Guitar Licks and Tips

Now this is the real rock band for the ages! The band’s style and original sound has not only touched my own guitar technique but literally everyone who has ever picked up a guitar. Plain and simply put, they are the worlds most influential band of all time!

I can honestly say without a doubt in my mind, that these rock gods help shape how I approach playing guitar. As a matter of fact and truth be told, if it wasn’t for my brother’s keen musical ear they may have not been brought to my attention.

Growing up in Brantford, Ontario in the 70’s, I idolized my older brother. His friends were the coolest people on the planet in my eyes and they set the standards of what to except musically. The only exception was Boddie, he like Queen and in my brother’s eyes, they were the Spice Girls of his era. So I blindly took this as the gospel according to Tim.

They all listened to Zeppelin, saw them live in Toronto and even dressed like them. While hanging out with them, I paid more attention to how the songs where put together then most of them and found out quickly that if I could play some of the bands tunes, I would be a part of their little scene. So I did.

Some of their extended friends where musicians and when we got together, we would jam in small quantities and they soon realized that Tim’s little brother could actually play this style quite well. These guys were no slouches in their related playing abilities. The guitarist were by far the superior in their quest to replicate the Zeppelin sound then the drummers were. They had the rythum parts down pretty good but lacked the feel to reproduce the solos down right. I never started out as a soloist but seeing this weak link in their armour, I thought that this is how I could be seen as a forerunner in our music scene.

The one song that I loved to play was The Lemon Song. It has a fabulous intro that was very foreign to me back in those early days of my playing. One day I asked Tim what style this was and he replied It’s called the blues. Huh, now that’s a neat name for it!

It had a harmonica in it that sounded great and a little familiar to me. I only associated this sound with the memories of my mother’s father Poppy, playing this instrument at their house. He would pull this thing out and start playing it with great intensity. Being around 6-9 years of age, I thought this was neat but he tended to play this Eastern Canadian style of music on it. although i liked the tone of it, it didn’t really gather all that much interest in it.

If your a guitarist reading this post, has Mr. Jimmy Page influenced you in your style of playing?

Keep on Jammin’

Is disco really back? Well that’s a post that I recently posted on my other site Guitar Licks, and I think that it is quite the question that we old school rockers have to be asking ourselves these days!

While speaking to my buddy Andy a minute ago on the phone, oh BTW let’s congratulate the old fart on his 42nd B.D., he told me what’s old is new today. I told him of my post and when he said those words my blood went cold for a split second!

We talked about the kidz today and how they are taking note of and wearing way back in the old disco days. Are you ready for some of these beauty’s?

How about those old bell bottoms? They seem to be all the rage again. Ok now, hands up who had a pair or two of these in their collection in the early 70’s? Don’t be shy now, we’ve all done/wore things in our past that we’re not particularly proud of.

What about the rainbow colored suspenders! Remember Mork, from the Mork and Mindy show? I must admit, I use to have a pair … I wonder where they are right now?

And last but not least, rainbow colored platform shoes … hee, hee ,hee!

A buddy of mine had one and later painted them black and used them in our Kiss tribute band Deuce,when he was portraying Gene Simmons! I gotta admit, damn did they look good.

So what’s your story?

Keep on Jammin’

Have you ever been watching your favorite show at a decent volume and then all of a sudden it goes up to 11 out of no where? I’ve been noticing this irritating thing happening more and more as the new TV season progresses! So what can we do about it, well why don’t we start an e-mail campaign to let the networks know that it’s time to turn down the volume!!!

The ones that come to mind is CSI Miami, CSI-NY, CSI(Las Vegas) and Lost. The music fillers during action scenes are becoming more and more unbearable.

Some times late at night, when I’m trying to unwind before going to bad, I find that I can’t grab the remote quick enough to turn the volume down or hit the mute button. I’m a bit sensitive to loud music so my blood starts to boil when I fail to adjust the volume. Is it just me or are these idiots deliberately trying to get us to change the channel?

I took the time to get the e-mail addresses or links of these shows and their networks, in order to have you, my good readership, contact them to show our collective displeasure in their stupid practices. I so hope that some of you will attempt to contact these nut jobs in the glass towers to inform them that we are not going to take it ANYMORE!!!

So here goes!
ABC http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
CBS http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/info_faq_contact_us.shtml#
(NOTE: Look for the “Feedback” link on the upper right hand side of the page.)

I that you, my ears thank you and what’s left of my sanity thanks you!

Keep on Jammin’ Folks

I just got a copy of the band 3’s latest release titled The End is Begun from a buddy at work and I’m loving it! The best way to explain this band is intense.

I can sum their own style as a mixture of progressive rock, metal and sprinkles of classic rock all over the place. So I’m listening to it now I hear influences of Yes, RUSH, Styx, Saga and a bit of the Pretenders. If you like any of these bands then I highly recommend buying this album.

First song on this album is named The World is born a Flame. It has this funky, progressive-rock Greek sound to it, nice. Later it has a huge Styx feel to it. The title track is pure metal. Battle cry has fabulous syncopated rhythms all through it. The 4th one is called All that remains is a song that will stay in your head for a while long after you turn it off. I just came back from feeding and walking the dog so I can attest to the last statement. I don’t want to give all of it away, but I will say the middle parts are impressive.

The last song on the album is called The Last Day and the begging has a huge Klatu sound that brought me back to my early 80’s music scene head space. Oh what beautiful intro! Pay attention to the tabla’s on this one.

3, is from Woodstock, NY. and had 3, get it, 3 original band members. They were Joey Eppard on Guitar/Lead Vocals, Josh Eppard on the Drums and Chris Bittner was the Bass player. From what I gather they were formed in 1994 but did not gain prominence until around 2005. I just can’t believe they weren’t signed earlier!

I hope that you either check out some of their sites or get this one for your collection, it’s worth every penny!

3, Keep on Jammin’

Ah, what a crazy Canadian that Mike Meyers is! I am very proud to say he was brought up in my adopted home town of Toronto, Canada, eh.

So this his latest venture into a character since his Austin Powers days. The music, that is quite dominant throughout the movie, is beautiful and hopefully will help influence some musicians to use small doses in their playing style!

(Note: the surname Power originally comes from Waterford, Ireland. The name was changed to Powers when some emigrated to North America. I got this first hand information while visiting my relatives there and checking out the old phone book!)

Love Guru is basically about a American kid who was abandoned by his parents at the gates of a Ashramand raised there. He later moves to the US to gain fame and fortune. His way of life is put to the test by attempting to re-unite the captain of our beloved/hated Toronto Maple Leafs.

The East Indian music, in my experience and in the movie as well, can place you into an outer body sensation if you let it. I can personally attest to this because this thing happened to me while playing live in a East Indian wedding band at my cousin’s wedding. Since her husband is Hindu, they had a Hindu and Catholic ceremonies.

Since her husband is a Hindu recording artist, he naturally wanted to play at his own wedding. I was honored to be asked to play with him and his two buddies for this event. It was held at the Hare Krishna Temple in Toronto and boy the architecture in this place is something to see. One was a wooden flute player and the other, and get this one, a Tabla player who is Ravi Sanker’s God Father!

While performing one song, and the name eludes me right now, he let me loose to play this solo in a D minor open string tuning. During the solo I started to drift away. As I played the solo, everything around me was pushed away slowly and incrementally. No, I wasn’t smoking anything and Hindu’s do not drink either! I never had this type of experience this before or since, especially in front of a large audience. I realize you can fall into a zone while playing live, but this was exceptional.

So if you get the chance to see this movie, I hope that you come away from it with a little more love and respect for the East Indian music style and maybe it’ll move you to pickup a CD or two for your collection, eh?

Keep on Jammin’