could hamper the creative process a little.

(More info can be found on my Minstrel's Muse site.)

Give it a listen and tell me what you think. Is this a viable contest entry, or should I go with something else? (So far the "most likely candidates" list includes "Sign Sonata", "Secret Identity", "Beyanam", and "Wakannai!", with "Live With You" and "Erweina" as runners up. I'm really hoping for some feedback...and I don't mean of the amp variety!).