After a little breather, I tackled this again with notes from the first time around. Thanks everybody for the listen and your invaluable input, and especially to Bob (@StylesBitchley) for lending his talents to my little project. Gearing up to release this, so any and all input is welcome! 
Original thread with background, etc. here:
My āfinalā mix - hopefully! 
The released version:
Sounds good to me. Iām listening through my laptop speakers, so Iām not really able to get a full picture of the audio.
Around 2:25, when the lead guitar licks and the vocal are playing at the same time, I find the vocals sound a bit buried, and a bit muffledā¦Probably because the music has gotten louder and thereās more instruments fighting for the same frequency spotlight.
The fade out at the end sounded quite abrupt. It might be better to do a slightly slower guitar/ outro fade. Maybe elongate it just a bit.
I often find that my initial impression of the mix and audio changes, after having a second, third or fourth listen. Iāll probably come back to this song at another time to see if Iām hearing it differently.
That electric guitar is 
I remember this song from a while back when you posted it. I thinkā¦ yeah I just listened back to some of the older one, and this is definitely an improvement! I think that the mix sounds fuller/sweeter and that the groove is tighter. Now thereās a bit of pitchiness in the vocals in the choruses that is sticking out to me. Thatās the funny thingāyou improve a song by XYZ and all of a sudden smaller faults begin to stick out! The ending segment is a bit messy mix-wise I think. Or maybe there are too many similar parts. Iām not sure that lead guitar gels well with vocals as they are both meant to be featured. Anyway, great job on polishing this up!
Comparing old and new, I think I prefer the drums and vocals a little lower in the mix compared to the guitars and the general musical/harmonic bed, like it was in the first mix. Try switching the mix to mono - itās always quite an ear-opening experience when it comes to raw balances.
Your balances here between the different instrumental parts are better, though. I like how the lead guitar sits.
The vocalist has a great tone, but there is a resonance around 350-400hz that bothers me a bit. Maybe try finding that and pulling it out a dB or 2.
Really enjoyable, mellow tune!
Thanks for the comments @Wicked . Yes, I am still working on this and thinking I may mute a couple of tracks in that section to clean things up. I definitely want it to build, but āreasonablyā. Youāre totally right on the fade-out too. The guitar part there was a last minute addition then I got so focused on other stuff that I missed it. Thanks for pointing it out. 
Yes! And thank you for that initial observation. I had originally done the bass track to a drum loop to set up the structure and did all my comping and tightening then. Then I got someone to do drums and sent him the tracks. when I got them back I just moved on. It didnāt even occur to me to got back over things and tighten them up again. It was those little human variations in the rhythm that needed to be re-tightened. Great observation on that one @Cristina !
Yes, Iām still hoping for another vocal track, but my buddy is half way across the country and I havenāt heard from him. Life and stuff, you know. I did hit it lightly with Melodyne, but Iāll definitely take another pass. Your XYZ line is soooo true! And yes, I need to revisit that ending sectionā¦ Thanks for taking the time and your great input! 
Thanks Andrew, I always appreciate your input. Iāll definitely look into your points during my next session. And thanks too for the suggestion on the other thread to shorten those sections. I donā't know if you noticed or not, but once I dug in and did all the editing to shorten them, I think it really improved the song and kept things moving! Great suggestion!
Iām so lost once again. I liked the first version, but I guess you added some guitar etc. I hear a few pitchy spots in the vox, but not much to hurt anything. I personally would like to hear this way scaled back. Not sure if the guitar licks etc (although very good) actually fit this vibe?? They also really compete with the singer. Also would like to hear something that sounded like rain in the chorus, IMHO is very good. Really great potential here, but a little busy for me. ???
Howdy Paul, thanks as always for chiming in and lending your ear for a couple of minutes. One thing I did based on your comment on the other thread was to side-chain the lead guitar track to the vocal so it ducks whenever there is singing so it competes less with the vocal. Maybe I need to hit it a little harder. Will definitely check it out.
The ātoo busyā comment seems to be a recurring critique too which I donāt disagree withā¦ Thanks again for the listen and comments!
This is really coming along man. Good work! That guitar solo!!! 
so tasty
Thanks Bryan!
Yes, I noticed that - forgot to mention in my comments, as I was focusing on the mix primarily. Good stuff
Such a great song for this morning - Itās been stinking hot here for about a week (35C / 95F and super-humid) when we should be heading into Autumn. Just this morning it started to rain - the lyrics really fit my mood!
Cool song and arrangement. Do you prefer it just a little clearer? Like this (M1 version).
If so, let me know. 
This is nice, Mike. I do agree with other comments, that the vox are pitchy in parts. Easy to fix.
I love the guitars! Nicely played. I really like the lead especially. Amp sim or amped?
I donāt care for the drums being so loud cuz they sound very ālooped.ā More fills would help, plus being less central in the mix. So you have the looped piece being prominent over they stuff that shows excellent musicianship.
It feels tight. The balance (on my MacBook Air speakers) is good. A good listen for me!
Or maybe the M2 version is better on drums, that has less compression for sure, and is a little more ambient all round, but still maintains the clarity.
Nice! Gets rid of the boxiness/muddiness I was hearing and glues the whole mix together - feels more cohesive.
How DO you DO that, Vaughan? And this is without the original stems? This is just mastering? What a difference that makes!
Yes, I only had the mp3 to work from, I had 4 compressors on it the first time, but only two the second timeā¦ does that help?
Iām trying to re-invent myself as a MIX engineer hereā¦ 
Thanks, you just made my day. Personally, up here in the Northern hemisphere, Iām looking forward to some warmer days! 
Sounds good Vaughn! Do tell, what are you doing?? I pushed the mix just enough to barely kiss Bozās The Wall. The loudness clocks in around -15.71 LUFS. So there will be plenty of headroom for mastering.
Thanks! While Iād like to take credit, the lead is played by Bob - @StylesBitchley. In fact, you reminded me that I wanted to ask him what he plays, and all about his process and never did.
Bob? Care to enlighten us? I also used a couple of other of Bobās tracks, like the cool answer-back piece under the 2nd verse and the mind blowing fill at the end of the ābreather-breakā just before the 3rd chorus.
The other guitars were done by my buddy Tony. He also sang and played the finger-picked acoustic, the āhookā from the original song, the jangly intro part, and some background pieces under the solo.
The only guitar I played on this one was the loop in the chorus. I found it early on and started using it as a āchorusā marker before we had vocal tracks and really grew to like it. So I used it. 
The drums arenāt looped. They were done by a buddy on another forum. I specifically asked him to do a āsimplifiedā version with minimal fills so I could build around it. But yeah, I was thinking an āup frontā sound for this mix but am thinking more of an āambientā pushed-back approach is a better fit thematically for this song.
Thanks for the listen and the input @Tesgin , I really appreciate it!
This forum is fān awesome!
Looks like Iām a little slow. All the comments came in while I was replying. Sounds great Vaughan!
(how embarrassing! please donāt tell him I thought they were loops. Sorry!)