Windham Hill Memories

Happy Halloween! I will not be posting anything this week due to a "rough day". Next week will be back to normal.

Conferring with the Moon is Will Ackerman's sixth album that he released. This one is from the mid-late 80s and it mostly features duets with some trios this time. I guarantee you that this album is breathtaking. Here is the track list as always:  1. Conferring With the Moon 2. Improv 2  3. Lago de Montanas (Mountain Lake)  4. Big Thing In the Sky (For Jess)  5. Climbing In Geometry  6. The Last Day at the Beach  7. Singing Crocodile  8. Processional  9. Shape of the Land  10. Garage Planet  11. Conferring With the Moon (Solo) Click the link here to listen to 30 second clips: http://music.yahoo.com/william-ackerman/albums/conferring-with-the-moon-pieces-for-guitar--144486 Click here to download the album on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/conferring-with-the-moon/id298432921

Past light is Ackerman's fifth solo album and twenty-eighth Windham Hill release. This one features duets, including one with Michael Hedges. "For his fifth album, Ackerman added new instrumental colors to his guitar work. Especially notable are Michael Manring's bass playing and the one-track "Garden," featuring the Kronos Quartet. The added instrumentation servers only to accentuate Ackerman's typically inventive playing."                                                                                                                          - William Ruhlmann. Here is the track list:  1. Visiting  2. Garden  3. Three Observations of One Ocean  4. Pacific II  5. Synopsis  6. Ventana  7. Threes  8. Synopsis II  9. Rain to River  10. Night Slip Click here to order your own copy of the album:   Listen to clips to the songs here:  http://www.allmusic.com/album/past-light-mw0000192741 Click here to or

For this week's post, I will be reviewing the 1981 Will Ackerman album, "Passage". It's basically a collection of re-recordings of (what I assume to be) previous songs from his first few albums. Some remakes are solo guitar works, some are duets. One of the tracks, for instance features George Winston on keyboards. Track list: 1. Remedios 2. Processional 3. The Impending Death of the Virgin Spirit 4.Pacific I 5. The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter 6. Hawk Circle 7. Anne's Song 8. Passage Click here to order your own copy of the album: http://www.amazon.com/Passage-William-Ackerman/dp/B001TW6908/ref=tmm_acd_title_0 "Will Ackerman's music takes me to another time and another place." - Denise Armendariz

This week I will be explaining about Will Ackerman's third album, sixth release of Windham Hill Records, and his final solo album released during the 1970s. This one is called "Childhood and Memory". This album features solo guitar with a few duets. He plays the banjo on the track "Seattle" for instance, and Dave Ross performs with Ackerman (flute and guitar) on "Anne's Song", but for the most part, Ackerman pretty much sticks to his original style. Here is the track list: 1. The Wall and the Wind 2. The Velvet Gentleman 3. Anne's Song 4. Childhood and Memory 5. Sunday Rain 6. Seattle 7. Three Hesitant Themes 8. Murray's Song 9. Gideon 10. Bodie To download, click here:  http://music.yahoo.com/william-ackerman/albums/childhood-and-memory--144485

Let's make this clear. I post links to my blog to have people purchase the mp3s legally so I don't get sued or have my blog shut down. However, if I find my own copy of the LPs  CDs, and cassettes, I will convert them to mp3 format myself and make a .rar or .zip folder to store them in for protection. I will let you know if I find the entire albums and not just songs from the album to make it convenient for new and long-time viewers who stop by my blog. If there is any album that you want me to seek out, let me know in the comments below this post and I will save up to order it. At the moment I don't have a usb or a muti-format compatible turntable so I can't rip vinyl records or cassettes yet. I have to either pirate them from YouTube (if I can find the full album there), order the CD copies or digitally download them via credit card. New post tomorrow!