People Forget

Dress yourself to kill.

Today Just Sucks

Jon Lord, keyboardist for Deep Purple

Bob Babbitt, bassist on many classic Motown tracks

Kitty Wells, first woman to make the country charts

Donald J. Sobol, author of the Encyclopedia Brown books

Stephen J. Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Rest in Peace

A Technical Fix would've Helped

On the reference tape for one of the songs we did Sunday, there's a melodic bit that starts sounding very mandolin, and in practice I brought my mandolin to play the bit, and switch to guitar.

To pull this off, I need to

• Play the part on mandolin
• Hit the volume pedal
• Unplug the mandolin
• Put the mandolin down
• Plug in the guitar
• Switch from the clean channel to the dirt channel
• Hit the volume pedal again
• Play the part on guitar

The timing is such that the verse is over and it's time for me to play again that quickly. There is not much time after I hit the volume pedal for me to get into the mindset of guitar.

I handled it reasonably well in practice on Tuesday.

I flubbed it badly in soundcheck/warmup on Sunday.

I did it poorly during first service.

I did it better but still not well during second service.

If I owned an AB box, I could've streamlined it to:

• Play the part on mandolin
• Hit the volume pedal
• Put down the mandolin
• Stomp the AB switch
• Switch from the clean channel to the dirt channel
• Hit the volume pedal again
• Play the part on guitar

But I don't have one. I think I'll put one on my Christmas list.

But the lesson is, if you have a tricky part or transition, practice it. The more you practice it, the more it gets in your hand and not in your mind. It is helpful to be able to think through things on the fly, but use that to handle it when the unexpected happens, not get through the expected.

Doc Watson RIP

Duck Dunn

Donald "Duck" Dunn

Bassist for Booker T. and the MGs

1941-2012

Rest in peace

Great Guitar Lesson

Steve Lukather is Cool and I Love the 21st Century

First, let's start with this: I've been thinking I needed to dream up something to say here. I never thought it would be anything like this.

I saw a link on Facebook today, of Eric Skye doing a solo fingerstyle arrangement of "All Blues".



Let's be clear: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is one of my favorites, and "All Blues" is one of my favorites from Kind of Blue. Beyond that, I've been wanting to get a smaller bodied guitar because I want something less boomy and more punchy than my dreadnought.

I love it. I need to listen to the real take, not just the discussion. Plus, I need this or at least this, but that's not really actionable today. What is actionable is pulling up versions on Spotify and putting them into your queue.  This included one with Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather from No Substitutions, Live in Osaka.

Ever have something rub you the wrong way? It did me, and I tweeted about it.

Listening to Larry Carton and Steve Lukather take on All Blues. I like guitars w/ gain. I like jazz. I don't like said guitars in jazz.

A justifiable position, if a throw-away position. Re-listening to the track on Spotify, I'm finding it far less objectionable. And it's a tone issue, not a playing issue. Clearly, both are top players.

 Here's some Larry and Steve from YouTube, but not the same track.



This lead to a discussion with friend-of-the-blog and fellow Clarence White fan Adios Lounge (@adioslounge), basically ending with the thought that Western Swing and Redneck Jazz are great. We hold these truthes as self-evident.



That is the greatest of ease, isn't it?

But it doesn't stop there. Because, I follow Steve Lukather on Twitter, so he was able to find this conversation and reply via DM, which I won't quote because I can't link to it.

In the 20th century, you harsh on music you have problems with to your friends near you. At the turn of the century, you harsh on and discuss music you have problems with to your friends around the world. In the 21st century, the person you harsh on, a person who played on one of the first albums you ever bought, responds to you.

I love the 21st century. And I still need to find Eric Skye's take on "All Blues". No, wait....