Thanks Karen! I'm gonna get around to those bears as soon as my artistic abilities warm up enough to cooperate.

Hi Marion, I agree with your read of the "positive" feeling. It's pretty much a D Mixolydian piece; I'm avoiding the F on the C string and utilizing the B at the 6+, along with grabbing the F# from the D string and A strings at times. DAC is quite fun for D Mixolydian because the C to D resolution you can pull off so strongly with a nice hammer-on at the first is one of the defining cadences of the mode.

Joel's guitar is a bit more freewheeling about the modality; he influences me to run through the F as a passing note at one point, hinting at a shift towards the minor that never really happens, as the piece immediately breaks back into the nice open feeling Mixolydian.

John, the day I introduced this one to the band, Joel told us about this place in Texas called Boultinghouse Mountain named for his great grandpappy whose claim to fame is that he rid Boultinghouse Mountain of... bears. We all feel kind of bad for the bears!

We've got a studio recording of it on which Joel plays bowed bass. We didn't shoot any video for that, so I've got a notion to do a bear tribute when I get around to it...

I bet Joel loves the title! Great stuff!

I love DAC too, Carrie. It's pretty much the default tuning I go for currently.