With that in mind, I began to just…”tinker” is the technical term, I think…and began to do a “backdoor” remix.  You might say I arranged the ending slightly for a reprise, bringing out the strings and the solos (both vocal and woodwind).

So, without further ado, here’s a shorter reprise of the main piece.  Enjoy!

I'm not even 5% this cool or badass.

A few years ago, I had the distinct privilege of making friends with some Marine bloggers and public relations personnel from Regimental Combat Team 6 at Camp Ramadi in Iraq.  However, in the blog world, we call them the Fightin’ 6th Marines.

In interacting with the bloggers, in particular Staff Sergeant DeBoard, I was able to get a very interesting perspective into our presence in Iraq.  I’ve seen some incredible photos from their blog (second link above), read some stories that make feel like I don’t necessarily deserve to be alive in a sense, and all-in-all come closer to the Middle East than I ever imagined.

This overlapped with the biggest “leap” so far in my musical journey.  With the picture, videos, stories, and suggestions from RCT-6 and Staff Sergeant DeBoard’s input and advice, I was able to craft many original tunes.  At first, they had a somewhat ethereal, Eastern feel to them.  However, the more I got to know the Fightin’ 6th Marines and became more familiar with their day-to-day lives, the more the music turned into fierce, raging guitar-driven anthems.

The high point for me was having RCT-6 use some of my original music [that they inspired] in one of their fascinating videos.  So now…I’m giving one back.

This one’s for you, guys.  Whether you’re back state-side or still in the sand, let’s kick some ass.