"SUBTLE HINT" is Ferguson's CD release, the 3rd.  
Electric and acoustic sounds from his guitars are heard.

From rock and jazz and classical, Romantic &  Baroque,  
To Hindustani rag,  Eastern European Folk,

And many more a genre are explored and rendered here,
Mixed and blended, found, invented, all for you to hear,

With saxist Noah Peterson,  Chris Goldthorpe on the bass,
Drummer Kevin Cosgrove, tabla-ist Tzara keeping pace.

Eighty minutes, twenty tunes, all in their finished state,
Many nice suprises there, within the tracks, await.

Subtle Hint Tracks

1) Liberation (K. Ferguson) - Passion for what it should be, a twist of irony bespoke...

This one was written based on a tongue in cheek title that inspired it, "If Guitar Ruled The Universe." Without the long story behind it, most people would just assume it's being serious and therefore ridiculously arrogant. It lightened up a bit when it was adapted to focus on the theme of liberation, which is a word that has been abused enough lately to have lost much of it's former meaning. Nevertheless, the melody is a cross-modulated patterned weave of classical, neoclassical Latin American, Eastern European, rock and other styles, along with an alternatively supporting and contrasting bass and drums. The trio played this for over a year before recording it.

2) Fugued Rachenitsa (K. Ferguson) - Modern fusion of Baroque & Eastern European Folk

The krivo oro (crooked dance: crooked for the odd meter of the rhythm & oro being line dance that travels in a cirle) with 4 plus 3 = 7 quick beats in Macedonia is commonly known as "racenica," pronounced "rachenitsa." This is combined with fugue and canon structures, including the simple (round, as in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), crab (retrograde, where the same melody starts from the beginning with one voice and at the end going backwards with another) and retrograde inversion (another voice reads the music upside-down, so from the end and inverted), with somewhat hidden snippets of traditional melodies.

3) Chaconne - Chaconne by J. Sebastian Bach , performed on an electric axe.

This is one of Bach's most dramatic solo violin pieces from his sonotas and partitas. Unlike the full classical works of "Strad To Strat," this version has been abridged from it's original length of over 15 minutes, in part because it's the only way that it could fit on this fully loaded CD.

4) Technology Has Replaced Us All (K. Ferguson) - Technology's replaced us all and here's a stab at what it lacks.

The mechanics and "mechanical-ness" of Baroque counterpointal composition and of technology itself are used impressionistically and literally in this one.

5) Kedar Tease - (K. Ferguson) - Hindustani Rag that comes the closest to harmonic series.

After studying music from around the world for many years, some versions of Kedar rag from some regions of ancient India and perhaps some today, are based on a "that" (rougly meaning scale structure) that comes closest to the 7 note scale of the third octave of the natural harmonic series. Since Hindustani classical music is not based on the tempered, but instead pure harmonic intervals, this approximately lydian scale comes closest to harmonic series scale of any traditional or modern musical form I have come across. Performed on an electric guitar, with it's native tempered scale, may be approximated with bends not entirely unlike those found in Hindustani classical music. However, as Kedar is one rag that has been quite varied and adapted across geography and time, it seemed appropriate to further adapt it here, with teasing moments in and out of the harmonic series, the tradition and the modern.

6) Ben's Journey (K. Ferguson) - A tune like this could prove or not the crux of one of Ben's theories.

Ben asked me to write a song more along the lines of things he liked, having a theory regarding the consequences. This was an attempt at finding an intersection between what we might both like.

7) Gotchya Cha Cha (K. Ferguson) - Gotchya or no gotchya, it's a Latin-ish playground.

This was written after awaking from a dream one morning with the main bass line in my head. The rest was written and recorded that day.

8) Dante's Nightmare (K. Ferguson) - "And the wild beasts and the shepherds quickly flee at the sound."

From Canto IX of Dante's Inferno, the incredible blood curdling screaming and howling of Megaera, Alecto and Tisiphone, with all the mayhem of other creepy creatures gives this kind of impression.

9) Awaiting The Past (K. Ferguson) - Indulging in and soaking in nostalgic type desires.

Though the trio's played this one for years now, it was originally written during an unusually mellow mood moment in the studio one day. The original guitar track from that day was used for this recording. Noah Peterson came in and graciously added his signature sax solo some time later. Finally, Kevin Cosgrove and Chris Goldthorpe added the drums and bass respectively.

10) Morrie's Pie (K. Ferguson) - Moments of rare moods of one who consiously expires.

Though "Tuesdays With Morrie" is quite famous, I had not heard of Morrie until a Ted Koppel television piece chronicalling thier time together as Morrie slowly lost his life over months. Seeing this type of thing is not usual in our society, and puts on in a rare mood in my opinion. This was written immediately after.

11) A Fleeting Passion (K. Ferguson) - Passions rise and passions meet, passions dance, a passion fleets.

12) Dafino Vino Tsrveno (Beranche, Macedonian trad. var.) - Lift and step and lift your feet. Seven and five, together, twelve beats.

This is very non-traditional arrangement of a traditional Macedonian folk song with a Beranche dance rhythm: 3+2+2+3+2. Listen carefully, and you may also recognize some other more Western melodies thrown in.

13) Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso (Camille Saint-Saens) - He wrote and dedicated this in 1863.

This is another classical violin piece that has been adapted to the electric guitar.

14) Heated Discussions (K. Ferguson) - Voices dance and dart about, and join or fight or flee.

This was intentionally written as an impressionistic piece reflecting the rhtyhm, energy and passion of heated discussions within a group of people. While topics are shared, views may be similar or differ and voices and sometimes personalities are distinct.

15) Mayday Macedonia (K. Ferguson) - Ima loshi neshta tamu. Shto kje mozhish da pravish?

Of all of Europe, Macedonia seems to me to be the underdog most overlooked in the west (US & Western Europe), though the UN has forced terrorists (according to the list of terrorists from US State Department) to be in the national government at the cabinet level, violating Macedonia's constitution. While Serbia had certianly aggressive force against the Albanian militants and civilians in thier country, Macedonia has been so concilliatory as to allow armed and murderous take-overs of Tetovo, again with UN pressure. With import quotas of neighbors on all sides and exclusion from trade privaledges of the surrounding region, it is as if sanctions were being imposed on a country simply for being too small and poor to defend itself against this and other exploitations. This original tune using traditional style, and with the rhthmic cycle of a concatenation of Rachenitsa (7 beats), Diachovo (9 beats) and Gankino (11 beats), is an ode to the great and struggling country.

16) Vivaldi Style (Adapted from Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in D) - Of the hundreds of his movements, it's "Vivaldi style-ish."

Most of these passages seem as though Vivaldi had the electric guitar in mind when he wrote them. But no, these were written note for note for the violin.

17) Ubava Pizza Rachenizza (K. Ferguson) - "It's A Beautiful Pizza" is quite the place to dance about.

In Portland's east side, every Tuesday night there's music and dance, including at least one Racenica. This one was written after Balkanalia and first performed at "It's A Beautiful Pizza."

18) A Night In Portland (K. Ferguson) - Sonic tale of what it's like to be in Portland and go out.

19) So Much For Justice (K. Ferguson) - and so much for poetry.

20) Never Been To New Orleans (K. Ferguson)