I claim Richard Thompson as my favorite guitarist. I don't really claim him as an influence. Why? Because I never have really sat down and tried to learn his stuff.
Until now.
I put on "Gimme Shelter" (Admittedly not RT) and the Watching The Dark 17-minute version of "Calvary Cross", and tried to pick 'em up.
"Calvary Cross", as a Google search for tabs will tell you, is F Am G through the verses. What the tab doesn't tell you is that, on the long version, he goes to D F#m E. As far as I can tell, he's playing in E major, or something related to E major.
Thompson is also the reason I love tremolo. Just to make this point clear, tremolo is a variation on volume, like with the Fender vibrato circuit, and vibrato is variation on pitch, like with the Fender tremolo bar. Yeah, the great Leo Fender got them reversed. That's OK, though. He invented the stuff, he didn't have to name it right.
Anyways, I've recorded something with that flavor and tremolo. Through my AX1500G, into my work laptop with Audacity.
RT Thing
4 comments:
cool sounding tremolo there Dave, I have no earthly idea what a AX1500G is but, it sounds like a Fender amp from here.
I used to listen to the version of "Calvary Cross" you speak of a lot. And, I had several bootlegs of it long time ago. It was always harmonically mysterious. Anyway, maybe 5 months ago, I was listening to the track, first time in years, and I think you are correct in that he's playing E major because I grabbed a guitar as it went by. Secret stuff there, that E over the F#- and D chords. I had to put the guitar down before I conjured up a demon.
The AX1500G is my multieffects pedal. It's a ToneWorks thing, which is a subset of Korg. It does amp modelling, too.
And thanks!
The Airline has a tremolo circuit, and it works, but I've never really used it. I imagine this is to my detriment. It even has a foot switch. One of these days I'll have a time when turn it up loud enough to sound good without scaring the baby.
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