A Musician’s Journey through Songs, Stories & Life
I’m a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and travel writer with over 30 years of experience across performance, production, and storytelling.
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Guitar lessons, gear reviews, songwriting tips, and behind-the-scenes music stories.
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Lessons, tone, gear reviews, playing insight
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Creative process, writing, recording
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Travel, reflections, industry experience
Featured Articles
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Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60s Review: Worth it in 2026?
Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60s Review. Is this the best affordable Les Paul you can buy? Before we get into it, let’s look at the Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60s specs. The Les Paul™ Standard 60s models from Epiphone’s new Inspired by Gibson™ Collection recreate the sound of 1960s era Les Pauls. Featuring a classic…
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The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1987
Welcome back to 1987, with this year’s long list of classic arcade games being impossible to detail in a single article. Here are some of my favourites. 1987 was a turning point for me and my fascination with the video game arcade. It had been a place of comfort for a good chunk of my…
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BOSS Katana 50 Guitar Amplifier Review
The BOSS Katana 50 Guitar Amplifier IS the best guitar-related purchase I’ve ever made. Why? Let me explain. Is the BOSS Katana 50 loud enough to gig with? The question that everyone’s asking. Simple answer… ABSOLUTELY!. That’s on the 50W mode, clean channel, gain just less than half, volume the same, and master maxed. In…
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Goa : A Lesson In Life – Second Edition. Out NOW!
A BIG day! Originally realised back in 2017. My debut book, Goa : A Lesson in Life receives a long-overdue edit, professional cover, long-lost images, and an extra chapter, bringing my story to a close and up to date. So, what’s it all about? Back in August 2006, I visited Goa, India. A trip that…
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Guest Bloggers – Thank You!
First of all, a huge thanks to an exceptionally talented musician and writer; Thompson Crowley for his piece on songwriting How I Learnt to Write Good Songs. Please visit his blog which is a fascinating account of his musical journey through life, and also contains some great music. Next up is the equally talented Jen Msumba with her heartwarming live…
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Tune in, Tone up! Free Guitar Lessons Podcast
Tune in, Tone up! A fortnightly recording of Dan Davies giving Gary Shilladay advanced guitar lessons with loads of pace, ideas, advice and guitar talk. It’s available on SoundCloud, iTunes and Stitcher and topics include how to improvise over 12 bar blues progressions, some neoclassical shredding ideas, country guitar playing techniques, funk rhythm playing and…
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When You Were Born- Jen Msumba (Original)
By Jen Msumba This is a song I wrote late one night when I couldn’t sleep. It came to me all at once. Soon after a rough patch in my life. But I tend to always find the bright side of things, no matter what life throws at me. And that..is the beauty in between.
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Guest Post Guidelines
I accept guest posts, link placements, and footer ads. Please submit them to adamharkus@gmail.com for review. My Terms: My main themes are Guitar (particularly gear reviews), Music, Travel, and Gaming. However, anything blogging-related would also suit (e.g. blogging tips). Please understand that I need to maintain quality control, so not all posts can be published.…
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New ColorMag Theme!
I’ve now switched to a new ColorMag theme as the old Dyad theme wasn’t really working anymore, for a number of reasons… Dyad is mostly geared towards image-heavy sites (which mine isn’t), so having all that page real-estate taken up by my amateur efforts seems a waste. I was after a sidebar widget to make my…
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A Postcard To Blackpool : The Arrival
You could feel the anticipation and excitement in the fresh morning air, second only to a taxi ride to the Airport. The journey itself couldn’t be simpler, crossing the country from coast to coast, east to west. From the drab to the colourful, the familiar to the unknown, the quiet to the loud. As the…
