Reverent, Acoustic Tone resides inside the symphonic complexities of the steel-stringed guitar. Solo guitar is all that is needed to convey the stillness of time, the expansion of space, and the calmness within.

On this CD Spencer explores the subtle nuances of tone through articulation, sustain, pull offs, trills, arpeggios and pace. While almost exclusively finger picked, each song is a cathedral unto itself, framed in holiness. By definition, a mantra is "a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation". As songs, they begin as simple riffs or melodic passages before subtle changes begin to enhance their humble foundations. Sometimes it’s a bass note placed in a verse the second time around, or counterpoint, or the same notes played but in a higher register up on the neck. Sometimes it’s just allowing the overtones to carry over when the moment arises. Yet ultimately, it is the deep focus and intent by which they are all recorded.

Some songs were derived from a morning sketch, preserved with a handheld digital recorder and later re-learned, rehearsed and re-recorded; others were recorded during the exact moment of their creation.

The primary instrument Spencer uses is a Froggy Bottom SJ model made out of Brazilian Rosewood back and sides and an Adirondack Spruce top while a pair of other performances featured his Taylor 910 Limited, also made from Brazilian but with an Engelmann Spruce top. Save for those two songs recorded using a single large diaphragm mic, all others were recorded using a matched pair of Neumann KM 184’s, small condenser mics renowned throughout the world.

Finally, in mixing and mastering, the sound tools we now have can bring out the fingers against the strings, the natural reverberation coming from inside the guitar, the hard and soft edges, or the brilliant tone, tamed or wild.