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Credits
For Iwan.
Completed september 6th, 1992.
Composed, arranged, produced and performed by Gerard Slooven.
Recorded for the CD "12 Significant Others".
Song
I wrote this while I was in the army and away from home most of the time. Back then I was missing my old dog a lot, who had died the year before, so I wrote this little piece about him. Iwan looked like a werewolf but was as gentle as a sheep, which hopefully reflects a bit in the music. Anyway, I generally play it on my spanish guitar, but I guess it can sound good on any acoustic guitar. Most of the piece is very simple but I think that is more an argument in favour of it then against it. Other parts, especially near the end, are a bit too clever for their own good. At the time I probably decided to write something smart. That never works, of course. Try to play it as lightly as possible with a little bit of drama thrown in just for the fun of it...
Recording
Track length: [03:52].
Instruments: Da Montagne spanish (lead and bass), Furch S-21-CR (flatpicking chords).
The main part of the song worked best as a solo, although I tried every trick in the book to make it more interesting. But it still ended up on the album as a spanish guitar solo. I used the triad part in the middle to have some fun: everything changes when this middle part kicks in. It's almost like having a "song within a song". I expect that most people will feel that this middle part goes on for much too long, but I really like it this way. And there's only one producer on this album, and guess what? That's me!
Image
This is a picture of Iwan, taken by myself in our back garden, a couple of months before he died. He was eleven years old at the time. Man years, that is...
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