Mike Dawes is so good he could turn a roast chicken into an virtuoso work of solo acoustic guitar. Just look at his body of work; Van Halen’s Jump, Metallica’s One, Foo Fighters’ Everlong, John Mayer’s Slow Dancing In A Burning Room.
His collaborations with Plini, Periphery, Tommy Emmanuel also prove that he plays well with others. It is not for nothing that the British fingerstyle maestro even has a video titled “Playing the impossible on the guitar”. There's magic in his fingers.
And for his latest trick, Dawes has been doing Dawes things again, rearranging Sleep Token’s Euclid – not a guitar track – and performing it on an unaccompanied acoustic, and he has released it as a single.
Dawes says he is a long-time fan of Sleep Token, who grace the cover of Metal Hammer’s 400th issue.
“I’ve been a fan of Sleep Token for quite a while since my ex-college housemate produced some of their early work,” Dawes explains. “They have such a unique sound with stunning melodies and arrangements that translate perfectly to acoustic guitar.”
This typically bravura cover has not just come out of the ether. Dawes had been working on it for a while, and has performed it live already.
“After I opened for Periphery in the US, I had the opportunity to jump up at the UK’s Radar Festival last year and wanted to take on Euclid just for that show, as a nod to Sleep Token who headlined that same festival the previous year,” says Dawes. “The live response blew me away.”
Dawes’ arrangement is categorically not for beginner guitarists. Here we are operating at genius level. Dawes is handling chords, the melodies, and in the style of the 21st-century acoustic player he is also providing percussion, tapping it out on the body of his Andreas Cuntz custom-build. He is also in an open tuning, with a guitar capo at the third fret.
“The melodies work so well in this CGDGAD tuning,” says Dawes. “I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this arrangement and hope it strikes a chord with others as well.”
You can check out Dawes’ performance above, and if it does strike a chord with you, and you fancy levelling up your chops, you can always get the tab for Dawes’ arrangement from the man himself for five bucks. See Mike Dawes for more details – and for full dates for his upcoming US tour, which kicks off on 26 July in Seattle.
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