Kenny Wayne Shepherd: 10 Days Out is a remarkable CD/DVD bundle that documents Shepherd's 10 day journey in 2004 back to the roots of American blues music in the south. Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Chris Layton & Tommy Shannon of Double Toruble play alongside blues greats like Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Jerry "Boogie" McCain, David "Honeboy" Edwards, Willie "Big eyes" Smith, Pinetop Perkins, Etta Baker, BB King, Hubert Sumlin as well as the Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters bands. These may well be the last recordings of some of these blues artists; several have passed away since 2004.
While the CD is great, consider it just a warmup for the DVD. The ninety minute documentary film takes you through dive bars, churches, backyards, graveyards, kitchens and living rooms to hear the blues up front and center. You get a feel for the lives of the musicians who grew up and lived and played the blues their entire lives, many of them 80 or more years old. These are musicians with talent that even give a guy like Shepherd pause to wonder whether he will measure up. The material covers a range of blues styles: acoustic, up-tempo, Piedmont and down and dirty electric blues.
You can buy the MP3 songs alone as part of the Legends EP series on Amazon, but to get the full impact, you're better off buying the CD/DVD package.
Here's a clip from the "10 Days Out" DVD via YouTube.
Also, stay tuned for a new CD: "Live! In Chicago" from a performance on the same tour at Chicago's House of Blues featuring Hubert Sumlin, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and other blues legends. The CD will be out September 28 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Shepherd continues to tour extensively in the US and Canada with gigs coming up in Royal Oak, Michigan, Ohio, Washington, Chicago, New York, Boston, Montreal, Toronto --heck he's even playing in Fredricton, New Brunswick. It's a great live show.
A few weeks back, I took a look at LickLibrary's DVD series "Learn to Play Pink Floyd." It's great, but it may be quite some time before I'm able to master some of David Gilmour's more sophisticated solos. So in the meantime, I'm focusing on some more basic blues playing. Luckily the folks at LickLibrary have just released a new series of DVD's highlighting Irish blues rock guitarist, Gary Moore. While Moore is not so well-known in the US, he's one of my favorite blues players. Gary Moore is a supreme shredder when he wants to be, but he's also excellent at slow burn blues. And that's what I wanted to learn.
There are several different DVD's available: Learn to Play Gary Moore, The Solos and Quick Licks. Each of these takes a different approach and you may find one more of a fit depending on what you're trying to learn. The Quick Licks DVD is a good way to get started with some snappy licks that you can add to your own blues and rock playing. The Solos DVD is probably the most advanced, giving you note perfect instruction on several famous Gary Moore songs. Each DVD also includes high quality blues backing tracks in the style of Gary Moore, giving you a great way to practice your new found skills.
The Quick Licks DVD features 30 different licks in the style of Gary Moore's "Walking by Myself" song, an 8 bar blues song in the key of E. The instructor Danny Gill breaks things down into small steps so that you can easily follow along even if you've never played the blues before. He takes you through the basic blues shuffle rhythm, to a simple walking bass, a turnaround and some simple fill licks in a matter of minutes. I think there's a bit too much distortion when he covers the opening rhythm part, but you can still pick it up quite easily from his description.
There's also just enough theory to provide a context for understanding the scales that form the basis of these licks, but not so much to keep you from having fun. And once you learn a few of these licks, you'll definitely be having fun jamming along to the backing track. With the focus on licks, they add up to the full solo of "Walking by Myself." And best of all, you can break at any point and feel that you've learned something that you can incorporate into your playing.
The Learn to Play Gary Moore DVD featuring Richard Barrett goes into more detail on specific Gary Moore songs, including "Still Got the Blues," "The Loner," "Out in the Fields" and also "Walking By Myself." Each song is covered in its entirety with the intro, verse, solos, bridge etc. However, on this DVD the pace is quite a bit faster than on Quick Licks, so you've really got to pay attention. In this DVD, there's a greater investment required than just learning licks, but the payoff is that much greater, especially if you're a fan of Gary Moore. Unfortunately, for most of the songs, the instructor's guitar has no visible fret markers, so you've really got to listen to closely to figure out where to play. (It begs the question: what were they thinking?) For an intermediate player, it shouldn't take too long to adjust, but it still seems like a bad idea for an instructional DVD and it makes it impossible to recommend this DVD for a beginning player.
In The Solos DVD, the emphasis, as you might guess, is on the solos rather the rhythm parts of the song. The instructor, Stuart Bull, is very thorough in showing the solos at full tempo and then breaking them down into smaller pieces at a slower speed. The DVD assumes you're already familiar with the songs and will know where to place the solos. But if you're not, there's a full disk of backing tracks (also at multiple tempos) that makes it easy to practice to accompaniment. The pace here is fast, but assuming you're motivated and have the time, you can chip away at these and eventually learn the whole song.
The production on all of these DVDs is superb. You've got multiple camera angles going so you can see both the right and left hands at all times. Having an on-screen tablature view for longer licks as well as on-screen guitar chord diagrams for obscure chords like the so-called Hendrix chord (E7#9 --also used in The Beatle's Taxman) would have been a great convenience. Sometimes a picture is a much easier way to learn, rather than having to listen carefully to the description and watch the instructor's fingers.
If there are two things these DVDs show, it's that anyone can learn to play the blues, but it can take many years to really become an expert. Even beginner can pick up some basic blues rhythm and licks to jam with others. But there's enough subtlety and complexity to the blues that you can always learn something new no matter what your skill level. If you're just getting started, I recommend picking up the Quick Licks DVD; it's the easiest to get into and the instructor really takes his time to explain things.
Intermediate or advanced players may want to skip Quick Licks and dive right into the other DVDs. There's many hours of instruction in each of these. While there's some overlap between each DVD, since they all feature Gary Moore's most famous songs, they are taught slightly differently in each case. You can get the DVDs directly from LickLibrary, from Amazon and in many local guitar shops. Quick Licks will set you back around $20; other titles are slightly more expensive. Given the quality of production and how many hours of instruction you'll get from these DVDs I think they are well worth it.
Below is a video excerpt from the "Learn to Play Gary Moore -- The Solos" featuring instructor Stuart Bull. If you're not familiar with Gary Moore, this is a great intro to the soulfullness of his playing, especially the portions of "Still Got the Blues."
I was googling for easy rock & roll songs to learn and discovered an excellent article over at The Hangover called "Songs Every Garage Band Should Know." While I don't agree with every song on this list, I gotta admit, it's a pretty good start. These are popular songs that most people will like and most of 'em are pretty easy to learn. That seems like a good combination to me. Heck, I know almost half of them already, so probably most of you can master these songs in a couple of hours.
Here's the list:
Louie, Louie (The Kingsmen) --Three chords and a crazy guitar solo
Wild Thing (The Troggs) --Basically the same as Louie, Louie
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) --The inventor of the classic rock & roll riff
Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley) --Not my favorite, but ok
Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones) -- A crowd pleaser for sure
Wipeout (The Surfaris) --Classic garage rock from the 60's
Allison (Elvis Costell0) --I love Elvis, but I'm not sure this fits here
I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash) --This seems like an odd one to me
I Wanna be Sedated (The Ramones) --The uber-punk garage band
Get Back (The Beatles) --A high class song that's not too difficult
Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon) --I wouldn't pick this, but many love it
As I said, it's a pretty decent set list for a garage band or bar band. I might have dropped the Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello and Warren Zevon in favor of AC/DC's "Back in Black," The Sex Pistols "Pretty Vacant" and something by The Who or The Clash, but that's just me. You can use the links to Chordie, FretPlay or TabScout to learn how to play these songs.
What do you think? What are your top picks for easy to learn, recognizable rock songs? Also check out The Hangover's other posts listed below.
I count myself lucky that I managed to see The Clash twice in Montreal when I was growing growing up. The first time was September 1979 on the "Take the Fifth" tour in a 2,000 seat theater, a few months before the release of London Calling. And I saw them again, three years later, in September 1982 on the "Know Your Rights" tour in a slightly bigger venue. But as much as I loved The Clash, they could be a bit hit-or-miss live. Some nights they were tight as a drum and sometimes, well, not so much.
So I had some trepidation as to how good the "Live at Shea Stadium" CD would be. The Clash were starting to come a bit unraveled, having released "Combat Rock" and promptly sacked drummer Topper Headon owing to his out-of-control drug addiction. The Clash had several big stadium gigs opening for The Who on their final tour, including two dates at historic Shea Stadium, just a month after I saw them in a more modest arena.
But rest assured, "Live at Shea Stadium" is a great CD that's representative of The Clash at or near their pinnacle. The recording is soundboard quality, far superior to any bootleg I've heard. And it captures the spirit and energy of a gig that must have been exciting --even terrifying-- for the band. Here they were playing in front of an audience of 70,000 people, an audience far larger than they'd ever had. Highlights include a super funky version of "Magnificent 7," the always trippy "Armagideon Time" and the rousing "Should I Stay or Should I Go" featured below on YouTube. For a band more accustomed to playing smaller arenas, they managed to do a great job filling She Stadium. Though it's a relatively short set of the Clash's most accessible material, the band is in great form for just about every song. Ok, the vocals on "London Calling" and "Guns of Brixton" are a bit weak and Terry Chimes isn't half the drummer Topper Headon is. But overall, it works great.
Bottom line: If you're a Clash fan, pick up "Live at Shea Stadium" and enjoy the memories.
Like many
others, the first thing I did when I heard of Alex Chilton's passing was
to put on the wonderful yet ironically titled Big Star #1 Record, to hear
the first chorus sing "I feel like I'm dying". According
to early reports, Alex collapsed while mowing the lawn. That may be the best argument against household chores ever.
When I think about Chilton,
the overarching aspect is the brilliance of his early career in The Box Tops and Big Star, unmatched
by his later work as a solo artist. In that regard, Chilton may have felt a
little like dying for decades.
And the early music was truly brilliant, even if Chilton didn't favor it later. There was real magic in those Big Star records, and
their regular inclusion in most influential album lists was no accident. Many of those songs are as close to perfect as rock
songs get. They influenced modern rock to a profound degree.
If Chilton suffered from the curse of lost promise, in part it was because he was
so fully formed as an artist so early. That sure
didn't sound like a teenager on those Box Top hits, to say the least. And even a song like 13,
from Big Star's #1 Record, sounds like a wise man looking back on his teenage
years with insight few possess at any age.
Despite the strength of the music, fame and fortune eluded Big Star and the band broke up after 3 albums for no better reasons than: bad timing, bad management, bad luck. Chilton lost a decade to drugs and drink, but managed to get clean and continue as a solo artist, never looking back.
My
personal memory of Chilton is a show he did in a club in Chicago in 2003. Most of the set was uninspired, taken from Chilton's solo career. But then he lit into When My Baby's Beside Me, a Big Star single, and the
room just levitated.
May you truly rest in peace, Alex. Your bell keeps on ringing.
Big Star will perform at tribute to Alex Chilton at South by Southwest Saturday March 20 at Antone's.
Elvis Costello's show "Spectacle", now in its second season on Sundance, just keeps getting better. Not only is Elvis looking younger and more fit than he has for years, he's managed to pull together some of the most diverse and interesting musical guests you'll ever see play on stage together. Costello has always been a brilliant, if eclectic, performer. It turns out he's also a tremendous interviewer, getting musicians to open up about their influences and song writing in a way that a non-musician never could. Some have called the show a musical equivalent to "Inside the Actor's Studio" and I think that's a good comparison.
If you haven't seen the show, check it out on Sundance or get the first season DVD featuring the likes of The Police, Kris Kristofferson, Norah Jones, Lou Reed, She & Him, Jakob Dylan, Diana Krall and Elton John.
The second season has included Bono and The Edge from U2, Bruce Springsteen, Lyle Lovett and Niko Case. My favorite recent episode has featured New Orleans pianist Alan
Toussaint, Nick Lowe, Ray LaMontagne and drum legend Levon Helm from
The Band. To see the these musicians talk about the influence of "The Big Pink" on their styles and then play "The Weight" together with the Imposters was just tremendous.
Costello fans can also rejoice in the long-awaited complete release of "Live at Hollywood High" after more than 30 years. I remember the three song EP that came out with "Armed Forces" back in 1979 when Costello was just 23 years old. It's been a long wait, but worth it.
A while back, Guitar Center held a massive competition in which they crowned Kirby Kelley as King of the Blues. Well, you might not play as well as he does (I sure don't) but you can still practice with the same backing tracks he used for his winning performance.
Guitar Center has made available MP3 files of all of the backing tracks. There are over 20 tracks of various blues styles --Chicago blues, Texas blues, Big Band, Swing, Shuffle, Mambo, you name it. Although the key is not always indicated, they are mostly in A, D, E or are fairly easy to figure out. Check out the backing tracks and the video for some great blues inspiration!
You can also check out even more Rock and Blues backing tracks (some of dubious origin) over at GuitarBackingTrack.com. Bust out your Pentatonics and enjoy!
A while back, I happened to be reading a UK music magazine, Classic Rock, as I sometimes do. English reporters and writers are the best in the world, whether it's in music, technology, business or just about anything. One of the cool things in reading a UK magazine is you can learn about music or trends going on outside of the good old USA.
There was a review for the UK band Thunder's latest CD called Bang! Never heard of 'em. But there was something about the review that sounded interesting. I'm a classic rock kind of guy, so I thought I would check it out on Amazon. Most of the time when I read about some new great band and listen, I'm left wanting.
The first song off the album, "On the Radio" got my attention. Big riffs, stadium drums, wailing guitar solo, great vocal harmonies and plenty of rock & roll attitude. Who are these guys? How come I've never heard of 'em? They opened for Aerosmith 20 years ago. They've got a loyal following in the UK and in Japan, but never really had their big break. "On the Radio" says it all.
Record company got me a plugger A charming man in every way So I paid him lots of money to tell me "It's been tough week, but what can I say?" Working on my video Because I can't you on the phone So I know you're never gonna get this on the radio
People come to watch the show Because my aim is straight and true Twenty years I make a living at this No thanks to you And the TV too...
I never went to high school I was never in the NME I got no chance sleeping with Kate Moss What the hell is wrong with me?
Who did I forget to blow? Should I go on a reality show? Maybe then you'd vote for me 'Cause I can't get on the BBC
The album has a dozen cuts and all of them are great. They cover all the essential elements of rock & roll: women, alcohol, road trips, blues, ballads, and, ah, more women. The songs have great hooks and powerful vocals. There's a couple of acoustic rockers including "Carol Ann" and "Turn Left at California," blues influenced songs like "Retribution" and "One Bullet" and some big old stadium rockers like "Miracle Man," and "Love Sucks." Thunder may not breaking new ground, but it's a fresh take on a classic sound. The music is authentic, up-beat and better than most of what I hear on the radio.
But, here's the downside of discovering bands that have been slogging it out for 20 years in the UK. A week after getting into it and before I could even write this post, Thunder decides to call it quits. Argh! I seem to have a habit of discovering great rock bands just before they implode. It happened with Brainpool, The Hellacopters and now Thunder. Still, I don't think I'm to blame. But you never know. Thunder will complete their current European tour as well as a series of dates in Japan in April and in the UK in the summer, and that's about it. They've done one US gig in the last 15 years, so I'm not counting on any gigs closer than Glasgow.
Nonetheless, if you like 70's style classic rock like Bad Company, Thin Lizzy, The Guess Who, April Wine or the fictional Strange Fruit, then go get Bang! Immediately. An MP3 version of Bang! is available on Amazon: 12 great songs for nine bucks with no DRM. What are you waiting for? You can also get their previous album "Robert Johnson's Tombstone for just eight dollars. And you can get some of their back catalog on eMusic.
From the first track of Ray Davies' latest CD "Working Man's Café" it's clear that at the ripe old age of 65 the man still has a lot to say about what's going on the world. Vietnam Cowboys is a biting commentary on globalization and the loss genericization of culture. But rather than preaching, Davies' combines wit with a good ol' rock and roll soundtrack.
You better top up your suntan Looks like we're in for heavy weather Economic meltdown Nobody said it would last forever Let's make a movie in Baghdad Take the culture right to the Third World Blow up a brand new civilization In the name of globalization
Big confusion in Hollywood Now it's American Major League in Japan Hamburger in China With sushi bars in Maine and Boston Dollar signs said expand Now it's cowboys in Vietnam
For a guy who penned more classic hits in a single Kinks album than most bands achieve in a lifetime, it's great to see Davies still very much a working man. Vocally Davies' remains as strong as ever. Musically the album sounds a bit like late stage Kinks combined with a dose of Nasheville sound and a pinch of Mark Knopfler. At any rate, it's rock music that has something to say. While not every cut on the album is a hit, there's at least half a dozen great songs and a couple of close contenders. It may not have brother Dave pounding out Kinks riffs, but it's still a strong, upbeat album and thoroughly enjoyable. There are some good clips on YouTube; the segment below is the song "In A Moment."
Ray Davies continues touring and has a few upcoming dates in the UK and the United States.
This is another guest post from my buddy Rick in Phoenix on the legendary cult band NRBQ (New Rhythm & Blues Quartet).
It’s all there in their first ‘hit’, “Flat Foot Flewzy” – an amazing guitar riff to lead off, sinking into a deep groove that keeps on rolling over a nonsense lyric, but throughout it all, music that just makes you want to smile. NRBQ is one of the greatest bands of all time.
In some ways, NRBQ never ‘progressed’ from that initial shot. They just kept creating small masterpieces over the years, refining the perfect pop song in a hundred different ways. You can pick them up from nearly all their albums, from the rock splendor of “Me and the Boys”, to the novelty of “It Was An Accident”, to the touching “Another Word For Love”. And any aficionado could add dozens to this random list.
One of the most admirable things, for me, about the Q is how they just kept doing it. They never really cracked anything like the big time over more than 3 decades of recording and playing. But they kept it up, and every live show was an unpredictable rollercoaster ride.
In person, they were always a riot. Terry Adams’ stage persona was a complete goofball, so much so that it took a while to realize that his stumbling approach to his keyboard overlaid some impressive chops as a musician. And they always seemed to take real pleasure in playing together. As they put it in “Things we like” – “We like to have lots of fun and play these songs for you”
Which brings up back to joy. How joyous? Tom Ardolino, their drummer, was just a fan when he got called to sit in on short notice. He ended up playing with them for more than 30 years. And there is nothing surprising when you hear that Tom has one of the biggest record collections in the world.
NRBQ have never been flashy, just deep, mining a rich vein to perfection. An old friend and I were talking recently, and we agreed on a one-question test to determine if someone was a real music fan – “Do you love NRBQ?” And, if they didn’t know the Q, playing half a dozen tunes would act as an instant aptitude test.
If you're not familiar with NRBQ, check out the video and some of the links below.
When you think of bands that have withstood the test of time, touring and recording albums for 35+ years you might think of The Rolling Stones, AC/DC or even KISS. But there's another band that's been on the road just as long that you may never have heard of: The Stranglers.
Despite a large number of top-40 singles, The Stranglers never made it into the US mainstream. Though their sound was more sophisticated than a lot of Punk bands from London in the mid-70s, they got lumped into the Punk / new-wave scene which they outgrew in a few years.
While the band has gone through some changes over the years (notably, founding guitar player Hugh Cornwell's departure in 1990), they've continued on with the other three original members and most recently with Baz Warne on guitar and vocals.
In 2007 the meninblack did a 30 year anniversary gig at the London Roundhouse resurrecting the original set list from 1977. I'm looking forward to seeing this DVD when it makes its way to the US. And heck, lets hope for a US tour in 2010. Meanwhile, here's "Hanging Around" from the Roundhouse gig via YouTube.
I happened to stumble across the song "This is Junk" by Brainpool while listening to a podcast last week. It's a catchy number that sounded to me like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists with a top-40 radio vibe. After digging further I discovered that Brainpool was a 90's postpunk pop group from Sweden who had several hits in the early 1990s, but ditched it all in 2000 to write a rock opera called Junk on the growing commercialism in society. This was a labor of love that took Brainpool four years to complete.
The result is a stunning work reminiscent of the best of the concept albums from the 70's and 80's. They've combined classic rock hooks in the style of The Who, The Clash, Oasis, Pink Floyd, ELP, Queen, David Bowie --and Ted Leo. Not only is the music good, it's eery; like finding a rare unreleased bootleg from many years ago.
Unfortunately Brainpool never found much success outside of Sweden. So while you won't find the CD in the racks at your local musical retailer, you can get it at Amazon, iTunes, eMusic and CD Baby. (For some reason the prices are all over the map: iTunes or eMusic are the best price.) You can listen to the songs using the Amazon widget above. Also several of the songs are available on on PodShow and on MySpace.
, 10 Days Out , Live! In Chicago
, 
featuring the likes of The Police, Kris Kristofferson, Norah Jones, Lou Reed, She & Him, Jakob Dylan, Diana Krall and Elton John. 
Never heard of 'em. But there was something about the review that sounded interesting. I'm a classic rock kind of guy, so I thought I would check it out on Amazon. Most of the time when I read about some new great band and listen, I'm left wanting. 
for just eight dollars. And you can get some of their back catalog on 
, 
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