So tonight I got together with the great Stan Lassiter, my new guitar teacher. His method is steeped in Taoism, and it literally immediately changed my approach to guitar. I seriously walked out a different musician than I walked in. And the timing couldn't have been better.
I went down to Tootsies to see Mark Matejka play (same guy from the ass-whipping I wrote about two weeks back). I said hello, and he asked me if I wanted to play. He did this right after doing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" sans fiddle (he covered those part verbatim). So Headley said "Yeah... eh... sure...", and proceeded to go to the bar to get any alcohol I could get a hold off, to help me deal with DEF CON 5. It went relatively well, but it was another ass-whooping nonetheless.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Blues Songwriting 101
If you're new to blues music, or like it and never really understood the why and wherefores, here are some very fundamental rules:
1) Most Blues begin with: "woke up this morning..."
2) "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick with something nasty in the next line like "I got a good woman, but she's got the meanest face in town."
3) The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes - sort of "I got a good woman, she got the meanest face in town. Got a good woman, she got the meanest face in town. Got teeth like horse and she weighs 500 pound."
4) The blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch... well, you stuck in a ditch. Deal with it.
5) Blues cars: Cadillacs, Fords, Chevys and of course the beat up pick-up truck. Blues doesn't travel in Beamers, Volvos of Escalades. Most blues transportation however , is a southbound freight train or Greyhound bus. Jet planes and state-sponsored Prevosts are out of the question. Walkin' is also acceptable in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6) Teenagers can't sing the blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults can sing the blues. Adulthood means being qualified to get the chair after shooting men in Reno, just to watch 'm die.
7) Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii or anywhere in Canada, let alone The Hague, The Netherlands. Hard times in Seattle or San Fransisco are probably nothing more than clinical depression. Chicago, IL, Memphis, TN , 'Nawlins, LA and Buttcrack, MS are the still the best places to get the blues. Also, you will not get the blues where it doesn't rain, ie; Phoenix, AZ.
8) Breaking your leg while skiing is not an acceptable form of obtaining the blues. Breaking a leg 'cause a gator be chompin' on it is.
9) You can't have no blues in a mall or an office. The lighting is wrong. Go outside and sit next to the BFI dumpster.
10) Good places for the blues:
-a jail house
-highway 61
-empty bed with a silvertrail you don't recall
-bottom af a whiskey glass
11) Bad places for the blues:
-Target
-Birkenstock store
-Art gallery
-Ivy League institutions
-Golf courses
12) No one will believe you have the blues if you wear a suit. Unless you're old. And you slept in the suit.
13) Do you have the right to sing the blues?
YES:
-you're blind
-you shot a man in Reno
-you can't be satisfied
NO:
-if you have all your teeth
-you once were blind, but now you can see.
-the guy in Reno lived
-You have 401K
14) Blues is not about color. It's a matter of bad luck. OJ can't sing the blues. Sonny Liston could have.
15) If you ask for whiskey and your woman gives you gasoline, it's the blues. Other acceptable blues beverages are:
-cheap wine
-rot gut whiskey
-corn liquor
-muddy water
-black coffee
The following are not blues beverages:
-Perrier
-Chardonnay
-Slim Fast
-Scotch
-Starbucks chai latté with vanilla shots, chilled
16) If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's the blues. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another bluesy way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a piece-of-shit cot. You cannot have a blues death during a tennis match or liposuction.
17) Blues names for women:
-Sadie
-Big Mama
-Bessie
-Fat River Dumplin
18) Blues names for men:
-Joe
-Willie
-Big Willie
-Little Willie
19) People with names like Amber, Michelle, Heather, Patrick, Matthew or Pepé can't sing the blues. No matter how many men they shot in Reno.
20) Blues name starter kit:
a) name of physical infirmity (blind, criple, lame, etc)
b) first name (see above)
c) last name of a president (Jefferson, Fillmore, Johnson, Jackson
example: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Pegleg Lime Johnson, or Cripple Peach Fillmore.
1) Most Blues begin with: "woke up this morning..."
2) "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick with something nasty in the next line like "I got a good woman, but she's got the meanest face in town."
3) The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes - sort of "I got a good woman, she got the meanest face in town. Got a good woman, she got the meanest face in town. Got teeth like horse and she weighs 500 pound."
4) The blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch... well, you stuck in a ditch. Deal with it.
5) Blues cars: Cadillacs, Fords, Chevys and of course the beat up pick-up truck. Blues doesn't travel in Beamers, Volvos of Escalades. Most blues transportation however , is a southbound freight train or Greyhound bus. Jet planes and state-sponsored Prevosts are out of the question. Walkin' is also acceptable in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6) Teenagers can't sing the blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults can sing the blues. Adulthood means being qualified to get the chair after shooting men in Reno, just to watch 'm die.
7) Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii or anywhere in Canada, let alone The Hague, The Netherlands. Hard times in Seattle or San Fransisco are probably nothing more than clinical depression. Chicago, IL, Memphis, TN , 'Nawlins, LA and Buttcrack, MS are the still the best places to get the blues. Also, you will not get the blues where it doesn't rain, ie; Phoenix, AZ.
8) Breaking your leg while skiing is not an acceptable form of obtaining the blues. Breaking a leg 'cause a gator be chompin' on it is.
9) You can't have no blues in a mall or an office. The lighting is wrong. Go outside and sit next to the BFI dumpster.
10) Good places for the blues:
-a jail house
-highway 61
-empty bed with a silvertrail you don't recall
-bottom af a whiskey glass
11) Bad places for the blues:
-Target
-Birkenstock store
-Art gallery
-Ivy League institutions
-Golf courses
12) No one will believe you have the blues if you wear a suit. Unless you're old. And you slept in the suit.
13) Do you have the right to sing the blues?
YES:
-you're blind
-you shot a man in Reno
-you can't be satisfied
NO:
-if you have all your teeth
-you once were blind, but now you can see.
-the guy in Reno lived
-You have 401K
14) Blues is not about color. It's a matter of bad luck. OJ can't sing the blues. Sonny Liston could have.
15) If you ask for whiskey and your woman gives you gasoline, it's the blues. Other acceptable blues beverages are:
-cheap wine
-rot gut whiskey
-corn liquor
-muddy water
-black coffee
The following are not blues beverages:
-Perrier
-Chardonnay
-Slim Fast
-Scotch
-Starbucks chai latté with vanilla shots, chilled
16) If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's the blues. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another bluesy way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a piece-of-shit cot. You cannot have a blues death during a tennis match or liposuction.
17) Blues names for women:
-Sadie
-Big Mama
-Bessie
-Fat River Dumplin
18) Blues names for men:
-Joe
-Willie
-Big Willie
-Little Willie
19) People with names like Amber, Michelle, Heather, Patrick, Matthew or Pepé can't sing the blues. No matter how many men they shot in Reno.
20) Blues name starter kit:
a) name of physical infirmity (blind, criple, lame, etc)
b) first name (see above)
c) last name of a president (Jefferson, Fillmore, Johnson, Jackson
example: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Pegleg Lime Johnson, or Cripple Peach Fillmore.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Crossroads.
So the "Selling-Your-Soul-To-The-Devil-For-Dummies" Manual kinda puts it like this:
You show up right before midnight at the Crossroads (where Hwy 61 and Hwy 49 meet in Clarksdale, MS). Bring your git-fiddle. At midnight a clean-cut black man wearing a nice suit will show up. You hand him your guitar, which he'll tune and then he'll pick you a song. Then he'll hand you your guitar back, and walk away. Congratulations!!! From here on out you'll have hell-hounds on your trail!!! Happy Travels!!!
But from what I understand, as of lately, the Devil doesn't go there anymore. He just sends an associate down to the crossroads, with a written message:
"Dear Aspiring Guitar Slinger,
I got a bit tired of all these white boys that don't want to practice.
Best Wishes!
-The Devil
PS: Marilyn Manson freaks me out ."
You show up right before midnight at the Crossroads (where Hwy 61 and Hwy 49 meet in Clarksdale, MS). Bring your git-fiddle. At midnight a clean-cut black man wearing a nice suit will show up. You hand him your guitar, which he'll tune and then he'll pick you a song. Then he'll hand you your guitar back, and walk away. Congratulations!!! From here on out you'll have hell-hounds on your trail!!! Happy Travels!!!
But from what I understand, as of lately, the Devil doesn't go there anymore. He just sends an associate down to the crossroads, with a written message:
"Dear Aspiring Guitar Slinger,
I got a bit tired of all these white boys that don't want to practice.
Best Wishes!
-The Devil
PS: Marilyn Manson freaks me out ."
Guitar Tone
I've been talking with some people lately about guitar tone. My take on it is this:
"Tone is a guitarists awareness of his sound"
His "sound" is the musical manifestation of who he is, whether he's playing on Lower Broadway, eating a burger, taking a crap or gets his hair done. Gear therefore are tools that help him to a) get that sound out (thus preventing him from having to fart into a microphone) and b) manipulate that sound. This is why Eddie Van Halen will always sound like Eddie Van Halen, even if he's on SRV"s rig. Point in case, Ed Beaver and I crashed a private party in Clarksdale, MS (yes... we live on the edge) where a blues band fronted by Mississippi Slim was playing. His guitarists gear was a guitar, a cable and a transistor amp. He blew us away...
And now you also know why I think you will not sound like SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, Brent Mason or Brad Paisley, even if you were to play their rigs. You are not your idol.
As for my personal tone, I was talking with Ed about how I really enjoyed playing Bettie, my Fender Strat. She has a really cool vibe, and it comes out through the way she looks, feels, plays and sounds.
As I wrote before, this guitar spent some time on a grill, and that burnt the guitar and melted the plastics, which I've obviously replaced. As far as the wood finish is concerned, I sanded it off, exposing the wood, so now the wood is not constrained by the sealing lacquer anymore: Bettie breathes. So she has the same sound whether I play through an amp or unplugged. I dig that.
So what I'm looking for in my basic live tone, and Ed verbalized this, is that I want my electric guitars to sound like acoustic guitars, just louder and with more gain (but with not much or no distortion). The effects I buy I judge mainly on their transparency. If they mess with the sound from a guitar, I don't like them. The same for my amps. Both amps and effects can have their flavor, but the guitar itself needs to come through.
"Tone is a guitarists awareness of his sound"
His "sound" is the musical manifestation of who he is, whether he's playing on Lower Broadway, eating a burger, taking a crap or gets his hair done. Gear therefore are tools that help him to a) get that sound out (thus preventing him from having to fart into a microphone) and b) manipulate that sound. This is why Eddie Van Halen will always sound like Eddie Van Halen, even if he's on SRV"s rig. Point in case, Ed Beaver and I crashed a private party in Clarksdale, MS (yes... we live on the edge) where a blues band fronted by Mississippi Slim was playing. His guitarists gear was a guitar, a cable and a transistor amp. He blew us away...
And now you also know why I think you will not sound like SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, Brent Mason or Brad Paisley, even if you were to play their rigs. You are not your idol.
As for my personal tone, I was talking with Ed about how I really enjoyed playing Bettie, my Fender Strat. She has a really cool vibe, and it comes out through the way she looks, feels, plays and sounds.
As I wrote before, this guitar spent some time on a grill, and that burnt the guitar and melted the plastics, which I've obviously replaced. As far as the wood finish is concerned, I sanded it off, exposing the wood, so now the wood is not constrained by the sealing lacquer anymore: Bettie breathes. So she has the same sound whether I play through an amp or unplugged. I dig that.
So what I'm looking for in my basic live tone, and Ed verbalized this, is that I want my electric guitars to sound like acoustic guitars, just louder and with more gain (but with not much or no distortion). The effects I buy I judge mainly on their transparency. If they mess with the sound from a guitar, I don't like them. The same for my amps. Both amps and effects can have their flavor, but the guitar itself needs to come through.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Essential Listening
Like a lot of people I go through phases when it comes to listening to music. For a while I might listen to Jimi Hendrix or Johnny Winter and then not listen to them for months. Nevertheless there are some albums I listen to at least every couple of weeks since they never seize to amaze and inspire:
UNSHAVEN: Live At Smith's Ole' Bar (Billy Joe Shaver)
Hunter Carmichael turned me onto this guy. Billy Joe is the real deal Texas outlaw. I don't think he ever recorded any Waylon Jennings songs, (and then there is Honky Tonk Heroes...). Billy Joe's son Eddy is playing lead guitar and it is seriously bad-ass. Monster, MONSTER tone, insanely musical playing, and Eddy is solely responsible for my exploring Stratocasters more in a country/rock setting.
Trace (Son Volt)
I use to listen to Uncle Tupelo some, but I never quite could get past Jeff Tweedy's whining. Jay Farrar is an amazingly observative songwriter. He has his way with words (he inspired the names of two of my guitars), and has a quality, not unlike Mark Knopfler, where you have no clue what the fuck he's talking about unless you do some serious homework.
Trace chronicles Jay Farrar's travel from New Orleans to Minneapolis, driving along the great Mississippi river. Americana at it's best. This album also has a line that I kept close to heart after hearing it for the first time:
"Too much living is no way to die"
Interestingly, I read an article in the New York Times (I believe) about how articles written about Son Volt and Jay Farrar were always good and well written.
So turn up the non-profit radio.
Folklore (16 Horsepower)
"Goth-a-Billy" is the best way I've heard this band described. I have no clue what they're singing about, but it calms me down.
Tape Head (King's X)
Although the probably shouldn't be, and can't be labeled this way, this is the only band out of the '80s that I do like (Although Guns 'n Roses was alright too). They can be pretty friggin' heavy, but, like the Beatles, they have never recorded a negative song. That includes songs like "I Hate You" and "Go To Hell".
A Night At The Opera (Queen)
This album, and "A Day At The Races", also by Queen were actually required listening during my music classes when I was in high school. But at the time I didn't understand it completely. Even though I was heavily into the late '60s, early 70's British scene, it was mainly centered around the London blues-rock scene. The Cambridge scene, from which Queen hails, had a more avant garde quality (hell... Allan Holdsworth came from Cambridge), and it took me a while to appreciate that.
This album is the epiphany of a classic rock album. Unlike all these idiots with their "concept albums", who likened themselves to the great classical composers (Tom Schultz anybody?), Queen was one of the few that could pull it off, and that without claiming to be the shit. Great orchestration, great harmonies, great guitar playing. Do I need say more?
Monty Python (John Cleese, Michael Palin, et all) also hail from Cambridge, whom I also didn't appreciate during my high school day, but now totally dig. Nobody expects the Inquisition! Back then I was into Rowan Atkinson, and his various characters (Mr. Bean, Blackadder and the Devil (even though you could call him Toby, if you would have liked), who is definitely from the Oxford school of comedy)
UNSHAVEN: Live At Smith's Ole' Bar (Billy Joe Shaver)
Hunter Carmichael turned me onto this guy. Billy Joe is the real deal Texas outlaw. I don't think he ever recorded any Waylon Jennings songs, (and then there is Honky Tonk Heroes...). Billy Joe's son Eddy is playing lead guitar and it is seriously bad-ass. Monster, MONSTER tone, insanely musical playing, and Eddy is solely responsible for my exploring Stratocasters more in a country/rock setting.
Trace (Son Volt)
I use to listen to Uncle Tupelo some, but I never quite could get past Jeff Tweedy's whining. Jay Farrar is an amazingly observative songwriter. He has his way with words (he inspired the names of two of my guitars), and has a quality, not unlike Mark Knopfler, where you have no clue what the fuck he's talking about unless you do some serious homework.
Trace chronicles Jay Farrar's travel from New Orleans to Minneapolis, driving along the great Mississippi river. Americana at it's best. This album also has a line that I kept close to heart after hearing it for the first time:
"Too much living is no way to die"
Interestingly, I read an article in the New York Times (I believe) about how articles written about Son Volt and Jay Farrar were always good and well written.
So turn up the non-profit radio.
Folklore (16 Horsepower)
"Goth-a-Billy" is the best way I've heard this band described. I have no clue what they're singing about, but it calms me down.
Tape Head (King's X)
Although the probably shouldn't be, and can't be labeled this way, this is the only band out of the '80s that I do like (Although Guns 'n Roses was alright too). They can be pretty friggin' heavy, but, like the Beatles, they have never recorded a negative song. That includes songs like "I Hate You" and "Go To Hell".
A Night At The Opera (Queen)
This album, and "A Day At The Races", also by Queen were actually required listening during my music classes when I was in high school. But at the time I didn't understand it completely. Even though I was heavily into the late '60s, early 70's British scene, it was mainly centered around the London blues-rock scene. The Cambridge scene, from which Queen hails, had a more avant garde quality (hell... Allan Holdsworth came from Cambridge), and it took me a while to appreciate that.
This album is the epiphany of a classic rock album. Unlike all these idiots with their "concept albums", who likened themselves to the great classical composers (Tom Schultz anybody?), Queen was one of the few that could pull it off, and that without claiming to be the shit. Great orchestration, great harmonies, great guitar playing. Do I need say more?
Monty Python (John Cleese, Michael Palin, et all) also hail from Cambridge, whom I also didn't appreciate during my high school day, but now totally dig. Nobody expects the Inquisition! Back then I was into Rowan Atkinson, and his various characters (Mr. Bean, Blackadder and the Devil (even though you could call him Toby, if you would have liked), who is definitely from the Oxford school of comedy)
Thursday, March 29, 2007
My pedalboard
This is my current pedalboard setup. The signal chain is as follows: Barber Tone Press--> Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive --> Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde --> Boss GE7 --> Ernie Ball volume --> Z-Vex Super Hard-On --> Line6 DL4 Delay Modeler --> Peterson StroboStomp. The circus is powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2.
The Barber Electronics Tone Press is one of the coolest compressors I've heard so far. Most people don't realize that most compressors reverse the guitars phase, which sucks the life out of every note you play. This unit uses parallel compression, meaning that you can blend your natural signal with a compressed signal, with the compressed signal being phase corrected. I bought this on recommendation of my friend Hunter Carmichael. Nevertheless, he prefers his C-Mat Mods compressor because the Tone Press is a bit too bright for him. I usually have plenty of low end, so this doesn't bother me. I have this thing on all the time.
The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive has been modded by Brian Wampler at Indyguitarist in Trafalgar, Indiana. Like all Tubescreamer/808 chip based overdrive units, it has too much mids for my taste, so Brian took some out. Voodoo Labs claims that this pedal is true by-pass, which is nonsense. It contains a buffer that's always in the circuit, wether the pedal is on or off. Granted, it hasn't bothered me, but it bugs me people claim untrue things. I pretty much use this pedal to give my clean signal a bit of hair.
I like the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde quite a bit. It has an 808 inspired overdrive and a distortion that'll allow you to get anything from blues to raging Marshall stacks, thanks to an EQ function. When I play my Teles, I usually set up the overdrive side for a lead tone for my bridge pick-up, and the distortion side for my neck pick-up, OR I'll set it up for slide guitar with plenty gain.
The pedal has two downsides: it's pretty big and shaped awkwardly, so it's a bitch to put on your pedalboard with all the other pedals, and the pedal has two switches which are easy to step on, causing either your tone to change, or loose volume, when the switch is between positions (this happens quite a bit). It can be a real pain in the ass. Visual Sound did re-design this pedal and moved these switches closer to the foot-switches. I haven't tried this upgrade, yet.
The Boss GE7 is a stock equalizer. I use it for quite a few different things. When I don't like the tone coming out of my amp, I use the pedal to color the tone a little bit. When I'm playing Strats, I use it as a clean-boost, but I can push the frequencies I want. The way the pedal is dialed in in the picture is to give my Fender blues Jr. amp a bit more definition. These amps are pretty muddy, and I've already thrown out the stock Fender speaker and replaced it with a Jensen. It sounds better, but is still a bit muddy. The GE7 does wonders. Stock it's a bit noisy, so I'm gonna have to have Brian Wampler have a look at it.
Next up is Ernie Ball VPjr. I had Brian add a volume knob to this volume pedal, alowing for a minimum volume. I can do pedal-steel type swells without having to worry about losing signal all the way. I can also go from rhythm volume to lead volume without having to precisely push the pedal.
Unfortunately this mod is passive, so I the volume pedal dropped my signal level quite a bit. That's where the Z-Vex Super Hard-On comes in. This is one of the most transparent clean boosts I've heard, but it pushes all frequencies, so I use it to make my volume pedal active, and kind of like an overall volume control for my pedalboard.
The only reason I bought the Line6 DL4 was because of the tap delay. I hate my repeats being out of time. Quite a few delay functions have a considerable volume drop, which I hate, because even though they sound good as they are, they're useless on stage. I know that Robert Keeley offers a mod for this pedal, but that a $100,= I don't have right now.
The last pedal is a Peterson StroboStomp. It's an insanely precise strobe tuner, which you can program for pretty much whatever tuning you want, using the physics of tempered tuning . It also has a active D/I with ground lift, so it's great for acoustic guitar. The only downside to this pedal, like the Jekyll & Hyde, is that the two button you use to program the unit are in line with the foot-switch, so occasionally I step on 'm, forcing me to bend over and push buttons to get the pedal in tuning mode. Also, the ground lift is located inside the pedal, so if you have to change the ground, you actually have to unplug the pedal, take it off your pedalboard and open it up.
Other pedals that I currently have, but don't have to use right now:
-Maxon OD808 overdrive, modded by Indyguitarist (took out some mids).
-Maxon Phase999 phaser.
-Analog Man Black Cat OD-1, a Bradshaw Freddy Fuzz clone. This is the only Fuzz I know that works with wireless units.
-Morley JD-10. This is the Jerry Donahue Signature Pre-amp. Amazing pedal.
-MXR DynaComp, modded by Brian Wampler to act like an old Ross compressor. It's similar to the Keeley compressor.
-Boss DD3 delay, again modded by Brian, to sound a bit warmer.
-Boss BF2 flanger.
-Morley Little Alligator, the Steve Vai signature active volume pedal, with volume knob.
-Dunlop Cry-Baby wah, modded by Brian. He made it true by-pass (it's beyond me why Dunlop doesn't do this) and voiced it to my specs.
-Visual Sound Route66 compressor/overdrive.
-Arion SCH-Z stereo chorus. An amazing pedal for 20 bucks. Brian modded it nonetheless to make it a bit more transparent.
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