I recently returned from a weeklong motorcycle trip through 7 western states. It was kind of a whirlwind – just 8 days, but we spent some lovely time in Utah, which offers just spectacular riding country (if the weather doesn’t turn on you that is!)

So on this particular day, we got an early start from lovely Fruita, CO (just BARELY into western CO), and headed out to the interstate (I-70), in order to hook up with a road we’d read about on several motorcycle touring sites – Hwy 128, a “scenic bi-way”, which would drop us into Moab, UT. The turn–off to 128 is completely nondescript, a lonely little ribbon of pavement winding through miles of scrubland. But in the distance we could begin to make out the shapes of mesas and those huge, otherworldly rock formations famous in this part of the world. We knew this would be the setting for the canyon which would soon envelope us.

One of the things we’d read about this 45 or so miles of winding canyonland road, was that many movies and commercials have been filmed along here, and it took us no time at all to start to recognize certain towering formations and vistas (“hey, isn’t that the rock they put that JEEP on the top of??”). This road goes along the Colorado River, and there are many points where you’re in a deep, narrow canyon, with the river just to your right, and high, red cliffs on either side of you.

We wore ourselves out with multiple “oohs” and “aahs”, and in the spectacular morning light, the landscapes just sang out as we moved along. I’d already done lots of work on this song before the trip, and had mixed feelings about having to put it away for a week. I’d loaded the most current iteration onto the iPod, and I listened to it a couple of times a day, hoping for new ideas, and also hoping I wouldn’t forget what I was trying to do with it while my head was into driving a motorcycle. Riding Hwy 128 that morning and listening to the very unfinished version I had with me, I had the thought that this drive WAS the song, so I started conceptualizing it that way after I returned and picked it up again. (All of life is a motorcycle ride!)

This is my first upload since I sprung for a Kawai MP8 keyboard (thanks for the tip Futz!), and for Ivory piano software (thanks for the tip Futz, Drakonis, Paul Page, and a couple of others I’m sure). When I first played in the piano track and listened to it, I almost couldn’t believe my ears, and it’s been quite thrilling to write the orchestration around piano sounds that I’m actually excited about! This song starts small but gets big, so be careful with volume! I tried to avoid throwing in the entire kitchen sink (in terms of orchestration) – with limited success - alas, I need lots more KSA meetings! Very special thanks to kassia for the multi-iteration feedback, and to drakonis who heard it shortly before upload and as always, had some really good ideas to ponder. Hope you enjoy “Canyon Rise”!