The Secret Of Learning To Fly Is Forgetting To Hit The Ground (aka "Orville")

This tune is the hardest thing I have ever written, or attempted to play, or imagined existing, on a guitar. Tab is available from my website, and the first person to learn it to any vaguely OK-ish standard (as judged by me) wins my complete guitar pickup system - a Fishman Rare Earth Mic Blend plus a Fishman BP100, total list price over $750. Submit your entry at jongomm.com/win

The audio download and guitar tab and the full album "Live In The Acoustic Asylum" are available in the store.

This tune's title is a reference to Douglas Adams, The Secret Of Learning To Fly Is Forgetting To Hit The Ground, but that's a stupidly long title so I call it "Orville" for short. It's supposed to have a frenetic air and a ramshackle mechanical groove, capturing a desperate attempt at flight like that of an early biplane (like Orville Wright’s) or a baby bird (like Orville The Duck), until the very ending of the song, when it finally takes flight.

High And Dry

This is the seventh of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

The album and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Afterglow

This is the sixth of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

The album and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Temporary

This is the fifth of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

The album and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Stupid Blues

This is the fourth of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

The album and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

What's Left For You?

This is the third of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

The album and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

The Weather Machine

This is the second of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

This song is an angry metaphor about Western anti-terror propaganda, with a president or prime minister represented as a Wild West snake oil salesman, striking fear into the hearts of the townspeople with tales of scary invaders, and using that as an excuse to send The Weather Machine to far-flung poverty stricken regions in the East. SPOILER ALERT: The Machine is supposed to bring rain to the desert to transform it into a Western paradise, but instead it rains down fire and destruction.

Musically it's a metal-heavy Arabic-influenced onslaught. It might offend the sensibilities of some of my acoustic purist fans (sorry folks), but to me being a songwriter is sometimes about more than painting pretty pictures.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Gloria

This is the first of nine new videos from the Live In The Acoustic Asylum sessions.

Gloria was my first proper girlfriend, I was about sixteen. When I was a kid our world was tribal, you had to be either a "townie", or a "mosher", or you were nothing. Gloria was a townie, I was a mosher. So it was a forbidden love, crossing the mosher/townie divide, frowned upon by friends and even family, very much like the situation of Romeo and Juliet. Except that Gloria's family was more... violent than Juliet's family. It's a country song, really, and a waltz. Pure romance. Kinda.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Dance Of The Last Rhino

Dedicated to the irresistible groove of Thomas Leeb.

I originally wrote this tune specially for playing in South Africa. South Africans are the human race's custodians of some of the most magnificent, yet vulnerable treasures of the natural world. They didn't ask for this responsibility, but they bear it with strength and patience. It’s almost unbelievable that in 2014 the Rhino is in danger of be hunted to extinction, so people around the world can buy rhino horn to “cure” their baldness or impotence.

Just because a wizened old sage is prescribing grated rhino horn (at $5000 a gram) that doesn't mean it works. In fact, it's made of keratin, and so you could get exactly the same medical benefits for free, just by eating your own hair.

But Dance Of The Last Rhino isn't a sad, mournful piece. It's a wardance. The rhino is a noble, warrior-like animal, and they won't go out without a fight. It starts with the Rhino scraping it's massive hooves in the dirt, preparing to charge.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store. 10% of all proceeds go to Save The Rhino.

Everything

'Everything' is the 3rd single from my latest album, 'Secrets Nobody Keeps'.

It's a twisted love song. It's about obsession. It's the song I had the most comments about from the album, which really surprised me, just because it's so prog - nearly ten minutes long, two time signatures, shreddy guitar solo, even cameo appearances from other songs...

It's played on my guitar Wilma, through a Trace Acoustic TA200 amp, designed in Britain by amp-genius Paul Stevens. Massive thanks to Tom Allen of Trace Acoustic for producing this video.

Audio mixed and produced by Whiskas, engineered and co-produced by Jon Gomm. Mastered by Tom "The Frequency" Woodhead at Hippocratic Mastering.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Passionflower

This song is about I plant a grew in my 10-feet-square backyard in the Leeds inner city. I put the seeds in a tiny tub, but it grew like a Roald Dahl story until it took over the whole yard, then one day the sun shone extra hard and 100 flowers all went "Pop!". It was amazing, so I wrote a song for it.

The video was made at The Northern Film School by the wonderful person that is Danielle Millea and her awesome colleague Owen Plummer http://www.northernfilmschool.co.uk/

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Telepathy

This is the first single from my new album Secrets Nobody Keeps, released today.

Telepathy is dedicated to anyone who's been so afflicted with doubts and fears that it affects the way they interact with people and ends up in the nightmare of insomnia. The moral of the story is a simple one: Never go to bed on an argument. (Don't, FFS.)

It's played on Wilma, my beloved Lowden O12C guitar, in A E B E G B tuning, using my custom super-heavy Newtone strings and Keith banjo pegs, with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend running through various Boss effects pedals and a Trace Acoustic TA200 amp.

The video was filmed by Owen Plummer and Danielle Millea and directed and edited by Owen Plummer. Audio mixed and produced by Whiskas, engineered and co-produced by Jon Gomm. Mastered by Tom "The Frequency" Woodhead at Hippocratic Mastering.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Wukan Motorcycle Kid

This is the 2nd single from my new album, Secrets Nobody Keeps.

I wrote this piece for playing on tour in China earlier this year. I needed something to bridge the musical gap between what I do and what most people over there are more familiar with. And also I wanted to have something with some meaning, some relevant purpose. So this tune is about the Wukan Uprising of 2011.

Wukan is a village in rural China. The government seized some farmland, owned by local families, and sold it off to developers. The local people weren't too happy about that, so they held a peaceful sit-in protest. Sadly the government sent in the scary secret police guys, who arrested one of the protest leaders (a local craftsman and father), and he died the next day in police custody from "a heart attack".

His name was Xue Jinbo, and he died 2 years ago today.

After that the protests got more vigorous and the police were rounding people up off the streets at night. When I saw it on the TV news, they were interviewing this kid who'd been riding round the village at night on his little motorbike, looking out for secret police down back alleys. And if he saw one, he'd shout a warning to the other villagers through his megaphone, then speed off, with bullets whistling past his ears.

So this song is for that courageous kid, wherever he is.

This event was all over the news around the world, everywhere except China. So I told this story on stage every night on tour there. Which resulted in all manner of sh*t happening to me.

It's played on Wilma, my beloved Lowden O12C guitar, in A E C E G C tuning, using my custom super-heavy Newtone strings, with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend running through various Boss effects pedals and a Trace Acoustic TA200 amp.

The video was filmed by Owen Plummer and Danielle Millea and directed and edited by Owen Plummer. Audio mixed and produced by Whiskas, engineered and co-produced by Jon Gomm. Mastered by Tom "The Frequency" Woodhead at Hippocratic Mastering.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Ain't Nobody

This is my cover of the Chaka Khan dancefloor classic from 1982. When I was a kid, I played gigs in pubs in Blackpool, and often my audience was mostly elderly ladies spending their pension money on bacardi! Quite often they'd tolerate my original songs and blues covers for only so long, and eventually a representative would be sent over to remonstrate with me. "Excuse me young man, please can you play something we can dance to?" So this is my emergency disco song.

The video was made at The Northern Film School by the superpeople Danielle Millea and Owen Plummer http://www.northernfilmschool.co.uk/

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Topeka (from the album Don't Panic)

"I've never been to Topeka, but I have reason to believe it sounds like this."

With this tune I was trying to capture that feeling of nostalgia you can sometimes get for a place or time you've never actually experienced, only imagined. In this case I was going for 1950's smalltown America. I decided to name it after Topeka (pronounced "Tuh-PEE-kuh"), Kansas, which ain't exactly small, but it is the hometown of my buddy Andy McKee, the loveliest, most down-to-earth solo guitar player on the circuit.

Message In A Bottle

This song, originally by The Police, has a strong emotional resonance for me: When I was a kid my taste in music was completely guided by my dad's record collection -- he had thousands of records, so every day was a musical education. But when my mum and dad split up I was left with my mum's record collection which was... erm... sh*t (sorry mum!) She had one record I liked, so it got played a lot. And this was it. A darkly isolationist anthem of despair. And now look at me.

Thanks to the fantastic Luke Wright and his colleagues at Horizon Productions and Jack Simpson and everyone Eiger Studios, Leeds.

The mp3 and guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

Loveproof (from the album Don't Panic)

Video filmed on some disused railway track in Preston, UK, by Andy Dykes with help from Kevin Mahy and ACC Media (contact: aetdykes@googlemail.com)
The guitar tab for this song is available in the store.

High and Dry (from the album Hypertension)

My cover of the Radiohead classic. I worked out this arrangement about 7 years ago. I played it on my first solo gig, and have been playing it ever since!

The song is on my album Hypertension, available at www.jongomm.com

The footage is from the TV show City Centre Social: big thanks to Shy Gerry, Dancing Dan, Rachel K and Interesting Phil. www.channelm.co.uk

Thanks also to the enigmatic Mr Dykes for trimming the clip www.myspace.com/dykesfilms

Gloria (from the album Don't Panic)

Me playing Gloria live on Channel M. I've been reluctant to upload this cos I made a few mistakes (especially the guitar fill at the startof the second verse! Mmmm, jazz) and I was a bit ill so I look like death and sound a bit bunged up. But hey. Here you go.

It's a fun country waltz about a girl I went out with when I was 18. When I was a kid in Blackpool, teenage society was strictly divided along tribal lines: You had to be either a "chav" or a "mosher" or you were nothing. She was a chav, I was a mosher - a forbidden love, crossing the mosher/chav divide, frowned upon by family and friends. Very much like Romeo and Juliet. Except her family was more violent than Juliet's family....

Some of the lyrics might go over your head if you're not British. "Bensons" are a brand of cigarettes!

Hey Child (from the album Hypertension)

This song is about a runaway girl from Glasgow I met while volunteering at a homeless refuge.

It's got easier to play the shred solo since I had Steve Vai sign the back of my guitar. He wrote "To Wilma, be good to Jon. Love Steve."

Temporary (from the album Don't Panic)

This song is dedicated to my mum, Elizabeth. She is awesome. The song's set in a supermarket a very long time ago on a Friday morning. The lyrics are pretty personal about a strange time in my life, and that's why they're so thickly coated in imagery. Sorry.

Banjo pegs are essential for the pretty harmonic bendy bits, and the only banjo pegs worth havign are those made by Bill Keith. http://www.beaconbanjo.com/

Waterfall (from the album Don't Panic)

I wrote this song about a Hindu goddess named Saraswati. She lives at the bottom of a waterfall, legend has it.

She's the goddess of music and discipline among other things, a combination which seems strange to some people, but not to me. So I wrote this tune as a kinda instruction manual for myself on how to perform. That's why I often open concerts with it.

The second verse is in Urdu - thanks to Mohammed Abbas for the translation help.

Afterglow (from the album Don't Panic)

This is a trip-hop / jazz tune about... erm... intimacy.

The guitar solo is tough - it's real-deal 8-finger-tapping, Stanley Jordan style. Or at least as close as I can get to that on a jumbo acoustic guitar strung with 15-68 gauge strings! Scary on-stage moments galore.

Stupid Blues (from the album Hypertension)

This tune is the only instrumental on Hypertension, and I wrote it shortly after leaving music college where I studied for a degree in Jazz, which is why I never got a real job.

It's so-named because when I was a kid, I went through a long phase of playing nothing but blues. I wanted to be Walter Trout. Or Bob Brozman if I was on an acoustic day! But then I went on to study modal rock, then jazz. After all that when I went back to trying to compose blues, I'd learnt too many chords and couldn't keep things simple anymore, to my great frustration. So this song is one of those Stupid Blues - it starts out like a blues, but pretty soon it gets VERY stupid.

Wait In Vain (from the album Hypertension)

I love playing this tune. It's incredibly easy, the guitar part. I'll tab it out one day!

It's my soundcheck favourite, because I don't need to be warmed up to play it, and it has lots of percussion and strumming, which are the most important techniques to EQ. If you don't EQ a nice big strummy bit, then if you play one on the gig you'll be in for a nasty surprise!