Redneck's Reserve

My sister's a huge David Gilmore fan.

2010-02-07T15:00:00.001-06:00

Wants to have his children. Well, it's a bit late in the day, for both of them, but she loves his music. Called me Sunday and told me I had to go to YouTube and find this. Haven't posted anything here in a while so I figured I'd share. Enjoy.

Blackfoot

2010-01-03T20:19:00.004-06:00

RATTLESNAKE ROCK `N ROLLER

TO HOT TO HANDLE

On The Run

Highway Song...no video

Searching..no video

LEFT TURN ON A RED LIGHT..no video

GOT TO BE THE BEST DAMN HARP EVER......

Some sadness on the holiday.

2009-12-25T10:43:00.003-06:00

James Gurley, the lead guitar player for Big Brother and the Holding Co. has passed away.

Surviving members of Big Brother said Gurley died Sunday in a Palm Springs hospital after suffering a heart attack.

One of many prominent guitarists to emerge from San Francisco's psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s — others included the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen and Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish — Gurley was hailed by many as the original innovator of the sound.

"I would say all of my guitar-playing contemporaries strived to have their own sound, but I think James was a huge influence on all of us because he wasn't afraid to break the boundaries of conventional music," Melton said Thursday. "What one thinks of that genre of music is that place that it takes you to where the beat is just assumed and the whole thing is transported to another place, and James is the guy who started that."

Doing things like using an electric vibrator as a slide on his guitar, and picking up amplifiers and shaking them during performances, Gurley created a loud, esoteric sound that was the driving force behind Joplin's voice on such classic songs as "Ball and Chain," "Piece of My Heart" and "Summertime."

"Some of the innovations were the result of the fact he came from kind of a progressive bluegrass school of music where weirdness was encouraged," said Peter Albin, the group's bass player.

One of the few rock guitarists to use finger picks rather than a flat pick, Gurley had taught himself to play by listening to old Lightnin' Hopkins blues records as a teenager.

He was playing acoustic guitar in a coffee house in San Francisco in 1965 when legendary counterculture figure Chet Helms, founder of the Family Dog commune, introduced him to the other band members.

Although Joplin would become the public face of the band when she joined in 1966, Albin recalled Gurley as being the true force of nature who introduced the other members to alternative lifestyles, psychedelic drugs and musical innovation.

"He was very influential to the whole band early on, and even later, just by being a guy who had strange tastes and played guitar in a very bizarre manner," Albin told The Associated Press.

When he first met Gurley, Albin said, the guitarist was living in a walk-in closet with his wife and young son and told him that before that he'd lived in a cardboard house along the California coast and with indigenous people in the mountains of Mexico, where he had taken part in hallucinogenic religious ceremonies.

After Joplin left Big Brother in 1968, the group disbanded but has since reformed and continues to perform to this day. Gurley, however, left for good in the late 1990s after a falling out with the other members.

Born in Detroit in 1939, Gurley was the son of a stunt-car driver and, according to the band's Web site, would sometimes perform as a "human hood ornament" when his father drove a car through a flaming plywood wall.

After leaving Big Brother, he lived quietly in Palm Desert, occasionally working on solo projects. He released the album "Pipe Dreams" in 2000.

Gurley, who died two days before his 70th birthday, is survived by his wife, Margaret, and sons Hongo and Django.

Band members plan to hold a memorial sometime next month in San Francisco.

ROCKER'S LOVE CHRISTMAS TOO!

2009-12-24T21:18:00.004-06:00

The "Metal God" Rob Halford left Judas Priest in 1991, but he has not been idle. Recently published "Halford 3 - Winter Songs" is touted as "the best metal Christmas albums in years". On this album is my personal favorite "We Three Kings"!

This classic Christmas Carol has never sounded so good...to rocker's ears anyway! Give it listen and pay close attention to the guitar licks, but don't forget that Halford has a nearly four octave vocal range, having recorded notes from D2 to C♯6. He is one of the most respected singers of heavy metal and rock music with a quasi-operatic vocal style and high-pitched screams.

And, just because I like the song, here is another version with Steve Ouimette. His version was included in the Guitar Hero III, and you can see why!

Getting back to something closer to tradition, check out this unique version by Dante Bucci!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD

2009-11-28T17:43:00.012-06:00

For eight long years, from 1969 to 1976, Grand Funk Railroad were one of the most popular rock bands in America. They broke attendance records, sold zillions of albums, seemed to be all over the place and even had the luxury of employing such producers as Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa. They proudly took the slogan of rock music being music for The People and followed it more closely than just about any competition. And they were hated by the critics worldwide. And for good reason...

In the late Sixties, with Led Zeppelin heralding the way, groups of brawny young people all over the world were getting together with the single aim of making music that would be heavy, heavy and heavy again. Yet, as it always happens when you're following a trend, in order to really capture the public eye, that heavy music had to have an identity of its own. Deep Purple made themselves stand out by successfully incorporating classical influences into their fire-breathing act. Black Sabbath pushed the doors open for Satanic or mock-Satanic rock. Mark Farner, Mel Schacher, and Don Brewer did not invent any particular style, and in purely technical terms, weren't really original. But they did start up a trend, a trend that would be even more widely followed and imitated in the Seventies than any of the trends set by these other (and better) bands. They created Populist Rock
.

"Inside Looking Out"

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Still Got The Blues ?

2009-11-27T19:16:00.002-06:00

Casas Rojo

2009-11-14T20:36:00.002-06:00

Rolling Thunder

2009-11-07T20:49:00.015-06:00

Things are pretty slow in the DFW Construction marketplace these days, so in order to get leaner, the company I work for "gave" me the title to my company Silverado. They're still buying all my gas and shit, but now I have to pay for the insurance and any future repairs. When / If things pick back up I'll probably get a new one, but that all remains to be determined.

So anyway, seeing how tough times these are, and how uncertain the future is ..... I decided now would be a great time to spend a bunch of money upgrading the truck's stereo system to my discriminating standards. ;-) The best excuse I can come up with is that I do spend over 12 hours a week commuting, and listen to more music in my truck than I do at home.

I had already upgraded the factory head unit, out of my pocket, years ago.

At the time, I had 3 criteria that had to be met. It had to play the CD-Rs that I was burning at the time at home, it had to be 1.5 DIN size to exactly match the hole in the Silverado's dash, and it had to be cheap enough, since I was putting it in a company vehicle, that I wouldn't be too upset if I had leave it in there if I got mad and quit one day. That last criteria never really came into play because only one manufacturer met the the first 2 criteria, Pioneer. I wasn't really a big fan of Pioneer products, dating back to my past biases toward the Alpine tuner I had had in my personal truck back in the 80s..... and Pioneer didn't disappoint me ...... the CD player pissed out only a few months after I bought it, and I was too disgusted to pull it out and get it fixed. So I've been driving around the last several years with commercial radio only. I had also replaced the 4 factory speakers with some JBL units.

So being out of the car audio loop for the last 20 years I needed to do a little research on whats out there these days. I stopped by several Car Stereo stores on my way home one day. It didn't take me long to figure out that I despise the assholes in that industry even more now that I did back in the 80s. Car Stereo salesmen are like used car salesmen rejects. Every product they are not pushing that day is a piece of shit, and what they do sell is the always the best stuff, according to them. They all tried to pooh pooh my plans for self-design and installation, and there was always some reason at every store I went to why they couldn't connect the items I wanted to hear up and let me listen to it there before I bought it.

So since I could not hear what I wanted in a store anyway, I moved my research to the internet, where at least I didn't have to interface directly with the human assholes. Crutchfield is a great place to do research, but it didn't take long to figure out they are also the most expensive place to buy. Any product you find there, google up or ebay the model number, and you can save yourself a bundle on the same exact product.

After comparing several different combinations of Amps / Subwoofers, I eventually decided to stick with an all Pioneer system.

I made the speaker box myself. Its a 3-way setup with a pair of dome midranges, Pioneer Tweeters, and a Massive Crossover inside each box.

I've been working on it for the last several weeks, and I have finally got it all installed.

Its sounded pretty good, after I got all it properly setup and equalized. It was a bit too BOOMY until I put the seats and console back in. Its added a lot of detail over the previous gutless sound..... and when you punch it it will jump up and bite you in the ass. Feels like John Bonham is kicking the shit out of the back of your seat, and stays clear as bell on max volume.

So that all brings me to the point of this long ass post...... mobile source material.

For right now I have Redneck rigged my 1GB Creative Zen MP3 player to the RCA inputs on the back of the Pioneer head unit. Thats about 200 songs at your fingertips, but its become obvious to me, even after I have ordered another identical one, and a car USB charger, off ebay ...... that this is not the ideal long-term solution. 200 songs gets repetitive after a week or so, and reloading the player with new tunage every week is going to be a time consuming pain in the ass. I need a bigger one that will hold all my MP3s.

So now I have started to research my options. I hear IRiver makes the best sounding MP3 players, but the only one that Car Stereos, including my Pioneer Head Unit, are designed to interface with is an Apple IPOD. To the best of my current knowledge, with any other brand of MP3 player other than an IPOD you control song selection via the MP3 player's controls, whereas if I had a Pioneer IPOD interface I could control everything via the head unit. Which I see now thats the best way to go. You dont have to worry about turning the MP3 player on or off every time you get in or out of the truck.

The trouble with IPODs, and the reason I have stayed away from them historically, is that Apple makes more money selling DRM protected music at their I-tunes store than they do on their overpriced hardware. They're business partners with the recording industry, and thus not particularily pirated MP3 friendly. With my Creative Zen I can simply drop and drag tunes from my hard drive directly on it, a playlist is simply a subdirectory you create on its flash memory. IPODs on the other hand can only be loaded via Apple's proprietary I-Tunes software. I understand that they have made more recent versions MP3 freindly, but you still have to use their software.

But I read an article this morning that changes everything.

New Ways To Steal Music

MP3s Are Being Replaced by Formats With Better Sound Quality

It's good news for audiophiles and networking companies, but more bad news for record labels. MP3s are slowly going away, being gradually replaced by a more sophisticated way of stealing music.

If after being away for a while, you return to the Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing"--you will quickly spot a number of new and unfamiliar kinds of files. These new formats go by names like FLAC and APE. They are "lossless" music formats that don't have to make the acoustic trade-offs associated with MP3s. Their growing popularity is evidence of how networks are getting faster and disk drives are getting bigger.

First, some background. The first track on the Beatles' "White Album," "Back in the U.S.S.R.," is 2:43 minutes long. On the recently re-mastered version of that CD, the music is laid out in 28.1 million bytes, aka 28.1 megabytes. When ripped uncompressed onto a computer, this produces what's known as a ".wav" file.

Back in the early days of the Internet, when 2400 baud dial-up modems roamed the earth, it would take more than an hour and a half to transmit that much information, assuming you could keep the connection going that long.

MP3s, however, were a way of dramatically shrinking music files, so they took up about a tenth as much space and a proportionately shorter download time. Suddenly, it became possible to get songs even by dial-up modems, which is how gained the traction that it did. Thus was born the digital music revolution.

MP3s, however, involved a bit of a devil's bargain, in that the process of making the file smaller involved throwing away musical information. Hence, you'll find many music and audio buffs who consider "lossy" formats like MP3s an abomination.

Lossless file systems, by contrast, preserve all of the music data associated with the original CD. They take up more space than MP3s, of course, but with network speeds and disk drives what they are today, you'd never notice.

These new lossless systems typically reduce a music file to 70% of its uncompressed, raw size. This isn't MP3-style compression, however. Instead, it's what happens with Zip files. Data is packed tightly to be stored on the disk, but gets unpacked on the fly, back to its original .wav length, in the process of being played.

All of these lossless music file systems can be played on most computers, though you will likely need to download some extra software. The iPod represents a challenge, though, since it doesn't support non- formats like FLAC, APE or EAC. Instead, iPods play Apple's own lossless format, as well as bigger .wav files.

Many computer enthusiasts balk at the Apple format, though, because the company doesn't disclose details of how the system works. By contrast, many of the others are open-source software projects, their internals available for all to see.

Worse still, for some, is the fact that Apple appears to be increasingly "locking down" each new generation of iPods to make it harder to use non-Apple files or software on them. A group of programmers have created "Rockbox" that "opens up" the iPod to other uses. You can install the program for free, but still revert your iPod back to its original condition if you don't care for the changes.

The one question everyone wants to know involves whether they can hear a difference between any of these formats. You're welcome to do some test listening yourself. Here are my predictions about what you might discover.

If your music listening is limited to an iPod and standard issue earbuds, you're unlikely to hear any difference at all among any of these formats, especially if your music taste runs to contemporary pop music, which is increasingly created with an iPod-like experience in mind.

If, however, you listen to music on a decent home music system, one with reasonable equipment that is properly laid out, and if you concentrate on what you're hearing, you may well find that a tightly compressed MP3 file, such as one made at 128 kilobits a second, will sound flatter and less "spacious" than one made at a higher rate, say 320 kilobits.

If you've got golden ears, you might be able to spot the difference between a high-quality MP3 (such one at 320 kilobits) and a completely lossless version of the same music. Don't be surprised, though, if you can't; in many cases, I haven't been able to tell them apart, even with my perfectly decent home system.

(Note to audiophiles, and you know who you are. None of this discussion applies to you.)

Not only are network connections faster, but disk drives are much bigger and cheaper. I recently spotted a Web site offering a terabyte external drive for $75, after a $20 rebate. That's enough room to store 35,000 copies of the uncompressed version of "Back in the U.S.S.R.," assuming you had some reason to want to do so.

Of course, if tech trends are enabling high quality music swapping, they're doing the same thing to movies. Not long ago, movies on the Web were low-grade formats that could only be watched with satisfaction on a laptop screen. You're beginning to see, though, full-blown Blu-ray movies on piracy sites. A typical one might be a whopping 35 gigabytes big, putting it out of the reach of many Web surfers.

California Mike and I were talking about this very subject on an archived thread just the other day. My 2000 song MP3 library fits on a 20GB Hard Drive with plenty of room to grow. His lossless collection, all legally ripped btw, takes up 2 terrabytes. I told him there that I didn't see myself upgrading to lossless formats until my bandwidth speeds increased, but now I think that day maybe coming sooner than I expected. That would justify me buying an MP3 player with a Hard drive much bigger than I had originally planned.

But the key to it all is that RockBox firmware. You can now take any IPOD and replace its proprietary operating system with one that is more non-Apple formatted files friendly...... and I'm assuming it will still interface properly with Car Stereos designed for IPODs.

It means basically that you can have every song you like at your fingertips, in perfect quality, via the controls of your Car stereo head unit. Wouldn't that have been cool in the 60s, 70s, and 80s ?

AN EVENING WITH JOE BONAMASSA

2009-10-30T14:50:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was a rainy, foggy, and kind of chilly evening in Knoxville, but Corey (my son) and I were determined to relieve a week’s worth of worrying about my mom (who's been sickly) by enjoying a good meal, some pale ale and tea, and some great blues.

Joe Bonamassa, one of the world’s greatest guitarists blew us away! Corey could not believe an acoustic guitar could be played the way Joe delivered it Tuesday night at the Bijou Theatre! Awesome and unbelievable were two words that he used over and over to praise Joe’s playing. Check out this audience shot clip of a similar performance:

As one well lubricated guy in the balcony screamed, “You freakin’ rock, dude!”

Joe Bonamassa got his first guitar at age 5 and by age 7 he was playing Stevie Ray Vaughn tunes note for note. At the age of 11, during a short period of being mentored by Danny Gatton, he learned such styles as country and jazz as well as heavy rock. During this time with Gatton, Bonamassa sat in with Gatton's band whenever they played in New York. He first opened for B. B. King at 12 years of age. After first hearing him play, King said, “This kid's potential is unbelievable. He hasn't even begun to scratch the surface. He's one of a kind.”

Corey and I had dinner at the Downtown Grill & Brewery on Gay Street before walking the two blocks to the Bijou. And BTW, if you’ve never attended an event at the Bijou, you’ve missed an intimate little 900 seat venue for music.

Corey had his traditional chicken sandwich and fries, soaked down with glass after glass of unsweet-tea, while I enjoyed half a Hawaiian pizza (pineapple, bacon, and ham) with added onions, marinated in the Brewery’s own Downtown Blonde Ale.

Outside the Bijou we stopped to take a photo of Joe’s equipment trailer, and then went inside out of the drizzle.

I gave Corey a tour of the theater, since he had never been there. I told him some of the history of the theater, mainly about it once being a brothel, and during my time at the University of Tennessee, a porn theater! He was shocked to hear that I had once visited such a place, but I was merely skimming the surface of my colorful past!

I also mentioned that some say the Bijou is haunted!

I got a shot of Famous Grouse blended scotch whiskey over ice and preceded up stairs to our loggia seats. Our view of the stage was completely unobstructed, situated along the right wall of the auditorium, just behind the upper level box seats. To our left, the balcony seats began just one level up from our view. We could get up and leave the theater and come back without bothering a soul!

Corey had never heard of Joe Bonamassa, but he became a fan Tuesday night. He has always loved “slide” guitar, like his daddy, so I’m sure there will be a couple of CDs of Joe’s in his vehicle soon!

I’m looking forward to more “nights on the town” with my son in the coming years.

STAND BY ME

2009-10-20T09:37:00.003-05:00

The song by Ben E. King, "Stand by Me", was ranked number 121 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, BMI named it as the fourth most-performed song of the 20th century, with about 7 million performances.

This is one of those performances is this one from the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", it is one of many "songs around the world" being released independently.

Visit the "Playing for Change" website to hear more music and learn more about the organization.

Saw these folks again last Tuesday night in Austin, at Stubb's BBQ.

2009-10-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

The Black Crowes. I've seen them three times now. Each time was great, even if they tend to play a little louder than they need to. The subtleties of the music can be lost when they do that, but this time the sound was better in the small outdoor venue there at Stubb's. The core of the fans there were long term fans, like a tribe, and we all agreed that the Georgia born Robinson brothers here are only gettin' better with age.

Rich Robinson plays the guitar in the band. Or, I should say, he plays one of the guitars in the band. He also sings and I think he comes up with most of the music. He's also got his own side projects going, which has to decrease the sibling issues that the band's been notorious for in the last decade or so. Those issues led to a break up a while back, but thankfully they've healed whatever rift existed and they're back makin' wonderful music.

Chris Robinson sings, plays the guitar, harmonica, and basically fronts the band. I think he comes up with most of the lyrics, and like his brother, he has side projects going here and there too.

The only other member of the band still there from the early days is the drummer, Steve Gorman. He's the guy in the black t-shirt on the left. They've had different guitar players, bass players, and keyboard guys each time I've seen them. But the music is always awesome to behold.

Here's a taste. This first one has Rich playing a beautiful solo on his own. It's called Answers. I think it easily displays his amazing skill with the instrument, which is one of the rocks the band has built it's success on.

It also shows why his brother does most of the singin'. But God bless him for goin' out there and givin' it a try. I love it anyway.

This next one is one of my favorites. It's called Ballad In Urgency.

At the end there the video bleeds into the beginning of another tune from the same album, Armorica. It's called Wiser Time. It was their magnum opus at the time (1995, the year I saw them for the first time), and still brings loud cheers from concert crowds today. I love it.

For some reason it just sends me into genuine bliss, particularly when I've got it cranked up in my car and I'm zippin' down the road with the sunroof open, singin' at the top of my lungs with a cigar in my hand. The guitar part at the end gives me chills, but then I'm a charter member of the tribe. Here's a slower, groovier version of Wiser Time.

If you get the chance, check them out. You can check tour dates at their web site. Cheers!

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live in Japan 1985

2009-09-30T21:13:00.010-05:00

Stevie journeyed to Japan for the first time that month, and to his pleasant surprise, the Japanese audiences went crazy over Double Trouble. Plans were made for a film company, called Black Box, Inc., to document the Tokyo concert, but the video was never released in the states. SRV came on "Scuttle Buttin'," with his Albert King corncob pipe smoking awsy. He bent over his guitar, concentrating hard on the notes whirling out from his fingers. He swung his axe, punctuating the puncy intro to "Say What!" with his wah-wah whirring away, and found the highest bend possible, pinching the strings with a mighty force while his right hand danced effortlessly over the pickguard.

Tommy was smiling more than usual tonight, looking buzzed and happy (actually they were all tanked) as he nervously paced with his tobacco-sunburst Fender Precision bass. Stevie bowed his head, finished the song in a reckless flurry, then addressed the crowd: "Hello, Tokyo! Ya'll ready to get it? Let's Go to Texas - yeah, you got it - real nice and personal, uh, is what we call it ... by way of Seattle." The band ran head-on into "Voodoo Chile" to wild Japanese screams that sounded about as American as Amarillo on a Saturday night. He rocked his torso, hitting a stingingly high B note, then tossed his head back, allowing the piercing sound to ring out over the beat. His legs were quivering beneath him. He'd gotten the guitar singing, wiggling it in front of his pelvis like Hendrix did - and, sure enough, the girls lost it. He fell out of the sky for the next verse, Whipper broke it down, and the guitar scratch started again. Shaking his wet hair and panting a little from the workout, Stevie was supposed to be singing but opted for another solo because it felt so good.

Later on, during "Cold Shot," the overtly heavy chorus effect was eating his tone up, and he paused before the solo, waiting for just the right scream to set him off. Someone yelled and he was gone, his left leg wagging like a rubberband. Seguing into "Couldn't Stand the Weather," Stevie worked that pile-driving funk groove. He flubbed the lyrics, thinking only of his guitar, taking too many extended rides when one or two would do. These were common (and understandable) criticisms of Stevie's shows from this period. He was too excessive a guitarist, lacking the material and the voice to stand the test of time - or so people said.

To prove more with less, he picked up the white Strat (Charley) for "Tin Pan Alley", laid back and closed in on the groove, talking from his heart with tasty, light little blue notes. Voices cried out after every twelfth bar, encouraging him to take another turn. The blue lights turned his red velvet suit a deep voilet, and he took on a princely appearance. His vocals were smooth and coy; if the guitar histrionics were too much, he'd sure as hell have gotten the audience's attention when he sang "I heard a pistol shoot." A woman screamed wildly. He was telling it like he knew this place, and man, he'd been there. Stepping back, he whispered "It's like this..." howling on the high e-string. Suddenly his blue-lit face was in terrible pain; he was crying silently to himself as his guitar heaved sobs. His eyes closed tight, his teeth clenched, his lips were saying "no, no no". He stung a high note hard and quick, opening his mouth to let a big sigh rush out, audible over his vocal mike two feet away. Then another note, another sigh and he was all played out.

He called a stop and growled at the crowd jumping into "Love Struck Baby", the old Rome Inn barnburner. He snarled through the solo, tossing his hat onto the mike stand, ducking under his guitar strap, and playing the thing behind his head. The cameras revealed the unpleasant truth: Stevie Ray, barely thirty, was mostly bald. He busted a string on Charley, switching over to Number One for "Texas Flood", and his tone was blasting. The mojo bag that hung from his belt was most definitely working. He slipped into T-Bone's shoes, and they fit. He swung around, unplugged the instrument in mid-solo, and replugged it behind his back, playing the rest with both eyes closed. He finished the entire last verse behind his back, flipping the guitar back and forth, never missing a note. Then he introduced the band; Tommy kissed his bass and winked, Whipper waved. "Domo Arrigato - to you!" Stevie bid the
audience. A thick cloud of pot smoke hovered over the arena. Stevie took a deep whiff, a maniacal grin on his lips.

He returned for an encore of "Lenny." Stevie was sutting alone with her center stage, thinking of his woman back home, gently tugging her whammy bar, and making her quiver in his hands. He sat relaxed, smoking a pipe that he soon ditched, coughing. The song was his masterpiece for the night. This old girl was his companion when times were hardl he faded paint job and smoke-yellowed crusty pickups had seen it all. He hunched over, touching her neck softly. His head was buried deep in her body, close enough to kiss her fretboard. He threw in some Wes Montgomery, lost in the cool jazz and memories. Dueling bass lines with Tommy, his amp buzzed low as he turned the low E string down as far as it would go until it just died out. After all the whang-barring and de-tuning he was horribly clangy, but
finished up with a beautiful precursor to "Riviera Paradise."

Jumping up out of the blues, he launched into "Testify". Here he went holding it like a violin, again tuning down the already appaling cacaphony and wailing like crazy. Finally, the sound just became too awful, and he reached to Number One for some serious trickery; he played it backwards, forwards, upside-down and sideways, one-handed, back-handed, and no-handed - he could do it with both hands tied behind his back. He was reciting "Third Stone", and the rhythm section was rocking hard. While they went on, Stevie yanked off Number One and threw her to the floor, lunging after her as if he was going to rape the poor thing. Nect he was humping it, whanging it to death, shsking it, throwing the controls past ten, making her whistle like a train and whinny like a horse. Stevie hunched over her, flipped her over by the whammy bar, jumped on top and rolled around the stage with her. Leaping to his feet, he tossed her into the air and caught her just in time to hammer the last ... excruciating ... note, and it was "Goodnight Tokyo!"

Gonna go see this guy this Saturday night in Waco.

2009-09-25T11:40:00.002-05:00

The dudes name is Larry Carlton. From his years with the jazz band The Crusaders to his Grammy Award-winning theme to television’s “Hill Street Blues,” from more than 3,000 studio sessions for Hollywood and television soundtracks to collaboration with such performers as Lee Ritenour, Stanley Clark and Steely Dan, Carlton has threaded his smooth licks through an impressive amount of jazz and pop music.

The jazz guitarist comes to McLennan Community College’s Bosque River Stage for an 8 p.m. Saturday performance with the Austin-based, Americana group Carolyn Wonderland and the Band of Unusual Suspects opening for Carlton and his trio.

From his years with the jazz band The Crusaders to his Grammy Award-winning theme to television’s “Hill Street Blues,” from more than 3,000 studio sessions for Hollywood and television soundtracks to collaboration with such performers as Lee Ritenour, Stanley Clark and Steely Dan, Carlton has threaded his smooth licks through an impressive amount of jazz and pop music.

The jazz guitarist comes to McLennan Community College’s Bosque River Stage for an 8 p.m. Saturday performance with the Austin-based, Americana group Carolyn Wonderland and the Band of Unusual Suspects opening for Carlton and his trio.

Room 335.

Carlton’s trio — himself, his 27-year-old son Travis on bass and 25-year-old drummer Glenn Coye — brings music in a blues-jazz vein. It’s smaller than the eight-piece band he traveled with in 2004 and ’05 and his more recent five-piece combo, which performed more of a smooth jazz repertory, he said.

The blues-jazz trio, he noted, offers a lot of personal satisfaction and not just because it has his son Travis. “I’ve always been an improviser. Almost all the things I enjoy have involved some improvisation, although I do enjoy a melody before the guys take off on their own,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Carlton, 61, says the continual improvisation found in jazz music has held his interest throughout his five-decade career. The Californian started in jazz, enticed by the music of bluesman B.B. King, Barney Kessel, Joe Pass and John Coltrane. After his first album in 1968, he quickly branched out, recording for television shows, radio and commercials.

Layla.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Carlton’s guitar sweetened albums by such performers as Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, Joan Baez, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, as the session artist played on up to 500 albums annually.

From 1971 to 1976, he also performed with jazz fusion ensemble The Crusaders. He wrote the theme song for the 1980s television drama “Hill Street Blues,” winning a Grammy Award, but opted to stick with performing rather than composing. “I kept realizing I’m a guitar player,” he noted.

Josie.

His loopy, dazzling guitar work on Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" from their 1976 LP The Royal Scam has been listed as the third best guitar solo on record by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Kid Charlemagne.

In 1988, some stupid kid shot him in the throat outside his Room 335 studio, temporarily sidelining his performing and recording. Within a year, however, Carlton was back in a busy performance schedule, something he maintained throughout the 1990s and the 2000s.

Larry's Blues.

He’s still active, playing about 150 dates a year. Among his many honors: three Grammy Awards, 18 Grammy nominations, a Lifetime Achievement award from Guitar Player and Rolling Stone named his solo on Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne as one of the Top 100 Guitar Songs of All Time.

He reprised that solo this summer in several reunion shows with Steely Dan. Initially, Carlton thought about not performing that song, but decided to brush it off — “I had to go back and rehearse it,” he recalled — and add it to the set list. His preparation paid off when he launched into the first bars of his solo and the audience gave him a standing ovation.

Carlton won’t rest on his laurels as one of the leading guitarists of recent history, however. He has major tours of Europe and Japan scheduled for the fall and is working on a collaboration with a Japanese guitarist. “I’m always discovering new approaches as a player,” he explained.

It should be a fun evening. Cheers!

(Credit for much of this info goes to Carl Hoover, Waco Tribune-Herald)

1976

2009-09-16T19:38:00.004-05:00

One of the jailbirds in San Saba turned me on to this. See what ya think.

2009-09-04T16:25:00.002-05:00

WIDESPREAD PANIC

2009-08-28T20:12:00.002-05:00

The band was named from the frequent panic attacks Michael Houser once had. Houser and John Bell meet in 1981 and made music together until 2002.

The band still plays today, but has been through several lead guitarist since Houser died, including the current Jimmie Herring.

The band allows the taping, distribution, and trading of their shows among fans at their shows, similar to the Grateful Dead. They also have a show-to-show ritual of selecting their set lists. They are never the same.

Just a few of my favorites…please post yours!

“Travelin’ Light”, performed at the Fairgrounds in Atlanta in 1989.

“Driving Song”, performed on the front porch! This is special because Michael Houser, jamming with John Bell singing, died of pancreatic cancer in 2002. He and Bell had been together since 1981. I’m sure this jam still means a lot to Bell.

“Ribs and Whiskey”, performed in Atlanta in 2006.

“Love Tractor”, performed at Rothbury in 2008.

LESTER WILLIAM POLSFUSS DIED TODAY

2009-08-13T19:27:00.001-05:00

Who, you say? Oh, Les Paul, and I should not have to say more, but he deserves so much more praise.

He wanted to be remembered simply as a “guitar player” he often said, and so he is, but let’s not forget the contribution to all music – the invention of the electric guitar. He will always be known as the “Father of the Electric Guitar”, but Les Paul didn’t stop there. He also refined the technology of sound recording, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay, overdubbing and multitracking. For these accomplishments, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, but the National Inventors Hall of Fame did not honor him until 2005. As a matter of fact, Les became the only individual to ever share memberships in the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

In 1928, at the age of 13, he rigged up a microphone from telephone parts to get a bigger sound from his acoustic Sears Roebuck guitar. Then he took the needle from his family phonograph, put it under the guitar strings and wired the contraption into two carefully spaced radio speakers, thus getting not only amplification but also a crude stereo effect.

He was 94 years old when he died today, but for the past twelve years, the Les Paul Trio, played every Monday night at The Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, where a literal whos who of the entertainment world paid him homage.

Listen to this early clip as he shared the stage with Chet Atkins:

Les loved life and had a great sense of humor. He was a hard working man who loved music, especially music that included a Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar!

HEAR WOODSTOCK ORIGINAL MUSIC ON SIRIUS STARTING TOMORROW

2009-08-13T18:41:00.002-05:00

THE WOODSTOCK CHANNEL TO TAKE OVER DEEP TRACKS

The Woodstock Channel, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair held at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York in 1969, will launch Friday, August 14 at12:00 pm ET and air through Sunday August 16. The channel will be devoted to the historic music festival featuring music, interviews and memories from the artists who were there, including Graham Nash, Leslie West, Arlo Guthrie, members of The Band, members of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Joe Cocker. SIRIUS XM listeners will hear music from artists in the exact order that they performed at the festival each day—beginning with Richie Havens and ending with Jimi Hendrix.

The Woodstock Channel will also feature complete performances from Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, Johnny Winter and Jefferson Airplane as they happened at the original 1969 festival.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOODSTOCK

2009-08-10T19:45:00.003-05:00

There are a few familiar names that spark an instant memory of the l969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair (simply known as Woodstock), some are well known, like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, and Sly Stone. However, there are others hidden behind the band name and little known today outside a cult following. One of those names was/is Levon Helm, drummer (drums, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar, vocals) for the band known as “The Band”!

Woodstock? Why was it called Woodstock? Here’s a little history, and my favorite tune from the event:

“The Band” is what the local citizens of the Woodstock area called “the band” that played music inside the pink house in the West Saugerties community. Dylan also often referred to “the band” that played behind him in the late 60’s. In 1968 “The Band”, now playing their own music, produced an album titled “Music from Big Pink” which referenced the big pink house where “The Band” rehearsed.

One of the songs from that album, “The Weight” (#41 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list), was included on the Easy Rider Soundtrack, but was performed by the band Smith because of contractual problems preventing use of The Band's version. The Band's version is the one that appears in the movie.

It was due to the popularity of this movie, and the song, that “The Band” was invited to Woodstock. The song, featuring Levon Helm as lead singer, is the one song I have always attributed the concert that I regret not attending. At the time I was deeply into my first summer quarter at the University of Tennessee, and the first year of my first marriage. There was just simply no way I could cut loose and go on a pilgrimage to “up state” New York!

That would have been one time, had I been able to see the future that I would have pulled on one of my old fatigue shirts over my bell-bottom jeans, and “flew the coop”!

I’m not sure if I get misty-eyed when I watch reruns of the concert because of missing it, or that fact that those kids were so damn free of the course of those three days. I guess it is a little of both…man, what I’d give for a “do over”! I dare say, the 400,000 or so there, would have had a hard time hearing Levon over me singing:

Take a load off Fannie, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fannie, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.

Now, let’s end with “The Weight” as it’s done today:

By the way, if you have never gone to see a show at the old Ryman in downtown Nashville, you need to make that pilgrimage soon. Life should not be filled with regrets…it’s too damn short!

Happy Birthday Woodstock Nation!

There's A Protest Singer, He's Singin' A Protest Song

2009-08-08T17:15:00.003-05:00

Journeyman.

2009-08-05T08:00:00.004-05:00

Musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Thomas Mason was born May 10, 1946 in Worchester, in the West Midlands of England. He first found fame with the rock band Traffic, which he co-founded in 1967. Mason's best known song with Traffic is "Feelin' Alright?", recorded by the band in 1968 and covered by dozens of artists, including Joe Cocker, who had a major hit with the song in 1969.

The classic break-up song, "We Just Disagree", Mason's big solo hit, was written by band member, guitarist Jim Krueger. It got all the way to #12 on the Billboard charts in 1977, and it's become a staple of Oldies and Adult Contemporary radio playlists.

Mason was a good friend of legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, whose career was launched in England in 1967. Hendrix first heard the song "All Along the Watchtower", by Bob Dylan, at a party he was invited to by Mason, and promptly decided to record his own version. That night he recorded the song at Olympic Studios, South West London, with Mason playing acoustic guitar. It was released on the Electric Ladyland album in September 1968. Mason later recorded his own version of the song on his self-titled 1974 album, Dave Mason with Bob Glaub on bass.

The Dave Mason Band is still touring, performing about 100 gigs a year. Mason is also a proponent of music education for children. In 2005, he signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S. He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member. He is also involved in the program Work Vessels for Veterans, which provides veterans transitioning to civilian work with tools that have ranged from computers to boats to tractors.

Gettin' Ready For Some Football

2009-07-31T17:12:00.019-05:00

Ahh, yes...... its that time of year.

Its been just long enough for the memory of the Cowboy's last game, an embarrassing 44-6 asswhippin' loss to the dreaded and feared Eagles, to become a little fuzzy.

Hope springs eternal once again. Romo has dumped the Hot, but Clingy Blond and got his head right with ball. Wade understands that anything short of an appearance in the Conference Finals this year will result in Bill Cowher standing on our sideline next year, with about 12 million dollars in his pocket. The emotional Roller Coaster has engaged the mechanical elevator, and its on it way up to the first peak.

..... But I had some unfinished business from last year ..... actually the last couple of years. And thats that I promised myself I would never have to listen to those irritating clowns in the announcer booths, on both the ESPN and NFL Network broadcasted Cowboys games, again.

It used to be a simple matter to turn down the TV and listen to the local homers on the radio ..... back in the days when I got the game over the air. But it was never easy to get the game, out of Dallas TV stations broadcasting from Cedar Hill (South of Dallas), out here in Eastern Hunt County. Even though the world is relatively flat round here compared to where some of you may live, Dallas is in the Trinity River Valley and I am in the Sabine River Valley, and there's a pretty good rise in elevation between them. Enough to make the signal skip off the ground and cause interference. And there was also the Defense Contractor E-System's signals testing complex directly in the path, and they seemed to enjoy testing their shit on Sunday afternoons. So I had to have a huge Channelmaster aerial 60' in the air, with an amplifier and rotator to get an acceptable picture.

Nowadays I get the game in perfect digital quality via DirecTV.

Problem is, the DirecTV signal, having to be digitally processed and bounced off a satellite in high geosynchronous orbit, is delayed like 10 seconds relative to the local radio broadcast. It really wasn't very enjoyable watching a play when you knew how it was going to end before it started.

If it were the other way around, and the video was ahead of the audio, I could have gotten me a DVR and delayed the video to match the audio. But because the audio was ahead I had to find a way to delay the radio broadcast about 10 seconds to sync up with the video.

They sell a hardware device called DelayPlay Radio that does just that for $199.

But being a low tech Redneck on a budget I searched for, and found, a free software solution called Radio Delay. It would let me pipe the radio broadcast to the input terminal on my computer's sound card, and delay the signal by a user variable amount up to 20 seconds, before sending it off to my AV receiver.

But my first problem was that I didn't have a decent FM receiver to pick up the radio broadcast with. I couldn't use my main AV receiver to pick up the game because I needed it for the amplified delayed output. Well maybe I could have used the monitor output of the AV receiver to send the line level audio to my Computer for processing and delaying, then back to the receiver, but for the sake of this post lets just say I didn't want to get into the wiring jungle back there.

At any rate, most portable radios dont pick up much beyond the local Hunt County stations here, for the same reasons the over the air TV broadcasts out of Dallas sucked, so I needed a better than average radio. I ended up getting a fairly cheap Thomson Super Radio off the internet, as its supposed to have somewhat superior reception.

Then I made a simple dipole antenna in my attic with 300 ohm wire..... 4' 5 1/4" long to optimize the 105.3 Mhz FM station. I figured I would try that before I put the old Channelmaster aerial back in the air. Turns out it works pretty good.

But then when I connected it up and tested it on the Ranger's baseball game, I was getting a terrible echo effect out of the computer processed signal. After experimenting with the windows volume controls I noticed that the quality was much better when the line level input mixer was turned down to almost zero. Thats because the radio didn't have line out and I was using the headphone out jack, and that voltage was too high for the line level inputs. So I bought a headphone extension cord with an in-line volume control to act as a variable attenuator, essentially converting the headphone signal down to line in voltage, then compensating with volume on the digital side.

Now it sounds pretty good really.... and just in time as I hear that asshole Collinsworth has left the NFL Network to fill John Madden's spot on NBC's Sunday Night game, which the Boys will be on 3 times this season. I think I'm ready to roll.

Journeyman.

2009-07-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

John Welden Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician, Cale is best known for writing two songs that Eric Clapton made famous, "After Midnight" and "Cocaine", as well as the Lynyrd Skynyrd hits "Call Me the Breeze" and " I Got the Same Old Blues".

Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean Jacques Cale". In fact, a Sunset Strip nightclub owner employing Cale in the mid-1960s came up with the "J.J." moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale.

Cale is one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a very loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back", and is characterized by shuffle rhythms, simple chord changes, understated vocals, and clever, incisive lyrics. Cale is also a very distinctive and idiosyncratic guitarist, incorporating both fingerpicking and gentle, meandering electric solos. His recordings also reflect his stripped-down, laid-back ethos.

His album versions are usually quite succinct and often recorded entirely by Cale alone, using drum machines for rhythm accompaniment. Live, however, as evidenced on his 2001 Live album and 2006 To Tulsa And Back film, he and his band regularly stretch the songs out and improvise heavily.

Artists including Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Bryan Ferry, have noted Cale's influence on their music; several artists in addition to Clapton have made hits of Cale songs, and many more have covered them. His most covered songs include "Call Me the Breeze", "Sensitive Kind", "After Midnight", and "Cocaine".

Cale is also well known for his longstanding aversion to stardom, extensive touring, and even continual recording. He has happily remained a relatively obscure cult artist for the last 35 years.

The release of his album, To Tulsa and Back in 2004, his appearance at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, and the 2006 release of the film documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, have brought his understated discography and songwriting to a new audience.

This mainstream exposure continued into late 2006 with the release of a collaborative album with Eric Clapton, The Road to Escondido, which won Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008. February 2009 saw the release of his 23rd album, Roll On, including the previously unreleased title track recorded with Eric Clapton.

Here's hopin' the story of J.J. Cale (and Eric Clapton) continues to play itself out with beautiful music for years to come. Cheers.

Lovin' Livin'

2009-07-26T18:18:00.003-05:00

.... Stopping To Smell The Roses

Collaboration.

2009-07-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

Delaney Bramlett was born in Ponotoc County, Mississippi, in 1939. He learned the guitar as a kid, moved to Los Angeles and became a session musician. His most notable early break came when he became as a member of the Shindogs, the house band for the ABC-TV series Shindig! (1964-66), which also featured guitarist/keyboardist Leon Russell.

Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell was an accomplished singer at an early age, performing with blues guitarist Albert King at age 14 and in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue at 15. She moved to Los Angeles in 1967, and met and married Delaney later that year.

By then Delaney and Leon Russell had made many connections in the music business through their work in the Shindogs, and were able to quickly form a band of solid, if transient, musicians around Delaney and Bonnie. The band became known as "Delaney & Bonnie and Friends" due to its regular changes of personnel.

In early 1969 they signed a recording contract with Stax Records, and released their first album, "Home". The album was not successful, probably due to poor promotion. It was one of 27 albums simultaneously released by Stax in that label's attempt to establish itself in the album market.

Records for their second album, "Accept No Substitute" (1969). Upon hearing Delaney and Bonnie created a buzz in music industry circles when they moved to Elektrapre-release mixes of the album, George Harrison offered Delaney and Bonnie a contract with the Beatles' Apple Records label, which Delaney and Bonnie signed despite their prior commitment to Elektra.

Although the Apple contract was subsequently voided, this incident began a falling-out between Delaney and Elektra, culminating in the band's release from their contract in late 1969.

On the strength of Accept No Substitute, and at his friend Harrison's suggestion, Eric Clapton took Delaney & Bonnie and Friends on the road in mid-1969 as the opening act for his band Blind Faith. Clapton became fast friends with Delaney, Bonnie and their band, preferring the southern roots vibe of their music to Blind Faith's.

He would often appear on stage with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends during this period, and continued to record and tour with them following Blind Faith's August 1969 breakup. Clapton helped broker a new record deal for Delaney and Bonnie with his then-US label, Atco (Atlantic) Records, and appears (with Harrison, Dave Mason, and others) on Delaney and Bonnie's third album, On Tour with Eric Clapton.

Clapton recruited Delaney and Bonnie and their band to back him on his debut solo album, recorded in late 1969/early 1970 and produced by Delaney. In his autobiography, Clapton paid tribute to the band, saying "For me, going on [with Blind Faith] after Delaney and Bonnie was really, really tough, because I thought they were miles better than us." Clapton said that "Delaney taught me everything I know about singing." Delaney has also been cited as the person who taught George Harrison how to play slide guitar, an instrument Harrison used to great effect throughout his solo recording career.

They continued to make well-regarded, if modestly-selling, albums over the rest of their career. In 1971, the band also made a cameo appearance in Richard C. Sarafian's film Vanishing Point, and also performed a live radio broadcast for New York's WABC-FM (now WPLJ), backed by Duane Allman, Gregg Allman and (in one of his last performances) King Curtis.

By late 1971, however, Delaney and Bonnie's often-tempestuous relationship began to show signs of strain, and their next album was rejected by their record company on grounds of poor quality. Then their record company sold their recording contract, including this album's master tapes, to CBS. Columbia/CBS released the album, in a different track sequence from the one the artists had submitted, as D&B Together in March 1972. It would be Delaney and Bonnie's last album of new material, as the couple divorced in 1973.

Bonnie enjoyed success during the 1970s and early '80s as a backing singer with Elvin Bishop, Stephen Stills, Little Feat and The Allman Brothers Band. She subsequently turned to acting, appearing in the films Fame, The Doors, and The Guardian, and as Bonnie Sheridan in a recurring role on the TV series Roseanne from 1991-95.

Her most recent album is 2005's Roots, Blues & Jazz, and in 2006 she appeared as a back-up singer for Shooter Jennings. Delaney's most recent solo album, A New Kind of Blues, was released in early 2008.

After an extended illness due to complications from gall bladder surgery in June 2008, Delaney Bramlett died on 27 December 2008 in the arms of his wife, actress Susan Lanier Bramlett.

Covered

2009-07-17T20:12:00.003-05:00

The Arc Angels at Antone's.

2009-07-14T09:08:00.008-05:00

I drove down to Austin Saturday night and saw a great show. It was the return of the Arc Angels, a local band that's become a local, home town cult favorite and nationwide sensation.

The band began in the early 1990s, built from the sturdy Blues/rock foundation of the recently deceased Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section, Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. They were joined by two singers/guitar pros, Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton, both of whom studied at the feet of the master (SRV). Beginning with sessions at the Austin Rehearsal Center, which gave them their name, they grabbed the imagination of many who missed SRV and wanted to see something new grow from that seed.

They hit it big for the first time in 1992 when they released their self-titled debut CD. They were on track to be HUGE, doing national TV shows and quickly developing a national following. But then the band imploded, breaking up due to various issues, including rumored Heroin issues with Bramhall. The guys all moved on to other bands and solo work over the next 12 or 15 years, but now and then they'd tease their fans by reuniting for a gig.

Denise and I were lucky enough to attend one of those shows late last year. The original four members got together for two shows, one in Dallas and another in Houston. Apparently, the experience was so much fun they've decided to get back together again for real, with one exception. The bass player, Tommy Shannon, has "retired", unwilling to trudge through the grueling schedule of gigs at his age.

He's been replaced by a guy named Mark Newmark, who doesn't show up in any of the bands new press shots. I'm guessing he may be the bass player du jure. I hope the money's good. Anyway, after those gigs late last year, the guys apparently decided that the chemistry was so good, the feel so satisfying, they should officially reform, hit the road again and produce some new music.

Based on what I saw last Saturday night at Antone's, there's no reason why they shouldn't hit it big again. The sky's the limit. But first, lets talk about the lead-up band.

When the lights went low at Antone's Blues club last Saturday night, an announcer came up on stage, welcomed us to Antone's and said we had something special in store for us. He introduced a group called the Iron City Soulshakers, and a gaggle of musicians took the stage.

Then the lead singer ran up to the microphone and the show got started. Kristi Johnson spent the next hour or so doing an amazing Tina Turner/Janis Joplin imitation, belting out the lyrics to such tunes as Ruth Brown's "The Richest One" and Sam and Dave's "Hold on I'm Comin'".

They put on an energetic show, but I'm afraid the music was less interesting than the lead singer. The guys in the band did OK, but they didn't really wow us with their instruments, with the exception of the saxophone player (I could swear I've seen that dude somewhere before).

They were OK, putting on an energetic show, but they just didn't do it for me. I got the distinct impression that if their lead singer wasn't such a stunner, both in looks and singing talent, they might not be getting so much attention. Having said that, they played for about an hour and the crowd at Antone's loved them.

After the Soulshakers moved on and the gear was switched out, this old gentleman slowly made his way up to the mic to introduce the Arc Angels. By then the crowd had grown and the place was packed, wall to wall. He once again welcomed us to Antone's and thanked us for supporting the place, and for supporting local Austin music scene.

He said that his old buddy Clifford (Antone passed away a few years ago) would love to see this crowd and these artists taking his stage. He told us that this was the 34th anniversary of the club, which opened it's doors in July of 1975.

He talked about the Arc Angels, and how they all started here, wandering around the place as kids. He talked about Bramhall following around after his daddy, and learning the guitar at the knee of his godfather, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Click on that link and check out those tunes. DB2's daddy sings and plays drums. Enjoy.

Both Bramhall and Sexton started early, with Bramhall evolving quickly into a guitar whiz, brought up on stage here in Austin in his early teens, and Sexton gracing the cover of Spin magazine at 18. He said that they are all truly local boys, and asked us, would we all welcome them to the stage.

At that point the crowd went crazy and the really great music began.

Bramhall and Sexton both brought a truck load of guitars to the show, switching them out after every tune. Bramhall played, among others, a gorgeous Les Paul Junior on "Paradise Cafe," and a beautiful, brilliant red Stratocaster on "Sent by Angels".

Now and then the guitar teck would hand him this old, pic scarred Starocaster and he'd send us all on one another beautiful trip, bending those notes and winding us all up so that we could feel the love. Sexton switched back and forth between a beautiful black Epiphone and a Les Paul Sunburst, among others.

And just as everything would be going great, some jackass would take a picture with their fucking flash on. I couldn't believe how many people did it, right from the start of the show. And I couldn't believe that the band didn't stop at some point and ask them to refrain from doing it. But they didn't. They just ignored it. Some of it was press, but mostly it was fans with too much stupidity to know how using a flash in a gig like this drives everyone around them nuts.

But even with the occasional light show, there was a special energy in this gig. Older fans like me were expecting a preview of some of the music we might hear on their new release. There's a live CD/DVD set to be put out in the fall, which is reported to include some new tracks. And then, the word is, the band will release a totally new CD some time next year.

So, the buzz last Saturday night was palpable. Along with classic tracks from their 1992 release, like "Living In A Dream" and "Shape I'm In", the band included one of Bramhall's tunes in the set, "I'm Leavin'", off of his second solo release, Jellycream, which Sexton contributed to, among others. Now and then they played some new music, including "Too Many People", and another called "Crave and Wonder." The true surprise of the evening was a rendition of "Outside Woman Blues" which was written by "Blind Joe" Reynolds and made famous by Cream when they recorded it for Disraeli Gears. Based on what I heard, I'd bet good money their new release is destined for success.

Now and then, as DB2 (as Sexton referred to him) would get into the guts of a great riff, Sexton would wander over and groove with his buddy, as if wanting to bask in the glow. The great thing about Antone's... the band was so close, we could all bask in that glow. It was amazing. Thrilling. I almost wanted to pinch myself a few times to make sure I was really there.

The rhythm section worked it's magic too, grounding the blues/rock music of the evening with Mark Newmark energetic groovin' on the bass and drummer Chris Layton keeping an eye on Bramhall.

It was amazing and hilarious to watch the expressions on Layton's face switch back and forth from surprise to a steady professional detachment. Now and again, as Bramhall would seem to be wandering in a thrilling solo, he and Layton would make eye contact and everything would wind up to a crescendo. It was easy to see why Layton is seen as one of the best drummers around today.

In the end we waited through the traditional "We're gonna pretend to leave now," walk-off, which gave us the chance to cheer loudly and bring the band back for the climax. After returning to the stage, Sexton (who does most of the talking to the crowd) thanked us for coming and the band finished the show with "Spanish Moon" and the closer, "Too Many Ways to Fall."
As I told you before, that one is my favorite. Sexton's lyrics speak volumes about the trepidations of life, and the choices we face:
All we have is here and now
Tomorrow may not come true
There's a million people who walk this ground
Who might steal your wish from you
A million people or maybe not
A human one in all
There's just one way that we can stand
Too many ways to fall

The mother says now baby boy
Your gonna have to choose
There's good and evil, love and greed
And they're all inside of you
And just as sure as gravity
No one escapes the law
'Cause there's just one way that we can stand
Too many ways to fall

Lets hope the guys figure out a way to keep it together this time, through all the conflicting demands of their lives and careers. If they can make it again, the great music they make should be all the reward. Cheers

Here's a dream team.

2009-07-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

BOB BOGLE HAS LEFT US

2009-07-08T12:45:00.005-05:00

Bob Bogle – the co-founder of legendary Tacoma garage-rock band The Ventures and the architect behind the distinctive guitar sound of early hits “Walk, Don’t Run” and “Perfidia” – died on June 14th of this year. Had I not read about it in a hand-me-down Rolling Stone Magazine, I would have not known.

Bogle was a resident of Vancouver, WA, and was 75 when he died. He suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and became too frail to play with the Ventures in his waning years, but lived long enough to see his band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2008.

Bogle played lead guitar on the Ventures' early hits - the immortal “Walk Don't Run” and others such as “Perfidia” and the “Lullaby of the Leaves”. Nokie Edwards has pointed out that the band were wasting his (Edwards') talents on bass and the two swapped instruments for good although Bogle still played lead guitar on the aforementioned songs live.

My personal favorites were “Pipeline” and “The Lonely Bull”! Don’t know why “The Lonely Bull” could make be tear up, but probably because I identified with that bull. When the crowd cheers and you know the bull is dying just gets me every time.

YES…that was Frampton playing along!

I still have their “Golden Greats” album that was released in l967 by Liberty Records. I almost played the groves off that vinyl record. I loved the lead parts, but leaned heavily on the bass licks that Bogle laid down. Because of this early training, I listen to more parts of a song than most and pick up on the bass runs before most people even notice them. Take my wife, please….just kidding, but she is amazed at what I hear in a song on the radio. She, being a country music fan, follows the rhythm and dislikes rock because the words are not easy to pick up. Me, I dig right in and if the bass and lead aren’t unique I don’t usually care for a tune. It may be years before I ever pick up on the lyrics (“Tuesday’s Gone” being a case in point)! That’s the quintessential difference between rock and country – country has its lyrics and rock has its riffs!

Long post short, thanks to Bob Bogle, I have cultivated a good ear for music and all the little parts that go into making a great piece of music. It takes all the parts. What makes my wife so upset at times is how loud I play my music, which is essential to hear all the pieces (instruments). It drives her mad, but to leave out just one thing makes all the difference, and I’m so glad I learned to pick them out by listening to The Ventures’ Bob Bogle.

The Sound Of Inevitability

2009-07-08T09:12:00.000-05:00

A Little Motörhead.

2009-07-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a quiet one. Whorehouse Blues, from the CD Inferno.

And for the purist, Ace Of Spades.

The sublime and the ridiculous.

2009-07-03T23:48:00.004-05:00

Found the video over at Hammer's place. Hilarious. Used to love the hell out of it when it came on the radio back in the day. Haven't heard it in AGES. Thanks Hammer.

Went up to Dallas last Tuesday night.

2009-06-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

Picked up the tickets a few months back. Saw it on the computer... Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood appearing at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. I knew I had to be there. Denise agreed, so I searched for some good seats. As usual, I try to find something in a range between "Holy Shit, are they fuckin' kidding?" and the cheap seats way up near the roof. The nose-bleed seats. In this case we won out. I think I paid about $550 for two seats on the left side of the stage, section 104, row H, seats 3 and 4, just up from stage level.

Having never been in the American Airlines Center, I was amazed at the size of the place. It's friggin' HUGE inside. I can't believe they built this place just for a basketball team. But it makes a decent concert venue too, as we found out Tuesday.

The gig was supposed to start at 8PM. We got there a bit early and paid $20 to park. We got our drinks, t-shirts and found our seats with plenty of time to check out the venue. Then, at about 8:15, the lights dimmed and the band walked up from behind us, down on our right, up some stairs and onto the stage. Without much ado they broke into a great rendition of... I think it was "Had To Cry Today".

Here's a taste. Someone posted a clip from the Dallas concert on Youtube. It'll give you a sense of what we were in for.

From then on it was just one great old tune after another. They played for over two hours, until about 10:30, without much of a break and without much banter from the band. It was basically just an evening of great music.

With the wealth of music to chose from, at least fifty years of great recordings and hits to chose from, there's probably no way these two artists could play a gig and not end up disappointing someone. But I'll have to say that they not only made me happy, they surprised the hell out of me.

The guys stuck mostly to tunes from Blind Faiths one studio album, which Clapton and Winwood produced in the summer of 1969, along with Ginger Baker and Ric Grech. It's the 40th anniversary of that great, classic albums release. But along with that, they played a few old blues numbers, with Clapton doing a wonderful job on both the vocals and the guitar. And they threw in a few other old hits too. There was something there for everyone. It was a great set.

At one point, maybe an hour into the gig, Clapton and the others left Winwood on stage and the rest of the band took a short break while he played "Georgia On My Mind" on his Hammond B-3 organ. I understand that in the Houston concert, Wednesday night, he played "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys".

I can't help but be envious of those folks in Houston, even though it was great to hear him play "Georgia". It reminded me of the fact that when he and Clapton began playing music together, 40 years ago, Winwood, who was only about 21 years old, already had a reputation for being able to play and sing like Ray Charles.

He'd begun playing while still in school, hired to work in "pick-up" bands for American Blues stars as they toured England. While Clapton played with the Yardbirds, Winwood was playing with folks like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Eddie Boyd, Otis Spann, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. That's quite and education.

He'd begun playing in clubs at about 15, when he and his older brother joined the Spencer Davis Group. He'd gone from there to form Traffic, and play on albums with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker. He did all that, before he and Clapton ever got around to recording Blind Faith in the summer of 1969.

After Winwood wowed us for a while, Clapton and the others came back up on stage, Winwood came up from around his organ and the band played an acoustic set. Clapton played flawlessly on an old blues number, and then wowed us with his now classic acoustic rendition of "Layla". Then, the moment I'd been waiting for, they blew me away with a classic version of "Can't Find My Way Home". Again, here's a taste (this time from the Crossroads Guitar Festival DVD).

It was wonderful to hear Clapton and Winwood play this classic tune. It's always been one of my very favorites. After that, Winwood went back to his organ and Clapton traded up for his electric guitar and they proceeded to knock my socks off again. It started with great renditions of old tunes like "Glad", "Pearly Queen", "Forever Man", and "After Midnight".

But I just couldn't friggin' believe my ears when Clapton stepped up to the mic and began noodlin' on the guitar and singing "I'm a voodoo chile. Lord knows, I'm a voodoo chile."

You could'a knocked me over with a feather! They went on to play an amazing rendition of the classic fifteen minute jam Vodoo Chile, from Jimi Hendrix's Electric lady Land album. Winwood played his B-3 on that jam in 1968, and covered most of the vocals on this newer version.

After singing the opening words, Clapton stood back and killed us, his fingers ranging up and down the neck of his guitar, goin' about 500 miles an hour. Don't ever let anyone tell you these old dudes have lost a step at all with age. They haven't! Here's a brief little clip, this one from the concert they played June 10th in East Rutherford New Jersey... The first gig of this current tour.

I guess I should have been payin' attention and known what was comin', but it was fun to be surprised the way I was.

After that the band put their instruments away and walked off stage, engaging in the old standard practice of the fake "we're outa here, bye." This gave us the signal that it was time to shower them with screams and applause, so they'd come back and play again. When they did, Winwood came up from behind the B-3 and played the ass off his guitar on a rendition of the old classic "Cocaine". It can be quite a surprise to fans, seeing him play the guitar so well. He's so closely associated with the organ.

In the end, the crowd went wild in appreciation as the band came up and took their final bow. You can see the joy in this shot. Everyone there was sure they'd seen something special. The concert exceeded all my expectations. The seats were well worth the cost. It was another night I'll remember for the rest of my life. If any of you have the chance, I'd recommend you catch these guys the next time they slide by ya.

Cheers!

MICHAEL JACKSON'S BEST ROCK'N ROLL SONG

2009-06-28T09:49:00.002-05:00

I've been listening to tributes to Michael Jackson all week, and have yet to hear my favorite song played...to me his best ever.

Who played the lead guitar? The guitar solo in Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana was by Steve Stevens, Billy Idol's guitar player.

The Peter Green Story: Man of the World

2009-06-27T22:07:00.004-05:00

Hiking On The Appalachian Trail

2009-06-26T20:20:00.006-05:00

Playing With Fire

2009-06-24T21:12:00.000-05:00

Interesting stuff.

2009-06-22T08:00:00.003-05:00

Needle and Spoon, from Raw Sienna, 1969. The band? Savoy Brown.

Hellbound Train, from the album of the same name, 1972.

Who is the best guitarist in the world?

2009-06-17T19:11:00.001-05:00

Phil Keaggy ???

Phil Keaggy was a member of a mid-1960s garage rock band called the Squires; one of their songs, which he co-wrote, appears on a compilation album called Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 9.

Keaggy began professionally playing music in the late 1960s with drummer John Sferra. The two longtime friends, with the addition of bassist Daniel Pecchio, formed a band called Glass Harp in 1968. A major turning point for the trio was their winning of an Ohio area's "Battle of the Bands." One of event's judges happened to be an associate of the celebrated producer Lewis Merenstein, whom he alerted to the hot young threesome. At the time, Merenstein was fresh from producing albums for many successful artists including The Spencer Davis Group, Turley Richards and Van Morrison's Moondance (Merenstein produced Astral Weeks as well) and had just been voted Producer of the Year by Rolling Stone. Merenstein was persuaded to fly down from New York to see what the fuss was all about. Upon hearing the band perform, Merenstein was so inspired that Decca Records signed Glass Harp to a multi-record deal. A short time later, the band found itself in New York's Greenwich Village recording its first album at Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios with Lewis Merenstein as producer. As a Decca Records artist, the band began to open for such artists as Iron Butterfly, Yes, Traffic, and Chicago. At one point, future James Gang and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh was being considered to join New Hudson Exit (the band Phil Keaggy was in prior to the formation of Glass Harp) but the other members of the band felt Walsh's style was too dynamic. Years later, Amboy Dukes guitar player Ted Nugent was quoted as saying "I don't know what happened to that Phil Keaggy. He could have saved the world with his guitar" in Guitar Player Magazine.

On Valentines Day in 1970, Keaggy's mother was involved in a fatal car accident. He was heavily involved in drugs at the time, and that same day was badly hurt by an LSD trip. In the midst of this tragedy his sister told him about Jesus, and he became a Christian. Having recorded three albums with Glass Harp, Keaggy left the band in 1972 and released his first solo album the following year entitled What A Day.

Rumors have followed Phil Keaggy for years that Jimi Hendrix had supposedly named him as his answer to the question Johnny Carson asked him, "who is the best guitarist in the world?" while making an appearance on The Tonight Show. Another version of the story goes something like, "Jimi, how does it feel to be the world's greatest guitar player?" To which Jimi supposedly replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Phil Keaggy!" which according to some was from an interview in Rolling Stone or Guitar Player Magazine. Sometimes, the rumor is that it was Eric Clapton, or that it was on the Dick Cavett show. A recent variant has it that it was Eddie Van Halen on Letterman or with Barbara Walters who was asked the question. During live performances, Keaggy has mentioned it but personally thinks the rumors are untrue. However, because many of these shows did not keep archives of many of their early shows, it is nearly impossible to either confirm or disprove the rumors completely. Some fans have claimed to have seen the show in question, or read the interview but to date, no one has presented a tape, a magazine article or any kind of evidence to confirm it. Phil was asked this at one of his guitar clinics he held in California a few years ago and his answer was simply, "I don't think there is anything to it at all. I doubt that Jimi ever heard me play as he had died in England before I recorded with Glass Harp at his Electric Ladyland Studios in New York City. Someone told me years ago that when asked that question he replied, 'Phil Keaggy is the shortest guitarist in the world,' which is more believable."

I'd never heard of him until today. I dont know about "Best Ever". I'd have to see him do Texas Flood behind his back first ...... but he aint too shappy.

Turn the speakers up, and the lights down low.

2009-06-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Oh, and be sippin' somethin' cold. Enjoy.

Threshold of a Dream

2009-06-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Keith Moon, Roger Taylor, and John Bonham Go At It!

2009-06-09T18:44:00.002-05:00

Busch Bash

2009-06-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

SI.com - Kyle Busch punished the competition and a brand new Gibson Les Paul guitar trophy Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway.

Busch capped his victory celebration after the NASCAR Nationwide Series race by grabbing the custom-painted guitar by the neck and slamming it three times into the Victory Lane concrete before tossing it aside.

The rock star antics originated last year when Busch told his team he would smash one of racing's most coveted prizes if he ever won at Nashville.

To its credit, the guitar chipped but never shattered.

"It didn't break according to plan," Busch said. "We'll go back to the shop and cut it up into smooth pieces so everyone on the team can have one. Then I'm going to order two more for me and (crew chief) Jason Ratcliff.

"Everybody's (smashed a guitar) except race car drivers. Those sorry saps take it home in one piece. I'll break it up and share it with the team."

One onlooker who applauded the theatrics was Sam Bass, the artist who paints Nashville's trophy guitars.

"I'll be honest with you, I was stunned when it happened," Bass said. "But when I went to Victory Lane to take a picture with Kyle, he said there was no disrespect to me, the speedway or the sponsors. He just said he was going to give each one of his guys a piece of the trophy. In the spirit of rock and roll and, as someone who appreciates rock and roll, he put on a show."

That he did.

Killing the Blues

2009-06-04T21:42:00.000-05:00

The Heat Is On

2009-06-03T21:18:00.000-05:00

Fun stuff.

2009-05-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

JANIS HAD THE BLUES TOO

2009-05-25T12:04:00.002-05:00

The last verse of "American Pie" reads: "I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news. She just smiled and turned away..."

I met Janis’ voice years ago while serving in the military. Her voice was different, very raspy, but perfect for singing the blues. It was not until the year before her death in 1970, after leaving “Big Brother and the Holding Company" that Janis Joplin got back to singing the blues exclusively. It was her favorite music, and it was listening to musicians such as Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Big Mama Thornton that put her on the road to performing.

I present to you tonight two of my favorite, bluesier, clips of Janis exposing her soul to her audience. It was how she displayed her inner soul, heart, and emotions that captured me way back when! Every song is sung at full tilt, leaving nothing to be desired from the listener. As long as we listen, she will never die.

Had it not been for a heroin dealer, identified only as “George”, who left the cutting of his pure powder to an underling, she may not have died along with several other users in L.A. that same week. Coupled with the “highballs” she was downing, while distraught over a boyfriend that had stood her up, the pure narcotic took her life at 27.

In many ways, Janis was such a sad and lonely girl, and ultimately, like many celebrities, heartache and loneliness is what really killed her.

This bonus clip is pure rock’n roll:

I find myself repeating the same words I often sing about Marilyn, for Janis – “I could have loved you, but I was just a kid.” Alas, there was no happy news for or from either.

Steve Earle

2009-05-22T21:08:00.006-05:00

Jimi, live on the BBC in 1969.

2009-05-18T16:46:00.000-05:00

Tell it brutha!

2009-05-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

Enjoy.

2009-05-04T09:07:00.002-05:00

Cause You Can Never Have Enough Stevie Ray

2009-04-29T21:11:00.000-05:00

Live at the El Mocambo 1983

Its Floodin' Down In Texas

Mary had a Little Lamb

Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Unreleased Little Wing (Not On The DVD)

One more time.

2009-04-29T17:33:00.001-05:00

Cowbells

2009-04-26T21:37:00.003-05:00

Backroom Boogie

2009-04-24T22:02:00.003-05:00

Last Friday night in Austin...

2009-04-20T15:43:00.006-05:00

I was happy to witness some great music being made. I learned Thursday morning that Jimmie Vaughan was going to be playing a concert Friday night at Antone's, a famous Austin Blues venue.

I arranged for two tickets to be ready for my lady and I at the door. The web site said the show began at 8pm, but it turned out they really didn't really start playing till 9PM, and there were two lead up bands scheduled before Vaughan would take the stage.

So, my girlfriend and I had a lot of standin' around, and some expensive drinkin' to do, waitin' for the show to begin. Good thing about that, we got there early enough that we didn't have to elbow our way up to the front when the show finally got rollin'.

The first band of the night was a local blues/jazz trio (who's name escapes me now... sorry guys), but this time they were joined by a familiar face. The young man you see there with the red guitar is Gary Clark Jr. You may remember him from the report I did on the Derek Trucks Concert I attended in Dallas a while back. He was fronting his own band that night, playing his own music. This time though, he and the others took us though a short list of classic Blues and Jazz instrumentals, and then he gave voice to a few other old Blues numbers. It was a great gig, and the crowd rewarded their efforts with a loud applause.

The second band on the list is a local group of ladies, calling themselves The Bluebonnets. They were billed as a Blues/Rock band, but to be honest, I kept thinking they were a perfect mix of bands like The Bangles (knock down gorgeous chicks), L7 (balls to the wall attitude), and maybe the Pretenders (knock your socks off skills with the instruments). I loved their music, and I wasn't alone. It was loud, almost Punk, and yet the Blues was there too.

Towards the end of their set, the lady in the middle said "We've got one more song to play and then Jimmie'll be comin' out." Someone in the crowd responded with "Jimmie who?", and the audience cheered. I predict, if they ever get anyone in the industry to pay attention to them, they'll go far. If you get a chance to see them, don't pass it up.

Just as scheduled, at about 11PM, Jimmie Vaughan came out and the crowd went wild. He took us through several classic tunes, and then, with Fridays crazy thunderstorms in everyone's mind, he busted into a tune his younger brother made famous. You should have heard the crowd cheer when we all heard the opening riffs of "Texas Flood". We all sang along with it. It was awesome! Here's a taste, from an earlier show at the same Austin venue.

One understands, as Jimmie sings, why his singing has never won him wide acclaim. But there's no faulting his guitar work. He's not his brother, but God knows, no one ever was or will be again. God only lays his hand on a few in that way. And hell, the singing wasn't all that bad anyway. After all, it's a Blues concert, not Top-40!

After about 45 minutes, Vaughan welcomed another local Blues personality onto the stage. Vaughan made a CD with Omar Dykes (of Omar and the Howlers fame) last year, and they announced here that they'd cut another one that'd be on sale soon.

Jimmie was in rare form, at one point tossing the guitar over his head and playing on, unobstructed. I'd seen Omar lurking in the background, his distinctive silhouette in the back of the crowd, so I'd hoped he'd come up. Sure enough, Omar's got the singin' down, fer sure. His voice is a classic. So the show just got better as we rolled into the second hour.

The guys went through several great tunes from their CD, "The Jimmy Reed Highway", and then welcomed Lou Ann Barton up on stage to complete the family (it turns out Barton and Gary Clark also appear on the CD, along with Delbert McClinton). It was wonderful. Here's a taste, with Lou Ann doing In The Middle Of The Night", one of the tunes they played late Friday night (or, maybe Saturday morning?).

Aaaah, now there's a Blues voice, for the ages. A local treasure, Lou Anne Has never hit it big, but she's played with many local artists who have, like Jimmie, and Omar, and Jimmie's little brother Stevie and his band Double Trouble.

After two hours of playing, the concert ended with a rep from Fender helping Jimmie give a guitar away. They'd sold raffle tickets at the door, the money going to charity. It was a great end to the night. Before leaving though, I stepped over to the desk by the front door and picked up a few souvenirs.

They sell t-shirts and old concert posters. I looked through the stack of old posters and chose two that I thought would look cool on my wall.

They'll both be framed, and hung in a fitting spot. Come over some time and I'll show 'em to ya. later, Cheers!

ROCKING TO THE BLUES WITH JUNIOR KIMBROUGH

2009-04-09T15:51:00.002-05:00

David "Junior" Kimbrough was born in 1930 to a sharecropper in Hudsonville, Mississippi, an area known as the “Hill Country!” This area also produced “Mississippi“ Fred McDowell, who, along with Eli Green, a guitarist who claimed to get his powers from Voodoo, influenced young Junior.

Junior was a natural player, who basically, beginning at age 8, taught himself on his father and brother’s guitars while they were in the fields. It is told he also learned to like his whiskey while being unsupervised at this tender age!

Many of his music projects were done along side his friend and blues great R. L. Burnside. The families still collaborate today.

The first clip tonight features Junior in a video that plugged his 1993 album from Fat Possum Records by the same name (“Sad Days, Lonely Nights”).

Junior died in 1998 and on his headstone are the words: "Junior Kimbrough is the beginning and the end of all music". His talent influenced many of today’s young artists, including The Black Keys and The North Mississippi Allstars. Legendary groups like the Rolling Stones and U2 visited his “juke joint” called “Junior’s Place” to listen and pay tribute to this “Hill Country” blues player.

However, most visitors to “Junior’s Place” were the disinherited, the poor, and sometimes wayward folks looking to ease the pain and the pressures of everyday life. Sylvester Oliver, a professor at Mississippi's Rust College, once said, "There was a natural tendency of these people to divest themselves of phoniness and pretentiousness, and to let it all hang out…”

Lastly, here is The Black Keys (not the best quality) playing “Do the Rump” written by and made famous by David Kimbrough. The song appeared on his 1997 album by the same name.

Allman Brothers Band - Live At The Beacon Theatre 2003

2009-04-07T19:29:00.003-05:00

Neil Young - BBC Concert 1971

2009-04-04T21:20:00.002-05:00

ZZ Top - Live In Texas

2009-04-01T21:37:00.006-05:00

Love me a Western, now and then.

2009-03-30T14:42:00.000-05:00

And dig this. Love it, but it's blocked. Assholes!

These guys are comin' to Big "D" in a while.

2009-03-23T14:28:00.000-05:00

As soon as I have the funds I'll be hittin' the web to see what I can get.

Holidays have to mean something

2009-03-16T21:38:00.002-05:00

corned beef and cabbage and somethin or other

Susan Tedescki.

2009-03-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

I was surprised, while reading up on Derek Trucks, that he and this lady were married. I'd heard of her before, but I'd never investigated her talent beyond downloading stuff where she and Trucks, o r Warren Haynes were playing together. A week or so ago, before heading up to Dallas to see her hubby in concert, I invested in my first Susan Tedescki CD, Back To The River. It's wonderful! Better than her hubby's latest effort. To give you a taste of her talent, here are a few videos.

Here she is doing an old Bob Dylan tune... Don't Think Twice, It's Alright.

And here she is doing an old John Prine tune... Angel From Montgomery.

I think I'm gonna spend some time lookin' around and find a gig nearby where both of these two are playin' on the same stage. That'd be somethin' to see. Cheers.

Queen..... They Way It Oughta Be

2009-03-13T23:12:00.008-05:00

It really pisses me off when I go looking for content here, and all the quality shit has the embedding function disabled due to complaints from either the copyright holder (Band) or Youtube not wanting you to watch it without forcing you to ignore the ads in the sidebar of their site. Forcing me too either post some inferior pirated version, or just blowing the whole post off..... which happens quite often.

... so I was kinda shocked and pleasently surprised to run across this stuff.

Its from Queen's official Youtube Channel....its perfect quality audio and video ..... and its all embeddable.

Sorry for the long post length, but I digs me some early Queen.

Talk to me...

2009-03-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

Tennessee Stud.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

Shondells Revisited

2009-03-11T19:05:00.003-05:00

Derek Trucks and Gary Clark at the Granada Theater in Dallas.

2009-03-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

I was supposed to leave the house to head up to Waco at 4PM on Friday. I took a little nap on the couch, so it ended up bein' more like 4:20. Oops. My bad.

I jumped up in a panic, got a quick shower and hit the road, headed for Glenn's place. I rolled up there a little over an hour later. He's a music teacher, teaching at an elementary school there in Killeen during the day and then for TSU on Ft. Hood in the evening. We've known each other for about ten years, teaching along side one another and sharing lots of laughs about this and that.

He lives up near Waco, on the South West side. He showed me around his house briefly (a very cool place) and then we jumped into my car and headed for Big "D".

I'd payed for two tickets to see Derek Trucks at the Granada in Dallas a few weeks before, but then my girlfriend decided to fly to England and surprise her brother for his 50th birthday. I asked another buddy of mine who lives in Duncanville, but he was gonna be out of town that day. So Glenn was my third option. If he didn't want to go I was gonna have to go by myself and try to sell the extra ticket.

I asked him last Tuesday when we saw one another out at school and he was interested. He called me Wednesday morning to tell me his wife had given him the green light, so we were on. He gave me directions to his house Thursday, while we were both giving final exams.

We got up to Lower Greenville Ave. and found the show totally sold out. We parked on a residential street a few blocks from the gig and looked for somewhere to get a meal. There was a little Chinese place across the street from the theater, so we decided to give it a try. We finished our meal, good stuff too, at about 8PM... just in time to stroll across the street and get in line.

Once we got in they gave us some of those paper bracelets as IDs. Then it was $5 for a mixed drink and a stroll to the front of the stage, where we found something' to lean against for the next four and a half hours.

The place was much changed from the last time I was there. It was about 1984 then, and I was there to take in a Soviet film festival. OK, give me a break. I was in college then, taking Russian and thinking about becomin' a spook. Ya ne znayoo!

Anyway, it was a real theater then, but they've pulled all the seats now and replaced some of them in the upper tier with folding chairs. There are a few bars here and there, and they cook decent looking food too. Next time we'll pass on the Chinese and just get a beer and some pizza at the gig.

The lead act, Gary Clark Jr., was supposed to hit the stage at 8PM, but it was more like 9:15 when they came out and started to play. I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. The played some great music, and Mr. Clark there does know how to play that pretty red guitar. He's even got a decent bluesy voice. Their music swung from straight forward Rock, to classic Blues, to Funk. I liked it enough that as we were leaving, at about 12:30, I stopped and shook his hand and bought a CD.

They had several, so I asked him "Which one sounds like what we heard tonight?" He hesitated for a moment and then grabbed one. We tossed it in the player on the drive home and it was AWFUL! Badly recorded, and nothing like what we'd heard at the show. Damn, I hate it when that happens.

I went through the same thing at Terlingua one year. A guy named Max Stallings, played a set there one night with his band. I loved their live show, so I bellied up to the table there and bought one of their CDs. But when I played the friggin' thing it turned out to be nothing like their live show. It sucked. Bummer. Huge!

After about 20 minutes spent changing up the stage, Derek Trucks and his band came walking out from the curtain at the back of the stage and the real show started. It was amazing.

Trucks is the nephew of Butch Trucks, of the Allman Brothers. He plays guitar with them , and with lots of other folks. But his main thing these days is his own band, based out of his own recording studio at his home in Florida. After this show, I'd be willing to say that Trucks is about the best slide guitar guy around today. It was amazing. I was in heaven.

They put on an amazing show. I was a bit worried that Glenn wouldn't like the music. After they played their first few jams I leaned over to him with my arms out and made the "Well?" gesture. He smiled and said it was good. I said something like "Damn straight it is!" It turned out he liked it a lot.

They played for about two and a half hours, runnin' through lots of tunes from several of their CDs. Towards the end they brought Gary Clark and a few of his guys up and jammed with them. After a few more tunes the show ended, and then we walked back to the car and started the drive home. I got Glenn to his front door by about 2:15, and then I hit my own garage door about an hour later.

It was another wonderful show. It turns out the Granada films it's shows and puts them on YouTube. Here's the link to their site. The show we saw isn't up there yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. Head over there anyway and check their other shows out. There's some cool stuff in there.

You guys take care, and we'll chat again later on. Cheers!

Johnny Lang and Sharon Little at the Paramount, Austin, Feb. 26th, 2009.

2009-03-02T16:25:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful evening it was!

We went to a great restaurant and had a celebratory dinner before the gig, and then drove down to 7th street and started to look for parking. Found it easily, only two blocks from the Theater.

We walked over to Congress Av. and got into the Paramount Theater in time to get our first few drinks. We'd never been there before, so the place had us a bit awestruck for a while. Once you walk in you'll find yourself in the foyer, where the stairs will lead up to the balcony. Our seats were excellent. Front row center of the balcony, or as close to it as you can get without sitting in the aisle.

I walked back up to the top of the balcony to get these shots, then merged them. The theater's been there since about 1912, and it shows the influence of that older time. The architecture is stunning.

There's even a relic from the old days. You see that hole in the ceiling, to the left of the lady with the harp? An usher told me they call that the "Houdini Hole". Sounds kinda rude, don't it? Apparently, Houdini performed there and needed to hole cut in the ceiling for a prop. I guess they decided to leave it there. History, after all.

The lead up act was Sharon Little, a wonderful singer from Philly, who's accompanied by a great guitar player named Scott Sax. You can see him there, stompin' his foot on that round, hollow wooden platform and jigglin' that tambourine with one foot as he plays and beats out a rhythm on the guitar. I told Denise all he needed was a kazoo and he'd be a one man band. Their performance was amazing, but we knew it would be. These folks opened the Nokia theater for Robert Plant and Allison Krouss when we saw them last year. They were great then, and they've only seemed to improve since. Here's a taste.

So, when the main act hit the stage, we'd already been given a great show. It only got better from there.

At one point, about half way through the gig, Lang welcomed local Austin resident Eric Johnson on stage and the two went through a great Blues tune. I think it was a John Lee Hooker tune, or Bo Diddly. Can't remember. It kicked ass though, for about ten or twelve minutes.

A HUGE highlight of the show was his acoustic version of Lie To Me. Here's a video from another gig that shows you what we saw. Forgive the caddywampus angle at the start. they musty have been too busy havin' a good time to realize they had their camera turned sideways. This sounds EXACTLY like what we heard, audience reaction included. Nothin' like seein' someone like this in a small venue.

Mmmmmm, that was just amazing.

After that little acoustic experience, we were back to enjoying the sort of stuff this guy can do with an electric guitar. Here's a jumble, giving you a taste of this talent. That's the same back up band we saw.

In the end, the show ran about three hours, and there wasn't much anyone could say against it. The lighting was excellent, and the sound was first rate. It was pleasingly loud, but my ears didn't ring after the fact.

The only problem I had was with the ushers. They were wonderful, till the main act came on stage. We were set up for prime picture taking, but as soon as Lang hit the stage they were on me like glue. No pictures allowed. Meanwhile, some fat bitch behind me was taking one flash shot after another and never got busted. So, even though I had a friggin' balcony to rest the camera on, ensuring good, clear shots without my flash, I only ended up getting really good, clear shots of the opening act.

Oh well, what can ya do? I'll try to do better this Friday when I see Derek Trucks at the Granada in Dallas. Cheers!

Isle of Wight Festival 1970

2009-02-27T19:41:00.000-06:00

The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was held on August 26 - 31, 1970. It was held on Afton Down an area on the Western side of the Isle of Wight. It was the last of three consecutive music festivals to take place on the island between 1968 and 1970. It was widely acknowledged as the largest musical event of its time (until Summer Jam at Watkins Glen in 1973), greater than the attendance of Live Aid, Woodstock and Rock in Rio. The Guinness Book of Records has cited its attendance as 600,000, this is well above the organisers' estimate of 500,000.

The Isle of Wight Festivals had already attracted a massive reputation in 1968 and in 1969 by attracting acts such as Jefferson Airplane, T.Rex, The Move, Pretty Things, Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan (in his first performance since his 1966 motorcycle accident) and The Who in its foundation years. The organisers Fiery Creations (apparently alias brothers Ronald Foulk and Raymond Foulk) were determined to make the 1970 event a legendary event. In this aim they enlisted the mercurial talents of Jimi Hendrix. With Jimi confirmed artists such as Chicago, The Doors, The Who, Joan Baez, and Free willingly took up the chance to play on the Island. The event had a magnificent but impractical site, a strong but inconsistent line up and the logistical nightmare of transporting 600,000 on to the Island with a population of less than 100,000. The aftermath and commercial failings of the festival ensured it would be the last event of its kind on the Isle of Wight for thirty-two years.

I tell ya, I'm happy as a clam these days.

2009-02-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

With all these concerts comin' through Texas, and me gettin' tickets to the gigs, I feel like I'm really Beatin' the Odds.

We're goin' down to Austin Thursday night to see Johnny Lang at the Paramount Theater. And then next week we're goin' up to Dallas to see Derek Trucks at the Granada. I tell ya, it's leavin' me a Satisfied Man.

And Ian Moore is supposed to be at the Granada in a few weeks. We'll see what we can do.

Seriously, here's a taste of Mr. Lang's talent, backed up here by the guys from Double Trouble and The Arc Angels.

Y'all need to start meetin' me at the gigs. Rock and Roll ain't just for kids any more. Cheers!

This guy is bringin' his band to town, March 6th, at the Granada in Dallas.

2009-02-23T08:00:00.002-06:00

and I have two tickets. Click on this one (I can't post it). Mmmmm, good! Cheers.

The End Of Excitement

2009-02-21T16:35:00.001-06:00

New York Times - With its history of building muscle cars like the GTO and the low-slung Firebird, Pontiac had good reason to take pride in its best-known marketing slogan from the 1980s, “We Build Excitement.”

Lately it has been using “Pontiac is CAR,” a phrase more likely to catch the attention of grammarians than car buffs.

And on Tuesday, when General Motors asked the federal government for more bailout money, it also announced a reorganization plan that included demoting Pontiac to a “focused niche brand,” signaling that its lineup of vehicles would shrink and that it would no longer be a separate division.

To industry analysts and Pontiac’s longtime fans, the downgrade provides a case study of the product missteps that helped put G.M. in its precarious state, and a reminder of the dangers in straying from a successful formula.

“When you deviate too far from it, that’s when you run into trouble as a brand and a company,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book, whose 1968 Firebird made him feel “as cool as I could be.”

More than any other G.M. brand, Pontiac stood for performance, speed and sex appeal. Its crosstown rivals followed with similar muscle cars, giving Detroit bragging rights over the cars that Japanese automakers were selling based on quality and reliability.

Though still G.M.’s third-best-selling division, behind Chevrolet and GMC, Pontiac’s sales peaked in 1984, when it sold almost 850,000 vehicles, roughly four times as many as it sold last year.

G.M.’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said the company’s decision to concentrate primarily on Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC left the company with a “comprehensive portfolio.”

By many accounts, Pontiac started to falter when G.M. pursued a cost-saving strategy of providing the same cars to different divisions.

It gave Pontiac vehicles like the TransSport minivan, and the Sunbird, Sunfire and Phoenix cars that were barely distinguishable from models sold by Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.

But many younger Americans, who were not around for Pontiac’s prime period, will not miss the brand as it shrinks, said Ron Pinelli, who is president of Motorintelligence.com, a company that tracks industry statistics.

To them, he said, “it doesn’t have any cachet unless they’re watching a late-night movie with Burt Reynolds,” whose film “Smokey and the Bandit” featured the Pontiac Trans Am.

But in its best years, Pontiacs were “highly styled and valued and really something,” Mr. Pinelli said.

Known before World War II primarily for its sedate sedans, Pontiac got a lift in the 1950s when G.M. used its cars on the racing circuit. Because of its “wide track” stance, Pontiacs quickly caught on with street racers, as well.

Tim Sampson, whose family owned a yellow Pontiac Grand Prix in the 1960s, remembered the Pontiacs that were used for drag races on President’s Island, in an industrial part of Memphis. “People used to get arrested,” said Mr. Sampson, a founder of the Stax Museum of American Soul.

Italian sports cars inspired another classic Pontiac in the 1960s, when the division’s new general manager, John Z. DeLorean, decided it needed a small, fast car modeled after a Ferrari. He hit on the name GTO — after a Ferrari coupe called the Gran Turismo Omologato.

The GTO returned this decade, as part of an effort to revive Pontiac. But G.M.’s Holden division in Australia built that car.

Its appearance barely echoed the original GTO, disappointing its core audience. It lasted only from 2004 to 2006, before G.M. stopped selling them.

The most recent efforts to breathe new life into Pontiac were put into motion by G.M.’s vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, who will retire at the end of 2009. Known in the industry for his love of high-performance vehicles, Mr. Lutz had pushed the division to return to its car heritage.

On its Web site, Pontiac explains its new slogan more fully: “Pontiac is style. Pontiac is performance. Pontiac is culture. Pontiac is music. Pontiac is CAR.”

Now, G.M. will have to determine which Pontiacs will remain Pontiacs. So far, Mr. Wagoner and other executives have not given any indication of the company’s specific plans for Pontiac.

But unlike Saturn, which will be discontinued by 2012, G.M. does not have to dismantle a dealership lineup for Pontiac. Its franchises, for the most part, already have been grouped with Buick and GMC. Any future models, G.M. said this week, will be sold through this Buick-Pontiac-GMC organization.

“We’re the third generation, and we’re the last,” said Rick Zimmerman, whose family has sold Pontiacs in Pittsfield, Ill., since the brand came to life as part of its Oakland division in the 1920s. (Pontiac became a stand-alone division in 1932.)

Mr. Zimmerman, whose first car was a GTO, said hundreds of customers used to flood his showroom each fall when new Pontiacs — like the popular Bonneville, now a retired nameplate — were unveiled.

Now, despite positive reviews about the performance of some new models like the G8, he has trouble getting his customers interested in them.

“It’s been a good name, and had a lot of good cars,” Mr. Zimmerman said. “It’s tough to see it go.”

Bruce

2009-02-20T20:55:00.006-06:00

Gov't Mule and the Diasco Biscuits at the House Of Blues in Dallas, Feb. 8th, 2009.

2009-02-16T08:00:00.003-06:00

My girlfriend and I met a few very close friends in Dallas a week or so ago and spent the night enjoying some great food and music.

There was some drama attached to the evening. There was a HUGE cluster fuck with the balcony seats I bought. I won't harsh your mellow with those details though. Suffice to say, we all had a great time consuming great food at the Hoffbrou in the West End, and then listening to excellent music at the House of Blues; Gov't Mule and the Disco Biscuits.

First, the great food. The Hoffbou makes a killer Teriyaki steak. Wonderful stuff. Denise ordered this one, and a baked spud. Next time I may have to get this myself.

I went for the bacon cheeseburger and the wedge fries. It's fillin', I wanna tell ya. Wonderful!

Both Jim and I went with the tall Shiner Bock off the tap. Denise had a shandy, and I think Terry had water. She's not much of a drinker.

Of course, when we got to the gig, the drinking continued. I think Jim got the first few rounds and then I took over. Those are 7&7s for Denise and Jim, and a Rum & Coke for me. I think we must have gone through about four rounds.

The Disco Biscuits came out at about 8:30PM and played for about an hour. I'd checked them out on Youtube and wasn't expecting much, but they grew on me. By the end of their set I was really enjoying them. They do a long instrumental thing that reminded me of some of the stuff I used to love from bands like Yes, But mostly they did a lot of hippie noodling, like The Dead or Phish. The guitar player, Jon Gutwillig, can play his ass off. He really jams!

After about 20 or 30 minutes to switch out the gear, the main attraction hit the stage. Warren Haynes and Gov't Mule played a set of their own music for about two hours. While the others sat back and kept their seats at the table we found near the bar, I elbowed my way to the front of the crowd. The music was bliss, and the vibe was all friendly.

If you've never seen these guys, you need to work them into your schedule. Warren is one of the best Blues/Rock guitar players that's ever lived. Hands down, he's one of the best alive today. He took a position with the Allman Brothers about twenty years ago. Hitting it off with his band mates, they formed a side group, affectionately called "The Mule" b y fans. They started in about 1995, with Haynes, Allen Woody and Mat Abts in the band, all of whom had been added to the Allman Brothers line up in about 1989.

Allen Woody passed away in 2000, and since then the band has gone through some other personnel changes. The current line up includes Haynes on Guitar, Abts on drums, Danny Louis on keyboards, and Jorgen Carlsson on Bass.

They took a break for a while after playin' for about two hours, leavin' Abts on stage to bang away on his drums. Abts did an amazing drum solo, switching from sticks to hands at one point. Then Carlsson came out, stood in a spotlight and began a steady bass beat. In the end, the Mule played for three hours, from about 10PM to 1AM. It was wonderful. You can check the rest of the pictures here at my FlickR page.

In the end that beat turned into the Pink Floyd tune "Pigs On The Wing". They did a few Floyd tunes, and then "When The Levee Breaks". After that the guys from Disco Biscuits came out and they played Nirvana's "In Bloom". After that the show ended, and we spilled out into the street, blissfully happy to have sat through the four and a half hour experience.

And after the ticket drama I just went though with this concert, it feels good to have the next set of tickets in hand. Denise and I are set to see Johnny Lang in a week or so in Austin, at the Paramount theater. It should be good. I'll have the camera, so You'll see what I see. Cheers!

Silly Love Songs

2009-02-14T19:19:00.003-06:00

Rising To The Top

2009-02-12T20:42:00.003-06:00

Farewell Concert is the live recording of the Cream's final concert at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 1968. Aside from the band's reunion concert in 2005, it is Cream's only official full concert release on video. It was originally broadcast by the BBC on January 5, 1969. It was not released on video in the US until 1977.

The band had performed two sets at the Albert Hall, but not every song was filmed. Director Tony Palmer incorporated pieces of six performances with narration by BBC announcer Patrick Allen. The film also incorporates interviews with the band members themselves showcasing their playing abilities.

Several times during the performance, it is apparent that the on-screen shot is not in sync with the audio. In fact, during Ginger Baker's drum solo, he seems to change clothes at lightning speed due to careless post-editing. Ginger Baker himself has lashed out in an interview against the Farewell Concert, claiming: "Cream was so much better than that." Nonetheless, most Cream fans regard the actual performance with great enthusiasm, discarding the poor quality of the video.

Sunshine Of Your Love

White Room

Crossroads

Spoonfull Part 1

Spoonfull Part 2

My buddy Ellis told me about these dudes last week.

2009-02-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

I was tellin' him about my plans to head to Dallas and see Government Mule. He said "You ever hear of Ghostland Observatory?" Turns out the lead dude here is from San Saba, where we both work and where Ellis has lived all his life. So i checked them out on YouTube. See what you think.

Well, it's not really my thing, but I love the attitude he expresses. And I've been to that western wear store, Harry's. It's pretty cool. I'll end up gettin' some boots there some day if I work in San Saba long enough. Maybe I'll run into this dude at the Dairy Mart.

Well, cheers.

Gonna see Gov't Mule this Sunday night at the House of Blues in Big "D".

2009-02-06T08:00:00.008-06:00

The ticket drama has been a pain, but it looks like a pretty good time is comin' together nicely.

I ordered two general admission floor tickets and two balcony seats (third row center) for the gig about five weeks ago. But none of them arrived after a month or so, so I had to call Tickets Now and bitch a little.

In the end, they emailed me the GA tickets and left the others at will call. They supposedly were "lost in the mail", so they voided the bar codes on those and will run us off some new ones. I tell ya, if I get there and some fucker is sittin' in those seats, like my mail man, there might be a new episode of COPS in the works. But everything is on track now and it looks like it'll be a great time.

My buddy Jim and his wife Terry from Ft. Worth are gonna ride the train over and meet us at the West End. We were plannin' to drive up Sunday and get a room at the Hyatt, but the Hyatt has dicked themselves out of our business.

We used to stay there for something like $115 a night, and be glad to have it, close and convenient to all the stuff we wanted to do. But now they're askin' something like $240 for one night! I don't think so. So we'll get a reservation somewhere else and drive to the gig. No sweat. One thing we're sure of, nether of us want to have to drive home for two and a half hours on I-35 after the concert, what with all the adult beverages we'll be consuming.

We're gonna try to find a new restaurant Jim's heard of recently. We'll eat a great meal, probably have a few adult beverages to start the night, then try get to the gig at the House of Blues in time for blast off.

Denise has taken Monday off and I'll be off till about 3PM. Terry'll probably have to try to keep Jim from talkin' out loud, drunk off his ass, about the squirly folks they always see on the train back to Ft. Worth in the middle of the night. It's happened before.

Anyway, I think I may have posted this one before, but I love what they do with this tune.

That's about the view the GA tickets will get us. Can't wait.

And dig this.

I'll have the camera, so you'll see what I see. If you're in the vicinity, see if you can get tickets. Maybe I'll see ya there. Cheers!

AC/DC WEEKEND IN NASHVILLE

2009-02-03T01:00:00.001-06:00

What can I say guys, it was as you would expect...fantastic!

Three of us traveled the 100+ miles to Nashville Saturday morning without tickets. The damn things were going for $250 on Ticket Master, then sold out. Some on eBay were going for $1000!

One of my concert buddies, Tim, has always said he can get tickets to any concert, so we shoved a hundred dollar bill into our billfolds, swore we would spend no more per ticket, and took Tim at his word.

So, we walked Broadway, 4th and 2nd Streets, and even down Printers Alley, had a few or two, until around 5PM Nashville time. We then went back to the hotel and rested up for about an hour and a half, then met in the lobby and headed to Sommet Center to look for tickets, or rather watch ol' Tim work his magic.

Inside, Tim asked the ticket agent if there were any tickets, "Nope, sold out!"

Back outside, Tim stood with three fingers raised in the air. To some, he looked weird, and they looked puzzled as they passed, but to another he had three tickets, and to others he needed three tickets.

However, a cop ran us off the Sommet property, telling us that if we wanted to buy a ticket from anyone we would have to do it off the property. So, we crossed back to the corner of 4th Street, where Tim again raised his three fingers!

"You got three tickets," one asked?

"No, need three," Tim responded.

Then the "scalpers" came, "How many you want?"

"Three."

"Got three for $250 each."

"No...too much," Tim said, as Ron and I looked puzzled.

"How much you wanta pay," the first guy asked?

"Forty!"

"You're crazy, you'll never get in with that attitude dude!"

It was the same story for some time, but after the gates open, the dozen or so scalpers began to circle and look a little more agreeable to Tim's terms.

Finally, a guy came up with two tickets and wanted $90 each! I couldn't believe it. However, we said no, because we wanted three. However, Tim butted in and said, "We'll tak'em!"

Tim whispered to us to pay for them, that a single was a cinch! So, Ron and I had tickets!

I was not long before a single came along for $80 and Tim bought it. Of course, it was in a different section, but Tim said the object was to get in!

Inside Tim parted company with us, we got a beer and went to our Section 304 seats. The warm up band, a very good "The Answer" played their set and the lights came back on. Still there was no one sitting next to Ron. Then a group came and filed down our row, stopping one set short of Ron. We then knew it was a single seat!

Ron went over to Section 331 and found Tim and brought him and another beer back to our section.

Long story short, Tim sat with us through the entire AC/DC concert. Some scalper was sitting high and dry with a ticket he wanted $250 for, which made us very happy!

AC/DC was fantastic, with a big train crashing onto the stage, and Angus rubbing his belly raw from doing his usual thing of bouncing and sweating all over the stage! Man, that dude can play that guitar! I think they only played three new songs from their latest album, and just about every oldie I wanted to hear.

When they did "Thunderstruck" I rang up my son, who couldn't go this time, and let him hear his favorite!

We stayed out in Nashville until around midnight, spending the entire time at "The Beer Sellar", a wonderful little bar on Church Street with 50 pulls and 100 different kinds of beer in bottles! What more could an old man ask for...seeing AC/DC once before he died, surrounded by friends, and with so many different beers to sample!

Oh yeah, I also learned to trust Tim!

This here was good.

2009-02-02T08:59:00.003-06:00

Back when I was about 11 or 12, this little tune had me... by the nether regions. You remember?

Next thing I knew, this one was comin' out. I was done then. Done. Nothin' was the same after that.

JPG&R

2009-01-31T18:48:00.000-06:00

ANOTHER "FREE BIRD" IS RELEASED

2009-01-29T09:56:00.000-06:00

Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell, who played on such hits as "Sweet Home Alabama", and survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, died Wednesday. He was 56.

Powell, who had a history of heart problems, missed a Tuesday appointment with his doctor for a cardiac evaluation, and a heart attack is suspected as the cause of death.

The Jacksonville-based band was formed in 1966 by a group of high school students — famously, it took its name from a physical education teacher they disliked, Leonard Skinner. Powell joined the group in 1970 and became its keyboardist in 1972, the year before they released their first album, "Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd."

It became one of the South's most popular rock groups, and gained national fame with such hits as "Free Bird," "What's Your Name" and especially "Sweet Home Alabama," which reached the top 10 on the charts in 1974. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

The band was decimated on Oct. 20, 1977, when their chartered plane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss.

Six people were killed — lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarist Steve Gaines; Gaines' sister, vocalist Cassie Gaines; as well as an assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.

Powell received facial injuries in the crash, but eventually recovered. He was the only band member well enough to attend the funerals of those killed in the crash.

Sing A Song, Play Guitar, Make It Snappy

2009-01-28T18:54:00.003-06:00

Santa Monica 1972

Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys Pt 1

Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys Pt 2

Freedom Rider

Dear Mr. Fantasy

We used to squeal like little girls when this guys music came over the radio.

2009-01-26T08:00:00.002-06:00

Used to listen to KZEW back in the day. I still miss that station, and the cool stickers we'd put on our cars to identify us as "Zoo Freaks". Pat Travers wasn't from Texas, but he might as well have been. He was a regular. Enjoy.

If yer head don't start bangin' on that one... Ya probably need a bit more medication. Pat Travers was HUGE when I was in high school in the late 70s. Ya never hear about him any more, but he lives on. Here's another called "Stevie", in case you dig it.

Our favorite tune of his back then was "Boob, boom, out go the lights", but alas, there isn't a decent video of that on YouTube. Check it out some time though. It rocks. Not PC at all, but what the hell. Cheers!

Pink Flamenco

2009-01-25T18:54:00.002-06:00

Bad Moon Rising

2009-01-24T19:58:00.002-06:00

I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin.
I see bad times today.

Chorus:
Dont go around tonight,
Well, its bound to take your life,
Theres a bad moon on the rise.

I hear hurricanes ablowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

Chorus
All right!

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like were in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.

On A Bad Day

2009-01-19T20:10:00.001-06:00

If I could Change the World....... I'd Change It Back.