Guitar Licks and Tips » Albums

Acoustic Guitar magazine is 20 years old

Chris — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:25:23 +0000

The Acoustic Guitar magazine is celebrating 20 years of service to all those die hard acoustic guitarists out there everywhere!

I’ve always found some great topics and intriguing issues in this magazine. The way the articles are phrased makes them simple to understand and the writers don’t talk down to you. I find this magazine to be unmatched and highly recommend it to any level of guitarist.

I’ve picked up some real nice little riffs and chord progressions in it that I find myself using without even realizing it! The website is just fabulous! If you have an online subscription, the guitar videos will help you become not only a much better guitarist, but a well rounded musician as well. I can’t say enough about the guys and girls that work there.

Acoustic Guitar’s 20th anniversary issue has what they consider to be the top 240 essential albums from the past 20 years. Some are from albums/guitarist that are familiar and some musicians that are very obscure to most, but in the end will help you expand your playing styles in new and exciting directions.

The anniversary installment, January’s issue, covers some great guitar and gear innovations over the past 20 years. Products like the Trace acoustic TA-100, the Kyser Quick Change capo (I’ve got one and I NEVER leave home with out one in my case), the Fishman Acoustic Matrix piezo pickup, tons of guitars and pedals. It also has a real nice article about how guitar making technology has helped change the sound of modern instruments.

Acoustic Guitar 20th Anniversary collector’s edition is out and I highly recommend that you pick this one up for either yourself or a guitarist that you know.

Keep on Jammin’ Acoustic Guitar!

John Mayer’s latest release Battle Studies

Chris — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:01:09 +0000

John Mayer is releasing his 9th album called Battle Studies. To some folks out there, the lyrics and musical approach to his new album is a little bit controversial them. To those who question my moral or musical tastes I say to them, hey I’m just there to listen to the guitar!

I got a sneak listen to some of the tunes on Battle Studies the other day and what I heard I liked or thought it was just plain amusing.

The song titled Heartbreak Warfare has a U2 feel to it. The song starts off with a classical orchestra tuning up for a piece that is followed up by the unmistakable guitar intro influence of the Edge. In All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, John falls back on his trademark acoustic progressions with a hint of Beatles chords thrown in for good measure.

Half of my Heart has that country flare with a bit of classic John Cougar Mellencamp feel in it at the beginning of this one. It takes a bit of listening to to get use to it. Who Says is just a funny little piece. Just simple guitar, drums using a brush on the snare and some simple melodic bass phrasing to keep your feet tapping to it! The lyrics seem to be from another time that is long gone for today’s political correctness era.

Perfectly Lonely sound like the old guitar player from an old buddy of mines band called Needy Fingers. The raw guitar sound it fabulous with just the correct amount of vibrato to add a beautiful colour to it.

Crossroads is the one song the his new album that I like the most. It’s an old Cream standby cover tune that is precise, nice and crisp sounding. The funky sound that he adds to this classic keeps me interested and wanting to hear more of it!

I’m sure I’ll get the album at a later date and I will then have a better understanding of it to comment further. Has anyone else heard about his new album?

Here are my favorite John Mayer albums in order!

Keep on Jammin’

The band Cinema Face

Chris — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:01:51 +0000

Cinema Face is the best progressive art-rock band that I have ever seen play in Brantford. The band was playing in Brantford in a popular bar called Alexanders Tavern. This band stopped me dead in my tracks and left me, not to mention everyone else in the bar, screaming for more.

They had all these tv sets beside the stage that featured holographic images on them. They also had these black light effects that blew my mind, a first for me at a the local level as well as a phenomenal light show!

The band members of Cineman Face were Frank La Magna (guitar, vocals) Armin Hart (keyboards, vox) Randy Infuso (drums, vocals) Darryl Peterson (bass, vocals).

The band played at variable clubs throughout Ontario and started building a small fan base over their 13 years together. While the band faltered in Canada, they finally gained some ground in Europe and Japan. In Germany, the band gained near legendary status!

Even though they did not achieve overall commercial success they tried their utmost but came up short. Finally in 1983 Cinema Face recorded a self-titled album, which was released under the Red Sun Records label. Though the band had already called it quits by 1994, their debut was then re-released on the Pacemaker Records label. The album did well enough to bring Cinema Face back to life in 1996 to complete a sophomore offering, Face Card.

This is a video of the band playing at the old Gasworks in Toronto in 1983. For those who are not aware of this Toronto landmark, it was the bar that Wayne and Garth went to in Wayne’s World.

Below are some links to check out if you were a fan of the band and you want to pick up some of the bands CD’s for your collection!

Cinema Face
Face Card

Keep on Jammin’

80’s band Zon and Put on the Show

Chris — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:01:15 +0000

A Canadian band called Zon, was a theatrical band that was ahead of it’s time. Although I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing this band, it does hold a special part in my rock and roll heart!

While playing in Pylis, we played this song as an opening number. It got my heart just a pumping at break neck speed! The great keyboardist Tony F., recorded this circus like pipe organ sounding song that was followed by a keyboard solo that helped us lead into this tune! Ah, the memories!

Another tune from these guys that we did was called Time for your Love. It had lots of fun openings for me to jam on stage and boy was that fun! See CounterPoint, there was a time that I could pull off some free jamming/soloing on my axe! Too bad that I couldn’t reach deep into my little bag of tricks and show you what I mean.

If you are a fan of this band and you are looking some of their tunes to download, then check out this site for more info.

Enjoy.

Canadian pomp rockers Zon, which were originally released at the end of the 70s. What set them apart from other Canadian bands at the time, was their theatrical approach. Anyone who saw them performing live 25 years ago, will tell you how impressive they were. With special costumes and masks, it was indeed something you had to see at the time. Musically the band played keyboard orientated rock and have always been compared to Queen and (especially) Styx. As a matter of fact, one of the highlights of their (rather short) career came when they were asked to support Styx on their “Grand Illusion” tour. CBS took them under their wings and released “Astral Projector” in 1978 and “Back Down To Earth” a year later. In my opinion, the former is the better of the two, because it’s Zon from start to finish. On “Back Down To Earth”, CBS tried to push them into a more ‘commercial’ direction and the guys didn’t get enough time to write (enough) decent songs. Negative publicity and a corporate cleanout saw CBS dropping them from their roster. A (rather weak) third album was released on the small Falcon Records in 1980 before the band called it quits.
Rock Report

Keep on Jammin’

Bruce Cockburn’s Life Short Call Now album

Chris — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:01:33 +0000

I just ran into a Bruce Cockburn album that I was not aware of until right now! The album is titled Life Short Call Now (2006).

The song that caught my eye and had my feet a tapping is called Different When It Comes To You.

It has a hint of pop and the regular challenge that he regularly provides us is not here in this song. He’s still better then most out there in the industry today!

I find this video quite appealing, visually that is. Some folks out there may think that he is selling out, but as in the past, that is not his end game! The singer/port Ani DiFranco does a guest appearance on this tune as well!

I just thought I’d share it with you all, enjoy!

Keep on Jammin’

The magic of Scott Merritt lives on

Chris — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:01:50 +0000

I just found out through a buddy of mine on Facebook that one of the greatest musicians that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Scott Merritt, was playing at this years Guelph Jazz Festival today.

Three Parades, by Guelph artists/multi instrumentalists/producers Scott Merritt and Jeff Bird, will orchestrate a performance by three different bands, each made up of 10-20 musicians, that will approach the St. George’s Church’s bell tower from different directions. All three bands will play a Merritt composition in counterpoint with one another and with the tolling church bell (played by Guelph player Jeff Bird), which will act as both a time pulse and key center for the composition.

Along the three routes, road signs will provide supplementary cues for the musicians to change what they are playing. The bell tower will house a PA system, which will project a pre-recorded score for solo voice that is reminiscent of a muezzin, who delivers the Muslim call to prayer from mosques. Once the bands converge at the tower and play together for several minutes, they will turn around and recede to their original starting positions.

The compositions for the three bands, the bell, and recorded voice work both independently and in concert, regardless of the listener’s position.
The Guelph Jazz Festival

The man was always a head of the curve. How he composed his songs were brilliant and very innovative. He did it such a way that I have never heard of before. I guess this is what peaked my curiosity with his overall body of work. In 1986 he was a nominee for the Juno award of Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year!

He was the kind of guitarist that when he entered the local music store, Music and Sound, everyone who was holding a guitar put it down making it look like they didn’t play it at all! We all just had so much respect for him that we felt a little bit insecure about playing in front of him. The man was always a gentle giant in person and Scott’s interviews were always insightful.

My wife and I feel in love with his Gravity is Mutual album when we first heard it. We still have our original vinyl copy downstairs!

I will leave you with a video that he did to support his album and I know that you’ll all enjoy it!

Scott Merritt, Keep on Jammin’ PLEASE!!!

More things about Scott Merritt

The band Toto

Chris — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:01:54 +0000

Toto is one of those bands from the late 70’s to the present day that has produced one or two certain song(s) that everyone attaches some fond memories to or just really like the band! The level of musicianship, the jelling of the band members, that sound and rhythm they had was truly unmistakable. Toto was such a polished band that some people may have viewed them in too harsh a light. Their first self titled album, Toto, was the best one they ever put out.

I had all these musical emotions fly directly into my mind the other day by an unexpected force, my god-son Jeffery! He had been talking about this TOTO Greatest Hits (Steel box collection) that he just picked up and he talked about some of the tunes that he liked on it.

The songs he was referring to were some of Toto’s newer releases. They were the ones that I had heard over and over again on the radio. They were nice and all that but, not always as complex and intricate as I liked in comparison with their first project.

So yesterday a few of us went off to help my cousin, Jeffery’s aunt and her husband, put in a retaining wall in their back yard. On the drive over there, Jeffery told me he brought his Toto CD and asked me if I wanted to hear it, so I sheepishly said ok?!

When he placed it in the car CD player and hit play, a few of the songs on it instantly brought me back to my early years as a young progressive guitar player. I honestly love how they formed all their chord/vocal progressions in each of their songs. All though I could not for the life of me figure them out back then, I could certainly appreciate the talent that was needed in performing these difficult pieces live on stage.

Does anyone out there have their self titled album Toto in their collection? If not, then here is what they played on this classic album in order!
Child’s Anthem, I’ll Supply the Love, Georgy Porgy, Manuela Run, You are the Flower, Girl Goodbye, Takin’ it Back, Rockmaker, Hold the Line and Angela.

The members of the band for this album were Bobby Kimball, Steve Porcaro, David Hungate, David Paich, Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro.

These bunch of musicians were everything that I could ever want in a band’s style. They guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion are all seasoned studio players. Just imagine how many ways they could come up with in playing a song?

I used to listen to them everyday in my early years. The only song I ever played of theirs was Hold the Line, with a Brantford band called Duece. No other musicians wanted to venture off in that direction. I used my sister’s old stereo a QueOn some much that I went through 3 stylists! I listened to each song taking it apart instrument by instrument in my mind. It’s amazing how much time a young kid can have on his hands isn’t it!

BTW the word toto means all encompassing in Latin! This is so great because it really represents the true essence of the band because of all the contrasting musical styles that they cover.

Keep on Jammin’

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan missing songs

Chris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:01:57 +0000

For all your Bob Dylan fans out there, here is a neat bit of musical trivia that you may have not known about up until now! It’s all about 4 songs that were not released on his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, that did not make the final cut. They are “Let Me Die In My Footsteps”, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie”, “Rock and Gravel” and “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues”

So this album, Bob Dylan’s second one which had the working title of Bob Dylan Blues, was a pure master piece! This album did much better then his debut album titled Bob Dylan, which sold about 5000 copies, just enough to break even at that time. This little known fact about these 4 songs made me sit back and scratch my head to wonder, why?

Can you actually believe that some idiots deemed them unusable for public consumption? This album made it to 97 on Rolling Stones Top 500 albums of all time!
With Blowin’ in the Wind on an album, I guess you can’t go wrong now can ya? Thank God they left that one on it!

So here is what I took out of this fairly long article. If I have misinterpreted any of this or got my info wrong then PLEASE tell us.

So Bob Dylan resumes his work on his second album at Columbia’s Studio A in New York city. This session started on October 26th, 1962. “Mixed-Up Confusion” and Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right Mama” were deemed unusable, so out came the scissors and they were cut. A master take of “Corrina, Corrina“, which was not an original, was selected for the final album. I remember listening to this one when I was a young kid at my parents house, what a great tune.

A few copies of the original pressing of the LP — with the subsequently deleted tracks, “Let Me Die In My Footsteps“, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie“, “Rock and Gravel” and “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues” — finally turned up for general consumption, against Columbia’s blessings. CBS produced records later on with these four songs, but not the corresponding covers.

Imagine for a second, only 30 pressed copies with these tunes were released, then they stopped the presses, removed the offending songs and finally started the presses once again? Can you say really rare and valuable piece of plastic?

In April, 1992, the first known stereo copy (with the label listing the original four songs) was found at thrift store located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The quality of this valuable piece of music history was used and in not bad condition. It was later fetched $12,345.67. Envision, if you will, this album being in mint condition?

Keep on Jammin’

Great TABs for John Mayer

Chris — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:01:40 +0000

I feel that this is the best site for John Mayer tabs, period! I have found it a great source to turn to, if I come up against a mental road block when learning one of his tunes. I can still remember the first time I came across this site! I quickly ran threw the whole site and committed it to memory, just in case the suites wanted to pull the plug on it.

The site is simple and very easy to use. The contents are straight forward and never cluttered.

Not only does this place provide you with some GREAT tabs for playing John’s creations but, it also has a MISCELLANEOUS TABS part that I just found out about while going back through the site while writing this post. They’ve worked on Damien Rice, Cold Play, Ari Heist tunes as well Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead and Jeff Buckley. Check out the Various area and try the Somewhere over the rainbow one, it’s just fabulous! A buddy sent me a link from this guy playing this song on a eukalalee and it sounded so great, I decided to check out the tabs here and sure enough, they were bang on!

Keep on Jammin’

This month in R & R history

Chris — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:17:35 +0000

While searching classicbands.com, I came across some events that stood out on my screen this morning! So here is what I THOUGHT made the grade.

1964
February 23
The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1965
February 24
The Beatles began filming known as Help!

February 24
The Beach Boys record that great little ditty called “Help Me Rhonda”

1966
February 28
In Liverpool, England, at the original Cavern Club and the home to many of the Beatles’ early performances, it closed its doors for the final time because of mounting debt. Police were called when over a 100 fans barricaded themselves inside the club to protest. Now that would have been a the place to have been on that day!

1969 – ClassicBands.com

February 24
The Jimi Hendrix Experience played their last British concert as a band at the world famous London’s Royal Albert Hall. No that sucks! I was only 4 at the time and I never got to see them because I was WAY under age at the time!

1970
February 23
The Doors’ LP “Morrison Hotel” goes gold.

The first annual Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys, was held in Toronto. The awards had existed since 1964 under the name The RPM Gold Leaf Awards, which were established by Walt Grealis, editor and publisher of RPM Magazine.

February 27
Jefferson Airplane is fined $1,000 for onstage profanity in Oklahoma City. How dare they!

February 28
After the family of the late Ferdinand von Zeppelin threatens a lawsuit, Led Zeppelin performs in Copenhagen, Denmark as “The Nobs”. Now that, I’ve never heard of before!

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” becomes Simon and Garfunkel’s third US number one hit. Great tune to be able to play on piano, that one I can’t.

1971
February 27
Five months after her death, Janis Joplin began a nine-week stay at the top of the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with “Pearl”. Janis was one of those women that you would love to have gone camping with, just imagine the stories and sing-a-longs!

1976

February 24
The Eagles LP “Their Greatest Hits 1971 – 1975″ becomes the first album in history to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Really great album, I’ve still got my original vinyl one!

February 28
Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” in named Best Pop Vocal Performance and Album Of The Year at the 18th annual Grammy Awards. Now word of a lie, I’m working on this one right now, really! My wife caught the tale end of it on The Colbert report and taped it for me.

February 27
Keith Richards is arrested in Toronto after police raid his hotel room and seize 22 grams of heroin, 5 grams of cocaine and narcotics paraphernalia. I remember as a kid watching this thing unfold on TV. I was just left shaking my head.

1978
February 23
At the 20th annual Grammy awards The Eagles win Record of the Year for “Hotel California”. Great album.

1979
February 23
On the strength of their hit, “Sultans Of Swing”, England’s Dire Straits kick off their first US tour. I fell asleep many a nights listening to this guitar master piece.

1980

February 27
The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” wins a Grammy Award for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, while Billy Joel’s “52nd Street” wins both Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. 52nd Street was one of those musical changing albums for me.

February 29
Mason City Police discovered a file containing Buddy Holly’s glasses and a watch owned by The Big Bopper, that were found in the wreckage of their plane crash in 1959. Holly’s cuff links worn during the crash had already been presented to Paul McCartney back in 1976, when the first Buddy Holly Week was held. Holly’s widow would eventually launch a lawsuit to recover his glasses.

1983

February 26
Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” rose to #1 on the US album chart, where it would stay for 37 weeks. Only “The Eagles’ Greatest Hits 1971 – 1975″ has sold more.

1984 – ClassicBands.com

February 25
Van Halen enjoyed a US number one smash with “Jump”, after David Lee Roth added lyrics to music that Eddie Van Halen had written two years before. I recall doing a parity on this song with some neighbours called plump, boy they were bent back in the day.

1992

February 25
Eric Clapton wins six Grammys, including Best Record and Best Song for “Tears In Heaven” as well as Best Album for “Unplugged”. This CD helped me get back into guitar again and I am forever grateful for it.

1998
February 25
At Radio City Music Hall, Bob Dylan is handed three Grammys, including one for Best Album for “Time Out Of Mind”. Dylan’s son, Jakob, also won an award, winning Best Song for “One Headlight”, a tune he recorded with his band, The Wallflowers. Also winning awards were John Fogerty, who picked up Best Rock Album for “Blue Moon Swamp”, Elton John for Best Male Vocal for “Candle In The Wind 1997″ and Van Morrison and John Lee Hooker who won for Best Pop Collaboration for “Don’t Look Back”. Bo Diddley and Roy Orbison were cited for Lifetime Achievement. that would have been a show to see. As for the rest of them, I’m not so sure.

2003
February 23
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sang together for the first time in ten years as they receive a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. The day I saw them at the CNE one summer was pure magic!

February 23
Ravi Shankar’s daughter, Nora Jones was five-for-five at the Grammy Awards, as she took honors for Album of the Year, Record of the Year (for “Don’t Know Why”), Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (also for “Don’t Know Why”). Shankar is the man who taught Beatle George Harrison to play the sitar. I played in a band with Ravi Shankar’s God son for my cousin’s wedding, neat eh?!!

2006

February 24
The Sex Pistols gave a virtual middle finger to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when they issued an open letter on front man Johnny Rotten’s Website, saying they have no intention of attending the induction ceremony at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. “Next to the sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We’re not coming.” GD, those guys are way too funny!

Guitar Licks and Tips » Albums

Acoustic Guitar magazine is 20 years old

Related Reading:

John Mayer’s latest release Battle Studies

Related Reading:

The band Cinema Face

Related Reading:

80’s band Zon and Put on the Show

Related Reading:

Bruce Cockburn’s Life Short Call Now album

Related Reading:

The magic of Scott Merritt lives on

Related Reading:

The band Toto

Related Reading:

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan missing songs

Related Reading:

Great TABs for John Mayer

Related Reading:

This month in R & R history

Related Reading: