Morton Stanley Festival is a local festival in my hometown of Redditch. Every year people gather to see talented local artists perform and showcase their music. Having been to the festival as a member of the audience the past couple of years, and witnessing the incredible talent being showcased and the great atmosphere around the audience, it was an great experience for me to be able to perform at the festival this year. 

Performing as a solo guitarist, I covered songs by some of my main influences, including Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, as well as performed some of my original work. 

Despite the bad weather on the day, it was a pleasure to perform to such a great audience who were willing to stick around endure the rain. I'd like to especially thank all my family and friends who turned up, it was great to look up from the stage and see so many people showing their support. 

- Dom

So today while browsing ultimate-guitar.com, reading up on the latest music news, I came across a post about a competition being ran by ultimate-guitar and American rock band Halestorm. Being a Halestorm fan, I decided to check it out and see what the deal was. 

I read through the details, to find that Halestorm were challenging fans to write a guitar solo for one of their latest songs 'Mayhem.' In reward for writing and performing the best solo, the winner would receive an Lzzy Hale Signature Gibson Explorer, as well as other cool stuff such as and autographed 'Into The Wild' LP and other merch! This peaked my interest, and I decided to go ahead and download the solo-less backing track, and give it a shot!

A few hours later, I'd written and recorded my solo, and uploaded it to YouTube! You can check it out below. The winners should be announced on the 21/08/15. Fingers crossed! 

-Dom