Our latest series of Yamaha Sessions concludes with a final performance from guitarist, songwriter, and producer Jack Schneider. (Watch the full series of videos, which include performances by Trey Hensley as well, here.)
For his second Yamaha Session, Schneider picks up his Yamaha FS9 R acoustic guitar to perform “Don’t Look Down,” an original song from his 2022 album, Best Be On My Way. While the studio version features Schneider’s longtime friend, Liv Greene, the track certainly shines solo in this context, as well.
Gentle fingerstyle picking gives way to tender vocals, text painting a long-suffering image with an ultimately hopeful tinge. It’s a song about keeping your chin up, literally and figuratively. Written during the turmoil of the pandemic, the message in the lyrics is certainly not one of toxic positivity, making the moral within them even more resonant. It’s easy to tell Schneider is not just speaking to his listeners, but also to himself.
The chorus listens like a mantra, its repetitions of “Don’t look down/ Don’t look down at the gravel on the road…” reinforcing that moving forward, one foot in front of the other, is an active process and not a passive one.
Whether flatpicked and shredded by Trey Hensley or utilized as an emotive and lush backdrop for Jack Schneider, Yamaha guitars can do it all. Discover more about Yamaha Guitars and their FG series here.
Video Credit: Steve Voss, Solar Cabin Creative
