Old Enough to Know Better
NEW ALBUM Released October 2023
I started songwriting in 2017. All of these songs exist in one person versions, with me playing guitar and singing, but I was curious to find out what other people heard in my music. I tell my friends that ‘my songs told me they wanted to see other people’. Many thanks to Jessica Stuart and Ryan Granville-Martin, both of whom heard possibilities that I had never considered in these songs. Recording with both of them was an indescribable joy!
I hope you’ll appreciate this album like a fine whisky – a smooth maple taste with traces of Joni Mitchell, Stephen Fearing, Radiohead, and King Crimson, and with a strong finish!
Guitarias | Doug MacNaughton
Released – February 2014
Liner notes – PDF
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Samples:
MacNaughton’s first self-produced album is an intimate, poetic journey. Guitarias includes compositions for voice and guitar (hence the name: guitar/arias) all performed by the singer accompanying himself: John Beckwith’s Beckett Songs (three songs to poems of Samuel Beckett), Leslie Uyeda’s Flower Arranger (a single song to a poem of Joy Kogawa), and William Beauvais’ The Truth of Matter (four songs to poems of Linda Hogan), which were all commissioned by Doug MacNaughton. Guitarias also features John Rutter’s Shadows (eight songs to various poets of the 16th and 17th centuries), which were published in 1997.
This is MacNaughton’s fourth recording as a singer, but marks his debut recording as a guitarist. “I am fascinated by the artistic effect of playing and singing at the same time”, explains MacNaughton. “The guitar’s portability makes it possible to perform in intimate and unusual acoustics. There’s a deeper connection between the voice part and the accompaniment, because the singer is the accompanist.” For this recording project, Doug teamed up with sound engineer Paul Hodge and producer Sung Chung. “We considered recording the voice and guitar separately”, he adds, “but in the end, we decided to record both together at the same time in the welcoming, resonant acoustic of St. George the Martyr Church.”
[Read Press Release]
More Audio Samples
Oratorio
Why do the Nations?
from MESSIAH; music by George Frederick Handel, libretto by Charles Jennens
The People that Walked in Darkness
from MESSIAH; music by George Frederick Handel, libretto by Charles Jennens
Betrachte, meine Seel’
from Saint John Passion; music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder
from Saint Matthew Passion; music by Johann Sebastian Bach, libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici
Guitar and Voice
A Nightingale Sang in Berkely Square
music by Manning Sherwin, lyrics by Eric Maschwitz.
Love is Here to Stay
music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Five O’Clock Bells
music and lyrics by Lenny Breau