Last post, I talked about one of the highlights of my recent trip to Tennessee, The Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville. This time we’re going to Memphis. There was Graceland. There was Sun Studios. There was the Gibson Guitar factory…
Blog Archives
“Time Is Tight. . . “: Booker T. And The MG’s
Tagged with: Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Duck Dunn, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Soul Music, Stax Records, Steve Cropper
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Live-Evil: Miles Davis Deconstructes The Blues on Sivad/Honky Tonk (1970)
Sort of continuing the Miles Davis theme from my previous post, I want to discuss one specific piece of Miles from the early seventies: “Honky Tonk” (a studio recording on the album “Get Up With It”) or “Sivad” (as the…
“Hey, Hey Mama”: Cover Versions Of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”
I became aware of this video from the website OpenCulture.com. It’s a combination of 80 different YouTube video covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”. I guess it shows how getting your Led Zeppelin riffs down is a rite of passage…
Tagged with: "Black Dog", Classic Rock, Dread Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin Covers, reggae
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Let Me Play The Blues For You”: A Unified Field Theory For Playing The Blues?
Not that long ago, I was giving an off the cuff lesson to a friend who asked about blues soloing. I just said to play the minor pentatonic scale. I immediately regretted saying that. It was a pat answer and…
Tagged with: Blues, Improvisation, minor pentatonic, minor pentatonic scale, pentatonic scale, scale, Soloing
Posted in Blues, Improvisation
Posted in Blues, Improvisation
“Lawdy mama, light my fuse”: Johnny Winter 1944 – 2014
Johnny Winter passed away yesterday in Switzerland at the age of 70 while on tour in Europe. Johnny was one of my first guitar heroes. When I was about 11 or 12 years old, my brother joined Columbia Record Club (anyone…
“How Blue Can You Get . . .” : Some Lesser Known Blues Solos Worth Checking Out
Lately, I have been concentrating on learning to play the Chapman Stick Guitar (see the Chapman Stick Guitar tab for more info). While it is in many ways different from your standard guitar, it also shares many traits. Because I…
Tagged with: "Stormy Monday", Billie Holiday, Blues, Boz Scaggs, Duane Allman, John Mayall, Larry Coryell, Lester Young, Michael Bloomfield, Peter Green
Posted in Blues, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Blues, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Okay, the Allman Brothers Band”: The Allman Brothers, Song Arrangement and the Blues
Those words start one of the records that changed my life. I’m referring to The Allman Brothers/At Fillmore East. I remember hearing it during the summer of 1971. I was 13 years old and was with my family at a…
ManRoy Music 