u/AaronEspositoMusic

So this is still a very surreal feeling for me, and it may never amount to anything but I got to live out one of my dreams last night with one of my all time favorite songwriters/hunans.

I hand painted a really neat sign that I was hoping to give to Jack, that said “Your Music Heals” on one side and “I want to Jam with you guys!” on the other. But the venue wouldn’t let me bring it in. So instead I wrote it on my son’s sketchbook and held it up during his acoustic encore.

He was super hesitant at first because who expects some random dude in the front row to actually be good? But he leaned over and asked what song I would even do with him. I shouted, Pirate Looks at 40 and his eyes lit up and he said “Oh yeah, I forgot to do that one tonight, alright I’m gonna get this guy up here to do a song.

I can’t believe I was brave enough to ask and Jack was brave enough trust I wouldn’t suck! I’m so grateful to have had that opportunity and to have met one of my biggest influences.. and that his kindness and generosity did not disappoint!!

It was a low energy kind of gig last night but my wife thought to record my version of this Chili Peppers song. Same setup I’ve been using lately, my Godin LGXT, 2 beta 87a’s, Boss Rc-600 loop station and a GR-55 midi synth pedal. Not perfect but I hope it’s ok enough to share here.

It seems like this beachside place has the perfect lighting and vibe for recording stuff from my live gigs. It’s not the multi-camera stuff I’m trying to figure out how to edit, but here’s a version of one of the smoothest songs ever written.

Every time I play anything I play it slightly different because of the nature of how I attempt to quickly build songs, so my solos or even little adlibs are never the same.

Also I realized looking at this video after that I wore this same damn shirt a couple weeks ago in that Don Henley video I shared. I obviously need more shirts.

The gear I used for this:
Godin LGXT
Boss RC-600
Roland GR-55
Two Shure Beta 87a’s (one for the looper, one straight to the mixer) also both have cables with on/off switches to keep my loops clean and as noise free as possible.

Shoutout to the Redditor that requested this in the comments of one of my last videos.

This was another video I got a couple Sundays ago, I was hesitant to share this one at first because there was a looper error at the beginning (I have to deal with a lot of gear corrosion from playing beachside constantly no matter how much I clean everything) and I hit quite a few sour notes. But I didn’t want a couple little errors stop me from putting something out that I’m otherwise happy enough with. Hope some of you dig it.

I love this song, I hope I did it justice.

This clip shows more of what I can do with the Godin/gr-55/rc-600 setup.

First of all I have to thank this community for being so damn awesome. Since my last couple posts were received so well I took some more video tonight at my gig. I’ll keep sharing as long as you guys want to hear it.

This song is one I wrote several months back but I haven’t recorded it yet. The audio quality on this phone camera isn’t the greatest for the bass tones so maybe I’ll use an interface next time. Anyway, here is one of my originals.

Stardust

Written and composed by Aaron Esposito

Chorus:

It’s hard to think that we’re made of stardust

If angels saw us they’d be shaking their heads right now

I can’t pretend to know the way

But we all know that this feels wrong

1st Verse:

They thought it was their god that sent him

Even a god knows better than that

Just get into the car they sent you

Don’t question the road that they been sending you down

It isn’t every day your savior

While lie to your face as he’s taking your home

Convince you doing good’s deceptive

Refusing to wake up and see on their own

Pre-chorus

Oh well, we tried.

It’s a shame they’d rather choke on their pride

Once more, for old times

The world is watching us lose our minds

Chorus:

It’s hard to think that we’re made of stardust

If angels saw us they’d be shaking their heads right now

(2X) I can’t pretend to know the way

But we all know that this feels wrong

2nd Verse:

I didn’t think this hate would come back

I thought the world was a bit further along

By keeping all their bases dumbed down

Believe that their guns would make them so strong

It isn’t every day your savior

Will lie to your face just to strangle the poor

Believe that empathy is destructive

They trick you to think that greed’s the only way forward

Pre-chorus

Oh well, we tried.

It’s a shame they’d rather choke on their pride

Once more, for old times

The world is watching us lose our minds

Chorus:

It’s hard to think that we’re made of stardust

If angels saw us they’d be shaking their heads right now

I can’t pretend to know the way

I can’t pretend to know the way

I can’t pretend to know the way

But we all know that this feels wrong

They thought it was their god that sent him

Even a god knows better than that

I had such a great response from the Beatles song I shared the other day I wanted to share another video I took at that same venue last Sunday. For anyone interested in the gear side of things, I’m playing a Godin LGXT, the pedals I’m using are a Roland RC-600 and a Boss GR-55. I have two mics set up, one goes to the looper and the other straight to my Soundcraft ui12 mixer.

I know this isn’t a typical post here because most are full band things of generally touring artists. I play about 250 small live shows a year at local hotels, restaurants and clubs; and I hardly ever have the courage to hit record. This is one of my all time favorite Beatles songs to play.