MARK KNOPFLER
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SUZANNE VEGA
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JOHN HAMMOND
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20 14 SUM MER EVENTS GU IDE
SON GS TO PLA Y
SPIRIT J.S. BACH ‘BOURR E’ IN E MINOR APRIL 2014
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BASICS SMART CHORDS THAT CAN EASE YOUR PLAYING
GU IT AR GURU
10 WAYS TO FIX BUZZING STRINGS
WEEKLY WORKOUT SOLO OVER MINOR CHORDS
GEAR THA T GROOVE S
LARRIV E
AMERI ROADS THE BOB DYLAN WALKING TOUR & 49 OTHER MUST-SEE PLACES
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IN ELEMENTA RY SCHOOL NANCY STU TT ERED SEVERE LY. IT WAS THE KIND OF DISABILIT Y THAT
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THAN MUSICAL TALENT — SHE DEVELOPED CONFIDEN CE. SO, KN OWING FULL WELL THAT THE STAGE IS NO PLACE FOR A STUT TERER, SHE MADE THE CH OICE TO STEP ONTO IT ANYWAY. AND WHEN SHE BEGAN TO SING SOMETHING ASTONISHING HAPPENED: HER STUTTER COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED. SINCE THEN NANCY HAS WRITTEN OVER 100 DIFFERENT SONGS, AND PERFORMED IN FRONT OF AUDIENCES OF MORE THAN 500 PEOPLE. IT’S THE KIND OF STORY THAT REMINDS US THAT WHETHER
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Je rr y eJf f W al ke r an d h is C ll io n sg C J M h A SB
CONTENTS
FEATURES
36
Back in Black Suzanne Vega releases first solo album in seven years BY DAVID KNOWLES
38
Live & Kicking Blues master John Hammond captures a monster live solo performance for posterity BY DAVID KNOWLES
43
At the Water’s Edge On the new album ‘Privateering,’ guitar slinger Mark Knopfler heeds the pirate’s call BY KENNY BER KOWITZ
48
Roadside Americana II: 50 Must-See Places Follow the signposts on the road to the acoustic nation
Suzanne Vega
BY GREG CAHILL, MARK SEGAL KEMP, AND DAVID KNOWLES 63 SPECIAL FOCUS: 2014 SUMMER EVENTS GUIDE
64
Play Well with Others Headed for a festival or music camp? Jam sessions offer great fun and collective creativity . . . if you know how to approach them BY STEVIE COYLE
66
2014 Summer Events Directory Find the right program for you
ON THE COVER: BOB DYLAN
PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVE/
GETTY IMAGES
Mark Knopfler ACOUSTIC GUITAR
APRIL 2014, ISSUE 256 VOL. 24, NO. 10 E I R H T U G Y D O O W — N O I T A R T S U L IL ; IN V O L IO B A F — R E L F P O N K
DEPARTMENTS
9 11 93 94 96 98
FROM THE HOME OFFICE OPENING ACT EVENTS MARKETPLACE AD INDEX GREAT ACOUSTICS
50 Must-See Places
AcousticGuitar.com 5
DEPARTMENTS
Traveler AG-105
NEWS
13
The Beat Remembering American music icon Pete Seeger; Saintseneca merges Appalachia, the Beatles & Sonic Youth on ‘Dark Arc’; and more
17
News Spotlight Dead again: Mountain Girl recounts finding long lost 1970 tapes that lead to the live acoustic ‘Family Dog’ album
Larrivée OM-40R PLAY
21
Here’s How
71
Play the guitar with your daughter to help her build confidence and skills 22
Songcraft
Arizona-based Jason Kostal traded corporate life for a luthier’s dreams 74
David Wax marries American roots rock with Mexican folk 26
Acoustic Classic
76
The Basics
Weekly Workout
Review: AER Compact 60/3 Acoustic Amp
Learn the different minor scales for rock, jazz, ethnic styles, and more
Popular small, but powerful, AER acoustic amp is better than ever
84
AG TR ADE
Shoptalk Athens luthier spiffs up vintage Harmony and Kay guitars; Ernie Ball introduces a new alloy acoustic string; and more
6
April 2014
Review: Traveler AG-105 New mini-guitar offers a full-scale neck and bright acoustic sounds
How to smooth out chord changes by switching up your fingerings
69
Review: Larrivée OM-40R Don’t let this modestly priced guitar fool you—it’s one well-crafted machine
82
33
Guitar Guru Dana Bourgeois on how to get rid of that annoying buzz
‘Nature’s Way’ captured the spirit of the nascent ecology movement; tackling J.S. Bach’s Bourrée in E minor ( p 29) 31
Makers & Shakers
MIXED MEDIA
88
Playlist Rosanne Cash reaches back to her Southern roots to create a great American song cycle; and other CDs
ACOUSTIC GUITAR ONLINE
Tommy Emmanuel
WATCH US ON LI N E! View insightful video interviews with some of the guitar world’s leading artists. In the past month, AcousticGuitar.com has posted conversations with (and player tips from) guitarists Tommy Emmanuel, Muriel Anderson, and Badi Assad. New videos are being posted regularly.
YOUR VOTE COU NT S All year long, the gang at Acoustic Guitar keeps you tuned in to the hottest new guitars and gear. Now it’s time for you to tell us—and the whole world—about the guitars, gear, and gadgets you love to play; the instruments you would recommend to a friend or student, and the ones you dream about playing.
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Introducing the new J-29 Rosewood. Play one today at your Gibson dealer and experience the next American Legend.
The J-29 Rosewood
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FROM THE HOME OFFICE AcousticGuitar.com • AcousticGuitarU.com
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onnections. Every culture has sacred—or beloved secular—places that are revered for their innate qualities or filled with objects that possess significance or convey a special message. Case in point: The Smithsonian collection holds the faded stovetop hat that President Abraham Lincoln wore the night of his assassination. That old hat is seldom displayed, due to its fragile nature, but when it is the hat draws throngs of silent onlookers mesmerized by this rare artifact. In the guitar world, iconic instruments hold an equal fascination. For instance, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art this year is exhibiting Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin. Visitors to the show are captivated by the 35 or so rare instruments from the Martin Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s own collection, and several private collections. People. Places. Things. Meaning. People have an abiding need to connect with the past and with those aspects of their lives that are deemed significant. In that spirit, Acoustic Guitar this month offers “Roadside Americana II,” a feature on 50 must-see places. You might not find examples of grand
architecture, unless you consider the humble Broken Spoke honky tonk in Austin, Texas, to be the Americana version of the Taj Mahal. But you will find plac es that conn ect to a deep call ing within your own soul. That’s as tr ue of the gr eat guitar stores on the list, places that serve as focal points for acoustic-guitar players, as it is for the Ryman Auditorium, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry and a place that resonates with the spirit of the pioneers of bluegrass and country music. It’s also true of the small city of Hibbing, Minnesota, where our cover subject, Bob Dylan, and his girlfriend Echo met after school and on weekends at the L&B Café to share cherry pie a la mode, smoke cigarettes, and listen to the juke box. Now the café is one of several locations, along with the singer-songwriter’s childhood home, on the town’s Bob Dylan Walking Tour. Why are people drawn to it? For one thing, that humble café is where the future folk star dreamed of reinventing himself, never knowing just how deep an impact he’d have on the music world. Think of “Roadside Americana II” as 50 places suitable for dreaming. —Greg Cahill, editorial director
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Corrections & Clarifications The
February issue ofAG incorrectly published Christian “Chris” Martin IV’s first name as Christopher. The article also misidentified the authors Inventing of the American Guitar: The Pre-Civil War Innovations of C.F. Martin and His Contemporaries . The authors are James Westbrook, Arian Sheets, Richard Johnston, and David Gansz. In addition, in the “50 Must-See Events” feature, the Cuyahoga River was misspelled and the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival incorrectly listed as the Cleveland International Guitar Festival.
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Except where otherwise noted, all contents © 2014 Str ingletter, David A. Lusterm an, Publisher.
AcousticGuitar.com 9
2014
Y O U R V OT E C O U NT S !
A
ll year long, the gang at Acoustic Guitar keeps you tuned in to the
hottest new guitars and gear. Now it’s time for you to tell us—and the whole world—about the guitars, gear, and gadgets you love to play; the instruments you would recommend to a friend or student, and the ones you dream about playing.
VOTING BEGINS FEBRUARY
TH
ACOU ST IC G U ITA R . COM / P CA
PLAYER’S CHOICE AWARDS
OPENING ACT
PETE SEE GER WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE O T O H P G R E B S E K A L B Y A J
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MARCH 20, 2006
The late folk icon performs at the 25th anniversary Bread and Roses benefit concert. Read a remembrance of Seeger on page 13.
AcousticGuitar.com 11
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1974 - 2014 George Lowden celebrates 40 years of guitar building and designing
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NEWS
Saintseneca’s ‘Dark Arc’ 14
Grammy Winners 14
Grateful Dead 17
THE BEAT
Pete Seeger
1919–2014 Remembering an American music icon BY MARK SEGAL KEMP
Pete Seeger performs on stage during the Bring Leonard Peltier Home 2012 Concert at the Beacon in New York City.
O
ne of the most vocal champions of acoustic folk traditions of myriad cultures, a powerful figure on the American political left, and an icon of American music, Pete Seeger died January 27 after more than seven decades of collecting, teaching, performing, and recording the music of working people from all over the world. Seeger died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was 94. Andrew Revkin , an environmental reporter for theNew York Times, a folksinger, and a friend and Hudson Valley, New York, neighbor of Seeger’s for many years, had visited Seeger at Presbyterian Hospital in the S E G A M I Y T T E /G D R A N R A B N O S L I E N
‘We all owe our careers to Pete Seeger.’
—JO AN B AE Z
Seeger’s influence on American music and his impact on social justice and environmental issues was strong and enduring, from his young years performing labor songs alongside such other legendary American folk figures asWoody Guthrieand members of Seeger’s own earliest groups, the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, to his middle and later years singing with subsequent generations of folk artists, including
arms to the toll human industry has taken on global climate change, from US involvement in Latin American violence to more recent wars in the Middle East. He adapted the gospel song “I’ll Overcome Someday” as “We Shall Overcome,” which became a major anthem of the civil rights movement—in 2009, Seeger performed at an inaugural event for the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama. Seeger was modest about his importance. In a 2002 interview with Acous tic Guitar’s Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, he said, “I’m a teacher trying to teach people to participate, whether it’s banjos or guitars or politics or whatever.”
week prior to the folk icon’s death. “When I Bob Dylan , Odetta , Bruce Springsteen , A member of the religiously plural Uniarrived on Monday afternoon,” Revkin and Ani DiFranco. From the 1940s to the tarian Universalist Church, Seeger long noted, “he was at the center of a healing present, he strummed an acoustic guitar or maintained that folk music and community circle of song once again. My friend Steve plucked a Vega banjo often emblazoned wer e one and the sam e, and with both, Stanne , an environmental educator and with the slogan “This machine surrou nds everyday common people could effect promasterful musician, led in the singing ofBill hate and forces it to surrender,” and he sang gressive social change. “At some point, Staine’s ‘River’ as the Hudson that Pete for against threats to humanity ranging from Pete Seeger decided he’d be a walking, so long worked to restore flowed by, icy and Hitler’s fascism to the US invasion of singing reminder of all of America’s history,” glinting, outside the windows.” Vietnam, from the pr oliferation of nuclear said Bruce Springsteen during a 2009
AcousticGuitar.com 13
THE BEAT | NEWS
Madison Square Garden concert celebrating Seeger’s 90th birthday. Folk singerJanis Ian told AG in 2002, “His consummate dedication to bringing all music to all peoples has made our universe a larger one. His refusal to pander to fame, to stardom, to the trappings of ego and narcissism, have set the standard for folk musicians.” Seeger’s standard continued well i nto the ’90s, when younger political folk singers, including DiFranco, arrived on the scene. She remembers the first time Seeger contacted her—by written letter—to perform at an event. “First, I was like, holy cow, Pete Seeger wrote a letter to me, with pen on paper,” she told AG
recently. “Then I got the larger lesson: If you want to be a great activist, you have to do it yourself. He didn’t ask someone else to wr it e me a le tt er. He wr ote it himself. And also, he would send it immediately. When I asked him to play on my last record, he had returned my phone call twice and written me a l etter befor e I w as able to get back to him. That’s what I learned from him: As soon as the idea comes to you, that’s w h e n y o u w r i t e t h e le t t e r, that’s when you act.” Joan Baez stated it more succinctly when she said, “We all owe our careers to Pete Seeger.” Nathan Bell, a Nashville-based singer-songw riter whose latest
Darkness Visible Saintseneca merges Appalachia, the Beatles, and Sonic Youth onDark Arc BY DAVID KNOWLES
Z
ac Little , the singer-songwriter and multi-i nstrume ntalist for the Ohio-based alternative folk groupSaintseneca, is perfectly comfortable with not quite fitting in with the crowd. On Dark Arc (Anti-), Saintseneca’s second fulllength album, the group employs such acoustic instruments asguitar, fiddle, balalaika, baritone ukulele, and banjo on an album that is anything but traditional. “Our sound allows us to step into different worlds and still feel at home, whether we’re playing with
Little gravitated to the Internet to find his musical sustenance. “The radio wasn’t a huge source of my music,” Little says. “Fortunately, I grew up in an era that had the Internet, so even though I lived in a very rural area, I found myself getting excited by indie bands.”
“When I bought [the Martin D-28], I was like, What is the loudest acoustic guitar I can get—and the D-28
pop-punk bands or noisy bands or Americana bands or folk bands ,” ZA C L IT TLE says Little, who boasts a thick 19thcentury-style red moustache. “In any of those realms, it feels like we Saintseneca formed a few don’t quite fit, but because of that yea rs lat er, a fte r Little and two we almost fit with all of them.” high-school friends— Steva Growing up on an AppalaJacobs and Luke Smith — chian farm in southeastern Ohio, attended Ohio State University.
pretty much fit the bill.” —
14 April 2014
album, B l oo d L i k e a Ri v e r , is well in keeping with Seeger’s tradition of making music for working Americans, had this to say of the singer’s influence on him: “When I was first starting out, Pete Seeger was a huge influence on how I wanted to be a writer. I made a lot of decisions based on that influence and those decisions led me to my interesting life and career as a political/topical writer instead of a co-writing hitmaker. “I made less money, but made a wonderful, working, moral life.”
KODALY CE NTER RECEIVES FOLK GRANT The William and Flora Hewitt Foundation has awarded the Kodaly Center for Music Educationat Holy Names
University in Oakland, California, a $75,000 grant to aid in its transcriptions of rare folk songs. The center’s database currently contains some 700 songs. Kacey Musgraves
Read Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers’ 2002 interview with Pete Seeger at AcousticGuitar.com.
“When we moved to Columbus, I was living in a small apartment and I had already started playing on these acoustic instruments and collecting them—banjo, mandolin, dulcimer—different things than yo ur stan dar d elec tr ic gu itar,” Little says. “Once we had this constraint of having to practice in my apartment figured out, we thought, ‘Well, let’s use this stuff.’” After the b and be gan playing live, Little found himself needing a guitar with more volume. “I got a 1978 Martin D-28,” he explains. “When I bought it I was like, What is the loudest acoustic guitar I can get—and the D-28 pretty much fit the bill.” While the members of the band routinely switch instruments during performances, Saintseneca will tour as a five-piece to support the new album. Still, whether relying on acoustic instruments or threading in electric guitar and synthesizer, the group’s sound remains every bit as surprising as on their record. For Little, that was the plan from day one. “Being influenced by bands like Sonic Youth, more angular, obscure stuff,” he says, “but then channeling that vibe through the acoustic instruments, felt exciting.”
2014 GRAMMY AWARD HIGHLIGHTS Among the winners at this year’s Grammy Awards were recent AG cover artists Steve Martinand Edie Brickell , who took the trophy for Best American Roots Song; the Del McCoury Band, which took home Best Bluegrass Album; Guy Clark, who gleaned Best Folk Album for My Favorite Picture of You; Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, who snagged the award for Best Americana Album; and Kacey Musgraves, who took the honors for Best Country Album and Best Country Song.
R E T S I L C C M ID V A D
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell
— L L E W O R C & IS R R A H
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NEWS SPOTLIGHT
The Grateful Dead at Family Dog in 1970
The Gift Jerry Garcia’s ex-wife, Mountain Girl, recounts finding long lost 1970 tapes that lead to the new live acoustic ‘Family Dog’ album BY DAVID KNOWLES
or the late Jerry Garcia ’s ex-wife, Carolyn Garcia, it was the find of a lifetime. In May of 2013, Garcia, aka Mountain Girl, was doing some spring cleaning at her home in Eugene, Oregon, when she came across a cardboard box containing a trove of unmarked analog tapes. Included in the 40-year-old archive was a never-before-released acoustic show that the Grateful Dead played in 1970 at the Family Dog restaurant, on the Great Highway just south of San Francisco. The recording captures the Dead just three months after the band recorded the watershed acoustic album Workingman’s Dead (which would be released later that summer) and a few months before the sessions that would become the companion acoustic album American Beauty. “When I found the tapes, I thought, OK, we’ve got to do something with this—this is
“Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and the But as was common during that period, Everlys’ hit single “Wake Up Little Susie.” Jerry and the Dead provided the lion’s “Jerry had just gotten a different guitar share of the entertainment that evening. “It that was quieter and more suited to the was wha t he did in tho se day s,” Gar cia onstage thing, because it didn’t drown every- says. “The New Riders would open, and thing out—this pretty little acoustic Martin,” Jerry would play with them. Then they’d do Garcia says. “You hear it on thisrecording.” an acoustic set, and Jerry would play While the recording is on the lo-fi side of through the whole thing, and then they’d the audio spectrum, it serves as a time do two Grateful Dead sets—and he would capsule to an era when the pressures of be tired when we got home!” maintaining a high-profile touring schedule Above all, what Garcia recalls about the had not yet set in on the band. “The show gig was the lighthearted chemistry between was lightly attended,” Garcia recalls. “There the band members. “They’re having a wonwasn’t a huge number of people there. The derful time,” Garcia says. “There’s just not Family Dog was this big old building out on a lot of pressure going on. It took me back the Great Highway and it was pretty bare to a time when things were a lot more bones, just a big room, maybe 75 by 90 or relaxed and a lot less heavy. I think it’s just something like that. It was a gathering place a stunning night of music.” for people. You loved going there because No stranger to archival material, Garcia the family vibe was so nice, and it was a adds that hearing the Family Dog show place you could take your kids—they could after so much time was special. “It’s like
important,” Garcia says during a phone call from her home. “I sent them to Jeffrey Norman. He’s been the Grateful Dead’s masterer for years and does great work.” Rhino Records recently released the 80-minute set as Family Dog at the Great Hi ghw ay. Available on CD and limitededition vinyl, it boasts 17 tracks, including covers of the Wanda Jackson hit song
run around, nobody was going to get mad at you for being who you were.” Perhaps one reason for the modest turnout was that bills for the show don’t mention either the Grateful Dead ortheNew Riders of the Purple Sage, who opened the gig. Instead, top billing goes toMickey Hart and his Heartbeats and Bobby Ace and His Cards from the Bottom of the Deck .
F
E S G A M I Y TT E G / E V I H C R A S H C O L E A H C I M
going back to old family Christmases or something,” Garcia says. “It’s a gift to be able to unwrap something like that and have it be something that was part of your life, and has become something that has become important for so many people. I never could have guessed that would happen. “It was just us in those days.” AG
AcousticGuitar.com 17
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‘Nature’s Way’ 26
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HERE’S HOW
It’s a Family Affair Play the guitar with your daughter to help her build confidence and skills BY OCTO BER CRIFASI
guitar-playing dad recently asked me what he could do to help his daughter improve her skills on the instrument. My answer was simple: play together! Playing together can be one of the best things you can do to support and help your daugh ter build her conf idenc e and skills. The key is to keep it simple and take turns when playing.
A
THE STRUM & THE SOLO
Start with an easy three-chord progression, like G, C, and D (one-finger versions of G and C are fine, as is D7, because it is easier for younger hands). Strum through the progression several times together, and then have her strum while you play a simple solo using the open E-minor pentatonic scale. Don’t go too crazy with the riffs. The idea is to encourage creative first steps, not to overwhelm with the power of shred (at least not yet). Switch roles and teach her the lower octave of the E-minor pentatonic scale starting with low E (open sixth string) to middle E (second fret on the fourth string).
‘Share the music of the players you love with your daughter, and ask her to do the same with you.’ Her first solo could be to play the scale
CHORD
ROOT
THIRD
FIFTH
G (GBD) C (CEG) D (DF#A)
6th or 3rd string 5th or 2nd string 4th or 2nd string
5th or 2nd string 4th or 1st string 1st string
4th string 3rd string 3rd string
This provides instant rock ’n’ roll cool to that your list consists of only the usual something as easy as a two-note riff on the male suspects, with nary a woman on it, same string. you might w ant to c onsider enlisting yo ur Remember: simplicity is key. daughter’s help to discover female guitarSometimes one note that works well over ists and bands. Trust me, they’re out there, a simple three-chord progression can provide and I bet she knows many of them. instant gratification and open the door for YouTube, Bandcamp, and Emus ic are trying more complex combinations. filled to the brim with music and videos by female guitarists and bands in all genres. SING THE CHORD Not quite sure where to start? Check out This can be fun and is also great ear-training Danielle Haim of Haim; the Eisley sisters of practice. Pick a major chord and play the Eisley; Lily & Madeline; First Aid Kit; Kaki root a few times while she strums the whole King; Sarah Jarosz; Gaby Moreno; Rachel chord, or vice versa (see box above). Sing Brown; Sierra Hull; Allison Robertson of the pitch and then see if you both can the Donnas; KT Tunstall; Laura-Mary Carter continue to sing that note while strumming of Blood Red Shoes; Iren Arutyunyan and the chord. Repeat this idea with the third Sofia Gleeson of LeChic Duo; and Gabriella and the fifth of the chord. Get really adven- Quevedo, just to name a few. turous by having one of you sing or play the Why is this important? Because research root while the other sings or plays the fifth at the Annenberg Schoolfor Communication at the same time (power or five chords are and Journalism and the Geena Davis Instigreat for this, with open power chords being tute on Gender in Media has shown that if beginner-friendly). girls see women and other girls doing someRemember, though, this isn’t a vocal thing they themselves would like to do, they exercise, so keep the focus on hearing the are more likely to believe they can do it, too. note in the chord rather than on proper Seeing another girl or woman play the voc al pedagog y. You can move to oth er guitar (and I mean really playing, not just chords in a given key and make a game of holding a guitar and looking provocative) wh ic h no te s st ay th e sa me an d wh ic h goes a long way in building her confidence change among them. These notes then as a player. I know it did for me. The main
forward and backward while you play G, C, provide anchor notes to create simple meloand D over and over. If fretting single notes dies that connect them. is too hard for her, have her use the first Sing the melodies first, and then find three open strings while you strum an Em those notes on the guitar. chord for several measures. Shift into creating phrases using three or four notes once EXPLORE NEW MUSIC TOGETHER the scale is familiar to her fingers. You can Share the music of the players you love also teach her how to hammer-on and pullwith y our da ughter and as k her to do the off notes, if her fingers are strong enough. same with you. If you discover, however,
thing here is simply to make and talk music together. So, dive in, explore, and get to strumming. AG October Crifasi is a professional guitarist, songwriter, and music educator in Los Angeles, California. She also is founder and director of Girls Guitar School.
AcousticGuitar.com 21
SONGCRAFT
Museum Quality David Wax marries American roots rock with Mexican folk BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS
O
nstage at a club in Ithaca, New York, David Wax kicks off his song “Will You Be Sleeping?” with
strums on anjarana jarocha—an eight-string folk instrument from Veracruz, Mexico. Fleshed out with keyboard, electric bass, and drums, the music sounds like American pop until his band, David Wax Museum, gets to the song’s syncopated instrumental breaks, which come straight from southern Mexico’s so n ca le nt an o tradition. As the show continues, the music becomes harder to pigeonhole. There are grooves and repeating vocal patte rns deriv ed from Mexica n son (which means “sound” in Spanish)—with fiddle, accordion, andquijada (donkey jaw) percussion—but there’s also crunchy electric guitar and elements of indie rock. Wax sometimes refers to his music as MexoAm er ic an a, bu t no on e in th e cl ub is worrying about what to call it—they’re too busy dancing to one of the most joyously energetic acts on the scene today. Wax grew up in Missouri and had his first ear-opening encounters with Mexican folk during a summer as a college student. After graduating from Harvard in 2006, he spent a year in Mexico on a fellowship, digging deeper into the music. Eventually, his studies merged with the songwriting he’d done since he was a teenager. When he returned to Boston, he began performing with Suz Slezak as David Wax Museum. The duo expanded to a full band as word spread about their kinetic live shows. Along the way, they ’ve re leased four alb ums, hitting their creative stride on 2011’s Everything Is Saved and 2012’s Knock Knock Get Up. Backstage, before the Ithaca show, Wax sat down, his jarana close at hand, and talked about how his border-crossing songwriting style came to be. What was it about Mexican folk music that grabbed you? It was part of a vibrant folk-music culture, and that was something I had never been exposed to. There was a lot of great music wh er e I wa s gr ow in g up in c en tr al Missouri, but I had no way of entering that authentic folk tradition, where people who
22 April 2014
S R E G D O R R E P P E P Y E R F F E J © T X E T ; S B O C A J K I R E — E G A M I
David Wax and Suz Slezak
have been playing a long time have taught the next generation. To see a folk music that played such an important role in basic community life was inspiring and really got me fired up. The first time I heard this son huas teco or huapango music, which is essentially dance music, I really appreciated the spirit,
but couldn’t fathom that I would ever learn to play it. Had you written songs before then? I had been writing since I was 13. When I first heard “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles, I was like, OK—I’m going to write songs. That’s what I want to do. I started playing
with my cous in whe n we were teenager s, and we had a band throughout junior high and high school and wrote songs by the dozens. In my first year of college I hadn’t been writing that much, but that summer in Mexico I started writing again. I felt inspired just being there.
Yeah, but I have to say it’s intuitive. I’m not very adept at music theory, so it would be hard for me to tell you, this is what I’m doing right now. The way people learn it is like, OK, I’m playing it—play it with me. More and more people who play it are young er peopl e who have studied music theory, but the way I learned it was just folWas there a eureka moment when you lowing someone doing it and getting comrealized you could blend elements of fortable playing a lot of songs. Mexican folk into your own songwriting? The jarana huasteca music, that’s all verse s a nd the w ay that the lines repea t. That happened much later. Five or six years essentially one rhythm. Once you’ve got You’ll go to a new verse, but then you’ll go later I went down there on a fellowship to that down, you can kind of play every song back to the verse before, and it takes on a
study folk music, and during that year, there was one point where I’d been messing around with a song I’d written that was more of a straight-ahead song on guitar. I was trying to take this Mexican huapango rhythm on the jarana huasteca [a five-stringed instrument similar to the jarana jarocha], and then kind of transpose my song into that rhythm and sing over it. I wa s ta ki ng [j ar an a] le ss on s wi th th is woman in Mexico City, and in our lesson I started to play it for her and she got really excited with what I was doing. Then I was like, whoa, there’s something here. Did your background on guitar help you pick up instruments like the jarana? For a long time, I didn’t think of myself as a guitarist. I’d gotten into music as a pianist, and I got a guitar when I wanted to start a rock band and write songs. But I never studied it—I just had a Beatles chord book and taught myself all the songs in that. I had an older brother who was a serious jazz guitarist, so I had always thought, my brother is a guitarist; I’m not a guitarist. When I got down to Mexico and saw people playing these other stringed instruments, I decided to look at three styles of music and try to learn songs in those styles. For son calentano, I was able to play a classical guitar—that’s not traditionally what they do, but that’s what everybody does nowadays with that style of music. And then with the other styles of music [son huasteco and son jarocho], there was no way I would be allowed to play guitar. If you showed up to one of those events and you had a guitar, people would really look down on you. So, I
was li ke, OK, if I’m going to really do this and learn these songs, I have to buy a jarana. So I finally tracked down a bunch of instruments in Xalapa. I got my first jarana jarocha and a jarana huasteca. Your songs use a lot of rhythm and chord patterns from those styles. Are you consciously adopting that vocabulary?
‘To see a folk music that played such an important role in basic community life was inspiring and really got me fi red up.’
in that style. In the son calentano stuff that I do on guitar, there are two basic patterns you learn. Son jarocho , though, i s a much more diverse rhythmic palate, I think because there’s a much stronger African influence. Southern Veracruz is where the African s we re b rought over and e nslav ed on the sugar plantations, so you have a lot more syncopation, a lot more funky rhythms, and it’s much more complicated to dance to.
new meaning when you go back to it. I was really drawn to that as a writer—as a singer, too, because when you sing the same line a couple times, it really opens up; you feel inclined to approach the line a different way each time you sing it. Lyrically, it’s gr eat to have this interesting template that you won’t have used previously. Any kind of new structure feels like a great tool. It can inspire the writing in a way that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Another aspect of Mexican folk that you’ve incorporated into your songs is the repetition, in both the lyrics and the melodies. A lot of times what I’ve done is I’ve taken a traditional song and tried to unlock the
What are some examples of songs you’ve written based on traditional forms? The most clearly derivative one is “Harder Before It Gets Easier.” There’s a son calentano rhythm from Michoacán—I’m playing it on a fuzzed-up electric guitar, so it’s hard
WHAT
DAVID WAX
PLAYS
ACOUS TIC GU ITARS
Onstage, Wax plays a Martin 00-15. On the Knock Knock Get Up album, he uses no acoustic guitar except for a Yamaha classical on “Wondrous Love”; for all the acoustic sounds, he uses various Mexican instruments in the guitar family. JARANAS
Wax performs with a jarana jarocha (segunda size) made by Julio Blas Vaquero at the Taller de Laudería Blas—the Blas family instrument workshop—outside of Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico. It is tuned G C E A G, with single G strings and double courses for the middle strings. Wax plays rhythm on the instrument with his fingers, using flamenco-style
MARTIN 00-15
rasgueado technique. On record, he also plays jaranas in other sizes (mosquito, primera, tercera) as well as a jarana huasteca and a huapanguera (both have five strings). ACCE SSO RI ES
He strings the 00-15 with Martin SP phosphor-bronze mediums. His go-to source for strings for all the Mexican instruments is Guadalupe Custom Strings in Los Angeles. He uses .73mm Dunlop nylon picks and Kyser capos. AM PLI FICATION
For the Martin, he uses a K&K Pure Western pickup and a Radial ProDI. The jarana is equipped with a Fishman SBT-E soundboard transducer that runs into an LR Baggs Venue DI.
AcousticGuitar.com 23
SONGCRAFT | PLAY
‘I can’t play this music as a traditional musician. It’s a limitation that I’ve accepted, and accepting that has opened up a whole other world of relating to the music.’
to hear this specific rhythm. One of the chord patterns I use is taken from a Juan Reynoso version—he’s the most famous fiddler from this style of music. I took a couple of pieces from this traditional song [“La Tortolita”] and blended them up a little bit. I don’t think someone who knew the song would even quite recognize it. “All Sense of Time” is another one. That’s based on this son jarocho song called “El Celoso,” which is real indigenous in spirit. It’s just about the rain and the passing of time. I’m not playing the chords of the song. I saw this guy I studied with, Ramón Gutiérrez, do a beautiful walk-down riff once on his jarana, so I’ve kind of taken the pattern that he played but then changed the rhythm a little bit.
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The songs onKnock Knock Get Upfind a new sort of blend of the Mexican influences with a more rock sound. Do they feel that way to you? Yeah. I thi nk that I feel a little more free in terms of how I interpret the music. The more I’m doing it, the more I feel like I can’t play this music as a traditional musician—I wasn’t r aised with it, I’m not a good enough musician, and I haven’t spent a lifetime studying it. It’s a limitation that I’ve accepted, and I think accepting that has opened up a whole other world of relating to the music. The producer on our last two records [Sam Kassirer] really helped us articulate that sense of the messier it gets—in that you can’t tell if it’s a traditional Mexican folk song or just an Americana straight-ahead song or an indie-rock song—the more interesting it gets, and the more unique it sounds, and the more it helps define us.
I think there’s just more free rein as we’ve gotten more confident in what we’re doing. The rhythm’s not authentic, we’ve changed it, and I’ve written my own narrative to the song that’s not a true translation. We can’t feel chained to the srcinal version because that’s not what it is. Even though we all listen to the old stuff and love the old stuff, we want to make music that is now. AG
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ACOU ST IC CLA SS IC
Song Captured the Spirit of the Nascent Ecology Movement ‘Nature’s Way’ became a 1970s rock anthem and classic-rock radio staple BY GREG CAHILL
I
n 1969, the Cuyahoga River, polluted with decades of industri al waste from Cleveland, Ohio, factories, burst into flames. Smog seared the eyes of Los Angeles residents. And oil from offshore rigs fouled beaches in Santa Barbara. The following year, “Nature’ s Way,” the acou sti c-ba sed cautionary tale from Spirit’s 1970 psychedelic album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, echoed that haunting refrain, “It’s nature’s way of telling you, something’s wrong.” The album, a loose-knit sci-fi concept album, became the best-selling album by one of the best, most eclectic and least appreciated West Coast bands of the 1960s and ’70s rock era. Neil Young cohort David Briggs produced the record. The album spawned the Top 100 hit “Animal Zoo,” a social commentary on civilization’s thin veneer, as well as the classic-rock radio staple “Nature’s Way,” built around a droning Asus2 chord. Spirit guitarist and boy genius Randy California penned “Nature’s Way” in San Francisco one afternoon while the band waited to perform at the Fillmore Auditorium. That stark environmental anthem coincided with the inaugural Earth Day celebration, becoming the first pop song to seriously address concerns about pollution and ecological disaster. The album continues to have an impact: Walter Becker of Steely Dan, who lived in the same apartment building as Randy California, reportedly has credited the Spirit guitarist’s bluesy style as a major influence and has noted that Spirit’s jazz-inflected prog-rock paved the way for Steely Dan’s distinct 1970s pop sound (many have noted the similarity between the piano figure that opens “Space Child” and the intro to Steely Dan’s hit “FM”). More recently, the lo-fi indie-rock icon Sam Beam of Iron & Wine shaped part of his song “Wolves” after “Prelude—Nothing to Hide,” from Twelve Dreams , and both hip-hop star Common and rocker Pink have sampled Spirit recordings.
26 April 2014
Randy California, center
Five years after its release, and with the and other jazz greats. He was a founding srcinal lineup split up, the album went member—along with Taj Mahal and Ry gold. That lineup was a musically diverse Cooder—of the Rising Sons. Keyboardist bunch. Ed Cassidy, who was guitarist Randy John Locke also had strong jazz roots. California’s stepfather, had played Vocalist and percussionist Jay Ferguson was drums for Thelonious Monk, Roland Kirk, classically trained and immersed in
bluegrass before turning to rock and then film and TV composing (most recently, he wrote the theme to the hit TV series The Office). At 15, California (né Randy Craig Wolfe) played guitar for Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, the New York band led by Jimi Hendrix—Hendrix dubbed him Randy California to avoid confusing him with another band member. The young guitarist turned down an offer by the future rock superstar
to move to London when Hendrix headed overseas to start the Experience. Instead, California returned to his native LA. At first, his genre-leaping, multigenerational band (ages 16–44) was named Spirits Rebellious, after the mystical writer Kahlil Gibran’s poem. Spirit released its self-titled debut in 1968. On its first tour of the United States, Led Zeppelin opened several shows for Spirit. Jimmy Page later pilfered the
SONG TO PLAY
descending chord progression and main guitar riff from the Spirit tune “Taurus” for the signature Zep song “Stairway to Heaven.” Page never admitted the plunder, but California did live to see others embrace his musical vision. In 1997, nature had its way with the rocker—he drowned while saving his 12-year-old surfer son from a riptide near a friend’s home in Molokai, Hawaii. His body was never recovered. AG
Nature’s Way
WORDS AN D MUSIC BY RANDY C ALIFORNIA Arranged by Andrew DuBrock
Intro/Verse Strum Pattern
A sus2
Chords
A sus2 x 0 13 xx
G
7
1 x 23 xx
. C N ,IC I S U M G N I V R I Y B D E R E T IS IN M D A D N A
G
x 0 11 xx
C
m7
. N IO T A R O P R O C D R A N O E L L A H
x 0 32 00
x0 32 00
4 fr.
B add4/A x 0 32 00
6 fr.
8 fr.
A add9
* Strum:
B5
7 fr.
4 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
x 13 4 xx
B *
= down;
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0 6 6 6 4 4 4
0 6 6 4 4 4
0 6 6 4
0 6 7 0
0 6 7 0 0 0
0 6 7 0 0
0 8 9 0
0 4
= up
Intro Asus2
A5
Asus2
A5
Asus2
1.
A5 G 7sus4 G 7 It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong Asus2
A5
G 7sus4 G 7
It’s nature’s way of telling you in a song C m7
Aadd9
C m7
Aadd9
E5 B5 A5 It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong
Badd4/A
It’s nature’s way of retrieving you E5
C m7 Aadd9 Badd4/A It’s nature’s way of receiving you C m7 Aadd9 Badd4/A It’s nature’s way of retrieving you
Badd4/A
It’s nature’s way of receiving you
P Y B D E S U . D E V R E S E R S T H IG R L L A
0 13 4 00
A add9
m7
x 13 4 00
3 fr.
x 13 4 00 x 0 32 00 4 fr. 6 fr. 4 fr.
8 fr.
C
x 0 11 xx
7sus4
1 x 24 xx
B add4/A E 5
F D O E L N L IO OS R S T I N M OR E C P S H T T H I IG W R D L E L T A . IN D R E P E WR E . N N E O R I T S H IS IG M R R E P Y O C . C I S U M K C E B N E L L O H 0 7 9 1 ©
A5
Strum Pattern at C m7 Chord
A5
x 0 13 xx
Asus2
B5
A5
It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong
Asus2
2.
A5 G 7sus4 G 7 It’s nature’s way of telling you, summer breeze
A5
It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way Asus2 A5 It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way
Asus2
A5
G 7sus4 G 7
It’s nature’s way of telling you, dying trees
Repeat First Verse B5 A5 B5 A5 B5 Something’s wrong, something’s wrong
C m7
AcousticGuitar.com 27
ACOUSTIC CLASS IC th YEAR: FROM THE VAULT
Bourrée in E Minor
If you’ve never played or studied any of Bach’s music, the Bourrée in E minor makes for an excellent introduction. Even though it isn’t overly complex or difficult to play , it BY TEJA GERKEN is a beautiful representation of Bach’s sense of harmony and counterpoint, with distinct bass and melody lines moving so perfectly or many classical-guitar students, tackling the Bourrée in E minor by Johann Sebastian Bach against each other that it may give you the (1685–1750) is a rite of passage from playing mere exercises to playing music that many non- chills as you play the piece. If you’re having musicians will recognize and appreciate. Bach wrote the Bourrée sometime after 1712 (the difficulty with the independence of the exact date is unknown) as part of his Lute Suite No. 1, and it was adapted for guitar in the 20th movements, try learning the melody and century, after the instrument earned acceptance in classical circles. Andrés Segovia recorded a versionbass line separately, one at a time, fusing of it in 1947. Since then, the piece has made its way onto countless classical guitar recordings, and it them together after you’re comfortable with has a firm place in the repertoire. each. Pay special attention to the fingering Classical guitarists aren’t the only ones to cut their teeth on the Bourrée. British rockers Jethro Tullin bars 17 and 22, as it’s easy to get your included a jazzed-up band version on their 1969 album Stand Up. Their decidedly nonclassical perfor- fingers tied up in knots if you’re not careful. mance provided the blueprint for an arrangement often performed live (but never officially released) Even if you’re not a classical player, by Michael Hedges—playing flute!—and electric bass virtuoso Michael Manring. mastering pieces such as this offers a great Thanks to its popularity outside the classical realm, referring to the piece merely as “the Bach learning experience for any fingerstyle guiBourrée” will generally allow people to recall the correct tune, but you’ll probably want to be more tarist, because it not only teaches pickingspecific when trying to impress your classically trained friends. This is because “Bourrée” actually hand techniques that are independent of refers to a dance popular in France’s Auvergneregion during the 17th century, and the name has been set patterns but also demonstrates excelused for countless compositions of the Baroque period. lent form and structure. AG
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
F
1
2
3
1
2
4
4
1
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1
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0 3
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0 4 2
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R S T H IG R L L A . R E T T E L G IN R T S 6 0 0 2 ©
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0 2 3 2
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. D E V R E S E
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2. 4 4
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AcousticGuitar.com 29
SONG BOOK | PLAY 4
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30 April 2014
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THE BASICS
Smart Chords Can Help Ease Your Playing How to smooth out chord changes by switching up your fingerings BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS
f you look closely at the fingers of guitarists jamming on, say, Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” you’ll see that there is no universal way to do something as simple as holding down an open G chord. One player might fret it with the middle, index, and ring fingers, while the next one will use the ring, middle, and pinky—or maybe the four-finger version, with the ring and pinky on the first and second strings. One of those is probably your go-to fingering, because it feels most comfortable. But which is the right way to play it? The best answer is: it depends. The correct fingering depends on what comes immediately before and after that G chord—you’re looking for the smoothest and easiest way to maneuver through a given progression. The smart approach is to try several fingerings and see which one works best.
I
Notice how much more efficient the move from G to C is in Ex. 1b.
Ex. 1a
Ex. 1b
G
C
x 32 0 1 0
21 0 0 03
3 0 0 0 2 3
B
3 0 0 0 2 3
0 1 0 2 3
G
C
G
3 0 0 0 2 3
0 1 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
21 0 0 03 x 32 0 1 0 21 0 0 03
0 1 0 2 3
G
C
x 32 0 1 0
3 2 0 0 04
3 0 0 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
0 1 0 2 3
G
C
G
3 0 0 0 2 3
0 1 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
D
G
D
2 3 2 0
3 3 0 0 2 3
2 3 2 0
3 2 0 0 0 4 x 32 0 1 0 3 2 0 0 0 4
0 1 0 2 3
In these examples, a different G fingering is better.
Ex. 2b
Ex. 2a
D
G
x x0 13 2
D
21 0 0 03
G
D
D
x x0 13 2
21 0 0 03
x x0 13 2
x x0 13 2
2 3 2 0
3 0 0 0 2 3
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
G
x x0 13 2 2 1 0 0 3 4 x x0 13 2
2 1 00 3 4
TAKE IT EASY
S R E
G D O R R E P P E P
Check out Ex. 1a, which makes quick changes between G and C. Use the middle/index/ring fingering for the G as shown, and pay attention to how far your fingers have to move to get to C. Then try Ex. 1b, with the ring/middle/pinky fingering for G. Notice how your ring and middle fingers stay in the same shape and just move over one string to go to the C? That’s a much more efficient move—and a better way to finger this sequence of chords. On the other hand, if you’re going to G from D, as in Ex. 2a, the middle/index/ring fingering for the G is easier—in both chords, the index is at the second fret. An even better choice is the
5
2 3 2 0
B
2 3 2 0
3 0 0 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
2 3 2 0
3 3 0 0 2 3
3 3 0 0 2 3
Y E R F F E J
© S IC U M & T X E T ; M R A F R E K C A R C — E G A M I
LISTEN TO THIS Old Crow Medicine Show
‘Wagon Wheel’
Old Crow Medicine Show
AcousticGuitar.com 31
THE BASICS | PLAY
LISTEN TO THIS Paul Simon
‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’
four-finger G, as in Ex. 2b , because the ring finger stays planted on the second string for both chords, serving as an anchor and also creating a nice-sounding common tone. (You can get a similar effect in Ex. 1b by leaving your pinky on the first string, third fret, for the C chord.) ALTERN ATE FIN GE RI NGS FOR OTHER CHORDS
Paul Simon
Practice the different fingerings for Em in these examples.
Ex. 3a
Ex. 3b
Am
Em
G
Em
Em
x0 23 1 0
0 12 0 00
21 0 0 03
0 12 0 00
0 23 0 00
B7 x 213 0 4
Em
G
0 23 0 00
3 2 00 04
9
B
0 1 2 2 0
0 1 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
3 0 0 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
3 0 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
2 0 2 1 2
2 0 2 1 2
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0 0 2 2 0
See which fingering for the A chord is better for this progession.
Ex. 4
play three times
A
D
x0 2 1 3 0
A
x x 0 13 2
x0 2 1 3 0
E
E
0 23 1 00
0 23 1 00
3 0 0 0 2 3
3 0 0 0 2 3
There are multiple fingering options for other open-position chords, too. You can play Em, for instance, with the index and middle fingers, or with the middle an d ring . Whic h is better ? In Ex. 3a , the index/middle Em makes the most sense, because the middle finger remains at the same string and fret for Am and Em (and then the index also stays put when you go from Em to G). But in Ex. 3b, the middle/ring Em works better: the middle finger stays in place for Em, B7, and G. Note that the choice of Em fingering affects the choice of G fingering, too. Of all the open-position chords, A is the one with the most fingering options: you could fret the fourth, third, and second strings, respectively, with fingers 123, 234, 213, 111 (an index barre), or even 112 (two-string index barre plus the middle). Again, different fingerings work better in different contexts. Play Ex. 4 , a progression similar to Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” using the standard 1 2 3 fingering for A; then try it as shown, with the 2 1 3 fingering. With this alternate fingering, the index stays on the G string: it’s at the same fret for A and D, then slides down a fret for the E. Having this kind of anchor through the changes is particularly helpful if you play fast. AG
13
B 32
0 2 2 2 0
April 2014
0 2 2 2 0
2 3 2 0
2 3 2 0
0 2 2 2 0
0 2 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
0 0 1 2 2 0
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers (jeffreypepperrodgers.com), Acoustic Guitar ’s editorat-large, is author of the multimedia guide Songwriting Basics for Guitarists and the Homespun video series Learn Seven Grateful Dead Classics for Acoustic Guitar .
I T T E N E
M O E T T A M —
N O IM S L U A P
WEEKLY WORKOUT
Minor Works Learn the different minor scales for rock, jazz, world styles, and more BY SCOTT NYGAARD
T
he easiest way to think of minor scales is in relation to major scales. If you know any major scale, you know its relative minor scale: the same notes, but starting on the sixth of the scale. The relative minor scale, also called the natural minor scale, is what most people think of when they think of a minor scale, and it works well over a vi chord in a major chord progression: for example, the ubiquitous progression used in pop songs from “Stand By Me” to Radiohead’s “No Surprises”: I–vi–IV–V, or C–Am–F–G in the key of C. If you’re going to solo over songs that use minor chords, whether they’re major-key songs that include minor chords or songs in a minor key, it’s a good idea to think of minor scales as entities in themselves. There are a few different minor scales you should know, all of which are slight modifications of the natural-minor scale, including the Dorian and Phrygian modes and the melodic- and harmonic-minor scales. This series of workouts explains the different minor scales and shows you some ways to use them in musical situations including rock, jazz, and various world styles.
Week One Ex. 1: A natural minor
0 1 2
Ex. 2: A Dorian
0 2
0 1 2 0
0 3
2
2 3 2
B
3
0 1 2
2 3 2
B Am
The main reason for using different minor scales is that minor chords have different functions in a chord progression depending on their relation to the overall key. The harmonized major scale includes three minor chords, the ii, iii, and vi. The key of C, for example, includes Dm (ii), Em (iii), and Am (vi). Start playing the C-major scale on the root of any of those chords and you will get a slightly different minor scale. Ex. 1 shows an A natural-minor line that work s w ell over Am in the key of C. Ex. 2 is almost the same line, but in the key of G, where Am is the ii chor d. Sta rti ng on the A in a G major scale produces the Dorian mode, a scale often used in jazz, where ii–V progressions are common. Notice that the Fn in Ex. 1 has become an F in Ex. 2. Am is the iii chord in the key of F, andEx. 3 shows the line in Ex. 1 modi instead of a Bn. fied to fit the key of F, with a B
3
0
2 0
Am
0 3 0
1 0 2 0
0 2 3
0
2
2 0
3 2
2
Am
3 2
Dm
E7
1 0 3 0 2 0
B
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3
2
0
1 2
3
Em
1
Ex. 6
1
0
2 2 0
2
3 3
Dm
0 2 3
3
0 2
2 0 3
0 1 3
B
2 0 3
0 3
0
WEEK ONE
4 2
Ex. 4: A harmonic minor
2 3 2 0
2
0 2
0
1
Ex. 5
2 0 4
3
Ex. 3: A Phrygian
2 3
0 2
2 0
2 2
0 2 3
0 2 3
Starting a major scale on the third produces the Phrygian mode. While this mode is not as popular as some others, it’s helpful to know when playing songs with prominent iii chords. These scales work well when playing in major keys with chords that stick to the base key’s major scale, but some minor progressions use a V7 chord to return to the minor root. For
0
Am
0 3
3 0
1 2
1
1 3 2
2
2 0
0 2
2 3
0
example, a song in A minor might stick to most of the chords in the base (C) scale, but then use a dominant V7 chord to return to the tonic. In A minor this would be an E7 chord, which raises the minor third (G) in an Em chord to the major third (G#) in an E7 chord. To play melodic lines that match the V7 chord you use the harmonicminor scale, which raises the flatted seventh in
AcousticGuitar.com 33
WEEKLY WORKOUT| PLAY
the minor scale to a major seventh. The A harWeek Two monic-minor scale, for example, is A, B, C, D, E, Ex. 7 E 7 F, G . Ex. 4 shows the line in Ex. 1 using an A harmonic-minor scale. Ex. 5 shows a line over a progression that uses the three minor chords in the key of C and Am. The line over the Am chord is an A natural-minor scale; the line over Dm uses a D 6 7 Dorian scale, and the line over Em uses the E B Phrygian scale. Notice that there are no notes outside the base key. You could just play melodies Ex. 8 E 7 in the key of C (Am) over this progression, but by targeting the strong notes in the minor chord (the root, third, and fifth), and connecting them with the appropriate scale, you can create melodic lines that really define the underlying chord. Ex. 6 shows a line similar to Ex. 5, but with an E7 instead of Em, so the scale played over the E7 chord is A harmonic minor.
BEGINN ERS’ T IP 1
Am
4
5 7
4 7 5
E7
7 5
Am
4
5 6
4 5 6
5
4 5 7
4 5 7
4
4 6 7
7
Am
7 10 7 9 7 9 10 6 7 9 6
6 7
B
9
8
9
7 10
9
10
7 9 10
6 7 9 10
7 8
Ex. 9 E 7
Am
E7
Am
It’ll be easier to tackle these minor-scale exercises if you know the corresponding major scales. Learn C, G, and D major scales
10 8 9 12 1012 91012
in open position first. 910 121 0 9
WEEK TWO The harmonic-minor scale may be the most unfamiliar of the scales shown, so this week’s wor kout cons ists of a few diff ere nt melo dic lines featuring the harmonic-minor scale played over an E7 chord in the key of Am in three different positions on the neck. This sort of progression is often used in Gypsy jazz. Ex. 7 works out of a position spanning frets four through seven; the line in Ex. 8 stays between frets six through nine; andEx. 9 is way up the neck at frets eight through 12.
WEEK THREE The Dorian mode is probably the most common minor scale in mainstream jazz, not only because of its usefulness in navigating ii–V progressions but because of standard tunes like Miles Davis’ “So What” that are based entirely on this mode. And in Gypsy jazz, Django Reinhardt’s favorite minor root voicing was a minor sixth, so playing Dorian lines over this chord can sound great.
B
10 9 12 1210129
9 10 91012 12 1112
9 12 11 12
Week Three Ex. 10 A Dorian
5 8 7 5 4 5 7 4 7
7 8 5 7 8
5 8
7
8 5
5 7
7 5 7
7 5
4 5 7
7
4 7
B Ex. 11
7 7 8
10 7 8
7 9 1 07 9 107
B
9 7
7 10
7 10 9
10 7
9
9 10
7 10 9
7 10 7
7 10 7
8
Ex. 12 D Dorian
BEGINN ERS’ T IP 2 Play these exercises with alternate picking—
5 7 8 6
playing downstrokes on the onbeats of the
7
measure, and upstrokes on the ands of each beat: down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up.
34 April 2014
5 6 8
6
5 7
5 7 5
4 7
B
5 4 7
5
5 7 8
7 8 5 7
5 8 8
7 7
6
Ex. 10 and Ex. 11 show A Dorian lines in two different positions. The Dorian mode also can be used over a iv chord in a minor key: Dm in the key of A minor, for instance. This makes sense if you consider that Dm is the ii chord in the underlying major key of C. Ex. 12 shows a D Dorian line in the key of A minor (or C).
Week Four Ex. 13
Ex. 14
A melodic minor
E7
A m6
7 5 0 1
BEGINN ERS’ T IP 3 To hear how these lines sound with the
2
4
0 2
4 5
2
1
7
5
1 4
2
5 4 2
4 7
2 0
B
3
4 3
6 7
0
corresponding chords, record yourself playing the chord progressions indicated above the staff, and then play along with your rhythm
Ex. 15 D 7 11
guitar track.
7
WEEK FOUR In addition to these common scales, there are a few other minor scales used in jazz and var ious ethn ic sty les . The mos t comm on of these is the melodic minor, which raises the sixth and seventh steps of the natural minor scale by a half step, creating a scale that can be thought of as a major scale with a minor third. The melodic minor was used in its ascending form in classical music as a way to create a strong melodic line that led into the root of the scale, but it has been used in jazz to play over numerous kinds of “altered” chords. Ex. 13 is the melodic-minor version of Ex. 1, with a G and F instead of Gn and Fn. The inclusion of the G means that it can be used for the V7 (E7) in A minor, especially if you’re playing Dorian (minor sixth) lines over the i chord (it can also be thought of as a Dorian mode with a raised seventh). Ex. 14 shows the A melodic minor played over an E7–Am progression. Modes of the melodic minor can be used in vari ous ways over alte red domin ant chor ds, although at this point the melodic minor loses its sound and function as a minor scale. For example, the scale built on the fifth of the melodic minor can be used with dominant chords that feature a sharp 11th (or flatted fifth). This scale is essentially a major scale with a flatted seventh and flatted fifth. Look at the A melodic minor line in Ex. 15—it can be played over a D711 (A is the fifth of D).
O B M U L A P M O T —
S I V A D S E L I M
4
7 4 5 4
B Ex. 16
6 7
4 5
5 5
4
7
5
4 5
7 5 4
7
4 6
7
7 4
5
A
759
4
4
5 4 6
5
7
5
5
5
7
5
7 46 7
4
4 6
B
7
7 5 6
4 6
4 7 6
5
LISTEN TO THIS Miles Davis
‘So What’ from Kind of Blue
An easier way to think of this is to remember that D7 is the V7 of G major, and Am is the ii of G. Since the melodic minor is a slightly modified Dorian scale, it makes sense to play it over the ii chord of the key. Notice that the key
consists of the root, flat nine, sharp nine, third, . flat fifth, sharp fifth, and flat seventh of A Ex. 16 uses the same A melodic-minor scale in Ex. 14 and Ex. 15 over an A altered dominant. Notice that the key signature is changed to D,
signature has been changed in this example to of which A is the V chord, and the line has G major, even though the scale is the same as in numerous accidentals. These are the flat nine, Ex. 13 and Ex. 14. sharp nine, etc. While this may seem absurdly When practicing any new harmonic or scale In contemporary jazz, the melodic minor is complicated, consider that you’ve just managed ideas, don’t just play the scales and exercises, often played over an altered dominant chord to play all those crazy notes in the key of D but try to find melodies that fit the new mate- whose root is a half step below the root of the with one simple A-minor scale. AG rial. For example, the jazz standard “Summer- melodic minor scale. For example, you can play time” is in a minor key. Try to find the melody the A melodic minor over an Ab759 or A79, Scott Nygaard (scottnygaard.com) is a Grammyon your guitar in the key of A minor. among others. In this case, the A melodic minor winning guitarist who lives in Fairfax, California.
BEGINN ERS’ T IP 4
AcousticGuitar.com 35
BACK in
BLACK t’s been seven years since Suzanne Vega released a collection of new songs, but with Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles the trailblazing New York singer-songwriter shows herself to be anything but rusty. For that reason, Vega, 54, was content to take her time with the new material. “I wasn’t pushing myself to write any new songs,” says Vega, who, after a career spent making albums for major labels, has released her latest on her own Amanuensis Productions. Over the past few years, Vega has not exactly disappeared. She’s been the subject of director Christopher Seufert’s 2006
I
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April 2014
Suzanne Vega releases first solo album in seven years BY DAVID KNOWLES
documentary Some Journey , co-wrote and Carson starred in the 2011 stage play McCullers Talks About Love, performed with Bill Frisell at the Century of Song concerts in Germany, hosted the American Public Media series Amer ican Maver ick s (which won a Peabody Award), played a huge gig in Central Park in 2006, continued to tour the world, and released acoustic versions of some of her old material using a 1940 Martin 0045 and a handmade Furch. Between 2010 and 2012, Vega selfreleased Close Up , a four-volume series of themed acoustic versions of her hits. “I wanted to see how it felt to have my own record label for a while. I wanted to see if I
could support myself with releasing the rerecorded material.” Still, the idea of unveiling new material wi th ou t th e ba ck in g of A& M, wh ic h released her first six albums, or Blue Note, wh ic h pu t ou t he r se ve nt h, wa s a bi t daunting. “For most of my artistic life, I’ve had major label deals, so I was worried about what this was going to b e li ke,” s he s ays. “It’s a sink-or-swim environmen t, and I’m swimming, which has been a great feeling.” The decision to start Amanuensis Productions was as much about taking charge of her career again as it was a financial necessity. “Yes, the major-label system has
‘It’s a sink-or-swim environment, and I’m swimming, which has been a great feeling.’
collapsed for some people, but not for others,” Vega says. “For Adele, and some people, it’s still going strong, but for a lot of us, it has fallen apart. I guess I’m sort of an example of how someone can, at the very least, make a living doing it yourself.”
honing her craft. Longtime Vega fans will appreciate the confident songwriting on the ten tracks on Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles , and the production on the independent release sounds every bit a major label affair. On “Don’t Uncork What You Can’t Contain,” Vega samp les 50 Cent ’s song “Cand y Shop ,” he business model is not the only thing before launching into lushly layered guitar that has changed about Vega’s strumming that gives way to Middle Eastern approach to music. “I’m less pleased strings. Above it all, Vega’s smoky vocals alterwith myself than I used to be,” she says. “When nate from singing to rap and back again. I was in my early 20s, if I had any idea and Somehow it all works, and the song takes its executed it fairly well, I was pretty happy. If I place on the mantle beside Vega’s other ingehad a simple melodic idea, I was happy to nious songs. repeat that three times and make that a song, Above all, Vega’s eighth albu m show s tha t but these days I feel I have higher standards for she’s a songwriter still brimming with ideas, myself in terms of melodies and harmonies, in both lyrically and sonically. While it may come terms of arrangements. Lyrics, metaphors, all of as a surprise to some, her new material sounds it. I’m looking to people like Paul Simon, or Bob as fresh as her critically acclaimed second Dylan, or Leonard Cohen, or Lou Reed—those album, Solitude Standing, did when it was
T
people are the real masters, so that’s who I’m comparing myself against, and one can’t help but feel that you’ve come up a bit short if you want to measure yourself against that group.” While there’s ample acoustic guitar on the new record, one song stands out for its decidedly non-acoustic vibe. Titled “I Never Wear White,” the track is an homage to darkness and mystery, and shows that Vega still has the edge of an outsider. “That one came from my actual wardrobe!” Vega says . “I ’ve alway s loved the color black, especially since the days when I was a dancer. In New York, it’s fine, but in other parts of the world people me ntion it , they comment o n it. You know, even in my own family, I’d get comments from my mother, and from time to time from my daughter. I was thinking about that one day. And I’ve always loved the Stones’ song ‘Paint it Black.’ So I was mentioning this to [producer and David Bowie collaborator] Gerry Leonard, and I said it would be great to have some kind of dirty-sounding riff, and he had just been working on something the day before, and he said, ‘Like this?’” Free of the burdens of major-label expectations, the woman who penned the hits “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” nearly three decades ago sounds, if anything, like she has never stopped
released in 1987. For all that has changed since Vega exploded on the music scene, her motivation for writing songs has remained unchanged. “I hope that people come away with the sense that I’m articulating things that they may have felt but not been able to name,” Vega says. AG
SUZANNE VEGA Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles Amanuensis Productions AcousticGuitar.com 37
Z E IN A L IN V R E H S
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April 2014
LIVE & KICKING Blues master John Hammond captures a monster live solo performance for posterity
BY DAVID KNOW LES
“W
hen there’s a great audience, it just sort of brings out
eggroll, jazz and blues’,” Hammond explains during a phone interview
more in me, and brings up the level
from his home in New York. “It draws
in my playing,” says legendary blues
folks from all over New England. It’s a
guitarist and singer John Hammond.
really nice place to play.”
The recently releasedTimeless
What listeners not lucky enough
(Palmetto), Hammond’s 35th album,
to have sampled the eggrolls and
preserves just such a moment in a
Hammond’s licks in person are
career that has had, to say the least,
treated to on Timeless is a session
a few of them. Recorded at one of
bristling with his trademark blend
Hammond’s favorite haunts, Chan’s
of scorching guitar, harmonica, and
Fine Oriental Dining, Jazz & Blues in
plaintive vocals.
Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the gig found Hammond stretching out in a
I caught up with the man who once
comfortable setting, stomping his foot
fronted a band with Jimi Hendrix and
on the hollow stage like a makeshift
Eric Clapton a few days before the
cajon. “Their thing is ‘the home of
release of the new album.
AcousticGuitar.com 39
‘When you put a guitar through a pickup, I’m sorry, it doesn’t really sound acoustic anymore. It isn’t the same, raw sound.’
This is a great session. I’m wondering if you did any overdubs or post-production on this record? No, no, it’s all live. What you hear is what you get. They did edit out some talk ing between songs, but that’s about it. It was one of those great nights when you feel, oh yeah, this is what it’s all about. So, it’s very exciting to have a live album like this. It’s acoustic, just me solo, harmonica and guitars.
records, and it was around then that I first guys so much, to be on a show with them heard Jimmy Reed. I was just a fan then, was a thrill beyond words. but I thought he was so compelling. Probably when I was 16 in New York, I went to As an art form itself, do you feel that see him play. I had never seen anyone play there’s been an evolution to the blues, harmonica and guitar at the same time. I or does it need to evolve? guess a seed was sown at that point. It was Blues is hard to articulate exactly. It’s a inspirational. When I was 18, I got a genre that if you do too much to it, or too harmonica and tried to put it together. little to it, it isn’t blues anymore. You have There were many artists that I was inspired to capture that essence. There always will by, from Bo Diddley to Chuck Berry and be new songs, but in terms of the style, in
How did you select the songs for that night? I guess I know about 400 songs and I picked stuff that I do currently, and some that I haven’t done in a long time. This one was about making it all right now and alive.
Robert Johnson to Blind Willie McTell. In my early career, when I began playing gigs, I was put on the show with a lot of the great country-blues players who were being rediscovered. Artists like Skip James, Bukka White, Fred McDowell, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Joe Williams, I could go on and on. I was on gigs with these players who were still really happening. I admired these
How did you first get into the blues? Back when I was 15 or so, I collected
40
April 2014
order for it to remain blues, it has to be with in a para meter. But it deman ds that you give all of yourself to it. Having honed a sound over a career, is there advice that you’d give to young players who want to play the blues? I tell them to listen to a lot of blues, to go back to the early recordings of the artists
HANGWAITS IN’ WITH TOM Of the many notable influences and collaborations that have marked his career, Hammond singles out his relationship with Tom Waits as having special significance. Waits penned two of the songs on Timeless, including the record’s opener, “No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby.” He also produced Hammond’s 2001 album , a collection of Waits covers. Wicked Grin The two met in 1974, when they shared the bill for a gig in Tempe, Arizona. “He opened the show for me at this club, and I was just dumbfounded,” Hammond recalls. “It was amazing. Every song was better than the next, and I was completely drawn into his world. I didn’t want to go on. I played my show and he came backstage and introduced himself and said, ‘Man, I’ve been a fan of yours since I was in high school.’ ” Years later, the two men collaborated in the recording studio.
who started the whole thing and see how it has evolved. A lot of the early blues recordings were with little jazz combos. Bessie Smith and other female blues artists, who had piano and trumpet and that kind of thing. The heavier stuff, I think, came from the players who encapsulated the whole thing within a solo format. I would suggest to a young artist to go with what they like and find out where it came from.
Is there a specific acoustic guitar that you think represents your sound? In my early days I liked the Gibson guitar— that was the most often heard. Guys had old Gibsons, and my first guitars were all Gibsons. Then, over the years, I played some Martins that were just fantastic, that had a great sound. I’ve had Guild guitars that hit the note. Now, for the past 25 years,
I’ve had a handmade guitar by this guy over in England—Vinnie Smith—that was shown to me between sets at a gig I was playing. It’s fantastic. It was styled after a Martin triple O, but larger—koa wood with a cedar top. I also have a 1935 National steel guitar th that my wife, Marla, got for me for my 48 birthday, and it’s my favorite National of the three I own.
“I was doing an album with J.J. Cale, producing for Point Blank Virgin back in 1993 or so, and Tom came to the session. He said, ‘Man, I wrote you this song.’ It was about 20 minutes long—everybody in the Bible coming down to the river and all this stuff, you know? And I said, ‘Wow, it’s a great song, but I don’t think I could do that, man.’ He said, ‘Oh, really?’ And he went into the control room and sat down
Do you ever play those guitars through
on the couch and in ten minutes wrote this
any sort of amplification? No, I just play them acoustic, because they sound so great by themselves. When you put a guitar through a pickup, I’m sorry, it doesn’t really sound acoustic anymore. It isn’t the same, raw sound.
song and came back out and said, ‘Well, I know you know some badass songs—well
The beauty of that is that any street corner or café can then be your stage.
check this one out!’ It was ‘No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby.’ By the time I got to recording it, he had left. So I sent him a cassette of it, and I hadn’t heard from him in two or three days, so I called him up. It was on his answering machine, so I guess he liked it.”
AcousticGuitar.com 41
Are there any tunes on the new album that you’re especially happy how they turned out? A lot of them. I recorded a tune I go t from Bobby Blue Bland titled “Further on Up the Road.” He just passed away, and he hadn’t passed when I’d recorded it, so that seems very special to me. I also did two Tom Waits tunes—“Jockey Full of Bourbon” and “No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby.” They came out great.
That’s right! I’ve done that so many times. In the beginning of my career, of course, I was playing a lot of parties, s treet co rners, little clubs, the “basket houses” as they called them in the Village. And you just bring your guitar—you’ve got no time to set up, you just get up there and play. When I began my career, I’d play anywhere at any time, no problem. Nowadays, I’m more picky-choosey. I do so many gigs a year that when I h ave off-ti me, I like to be off. B ut when you ’re sta rti ng out , and you ’re all about being seen and heard, you just have to go for it. How many dates are you playing a year? If I play eight or nine gigs a month, I’m happy. In the past, I’ve worked hundreds of gigs per year, sometimes as many as 240, but I don’t do that anymore. I’m older, and hopefully wiser, and I’ve become more choosey. I don’t like to grind it out in the clubs from night to night to night. I like to have the tours be more specific and aimed at a larger audience and nicer venues. You’ve certainly earned that right. Hopefully, after 52 years!
e Original Guitar Chair
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Which guitar players have had the biggest influence on your career? Robert Johnson was my main inspiration to want to play the guita r. When I he ard his stuff I said, God, that was just the synthesis of it all. But so many others, too, from Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller, Lightning Hopkins, I could name you so many who I was so inspired by, and I wanted to be able to play something like that. Of course, the Chicago electric-blues stuff was also a major inspiration in terms of the songs and that feeling. I never thought of myself as the electric-guitar guy, but I’ve played electric over the years and I’ve worked with some amazing players—Robbie Robertson,
Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Michael Bloomfield. Is there a reason you embraced the acoustic over the electric guitar? I just felt that what I did solo was unique. I’ve always thought that the country-blues format was where it all came from and that was really important to me. That’ s where I came from, and that’s where I am. AG
John Hammond Timeless
Palmetto johnhammond.com
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AT TH E
WATER’S
EDGE On the new album ‘Privateering,’ guitar slinger Mark Knopfler heeds the pirate’s call
BY KENNY BERKOWITZ
t the age of 64, and more than writing has remained the same, focusing on 20 years into his solo career, characters—alienated, difficult, and singer, songwriter, and guitarist somehow sympathetic—as they struggle to extraordinaire Mark Knopfler, make their way through the world. Unlike Officer of the British Empire (OBE), makes his past work, however, on Pri vate eri ng, an unlikely pirate. But that’s the way the there’s water, water everywhere. On the former Dire Straits front man sees himself, track “Haul Away,” a s eaman enjoys watchand it’s the metaphor at the center of Privaing his shipmate fall overboard. On “Dream teering (Verve), a double album that of the Drowned Submariner,” a dying sailor crosses and re-crosses the Atlantic, mixing imagines his daughter running into his American and Celtic roots. arms. There’s water in the Celtic songs, too,
A
N I V O L O I B A F
Though there’s plenty of electric guitar, the feel of the album is largely acoustic. With help from Richard Bennett (guitars, bouzouki, tiple), Tim O’Brien (mandolin), and Kim Wilson (harmonica), the Scottishborn Knopfler reaches deeper than ever into American blues, bringing back echoes of Chicago, Texas, and the Delta. Backed by Phil Cunningham (accordion), John McCusker (fiddle, cittern), and Mike McGoldrick (whistles, uilleann pipes),
“I live to ride the ocean/the mighty which echo such folk songs as “Deep Blu e Knopfler shifts gears and returns to the world around,” he sings on the title track, a Sea” and “Wild Mountain Thyme.” And Scottish folk influences of his youth. jaunty number about saili ng the Mediter there’s more water on the album’s blues Through it all, his tone, touch, and ranean in search of plunder, women, and numbers. The Mississippi River threatens to timing remain unmistakable, vintage Knopadventure. “Come with me to Barbary/we’ll flood its banks on “Blood and Water,” the fler. And in conversation, talking from ply there up and down/not quite exactly/in Statue of Liberty blows a kiss on “Radio British Grove, his studio in West London, the service of the crown.” City Serenade,” and a pair of quarreling he sounds characteristically relaxed, speakIt’s a far cry from Dire Straits, but in lovers have nothing left to talk about but ing slowly, earnestly, about his love of songmany ways, Knopfler’s approach to songthe rain on “Seattle.” writing, acoustic guitars, and the sea.
AcousticGuitar.com 43
MARK KNOPFLER
What makes you want to write a song about 18th-century privateers? Well, there you are. I don’t know. I guess I feel a little bit like one myself. You have to relate in some way, and I think I do. What is it that moves you? You write about things that affect you, and I suppose if my heart were harder, I wouldn’t write so much. What do you think it is? It’s really hard to know. There is something that makes me want to have a go at this stuff, but I’m not altogether sure that I know
‘YOU WRITE ABOUT THINGS THAT AFF ECT YOU, AN D I SU PP OS E IF MY H EART W AS HARD ER, I WOULDN’T WRITE SO MUCH.’
what it is, which is part of the fun of it.
It’s wonderful—it’s my favorite thing, to you try to talk abou t them, the mor e of a try to write a good song. It’s not like being a mess you get into. musician, which is a different thing to me. Songwriting is very difficult to talk about, as Is there a song on this album that feels I’m sure you know. It’s a private thing, more autobiographical than the others? whe re I’l l wr ite , and whe n it’ s tim e to Certainly, “Go, Love.” I see that as being record, I’ll play the song for the musicians, about my relationship with North East and then we’ll try to record it. Sometimes, England [ Ed. note : Knop fler move d from I’ll lay a song out on my own, with just the Glasgow at the age of seven ]. Obviously, I sound engineer, so I can have a look at it, don’t live there any more, I’ve lived in and maybe make some structural changes, if London for years and years, but I go back. it could do with a bit of attention before the It’s a slightly odd relationship, you know? band gets to it. It’s all written out by then, And someb ody put it to me, “Mayb e y ou but I might think about the way gaps work just come back s o you can leave again.” I between verses and choruses, and the don’t know what that is. But “Go, Love” is overall shape of it. I’ll try different sounds connected to me quite directly, though a on it, which is the great thing about having song like that could mean anything to British Grove. It’s my big paint box, and it’s anybody, and I don’t go out there trying to getting this reputation for being able to do shut it down, saying “This is exactly what any kind of record you want, rough or it’s about.” Because it’s great when it smooth, so it’s got a line or artists waiting to means something else to somebody. get in. I don’t mean to bore you about the place, but it is pretty fantastic. How much do you know about these characters before you start writing? What was the challenge in writing these I’ll have a fairly reasonable idea of who particular songs? these people are: the high priest of money The challenge, did you say? There’s no chal- in “The Kingdom of Gold,” or the music lenge—all I’m trying to do is write a good manager in “Gator Blood,” who’s pretty song, make a good record. I suppose the much based on Tom Parker [who managed challenge is to try to achieve something, or Elvis Presley]. I read about these characto get a higher hit rate in terms of making ters, and sometimes a character doesn’t something that’s artistically satisfying. I leave me. For instance, take “Today is mean, I just try for good shooting every Okay.” I haven’t quite finished with [the time, and hope I’ve made the right call. Was heavyweight boxer] Sonny Liston [who it the right thing to go in on my own first, wa s mem or ial iz ed on “So ng for Son ny and lay the thing out? Or should I have Liston” on 2004’s Shangri-La ]. I was brought the band into this one straightreading about Sonny, on one particular away? You know, you’re kind of lumbered day, how he was partying with his wife and with the song, as a so ngwriter, but I lo ve some friends, and in the middle of it, he
How are you like a privateer? Well, I suppose, I’ve done it all my life. I’ve never had any help from anybody, never had a government grant to do it, but it’s not an orthodox way of going about things. When you’re recording and when you’re touring, you’re in charge of this band of people, and out on the road, it certainly feels a little bit like privateering. Why record a double album? Why write so many songs? I’m probably wasting a little less time than I normally would. I’d be only too happy to do that, but as I get older, I’ve learned to respect my talent a little bit more, what talent I have. Less liable to be sidetracked, I suppose. And I seem to have more time to look at songs, even when I’m touring I can just switch o n the laptop, and there they are. So I can take a look at them, and bring them on a little bit, until they start to mount up.
WHAT
MARK KNOPFLER
PLAYS
ACOU STIC GU ITARS & STR IN GS
1930 or ’31 Gibson L-4; 1935 Martin D-18; 1936 or ’37 D’Angelico Excel; 1938 Gibson Advanced Jumbo; and 1953 Gibson Southern Jumbo, all with D’Addario phosphor bronze environmental lite strings. 1937 National Style O with D’Addario phosphor bronze environmental medium strings. 2006 Size 5 Mini-Martin with D’Addario phosphor bronze strings: .025, .017, .013, .008, .012, .010. ACCE SS ORI ESPlanet Waves NS capo.
44 April 2014
being lumbered with it, if you know what I went down to the ve nue, demolis hed the mean. It’s very difficult to talk about it, German heavyweight champion in the first really, a lot of the time. Some songs you can few minutes of the fight, and came back talk about a little more easily than you can and carried on partying. That’s one kind of others. I can say, “When I wrote ‘Sailing to character. “Yon Two Crows” is about a hill Philadelphia’ I was here and I was doing this farmer, and again, I have a song about him and that.” But other songs just resist that. It on another album, “Hill Farmer’s Blues” depends on the song, really. Some of them, [from The Ragpicker’s Dream (2002)]. So I you’re feeling your way along, and the more haven’t finished with this guy, who’s a lot
appeared on Golden Heart ]. And I never changed one single word of the lyrics. So there is no formula to it, and if there was, I promise you I’d tell you. I’m trying to be as helpful as possible, but the thing is so shrouded in oddness.
like people I met in Newcastle, when I was young and worki ng o n a farm. I s uppose you get a sympathy for characters. I mean, “Seattle” was just looking at a couple in a bar in Seattle, and you could see that the dream wasn’t really working out. These are what I call situation songs, where you’re in a place just observing life, like “Money for Nothing” or “Sultans of Swing.” “Seattle” is like that.
well as the more rari fied things. I just love them, and I suppose you do, too.
Which of these songs began on guitar,
What part does your guitar play in the writing process? Obviously, I’ve had a very close relationship with the guitar, but it’s just something that I use to write songs with. I’m forever
Absolutely. When I got my first little electric guitar, I couldn’t afford an amp, so I used to borrow a friend’s cheap acoustic. So I have a big affection for acoustic guitars, and now, when I’m home, it will nearly always be an acoustic guitar that I’ll be playing. I’ll be using that acoustic to get into the songs, move the songs along as a songwriter. I’m
and which began on pencil and paper? More of them would start with a pencil and paper, but it can be the other way around, and sometimes it’ll just be a melody. I might be carrying some music in my head for a long time, and then it will just drift away and be gone forever. If I’m s having in the morning, and it’s gone by the time I get downstairs, I don’t worry about it too much. Sometimes it can be years before the music arrives. I wrote a song called “Rudiger” about the time John Lennon was assassinated [in 1980], and the music didn’t come along until ’96, [when it
going back at the simple stuff, the stuff that’s always meant the most to me. The band is very forgiving of me as a musician, because I’m the bloke who wrote the song, and they let me get away with a fair bit. I have spent some time over the years trying to improve as a player, and I suppose you do pick up more of a vocabulary, but it’s not something that I’ve ever structured. When I do learn anything, it gets absorbed into the writing, but most of the time, it’s very inti mate. I a dore guitars, and I like picking up different ones and using them for different songs, and I like cheap ones as
lucky enough to have some beautiful acoustic guitars, I might have a couple of them on stands around me at home, and though I change them up a little bit here and there, there have been some real regulars that will be there all the time. The one that I’m probably most close to is an old Martin D-18 from 1935, which has a lovely dry, slatey sound, that would be on “Privateering,” “Go, Love,” and quite a few songs. I might be using a Gibson advanced jumbo from 1938, and I have a little [size 5] MiniMartin, which is a beautiful little guitar that I really like playing quite a bit—it’s
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46 April 2014
How much do you think about your guitar parts, and how much do you just feel? I think probably more the latter. I think I just tend to use my ear, and try to respond to what everybody’s doing. And that’s what they’re doing, too. They’re not necessarily analyzing it and writing it all down. You know, someone like Tim O’Brien, you wouldn’t dream of telling him what to play. That would be like telling a great actor, “Put your elbow on the windowsill.” You just wouldn’t do it. It’s a given that Tim is as familiar with [the late blues mandolinist] Yank Rachell as he is with Bill Monroe, and he’s going to be perfect, and whatever he plays is going to fit right in there. That’s the joy of it. The roots on this album seem evenly split between the place where you grew up and the American South. Why is that? It’s all stuff that influenced me. One of the good things about not having an amplifier, and not being able to play in a rock band, was that it got me into folk joints and got me into playing acoustic guitar, and that led to exposure to a lot more music. Folk and blues and a lot of acoustic guitar music, and that’s led to lots and lots of other things. For me, I see the guitar as something to write songs with, not something to show off on. So I did learn to fingerpick, and that led to playing country blues, and that led to playing ragtime, and one
thing leads to another, it’s like putting bits of a jigsaw together. Learning ho w to [fi nger]pick an acoustic guitar opens up the instrument for you to no end. I mean , I cer tai nly woul dn’t have imagined it, because I was just like all the other kids, playing with a pick all the time, and that’s all I did. But once I got into folk and country blues, the synthesis started, and I started to break the rules. That’s something
that I would really advise young players to do, get an acoustic guitar. It doesn’t have to be good—I started on real cheap ones—and learn how to do a basic clawhammer pick. It’s amazing where that will take you. Would you encourage left-handed players to start the way you did? No. I mean, I’m left-handed with just about everything, but not the guitar. Before I had a guitar, I was playing with a tennis racket, strumming with my left hand, and my sister turned it around. But I think the violin was the real reason, which came from them trying to teach it to me at school. It just felt natural to have the guitar neck in my left hand. I remember listening to the soundtrack for ‘Local Hero’ [1983], and thinking how different it was from the rock you’d been playing with Dire Straits. Did that feel l ike a turning point? No, not really. I was just trying to have a bit of a more interesting life, really. Have a crack at a film, just to do something different. But I hadn’t heard you play Celtic music before. Yeah. I mean, it’s just natur al for me t o play stuff like that, to write those melodies. And I’m still doing it now, I suppose. I heard a lot of that stuff when I was very young, living up in Scotland and in the North East. You can’t escape it, really, can’t escape your influences. When you’re writing music like that, the music is partly what you are. Songwriters are odd, and the songwriter bit of me is a sponge that absorbs what it hears in one song and squeezes it out in another. When you write a song, there
are echoes of all sorts of things. Is that why so many of these songs are about the sea? I suppose. I’ve lived in river towns all my life, Glasgow and Newcastle and London and New York. I haven’t lived anywhere else. And in fact, there’s no doubt in my mind that will continue. The Delta and the Tyne, all the time. AG
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50 MUST-S PLACES FOOW THE SIGNPOSTS ON THE ROAD TO THE ACOUSTIC NATION
E R O M L E A D N A M A
BY GREG CAHILL, MARK SEGAL KEMP, & DAVID KNOWLES
S
pring is in the air—time to hit the road and enjoy the incredible evolving history of an instrument that has, quite literally, helped change the world. Guitar shops, large and small, roadside attractions (hey, isn’t that the spot where Libba Cotten heard
that freight train whistle blow?), museums, guitar factories, and Elvis’ cinder-block palace are among the many places across the nation that tell the story of acoustic-guitar music. From the Mississippi Delta to Nashville, Austin, and Nazareth, Pennsylvania, acoustic guitars have not only helped shape popular culture, they’ve become symbols of what it means to be an American. Ready for a road trip? Here are 50 places that no acoustic-guitar enthusiast should miss.
AcousticGuitar.com 49
50 MUST-SEE PLACES ARI ZONA
CALIFORNIA
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM
ACOUSTIC VIBES MUSIC
FREIGHT & SA LVAGE, BERKELEY
LAUREL CANYON COUNTRY STORE
Arguably, the world’s most extraordinary museum dedicated to making music is not found in the nation’s capital or New York City. That honor goes to Phoenix with its Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), a 200,000-square-foot, state-of the-art facility that left Carlos Santana “supremely inspired and overwhelmed.” MIM showcases instruments from around the globe, and hosts programs such as “Guitarmania to Beatlemania: The Evolution of the Acoustic Guitar” in its splendid 300-seat performance theater. 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. (480) 478-6000. mim.org
Describing itself as “more of an experience than a traditional retail” outlet, this inviting shop carries mostly top of the line guitars, banjos, mandolins, and ukuleles. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to find a model here that isn’t tempting to pick up and play. The shop also features a live performance series where you can watch top-notch players put those acoustic axes to good use. 2070 E Southern Ave, Tempe. (602) 295-5946 acousticvibesmusic.com
A performance hall located in the heart of the Berkeley Republic and dedicated to acoustic music, Freight & Salvage has established itself as a premier venue to see folk, Americana, country, and rock acts. With its high ceilings, stellar acoustics, and clear sight lines, catching performance by the likes of Robbie Fulks, Judy Collins, Jim Kweskin, Laurie Lewis, or the Milk Carton Kids proves to be a pure joy. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley (510) 644-2020. thefreight.org
In the late 1960s, Laurel Canyon was the Los Angeles neighborhood that best encapsulated the intersection of folk music and rock ’n’ roll. Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Mama Cass, the Byrds, Glen Frey, and Frank Zappa all lived in the canyon and shopped or hung out at the Country Store, a funky, independently owned grocery that still serves as thefocal point of a place that, for some, inspires California dreaming. Though many of the famous musical residents have moved on, listen hard and you can still hear the echoes of guitar history (Shhhh, is that Joni singing “Ladies of the Canyon”?). 2108 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Los Angeles. (323) 654-8091
MCCABE’S GUITAR SHOP Since 1958, this block building on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, with the curvy, black acoustic guitar painted on the front, has been a premier destination for folkies, jazz prophets, punks, and indie rockers. By day, instructors teach, salesmen sell, and repairmen fix guitars, sitars, ouds, bouzoukis, banjos, mandolins, and other stringed instruments. But the best thing about McCabe’s is what happens when the sun goes down. Doc and Merle Watson, Elizabeth Cotten, Joni Mitchell, Beck, PJ Harvey, and even avant-jazz great Sun Ra are just a few of the artists who have performed at McCabe’s over the decades to small gatherings of avid fans while, behind them, gleaming in the lights, are walls full of beautiful guitars. 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 828-4497. mccabes.com
SANTA CRUZ GUITAR COMPANY FACTORY TOUR
To put it mildly, luthier Richard Hoover runs an impressive operation down in Santa Cruz, hand crafting some of the country’s finest guitars in the seaside town known for surfing and its boardwalk rollercoaster. Tours of the factory, held on Thursdays and Fridays (reservations required), give you insight as to why players from Eric Clapton to Doc Watson to John Fogerty all swear by Hoover’s guitars. 151 Harvey West Blvd., Suite C, Santa Cruz (831) 425-0999. santacruzguitar.com 50 April 2014
TAYLOR GUITAR FACTORY TOUR
Ever wonder how the luthiers at Taylor get their guitars to sound so good? The company gives free tours of its El Cajon factory Monday through Friday at 1 p.m. A step-by-step walk-through of the process involved in building a Taylor, the comprehensive tour lasts one hour and 15 minutes, and visitors can also shop for spare parts, apparel, or, ahem, a new guitar, at the TaylorWare store.
1980 Gillespie Way, El Cajon taylorguitars.com
COLORADO
THE GRAMMY MUSEUM
OLDE TOWN PIC KIN’ PARLOR
Want to see John Fogerty’s old Dobro, the one he posed with on the cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 album Green River? Or plumb Bob Dylan’s Greenwich Village experience at “Bob Dylan, l’explosion rock 61-66,” a 2012 joint exhibit with the Musée de la musique in Paris that focused on the influences Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and others had on Dylan? Folk-music icons—like Pete Seeger, Dylan, and Donovan—play a big role in the museum’s programming. 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. grammymuseum.org
The best acoustic-guitar shop in Colorado—and one of the best in the country—this is the place to go if you want to take your time and get to know a few dozen Martin, Guild, Collings, and Taylor models up close and personal. Apart from an expert staff of luthiers, and more new and vintage models than you’ll be able to sample in a single visit, the shop boasts an impressive live bluegrass concert series that nurtures a porch-sitting vibe. 7515 Grandview Ave., Arvada. (303) 421-2304. picknparlor.com
ILLINOIS
CHESS RECORD S Sure, it’s the home of electric Chicago blues, but it’s also home to a label that released such bona fide acoustic-blues classics as Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer (a 1964 album that featured Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar). That album helped spread the blues to white college audiences immersed in the 1960’s folk revival. Similarly, 1962’s Howlin’ Wolf (with a cover photo of an acoustic guitar propped up in a rocking chair) introduced such blues standards as “Little Red Rooster” to British Invasion bands like the Yardbirds (with guitarists Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck) and the Rolling Stones, who would record two landmark albums at Chess Studios (including a song bearing the label’s address). The presentation is underwhelming, but this is the place the spawned some of the world’s greatest roots music. The srcinal Chess Records studio is now home to Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation, 2120 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago (312) 808-1286. bluesheaven.com Chess Studio heavyweights Willie Dixon, left, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy
KENTUCKY
CHICAGO MUSIC EXCHANGE
INTERNATIONAL BLUEGRASS MUSIC MUSEUM
The insulated acoustic guitar room at the Chicago Music Exchange (CME) is an oasis from the clamor of the windy city and a music store that’s always bustling. Comfortable couches and knock-off Eames chairs provide a cozy place to try out hundreds of acoustic guitars, and you can test out pickups and electric models in practice rooms built specifically for that purpose. Visually, there’s an almost Victorian museum vibe to CME, but this is one place where you’re going to want to touch the artwork. 3316 N. Lincoln Ave. (773) 525-7773. chicagomusicexchange.com
Officials in Owensboro, Kentucky, voted in 2012 to contribute $3 million to a massive International Bluegrass Music Center that will light up the skies of this city on the banks of the Ohio River. It’s not there yet, but you can visit the current museum, which has a respectable collection of artifacts ranging from a fiddle played by Bill Monroe’s Uncle Pen to the srcinal headstock veneer from Monroe’s 1923 Gibson F-5 Lloyd Loar mandolin. 117 Daviess St., Owensboro. (270) 926-7891 bluegrassmuseum.org
AcousticGuitar.com 51
50 MUST-SEE PLACES
BILL MONROE’S HOMEPLACE While in the Bluegrass State, drive about 45 minutes south from Owensboro to Rosine, the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music. In Rosine you’ll find the Bill Monroe Homeplace, the five-room house where he grew up. Uncle Pen’s cabin is out back. (Time your trip to coincide with the Jerusalem Ridge Festival, which is being held October 2–5 this year.) 6210 Highway 62 East, Rosine. (270) 274-9181 visitohiocountyky.org/billmonroe.html
MAINE
PANTHEON/BOURGEOIS FACTORY TOUR
GUITARS
Just a half hour from Portland, in the quaint town of Lewiston, is the equally quaint acoustic guitar factory for Bourgeois guitars. Here you’ll get a very intimate tour of luthier Dana Bourgeois’ operation, and even see him flitting about the production floor, attending to the smallest details of his creations. 2 Cedar St., Lewiston (207) 755-0003. pantheonguitars.com
MARYLAND
JOHN FAHEY MEMORIAL SUNDAY DRIVE Fingerstyle soloist John Fahey, the founder of the folk and blues amalgam known as American Primitivism, grew up in a nondescript single-story house on a quiet, tree-lined street in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Takoma, Maryland. In and of itself, that’s not spectacular. But the simple home served as an anchor for a talented, but troubled guitarist who experienced ill heath and poverty—Fahey named his label Takoma and titled several songs after places around his childhood home and throughout Prince George County. There’s Sligo Creek, from Fahey’s tune “Sligo River Blues,” and the wonderfully titled “Dance of the Inhabitants of the Invisible City of Bladensburg,” his ode to a neighboring burg. On this th
75 anniversary of Fahey’s birth, hop in the car, crank up 1967’s Days Have Gone By, Vol. 6 , and take a leisurely drive while drinking in a suburban landscape transformed and given iconic status in the rich imagination of an srcinal American guitarist.
52 April 2014
John Fahey
MICHIGAN
MINNESOTA
THE ARK
BOB DYLAN WALKING TOUR
Like Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, there’s really not a bad seat in the house at Ann Arbor’s folk- and roots-music performance space known as the Ark. Considered one of the finest and most intimate live venues in the country, if not the world, the non-profit devoted to folk, roots, and ethnic music sprang up in 1965, and has hosted a steady stream of inspiring shows ever since, featuring performers like Keb’ Mo’, Alison Krauss, the Deadly Gentlemen, and Bela Fleck. 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. (734) 761-1800. theark.org
Sure, New York City boasts a Bob Dylan walking tour, but that doesn’t include Dylan’s boyhood home, the bowling alley where Bob and the rest of the Gutter Boys whiled away their youth, the L&B Cafe where Bob and girlfriend Echo would spend time after school smoking cigarettes and playing the jukebox, or the site of Bob’s Bar Mitzvah, to name a few highlights of the walking tour sponsored by the Hibbing Library, which is also home to the Dylan Collection. By the way, Hibbing will celebrate its annual Dylan Days events May 22–25 (arrive a week earlier and you can scoot over to Duluth’s Dylan Fest). hibbing.mn.us; dylandays.org
Above, Bob Dylan’s high-school yearbook stated he was set “to join Little Richard”; below, Dylan’s boyhood home.
N E S E W M IA L L I W —
D L A R E G Z IT F
THE FITZGERALD THEATER
Built in 1910, this theater is best known today as the permanent venue for National Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” While Garrison Keillor and his musical guests regularly take the stage to perform for diehard fans, the 1,000-seat auditorium, with its fantastic acoustics, also plays host to events including lectures and concerts. 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. (651) 290-1200 fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org AcousticGuitar.com 53
50 MUST-SEE PLACES MISSISSIPPI
JUNCTION OF HIGHWAYS 61 & 49
DELTA BLUES MUSEUM
Along a dusty stretch of blacktop near Clarksdale, Mississippi, music fans from across the globe gather with cell phones in hand, Instagramming images of themselves next to road signs indicating the junction of Highways 61 and 49—the spot where blues legend Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil in order to play the blues. Further on up the road, a gaudy monument—two giant hollow-body electric guitars, back to back, on a pole with a sign that reads “The Crossroads”—marks theexact spot where the apocryphal incident took place. OK, there’s no “exact spot,” but like tales from religious texts, this is how the music world has come to date the birth of the blues as we know it. And who are we not to believe? Other points of interest in the area include Hiresberg’s Drug Store in
For a more accurate look at the birth of the blues, head northwest from the Crossroads to the Delta Blues Museum. The city of Clarksdale didn’t much care about blues history in 1979, when librarian Sid Graves began presenting displays at the Myrtle Hall Library, attracting about one visitor a month. That changed when ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons began talking it up in the late ’80s, but it would be another decade before the museum got its own home. Today, the DB M attracts 25,000 people a year to its performances, classes, book signings, and exhibits of blues legends like Muddy Waters, Eddie James “Son” House, Jr., and Big Mama Thornton. Don’t miss the awesome collection of early Stella acoustics. 1 Blues Alley, Clarksdale. (662) 627-6820. deltabluesmuseum.org
Friar’s Point, where Muddy Waters saw Robert Johnson playing on the front porch; the Tutwiler train station, where W. C. Handy first heard a man playing blues on a slide guitar; and the grave of harmonica great Alex Rice Miller, aka Sonny Boy Williamson.
MISSOURI
NEW YORK
EDDIE’S GUITARS
CAFÉ WHA?
The average number of years’ worth of experience of working in a guitar shop for Eddie’s employees is 22, so you know when you shop here you’re going to get some good gear advice. Making the guitar shopping that much easier is the incredible high-end selection of acoustics found here. With oriental rugs on the floor and some models kept in glass cases, the vibe is, appropriately given the stock, one of reverence. 7362 Manchester Rd, St. Louis (314) 781-7500 eddiesguitars.com
Bob Dylan cut his teeth at numerous spots in Greenwich Village—Gerde’s Folk City, the Gaslight, the Fat Black Pussycat (where he wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind”)—but his very first gig on the night he arrived in New York City was an open-mic at Café Wha? The place hosted plenty of other important acts of the era, from Peter, Paul & Mary to Hendrix, the Velvet Underground, later Bruce Springsteen, and several cultureshaking comics, including Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, and Richard Pryor. But that Dylan show is what keeps fans of acoustic folk music making pilgrimages today to 115 Macdougal St., New York City (212) 254-3706. cafewhacom
CAFFÈ LENA
THE MUSEUM AT BETHEL WOODS
Nestled in the horseracing country of upstate New York (in the town where Carly Simon’s “so vain” protagonist had a horse that “naturally won”) is the longest-running folk coffeehouse in the U.S. Established in 1960 by the late Lena Spencer, Caffè Lena provided shelter from the Greenwich Village storm for numerous folkies, including a young Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Kate McGarrigle, and such occasional bluesmen as Sleepy John Estes. These days, you’ll find more recent generations—Ani DiFranco, Arlo’s kid Sarah Lee, and talented folkies you’ve never heard of—still strumming away. 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs. (518) 583-0022 caffelena.org 54 April 2014
Located at Max Yasgur’s farm, on the site where half a million flower children descended for 1969’s Woodstock Festival of Peace and Music, the Museum at Bethel Woods is the best place to commemorate that defining generational event. With interactive exhibits, musical stages, and a lecture series, the $100 million museum and performing arts center at Bethel Woods is the next best thing to having been there. Opens for the season on April 5. 200 Hurd Road, Bethel. (866) 781-2922 bethelwoodscenter.org
AMERICAN GUITAR MUSEUM Owner and luthier Chris Ambadjes knows his guitars. In addition to acting as the curator for the museum’s 200-plus collection of rare, vintage guitars, Ambadjes, whose nickname is the “Guitar Doctor,” handles the repairs on the instruments for his devoted clientele. Housed in a three-story colonial home in New Hyde Park, the museum boasts axes owned by Jimi Hendrix, Les Paul, and other greats. Acoustic players will also marvel at the ten models in the collection made by famed luthier Jimmy D’Angelico. 1810 New Hyde Park Rd., New Hyde Park (516) 488-5000. americanguitarmuseum.com
NORTH CAROLINA
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
LIBBA COT TEN BIKEWAY
THE EARL SCRUGGS CENTER
Tucked away on the second floor of the venerable museum, the musical instruments section contains some 5,000 mind-blowing instruments from over the centuries, including pioneering acoustic guitar designs. If you didn’t think of instruments as artwork before you arrived, you will by the time you leave. Sweetening the deal, a special exhibit titled “Early American Guitars: The instruments of C.F. Martin” will be on view through December 7. 1000 5th Avenue, New York City (212) 535-7710. metmuseum.org
Not far from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is an old train station. It’s been everything from a punk club frequented by a very young R.E.M. in the early 1980s to a fancy bar and restaurant. But in the early 1900s, when 13-year-old Elizabeth Cotten was inventing a new style of left-handed Piedmont Blues fingerpicking at her home on nearby Lloyd Street, the station in Carrboro was still a thriving depot. You can take the half-mile trek from UNC to the Carrboro train depot via the new Libba Cotten Bikeway, and maybe even hear the rumble that inspired Cotten’s most famous song, “Freight Train.” Main Street between Lloyd and Roberson, Carrboro. (919) 428-7119. ncrailtrails.org/ web/trails/libba-cotten
He didn’t play guitar, but Earl Scruggs’ signature three-finger banjo-picking style sure did sound sweet alongside partner Lester Flatt’s famous acoustic-guitar G-runs on barnburners like “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” And then there were the iconic instrumentals such as “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” If you’re a bluegrass banjo picker, Scruggs-style playing is Banjo 101. After his death in 2012, plans for a museum began in Shelby, near the Cleveland County town of Boiling Springs, where he was born. The Earl Scruggs Center—Music & Stories from the American South opened in January 2014. The aim is to shine a spotlight on Southern cultural and musical traditions. 103 S. Lafayette St., Shelby (704) 487-6233 earlscruggscenter.org
DOC & MERLE WATSON MOUNTAIN FOLK ART MUSEUM Merlefest isn’t the only Doc Watson-related event in the mountains of North Carolina. There’s also MusicFest, which in 2013 paid tribute to the recently deceased flatpicker by changing its name to the Doc & Rosa Lee Watson MusicFest ’N Sugar Grove. It took place at the Historic Cove Creek School in Sugar Grove, and featured mostly Appalachian-rooted acts, such as the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The role of the old Cove Creek School is significant: it houses the Doc & Merle Watson Mountain Folk Art Museum, so far the only such exhibition. While you’re there, take the half-hour drive east to the tiny hamlet of Deep Gap, where Doc was born. 207 Dale Adams Rd., Sugar Grove, North Carolina 828-297-2200 musicfestnsugargrove.org
OKLAHOMA
WOODY GUTHRIE CENTER The Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa is a 12,000-square-foot facility that features state-of-the-art, interactive exhibits on Guthrie’s life, art, and creative legacy. The center is home to Guthrie’s comprehensive archives, including the srcinal handwritten version of his landmark anthem, “This Land is Your Land,” which is available for viewing at the center. 102 E. Brady St., Tulsa (918) 574-2710 woodyguthriecenter.org
AcousticGuitar.com 55
50 MUST-SEE PLACES OHIO
OREGON
ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
BEDELL/BREEDLOVE GUITARS FACTORY TOUR
Aside from its spectacular I.M. Pei architecture, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—a.k.a., the house thatRolling Stone’s Jann Wenner mysteriously built on the shores of Lake Erie instead of the banks of the Mighty Mississippi—is worth checking out for its collection of legendary acoustic guitars: Lead Belly’s early Stella 12-string; Johnny Cash’s 1943 Martin D-28; Wanda Jackson’s 1958 D-18; the 1968 Gibson J-200 Pete Townshend used on Tommy; the J-160 on which John Lennon drew doodles of him and Yoko; and the Martin 000-42 Eric Clapton played onMTV Unplugged. You might want to check out the Hall’s other guitars, too—you know, all the famous Strats, Les Pauls, and stuff. 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., Cleveland. (216) 781-7625 rockhall.com
Oregon may be a laid back, mellow state, but that doesn’t mean that its residents don’t have an eye for detail. Breedlove Guitars, the acclaimed guitar maker that Kim Breedlove started back in 1974 following a six-month surfing trip to Mexico, is a case in point. At its Bend factory, you can enjoy a low key, appointment-only look inside one of the country’s best manufacturers, and even consult with their luthiers to pick out wood combinations and inlay for your own custom model. 61573 American Loop, Bend (877) 800-4848 breedlovemusic.com
THE 14TH
New York Guitar Seminar AT MANNES
N E S N E J K E R E D
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Guitars in the Classroom trains, inspires, and equips classroom teachers to make and lead music that transforms learning into a creative, effective, and joyful experience for k-12 students from coast to coast and beyond.
FROM THE ACADEMY:
Focus on the Guitar in Higher Education June 24 – 29, 2014 Featuring: Benjamin Verdery, Ana Vidovic, Fabio Zanon, Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, Tali Roth, Mariano Aguirre, Allen Krantz, Ana María Rosado, Seth Himmelhoch, Sharpe/Zohn Guitar Duo, Ciraldo Duo, and others. 150 W. 85th Street, New York, NY 10024 212-580-0210 x4883
www.mannesguitar.com
Thanks to Martin Guitars and the C.F. Martin Foundation, Oriolo Guitars, the Bill Graham Foundation, and D'Addario & Co. for helping us launch the latest round of GITC programs!
Please visit
to learn more and check out GITC's first publication: The Green Songbook Available now from Alfred Music Publishing at www.GreenSongBook.com .
56 April 2014
PENNSYLVANIA
CRIPPLE C REEK MUSIC CO.
MARTIN GUITAR FACTORY TOUR
If you and your friends are looking to start a string band but are in need of new instruments, this is your place. Set on Ashland’s picturesque Main Street, Cripple Creek Music is practically overflowing with guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, violins, banjos, and cajons. Best of all, the cozy, wood-appointed shop has honed a laid back vibe where staff members actually encourage you to pick up their impressive selection of new Martins and Taylors and strum more than a passing E chord. 353 E. Main St., Ashland (541) 482-9141 cripplecreekmusic.com
Nazareth may not be the birthplace of the modern American guitar—that distinction goes to New York City, where luthier C.F. Martin started his storied company in 1833 —but the tiny Pennsylvania town is now home to Martin & Co. and draws acoustic pilgrims from around the world. “We make more great flattop steel string acoustic guitars than any other entity on earth,” CEO Chris Martin IV said recently. The illuminating hour-long tour of the state-of-the-art factory floor shows you why that claim is true. 510 Sycamore St., Nazareth (610) 759-2837. martinguitar.com
Rock On.
SOUTH DAKOTA
SPEAL’S TAVERN CIGAR-BOX GUITAR MUSEUM
NATIONAL MUSI C MUSEUM
Perhaps fittingly, one of the world’s biggest collections of cigar-box guitars can be found on the walls of a bar. Used by such noted players as blues legend Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mr. Blue Suede Shoes himself, Carl Perkins, as well as Paul McCartney, the cigarbox guitar has been memorialized at Speal’s Tavern in New Alexandria since 2010. The tavern’s impressive collection now numbers over 40, and includes cigar-box amplifiers and a trove of photos and artifacts chronicling the use of the instrument used by musicians on a budget. 1850 Lions Club Rd., New Alexandria. (724) 433-1322 spealstavern.com/ cigar-box-guitar-museum
With more than 13,500 musical instruments in its stunning collection, this University of South Dakota museum is not only one of the finest in the country, but one of the best in the world. Of course, you may be especially drawn to the Lillibridge Gallery, where close to 40 stunning guitars, banjos, and mandolins are housed, as is a recreation of the D’Angelico/ D’Aquisto/Gudelsky Guitar Workshop. Early Gibsons from the turn of the century, as well as some choice Martin D-28s, easily qualify this as a place to visit. 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion (605) 677-5306 orgs.usd.edu/nmm/galleries
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50 MUST-SEE PLACES TENNESSEE
BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND
COUNTRY MUS IC HALL OF FAME
More than 300 feet beneath the earth’s surface, deep inside the Cumberland Caverns, is a bluegrass stage unlike any other. Courtesy of Mother Nature, the perfect acoustics inside the Volcano Room have played host to such performers as Ricky Skaggs, Leon Russell, Missy Raines, and Ashley Caudill. While spelunking might not be every roadie’s idea of fun, sitting beneath the crystal chandelier along with a few thousand bats and some of the world’s best pickers simply cannot be beat, whether you’re a performer or audience member. 1437 Cumberland Caverns Rd., McMinnville. (931) 668-4396 bluegrassunderground.com
Based on the rock-with-a-twang music that comes out of Nashville today, it’s easy to forget the crucial role acoustic guitars have played in country music. The Country Music Hall of Fame won’t let you forget it. From its regular acoustic-guitar demonstrations by players like session man Jack Pearson to the vintage acoustic guitars in its permanent collection (including Jimmie Rodgers’ 1928 Weymann and Mother Maybelle Carter’s 1928 Gibson L-5), the Nashville museum is a must-see. While there, don’t miss the permanent exhibit, “Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music,” or the archive spotlight exhibit, “Hank Williams: Timeless Troubadour.” 222 Fifth Ave. South, Nashville (615) 416-2001 countrymusichalloffame.org
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58 April 2014
GRACELAND OK, maybe Elvis Presley wasn’t known as a superlative guitarist, but he was the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and no tour through Memphis is complete without visiting his castle. Highlights include the animal-print adorned “Jungle Room,” the three TV sets Elvis watched simultaneously, several iconic acoustic guitars (currently undergoing restoration, including one played on the King’s landmark 1968 comeback TV special), and, yes, the abundant number of impersonators who can’t seem to tour Graceland enough. 3734 Elvis Presley Blvd., Memphis (901) 332-3322 elvis.com/graceland
Ernest Tubb backstage at the Ryman Auditorium, June 5, 1955.
GORDON GILLINGHAM © GRAND OLE OPRY LLC
RYMAN AUDITORIUM Few places in America have played such an integral part in the country’s musical heritage as the Ryman Auditorium. Dubbed the “Mother Church of Country Music,” the Grand Ole Opry took up residence at the theater for 31 years. During that time, Earl Scruggs made his debut with Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash met June Carter backstage, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley each knocked ‘em dead, and the Byrds introduced country rock to a mainstream audience. Though the Opry has moved on, the Ryman still has some of the best acoustics of any theater anywhere. 116 Fifth Ave. North, Nashville (615) 889-3060. ryman.com
SUN STUDIO
THIRD MAN RECORDS
Yes, you too can have your picture taken with an old RCA ribbon microphone inside the same studio where, in 1954, a young Elvis Presley, in an impromptu burst of inspiration, began strumming his acoustic guitar and singing Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right (Mama).” But Sun is much more than just a few iconic Elvis tracks. Nineteenyear-old Ike Turner’s band was
Few Americans have done more to preserve our country’s musical legacy than former White Stripes frontman Jack White. At his record label’s tiny shop, you’ll find a great assortment of vinyl reissues, and can check out the world’s only functioning live-to-acetate recording studio. If you’re lucky, a music industry legend like Wanda Jackson may even stop by for an
cutting an earlier Sun side, “Rocket 88,” when another impromptu event helped shape American rock ’n’ roll—the cone in the band’s amp had been damaged, creating a fuzzy guitar sound that in later years would be simulated with electronics. Never been to Sun? What are you waiting for? 706 Union Ave., Memphis (800) 441-6249. sunstudio.com
impromptu show. 623 7th Ave S, Nashville (615) 891-4393 thirdmanrecords.com
Kaufman University Coming Near You!
Go Blue.
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FINGERSTYLE BLUES SONGBOOK
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865-982-3808 AcousticGuitar.com 59
50 MUST-SEE PLACES TEXAS
BROKEN SPOKE If you’re in Austin for the SXSW music shindig held each spring (or for any other reason), take a drive out to the old wood-paneled dive bar in a dusty gravel parking lot off South Lamar Boulevard. The Broken Spoke may look like just another Texas honky-tonk serving longneck beer and heart attack-inducing BBQ, but it’s one of the most famous dance halls in the world. Since 1964, country legends from Willie Nelson to the Flatlanders’ Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore to Lucinda Williams have played for rooms packed
E R O M L E A D N A M A
Broken Spoke
Accentuate
with roots-music fans and Western swing dancers. Don’t forget to pick up your own “I Dance Country at the Broken Spoke” bumper sticker. 3201 S. Lamar. (512) 442-6189 brokenspokeaustintx.com
COLLINGS FACTORY TOUR After moving from Ohio to Texas in the early 1970s, Bill Collings started making guitars at his kitchen table. Soon he was selling models to big name acts like Lyle Lovett, and demand for his guitars skyrocketed. The 60- to 90-minute tour of Collings’ state-of-the art, 27,000-squarefoot factory on the outskirts of Austin gives you insight into why Joni Mitchell, Brian May, and Pete Townshend have all sought out his guitars. Don’t be fooled by the building’s plain exterior, the operation inside is a thing of beauty. 11210 W. Hwy 290, outside Austin (512) 288-7776 collingsguitars.com
BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON’S GRAVE “See that my grave is kept clean,” country bluesman and fingerstyle pioneer Harry “Blind Lemon” Jefferson opined in a song by the same title recorded two years before his death in 1929. Decades later, everyone from
1.800.788.5828 www.rainsong.com
Escape the expected. Experience graphite.
60 April 2014
Andy Griffith to Bob Dylan has covered that song, and Geoff Muldaur referred to it in his wistful acoustic blues “Got to Find Blind Lemon.” You can find the grave in a small cemetery that now bears his name in rural Wortham. Bring a broom. Wortham Black Cemetery, Highway 14, Freestone County
HEART OF TEXAS C OUNTRY MUSIC MUSEUM Deep in the heart of Texas, you’ll find this shrine to honky-tonk culture. Opened in 2000, the museum boasts an impressive collection of rhinestone-studded clothing worn on the road by such legends as Lefty Frizzell and Ray Price. Guitar enthusiasts will marvel at the collection of instruments on view here, from Buck Owens’ red, white, and blue Harmony to Martins played by Jimmy Reeves and Billy Walker. Floyd Tillman’s Gibson and Hank Snow’s custom Gay guitars round out a collection that is well worth the price of admission, but the museum is only open Friday through Sunday. 1701 S Bridge St., Brady (325) 597-1895. hillbillyhits.com
development of the guitar through the lives and accomplishments of such innovators as Orville Gibson, Leo Fender, and Les Paul, and the musicians who played them. 325 5th Ave. N (206) 770-2700. empmuseum.org
string beauty made for Chet Atkins by legendary luthier Hascal Haile in 1972, the collection is staggering in scope. Best of all, as with all the Smithsonian museums in DC, admission is free! 14th St. and Constitution Ave. (202) 633-1000. americanhistory.si.edu
WASHINGTON DC
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY Among the more than 5,000 musical instruments in the Smithsonian’s collection are some very prized guitars. From a 1690 Voboam to a nylon
TRAIL OF TEJANO LEGENDS Next to the Colorado River in East Austin is a project that not only offers a little history of Mexican-American music in this famous music town, but it’s a pretty good way to get some exercise. The Trail of Tejano Legends begins at the Mexican American Cultural Center and takes you by several hotspots, including a park honoring Manuel “Cowboy” Donley, who some call the grandfather of true Texas Tejano—you know, the kind that features bands fronted by furiously strummed nylon-string guitarists. Mexican American Cultural Center 600 River St., Austin. (512) 974-3772 UTAH
INTERMOUNTAIN GUITAR & BANJO With so many rare and vintage instruments, this Salt Lake City shop could double as a museum for folk instruments. Opened in 1973, it has become the go-to place for bluegrass players and has amassed a collection that includes an impressive number of fretted instruments from the mid-1880s onward. 712 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City (801) 322-4682. guitarandbanjo.com WASHIN GTON STA TE
EMP MUSEUM Probably best known as a shrine to Seattle rockguitar god Jimi Hendrix, the Experience Music Project (EMP) and Science Fiction Hall of Fame also boasts an impressive gallery of acoustic guitars, including early semi-hollow-body Bakelite guitars made by Rickenbacker. At press time, these and others were on display in “The Quest for Volume” exhibit, featuring 55 vintage, world-changing guitars from the 1770s to the present. The instruments on display span the AcousticGuitar.com 61
“One magazine has referred to Steve Dawson as the T-Bone Burnett of Canada. I tend to think
PRESENTS
STEVE
DAWSON RATTLESNAKE CAGE This is the record that Steve Dawson’s growing number of fans have been waiting for.‘Rattlesnake Cage’ finally gives them the opportunity to hear Steve interact with his guitar in a way that has never been captured on record before - stellar solo instrumental guitar performances recorded with one vintage microphone. Raw, imaginative, and captivating - instrumental music informed by the deep traditions of blues, ragtime, jazz and even Hawaiian music, but taking those influences in unexpected directions.
of him more as a Canadian version of Ry Cooder … his fine slide guitar and storytelling, everything seeming to flow effortlessly.” – Toledo Blade
“Anyone who can hear Dawson play and not be moved is made of stone!” – Penguin Eggs Magazine
More Zesty Black Hen Releases
KELLY JOE PHELPS Brother Sinner and the Whale
JIM BYRNES I Hear the Wind in the Wires
Available on CD, vinyl and digital everywhere on Feb. 18
THE MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS TRIBUTE PROJECT Live DVD
www.blackhenmusic.com
62 April 2014
SPECIAL SECTION
Summer Events Guide 64
HOW TO APPROACH A JAM SESSION
66
SUMMER EVENTS DIRECTORY
SPECIAL SECTION SUMMER EVENTS GUIDE th YEAR: FROM THE VAULT
Play Well with Others HEADED FOR A F ESTIVAL OR MUSIC CAMP? JAM SESSIONS OFFER GREAT FUN AND COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY . . . IF YOU KNOW HOW TO APPROACH THEM BY STEVIE COYLE
M
aking “a joyful noise” with others comfortable with it and can lead the jam is one of the great treasures of on it. These songs should be familiar or being a musician, even for a simple enough that almost anyone will be beginner. And yet many of us don’t afford able to join in, picking up the progression ourselves the chance, or do so infrequently, and feel by the end of the first verse and owing to circumstances, lack of confidence chorus (or with the help of a quick runin our musical skills, or some other obstacle through), yet fun and interesting enough (real or imagined). Consequently, when you that anyone who hasn’t played or sung do play with others, you may find yourself them before will get a kick out of doing so. entering the fray haltingly—making You may only get to do one of these songs awkward contributions to the jam and just (or none at all), but having such material not plugging into the enjoyment everyone ready can help keep your jams lively and else seems to be having. moving forward, encouraging the developIf you’ve had this experience and long ment of a jam culture among your compato experience the delight of spontaneous, dres and avoiding the dreaded, jam-killing shared musical discovery, here are some question: “What do you want to play?” tips to get you on the right track. These suggestions may not make you a brilliant Tune Up Your Ax. Make sure your guitar improviser or renowned jam leader overhas fresh strings (less than a week or two night, but if you apply them diligently, old) and everything is in good working you’ll not only enjoy jams more, you’ll find order—and be sure to check that out at yourself invited to them more often. least two or three weeks in advance, in case you do need a repair.
Loo k—and Lis ten —fo r Space. A jam is about listening as much as it is about playing. It’s almost always a good idea to wait for the f irst verse of a song to go by before you play. This not only gives you a chance to enter the song with a sense of how it goes; it gives the “arrangement” some nice dynamics.
Learning to play well with others starts when you’re still playing by yourself. In the
Woodshed. If you haven’t been playing much recently, practice frequently in the
Keep Your E yes O pen. Many jammers are strongly tempted to close their eyes and internalize the music. Resist this temptation! Stay tuned visually so you’ll be able to take cues from others, especially the tune leaders, if there are any. Jams are often round-robin affairs where leadership is
days and weeks before a jam, make sure you do the following:
week or two leadin g u p to t he j am—and keep in mind that 15 minutes a day is better than two hours once during that week.
passed around a circle. The leader will frequently cue with a nod who should solo next and when.
GET INTO THE GROOVE
Variety Is the Spice of Jamming . Don’t play the same way or take the same role on every number. Vary your volume from song to song, from verse to verse, and from verse to ch orus. Vary your chord voici ngs
BEFORE YOU JAM
Expand Your Repertoire. Make it your job to learn one to three songs or tunes that are new to you before each jam, so you have some fresh material to contribute. Practice this material enough for a week or two beforehand so that you’re very
64 April 2014
that, keep these points in mind: Play, Don’t Perform. Realize that a jam is not a concert. Submit to the groove; in a jam, the groove is everything. Music needs a pulse before it can go anywhere, so help get that heartbeat going strong. And, as best you can, stick with the “flavor” of the jam, letting transitions from one musical style to another be fairly gradual.
Once you’re at the jam, remember: You will have the most fun if you can transform your self —eve n i f o nly for a few hours — from a soloist into a band player. To do
and avoid always playing first-position chords; change your placement on the guitar neck, either with a capo or by your choice of chord forms. Vary the tempo and feel of tunes as you go around the circle. Have a few uptempo and slow ones in your bag of tricks so that when it’s your turn to call the tune you’ll have whatever “feel” you may want ready to go. Play with Space and Silence. Sing on one number; don’t sing on another. Play for a few tunes, and then sit out for a few. Songs and tunes need to breathe; there always
them. During instrumental pieces or solo sections, support the soloist (again, with decreased volume). Always look for ways to serve what’s being created by the group. Grow. Take a Step Forward. Sharing music with a roomful of musicians is a tremendous opportunity for learning and discovery. Pay attention to others’ techniques while playing with them, and ask questions on the break and afterward. Everybody loves to talk about what they do, so don’t hold back if you see somebody doing something you’d like to learn to do.
needs to be a silent inhalation before you can sing, so try to feel that sense of silence- JAM FOREVER MORE and-then- sound in your playing as well, You see, playing well with others is a pretty rather than making a song one giant exhala- simple matter: Pay attention, check your tion. Doing this also makes your music more ego at the door, and have fun! Now you’re purposeful—and allows your musical partready to do all that and more, filling your ners to see you as a discerning musician. free time with the incomparable pleasure of making music with others. Serve the Music. This is the primary objecThere’s just one last thing to do before tive of any musician, and the prime direcyou r nex t ja m: Talk to you r fri end s or tive of any jam. During song verses, find search the Internet for some good new ways to support the lyrics; this will probably banjo jokes to bring with you. mean playing at reduced volume while the song’s story is being told. Play fills between A version of this article was published in the sung lines, rather than playing chords over November 2006 issue of Acoustic Guitar.
A FESTIVAL & MUSIC CAMP
CHECKLIST A rugged gig bag (with plenty of padding and comfortable straps). Fresh strings (bring a few extra sets). A tuner (and extra batteries). A cleaning cloth (the great outdoors can be messy and hard on your guitar). A notebook and pencils (to track your experience and pen a tune or two). And, remember, you may want to leave your best guitar at home. A sturdy stand-in or even a good carbon-fiber guitar can come in handy in an environment that lacks temperature and humidity control.
Easily expand your chord vocabulary …by visualizing chord relationships. Guy’s Grids is the 228-page, 9” x 14” ultimate encyclopedia of chord structure. Use this Grid format to enhance memory retention while reinforcing understanding of chord theory. Check out Guy’s other titles:
Scales, Modes & Arpeggios
Chord Cousins
Inversion Immersion
2-String Harmonic Outlines for Guitar
Guy’s
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Get more details at guysgrids.com
65 April 2014
AcousticGuitar.com 65
ACOUSTIC GUITAR’S
SUMMER E VENTS DIRECT ORY 31st Annual Classical Guitar Workshop
College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio AUGUST (513) 281-2865
[email protected] ccmguitarworkshop.org Weeklong workshop for classical-guitar enthusiasts of all levels. Participation in technique classes, ensembles, and masterclasses organized according to skill levels (beginning, intermediate, advanced). Concerts every evening. $250 student; $295 adults. Age 10 – retirement.
Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp
Wasilla, Alaska AUGUST (503) 699-1814
[email protected] acousticalaska.com Watch moose and improve your guitar, mandolin, ukulele, voice, & songwriting on a picturesque lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. Small classes/campfire jams ensure a great experience—all experience levels welcome. Instructors: Ernie Hawkins, Dan Navarro, BettySoo, Sharon Gilchrist, Doug Cox, Fred Sokolow, Michael Chapdelaine, and Steve Baughman.
Accent On Music Fingerstyle Guitar Seminar
Portland, Oregon
[email protected] accentonmusic.com
Port Townsend, Washington Mark Hanson’s 15th annual guitar seminar. On the campus of Portland State University. Instructors; Mark Hanson, Mike Dowling, David Hamburger. Limited to 35 attendees Visit us online for more informa tion and to register.
Alex de Grassi Summer Guitar Intensive
JULY AUGUST (360) 385-3102, ext. 116
[email protected] centrum.org/blues Daily classes in Hill Country, Delta and Piedmont styles, finger-picking, blues guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, violin, mandolin, banjo, blues piano, bass, blues singing, and gospel choir, all taught by masters of the traditions.
Redwood Valley, California JULY
(707) 485-1083
[email protected] degrassi.com/workshops.html Summer Intensive Guitar Workshop July 24-27 (intermediate and advanced) at Jug Handle Creek Farm on the spectacular Mendocino Coast in Caspar , CA. $750 fee includes gourmet meals, shared room in farmhouse. Private rooms/cabins, camping available.
California Coast Music Camp
Palo Alto, California JULY and JULY (650) 306-0399 or (415) 377-1755
[email protected] musiccamp.org Join top instructors at an acoustic music camp in Northern California’s scenic Gold Country mountains. One or two weeks. Cost includes all lessons, meals, and lodging. Workshops, dances, concerts, performance opportunities, swimming, and hiking.
JULY (503) 699-1814
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Centrum’s Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop
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Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival
Baltimore, Maryland APRIL
[email protected] charmcitybluegrass.com The Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival will take place at Druid Hill Park, near Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens, on April 26th, 2014. Headliners include 13-time Grammy Award winner, Jerry Douglas, mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull, and bluegrass heavyweight Audie Blaylock & Redline.
Django in June
Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts JUNE (413) 320-8154 djangoinjune.com Django in June is the only music camp in the US devoted soley to the Gypsy jazz tradition of Django Reinhardt. Instructional tracks for guitar, violin, accordion, and bass.
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Folk Alliance International
Kansas City, Missouri (816) 221-3655
[email protected] folk.org Folk Alliance International is a 3,000+ member driven organization and conferences for the Folk and TraditionalMusic Community. For 26 years, FAI has served as the collective voice of the community and its conferences and music camp bridge yesterday and today intothe future.
[email protected] guitarworkshopplus.com The ultimate experience in music education for guitar, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, and songwriting. Courses for all levels, ages, and styles.
Kerrville Folk Festival
Kerrville, Texas MAY JUNE (212) 558-02100, ext. 4883
[email protected] kerrvillefolkfestival.org Kerrville Folk Festival is a family event presenting songwriters from every genre. Ian Moore, Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, Billy Jonas, James Hill, Judy Collins, Vance Gilbert, Brennan Leigh & Noel McKay, Mary Gauthier.
Fur Peace Ranch and Psylodelic Gallery
New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes
Pomeroy, Ohio
New York, New York
(740) 992-6228
[email protected] furpeaceranch.com
JUNE (212) 558-0210, ext. 4883
[email protected] mannesguitar.com
A ranch that grows guitar players . . . the Fur Peace Ranch hosts national recording artists that teach guitar, bass, vocals, mandolin, percussion, and songwriting.
Guitar Intensives
New York, New York
Princeton and Yale Universities’ and other top schools’ faculty (Ben Verdery, Ana Vidovic, Fabio Zanon, Newman & Oltman Duo, et al.) focus on interactive sessions—master classes, hands-on workshops, performance classes, ensemble coachings—as well as faculty and participant concerts.
(917) 620-8872
[email protected] guitarintensives.com Dream team faculty in a spectacular location on Frenchman’s Bay, Bar Harbor – steps from Acadia National Park. Mike Dowling, Martin Grosswendt, Andra Faye, Scott Ballenstine, and more, TBA! Guitar – Mandolin – Slide – Fiddle – Band Lab – Vocal – and more!
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada JULY TORONTO , JULY TORONTO , AUGUST VANCOUVER (905) 567-8000
Sisters, Oregon SEPTEMBER (541) 549-4979
[email protected] sistersfolkfestival.org A th re e- day mu si c fe st iv al ev er y ye ar in September in the charming town of Sisters, Oregon. From Blues to Bluegrass and everything in between. Nine stages and over 40 acts . . . a weekend full music.
Walnut Valley Festival and National Flatpicking Championships
Winfield, Kansas SEPTEMBER (620) 221-3251
[email protected] wvfest.com International convention for acoustic music featuring over 200 hours of live music on 4 stages, 8 National and International acoustic instrumental contests, workshops, and jam sessions.
Wernick Method Jam Classes & Camps
Across 38 States and 10 Countries
[email protected] bgjam.com Wernick and his teaching team help learning musicians build skills and confidence, jammin g i n an inclu sive and frien dly soci al setting. Only G, C, D, A chords required. Many camps are connected to bluegrass festivals, with we ekly c lasses by Wenick Me thod instructors across the country.
Christian Guitarist Workshop
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania MARCH (717) 766-2511, ext. 330
[email protected] messiah.edu/guitar Messiah College’s Workshop for Christian Guitarists: Sessions for all levels (even begin-
Guitar Workshop Plus
Sisters Folk Festival
ners) acoustic or electric. $45 ($30/students). Part of our many programs/degrees for the complete Christian guitarist. See website for details.
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Wind River Guitar
Dubois, Wyoming (307) 455-3748
[email protected] mikedowling.com Three full days of personal, private, affordable instruction with Grammy-winning Mike Dowling in his comfortable Rocky Mountain home. Request a brochure jdowling@ wyoming.com.
AcousticGuitar.com 67
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Gear Reviews 76
Great Acoustics 98
AG
TRADE
SHOPTALK
Scott Baxendale
Oh, Graceland, Don’t Be Cruel! Luthier Scott Baxendale won’t be fixing Elvis’ guitars, but he came back from Memphis with some great stories BY MARK SEGAL KEMP
A
n Athens, Georgia, luthier who wa s ta ppe d to re st or e so me of Elvis Presley’s most famous guitars has been given the red light, according to Graceland spokesman David Beckwith. “The restoration project is on hold indefinitely as we reevaluate the conservation work needed for the guitars,” Beckwith said in a mid-January email. “And as far as anyone specific to do the work, we haven’t decided who that will be.” That’s very different from the news of
Gibson J-200 he used in numerous performances and movies including 1958’s King Creole. “We were just blown away,” said Baxendale, who is known for his fine craftsmanship in converting old Harmony and Kay guitars into top-quality instruments, and whose clients range from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to punk-jazz guitarist Nels Cline. Baxendale would have been responsible for restoring 20 to 25 other Presley guitars, including a Martin D-76 and a black Gibson
before—just little OM-shaped mahogany guitars that really looked pretty plain-Jane.” He wondered why Elvis even had the guitars—that is, until he returned later that night to the Heartbreak Hotel. “When we got back to the hotel—you know, they have those continuous-running loops of Elvis movies everywhere in the hotel—I looked up at one of the TVs and there he was, playing one of those little Fenders. I turned to my wife and said, ‘Look, that’s the guitar that we just saw!”
just two weeks earlier, when The Tennessean Dove. But the guitar maker, whose specialty in Nashville reportedthat Presley’s daughter, at his Athens shop is transforming relatively Lisa Marie, and her husband, producer and cheap vintage instruments into glorious guitarist Michael Lockwood , had picked pieces of playable art, was most drawn to Scott Baxendale for the project. AG talked two unusual Fenders he saw in the collecto an excited Baxendale shortly after he and tion. “They were identical Fender acoustics his wife returned from Graceland, where he made in the late ’60s,”Baxendale said. “They inspected several of the King’s guitars, were obviously Japanese-made guitars, but including Presley’s favorite—the 1956 they weren’t like any I had ever seen
When contacted about Graceland’s change of plans, Baxendale said he couldn’t comment, but added that he’s moved on. “Right now, I am focused on preparing for the American Craft Council award luncheon in New York. I have been selected as a finalist.” Stay tuned for more from AG on the talented Baxendale.
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Ernie Ball Introduces a New Alloy Acoustic String It’s the age-old dilemma. You’re scheduled to play an intimate set of country-blues with some friends down at the bar, and you want a nice, warm, full-bodied sound. But maybe you’d like to throw in some bright, ringing, folk sing-alongs to get the crowd going. Should you pick up a set of phosphor bronze strings for their richness, or 80/20s for a little extra shimmer? What if you had a totally dif-
my opinion, you’re going to run sensation Andy McKee and singerinto strings that sound muddled songwriter John Mayer . Both and boring and dull,” Ball says. wer e imp res sed. May er’ s gui tar “There are full copper blends that tech, Rene Martinez , called Ball have been out there for a while to tell him how much more expresnow and not a lot of people are sive Mayer’s playing sounded playing them. So we wanted to wh en he st ru ng up hi s Ma rt in create a string that was vibrant, acoustic-electric and plugged it in. expressive, and punchy.” “He said, ‘You know, I’ve never Over the past decade, Ernie heard John be able to stand out Ball’s engineers experimented with acoustically with five guys playing more than 150 alloys that failed to electric instruments, but you can
ferent choice? That’s the question string engineers at Ernie Ball asked when they began doing research and development three years ago on a new alloy for acoustic-guitar strings. The result is Ernie Ball’s Alumin um B ronze line— the firs t guitar strings to use this particular blend. The company unveiled the new strings at the January National Association of Music Merchants trade show in Anaheim, California, and planned to begin shipping them to music stores in March. Unlike phosphor bronze or 80/20s, which blend copper with zinc or tin, Ernie Ball’s Aluminum Bronze strings are a blend of copper and aluminum. It’s a strong, corrosion-resistant alloy used by the military in everything from aircraft landing gear to ship propellers. Even more important than the strings’ durability, according to company vice president Brian Ball , is their sound. The company was looking to create strings with a strong low-end response that also have a crisp, vib ra nt so und, but wit hou t the negative associations attached to brightness. “If you go down the tonal road of, like, extremely warm, then in
make the cut because they didn’t sound good enough. That all changed when they began perfecting a blend of aluminum and copper. They noticed that the strings not only had more clarity and projection than traditional bronze, they also were more resistant to sweat and other contaminants, which means they last longer. “There are a lot of challenges to making strings better,” Ball says. “There are fixed variables—they need to be strong, they need to be durable, and they need to sound good. That’s kind of why there hasn’t been a lot of innovation. It’s not that people haven’t been trying.” To test the new Aluminum Bronze strings in-house, the Ball team strung up a mahogany Taylor for a couple of weeks, and then restrung the guitar with a set of 80/20s. “Those 80/20s actually sounded dull,” says marketing manager Derek Brooks. “We were like, ‘Wow, it’s the same guitar, but these strings just don’t have the projection.’ And they were brand new, right out of the package.” The company gave early samples to YouTube finger-picking
hear his playing so much more distinctly and better.’ ”
‘We wanted to create a string that was vibrant, expressive, and punchy.’ — BRIAN BALL
“The note separation is amazing,” Brooks adds. “You just hear every note so clearly.” Manufactured at Ernie Ball’s Coachella Va lley plant in California, Aluminum Bronze strings come in all gauges and sell for a starting price of $7.99.
Elixir Debuts New HD Lights Taylor Guitars’ master luthierAndy But Elixir says its new HD Lights Powers recently worked alongside aren’t limited to those instruments. Elixir Strings’ engineers to create a “Despite the collaborative new line of strings that are . . . well, effort,” says Elixir publicist Christotailor-made for the guitar compapher Shuler, “the new strings— ny’s new 812ec Grand Concert and which deliver both a bold high end 814cd Grand Auditorium guitars. and full low end—can be used on 70 April 2014
any brand’s acoustic or acousticelectric guitar, not justthe Taylors.” Warning: This does not mean the new HD Lights will make your cheap foreign-made 1966 starter guitar with inch-high action sound like a Taylor.
BRIEFS YAMAHA ACQUIR ES LI NE 6 The Yamaha Corporation, which started in 1887 as a piano and organ company and later became perhaps best known for its quality affordable acoustic guitars, has acquired Line 6, developers of cutting-edge digital audio equipment. Yamaha will run the company as a subsidiary. Line 6 co-founder Marcus Rylesaid in a statement, “For over 30 years of developing products, and even further back to my earliest memories as a developing musician, Yamaha has been the brand for which I have always had the most respect. I am very proud for Line 6 to now be a part of this incredible legacy.” SNAPZ INVENTS NEW BRIDGE PIN PULLER Tired of misplacing the needlenose pliers, breaking your fingernails just to get your bridge pins out, and then losing the pins when they go flying across the room? Changing strings doesn’t have to be such a hazardous chore. A new device—the Snapz Bridge Pin Puller—removes bridge pins quickly and easily, according to the company that invented them, Big Rock Engineering. The Snapz puller is hardly the only bridge pin remover on the market, but it’s surprisingly effective and simple to use. Made of molded plastic, it has a locking mechanism that grips the pin and allows you to gently pull it out without scratching your guitar or putting out anybody’s eye.
AGED TONE SOUND ON BOURGEOIS GUITARS Master luthierDana Bourgeois — AG’s “Guitar Guru”—announced at the recent NAMM trade show that his Aged Tone Sound Upgrade is now available on all models at Bourgeois Guitars. Once available only on Bourgeois’ Aged Tone series, the proprietary finish, hide glue, bracing and terrified tops can now be found on other models, from dreadnoughts to parlor guitars.
MAKERS & SHAKERS
Y H P A R G O T O H P D L R O W IO D U T S
Jason Kostal
Practical Matters Arizona-based Jason Kostal traded corporate life for a luthier’s dreams BY DOUG YOUNG
J
ason Kostal trod a sensible career So he put his guitar-playing dreams on path. He served more than a decade the back burner, though Kostal continued in the US Army, where he got an obsessing over them. “I had amassed a undergraduate degree in engineering at the pretty amazing collection over the years— US Military Academy at West Point and a vintage elec tric s, cust om shop–m anufa cmaster’s in business from Emory University. tured acoustics, and some incredible When he left the service in 2005, Kostal luthier-built guitars as well,” he says. landed a job in management at the Home While at Emory, he looked up Atlanta Depot. He was set. luthier Kent Everett, who’s built guitars for Any practical parent would be proud. Brad Paisley, Shawn Mullins, and Indigo But Kostal was miserable. Ever since he Girl Amy Ray. Kostal wanted to take a class. was a kid gro wing up in Milwaukee, Wis“I had no intention of ever becoming a consin, he had played the guitar. He started guitar builder,” he says. “I just wanted to at four, was taking lessons at the Wisconsin figure out how one guitar could sell for Conservatory of Music at ten, and by 18 $15,000 while another one sold for $500.
By day, Kostal was on the management track at Home Depot. By night, he tinkered with gu itars in his garage. Two years i nto his career, he’d had enough. Kostal was ready to start building guitars professionally. He left his cushy job in 2006, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and enrolled in a fivemonth program at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. He apprenticed under Ervin Somogyi. “Looking back, it was a pretty ridiculous endeavor,” says Kostal, 38. “But I figured if I still enjoyed building guitars after doing it daily for five months, I could make it work somehow.”
had studied under a string of illustrious But Kent warned me, ‘You’ll get bit by the instructors, including fingerstyle picking bug and you’ll never want to turn back.’” whiz John Str opes and the late Mic hael The bug sank its teeth in. Hedges. After graduating high school, “I fell in love with the process and the Kostal was accepted by three top colleges: creative side of it, but the realist side of me Juilliard, Berklee, and West Point. “The way told me I wasn’t ready to do it full time,” I looked at it, music would always be there, Kostal says. “So I finished school, left the but not many people get the opportunity to Army, and moved to Salt Lake City to start go to West Point,” he says. my new career in the corporate world.”
He’s more than made it work. Today, at Phoenix-based Kostal Guitars, he builds 16 to 18 instruments a year, concentrating on four models—a “modified dreadnought” (MD), OM, Jumbo, and 00, all with a base price of $10,500. I caught up with Kostal late last year and talked to him about the art, the craft, and—dare we say—the soul of guitar making.
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What would the ‘perfect’ guitar feel and sound like to you? In all honesty, that is hard to describe. Playing an amazing guitar is a lot like driving a fine automobile or having an incredible dinner. You may not be able to perfectly describe what you are feeling or experiencing, but you feel as though all of your senses are alive, and you’re enjoying the moment completely. Plato once said that music gives “a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” I believe that completely, and I believe the
aspects together are a lot like playing chess. You are not only thinking about what you are doing now, but what you intend to do in the future, and everything within the guitar is connected in some way. How I locate and construct the braces; how I dimension my top, back, and sides; and how I profile them—all affect the outcome. No two guitars that I make are alike in that regard, and every aspect is adjusted throughout the building process for strength, stiffness, response, loadbearing properties, and so on.
heart of it is where the music is created. The more connected one feels to a guitar, and the notes it creates, or the way it feels in their hands, the more inspired they are to create.
HEAR A KOSTAL 00 MODEL AT ACOUSTI CGU ITAR.COM Can you describe the guitar you provided for our video? This guitar is my new 00 model. It’s a 12-fret guitar, although I also make it as a 14-fret. I spent three years working out the details and thinking through the design elements to create a small-body guitar with the deep bass and tonal range of a larger-body guitar. This particular guitar has a German spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, and a one-piece Honduras mahogany neck.
Kostal Guitars kostalguitars.com
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April 2014
What’s your favorite combination of tonewoods? My favorites for back and sides are Brazilian rosewood, Madagascar rosewo od, and Hon dur as ro se woo d. The What kind of sound are you aiming for? rosewoods are some of the most consisMy first memorable experience with a tent woods to work with. They produce a handmade guitar was playing a guitar balanced, yet bell-like sound that is made by Ed Claxton that was specifically appealing to me. For tops, I like the geared toward the nuances of fingerstyle warmth and diversity of German spruce. playing. I’m not sure how Ed builds or I want the woods to speak for themselves voices his guitars, but I love the way they in both tone and visual beauty. sound. His guitars have a very balanced tone that really allowed me to push my Speaking of visual beauty, have y ou playing to a new level. I’m looking for a developed any unique aesthetic sound that is balanced across the entire elements? spectrum—a strong fundamental tone that My design philosophy is “elegance is still rich in overtones and harmonics, through simplicity.” The things that I am that gives the player and listener a feeling most known for on my guitars, from a of being enveloped by the sound. I try to creative standpoint, are my wood seleccreate a deep and resonant bass response, tion, my stained-glass rosette, the excabut I also want to soften and clarify the v a te d h e a ds to c k de s i g n , a n d m y treble and midrange. To my ear, the result decorative end grafts. The end graft is an is a guitar that you can play hard or soft area that traditionally gets a triangle or and still hear the richness of each note. rectangle of some kind, but it’s a wonderf ul plac e to add som e color or How does a guitar maker achieve that? artistic flair. [But] the sound of the guitar Voicing a guita r i s pr etty comple x, a nd is the most important thing for me. A there are some incredibly different yet beautiful guitar without a beautiful voice viable methods of doing this. My voicing is nothing more than a piece of art. I method is not the same as everyone want something that creates music, and else’s. I focus on lightly building the whi le I use des ign ele men ts to cre ate guitar in order to allow it to respond as visual beauty and appeal, it is the sound much as possible while not comprothat most attracts my customers. mising the structural integrity. Thin tops, lighter braces, and different building How much does your tonal goal techniques all work to create my desired change according to what your sound. Removing material from the customer wants?
finished product allows me to refine that sound even more. It is a very methodical process that takes hours, even days to create a certain response or sound. What part of your design contributes most to your tonal ideal? My voicing methods and wood selection. Wood selection comes first, but the two
My tonal goal is almost 100 percent dictated by the client. I work best with customers who have had some experience with a guitar, or many guitars, and come to me with a good understanding of what they liked and what fell short for them. There are a lot of conversations that go into understanding what a person plays and how they play it. One
‘A beautiful guitar without a beautiful voice is nothing more than a piece of art. I want something that creates music.’ — JA SO N KO ST AL customer may ask for a deep, resonant bass response or a lively top that has great attack with clarity and separation of notes. Another may focus on playability and ask for a custom nut width, Manzer-style wedge for comfort, or a cutaway to access higher frets. Others may want the guitar set up and intonated for a specific alternate tuning. Yet another may be a performer that needs to focus not only on the acoustic sound, but [also] the amplified sound, the electronics. While the majority of my customers are looking for something specific, I do have some that come to me and just want me to build the best guitar I can. Are your instruments best suited for a particular kind of player or style? I play mostly fingerstyle guitar, so that is my personal reference for evaluating a guitar once it is built. But I have heard my guitars played by many different people and styles.
It all works, but I believe in focusing on the things that I feel adequate at understanding. One of the benefits of being a player is that I know what I can and cannot do, and I tend to know who else out there is good at these things. It is not uncommon for me to lis ten to a client and realize that I am not the right person to build a guitar for them. Really? You’ve sent customers to your competition? One of the things that makes the lutherie community so amazing is the seeming lack of
willing to give up b usine ss, but when they see that I care about their best interests more than money, I think they respect that. Every player out there is looking for the right guitar for them, and I am not ignorant enough to believe that I make that guitar for every person. For those that like my guitars, I have been very fortunate that they enjoy them immensely, and for those that go elsewhe re, I fee l for tun ate in hav ing hel ped them find the right instrument for them. Is there a favorite interaction you’ve
competition. We all make the best guitars we can, and we all strive to find the right customers for each of us. I have sent plenty of potential clients to other builders that I thought were more suited to what they were looking for, and I have had an equal amount of other builders send work my way. We take care of one another, and promote our craft, and it all seems to work out in the end. For example, I don’t build ladder-braced or fanbraced guitars, I don’t do classical guitars, and as of this moment, I don’t do fan-fretted or multiscale instruments. But there are many others that do.
had with someone playing one of your instruments? One of my most memorable recent interactions involved a guitar that I had just finished prior to displaying it at a show. Tony McManus came by, picked up my guitar, and sat down to play. The room suddenly became quiet. The guitar sounded incredible, but what meant the most to me that night was seeing a large group of fellow builders and players taking the time to listen to an exceptional player as he allowed my guitar to be heard for the first time. AG
What’s the client’s response when you send them to another builder? Every potential client that I have sent elsewhere has initially been surpr ised that I am
Doug Young(dougyoungguitar.com) is a San Francisco Bay Area–based fingerstyle guitarist and contributing editor to Acoustic Guitar . Senior editor Mark Segal Kempcontributed to this article.
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GUITAR GURU
HOW DO I GET RID OF THIS ANNOYING BU ZZ? My 1983 Martin HD-28 has a buzzing or rattling high E string. The rest of the strings sound great. A local fellow worked on the frets and smoothed them out and it plays well other than this annoying rattle. What in your view is the most likely cause?
Q: A: GOT A QUESTION? Uncertain about guitar care and maintenance? The ins-and-outs of guitar building? Or a topic related to your gear? Ask Acoustic Guitar’s resident Guitar Guru. Send an e-mail titled “Guitar Guru” to senior editor Mark Kemp at
[email protected], and he’ll forward it to the expert luthier. IfAG selects your question for publication, you’ll receive a complimentary five-pack of Elixir HD Light guitar strings.
—GERRY LAVERTY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
It can be vexingly difficult to diagnose string buzz. Here’s a list of ten possible causes that I look for. If this checklist doesn’t identify the problem, I sometimes resort to offering sacrifices to the guitar gods.
This typically causes problems on the open note, but can sometimes create buzzing between the nut and a fretted note. If you suspect the latter, play the fretted note and then damp the string between the nut and the fret while the note is still ringing. If the buzz goes away you may need a new nut or “nut implant.” 2. IM PROPERL Y SHAPED NUT SLOT
A str ing th at bear s too heavily on the middle o r the back of the nut slot can buzz in a sitar-like way on the front of the slot. This can be corrected with a couple well-directed strokes of a nut file. 3. IMPROPER SADDLE CONTACT
Same issue as above, only at the saddle. This occurs most often on taller saddles having acute string-break angles.
Buzzing can sometimes result from windings that have come loose from their core. I have even seen new, obviously defective strings with this problem. 5. TOUCHING STRINGS
No two strings should touch in the area around the tuner posts. Custom nut spacing, replacement tuners, and oddball string gauges are the usual culprits. 6. BOUNCING FRETS
An impr ope rly sea ted fre t can elu de acc ura te
April 2014
DANA BOURGEOIS
1. LOW NUT SLOT
4. BAD STRINGS
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leveling, then bounce back up and continue causing buzzing problems. Superglue and a little spot dressing can get you to your next full fret replacement. 7. NECK TOO STRAIGHT
The physics of string oscillation dictates that fretboards should rarely be straight and never bowed backward. Ideal fretboard shape depends on scale length, string gauge, playing style, and other factors. A good tech can optimize your guitar for your style and playing preferences, but cannot change the laws of physics. Sometimes you just need more relief. 8. LOOSE JOINT
A loos e brac e, bri dge, bi nding jo int, n ut, or any ill-fitting part can cause vibration sympathetic to a specific note. I hunt for loose joints by damping strings and tapping around the entire guitar. The fix is often easier than the diagnosis. 9. LOOSE PICKUP
This sympathetic vibration merits a category of its own. The problem is often a loose cable which can be detected by damping the strings and shaking the guitar. Recently, I found buzzing related to a loose jack cover.
10. SYMPATHETIC TRUSS ROD
Think of the truss rod as a big guitar str ing that can be tuned to a note that’s either sympathetic or not sympathetic to a significant resonant frequency. You get the picture. AG
Dana Bourgeois is a master luthier and the founder of Bourgeois Guitars in Lewiston, Maine.
Oak Park Drive Boerne, Texas
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tudy and jam with the bearers of acoustic blues traditions. Alvin Youngblood Har t, Mar y Flower, Paul Geremia , Mike Dowling, John Miller, Orvil le Johnson, Mark Puryear, Terry “Harmonica” Bean, Wendy DeWitt, Mark Brooks, Peter Matcat Ruth, Rich DelGrosso, Steve James, Lightnin’ Wells, Maria Muldaur, Ethel Caffe-Austin, Lauren Sheehan, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Washboard Chaz, Cedric Watson, and many more.
July 27-August 3, 2014
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75
NEW GEAR
LAR RI VÉE OM -40R
Pretty on the Inside Larrivée’s OM-40R may be priced a plainguitar Jane, fool you— but don’t let this modestly it’s one well-crafted machine BY ADAM PERLMUTTER
76 April 2014
W
ith its understated satin finish and modest adornments, the Larrivée OM-40R doesn’t make a strong first impression. But strum an open E chord,
and you’re immediately struck by its uncommonly good sound—so vivid and resonant, with impr ess ive sus tai n and pro jec tio n. Not only that, but the guitar is one smooth play, owing to a subtle V-shaped neck profile and perfect low action and setup. That the street price on this all-solid, US-made instrument is less than $1,500 makes the guitar seem even sweeter.
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Solid Sitka spruce top with rope purfling around the soundboard and soundhole.
Rosewood back and sides. Mahogany neck.
Square-top headstock with mother-of-pearl logo and Grover 18:1 tuners.
Ebony fingerboard with traditional diamond-shaped abalone inlays.
AT A GLANCE BODY Orchestra-size body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid rosewood back and sides. Acrylic satin finish.
Bone nut.
ELECTRONICS Multiple electronics options.
Optional Shadow Nanoflex pickup. EXTRAS D’Addario EXP17 medium-gauge
NECK Mahogany neck. Ebony fingerboard
and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 1.75-inch nut width. 23/8-inch string spacing at saddle. Grover 18:1 open-gear tuners.
phosphor-bronze strings (.013–.056); hardshell case. PRICE $1,899 list/$1,424 street.
Made in the United States. larrivee.com.
In the late 1960s, Jean Larrivée, an auto mechanic by training, apprenticed as a luthier in Toronto, Canada, focusing on
huge growth in the company, which moved to increasingly large factories in British Columbia. Larrivée’s output was robust enough to warrant opening a second plant,
with traditional details on acoustic guitars of all sizes, electric solid-body updates of 1950s and ’60s designs, as well as F- and A-style mandolins. Thanks to CNC digital technol-
nylon-string guitars. He made his first steelstring in 1971, using the traditional dreadnought as a point of departure for his own experiments with structural details such as bracing patterns, which today form the basis of his company’s designs. By 1976, Larrivée and seven employees were pr oducing as many as 30 instruments per month, and the next several decades saw
in Oxnard, California, in 2001, the site at which the compan y’s manufactur ing is now consolidated (the company continues to base its wood milling operations in Canada). Larrivée Guitars’ earliest instruments were s teel-strings with ma rquetr y ros ettes, clear pickguards, and other Europeaninfluenced touches. The company’s current line reveals more of an American inspiration,
ogy, the already-celebrated Larrivée designs are built even better today.
FROM CANADA TO CALIFORNIA
TRADITION & INNOVATION
The OM-40R has the external appearance of the classic 14-fret OM body style first seen in the 1920s. Its tonewoods include AAAgrade Sitka spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and mahogany neck. (The guitar is
AcousticGuitar.com 77
NEW GEAR | AG TRADE
also available in a less expensive edition with mahogany back and sides.) The fingerboard is ebony, as is the bridge. Our review model came with choice woods: fine-g raine d Si tka with a lovely reddish tint; rosewood with beautiful striations, ranging from a deep purple to a warm brown matche d by the mahogany ; and ebony with a uniformly inky color. Inside the OM-40R is where things get really interesting. The soundboard is supported by Larrivée’s first new bracing pattern in four decades. It’s referred to in the Larrivée literature as a “Scal-
srcinal bracing with that found on vintage Martins. Instead of being shaped like blocks, the lateral braces are tapered and scalloped, kind of like the trestles on a suspension bridge. This design is said to provide both strength and lightness, translating to enhanced vibrations of the guitar’s top. I can’t say whether the new bracing sounds better than the old, because it’s not possible to compare them on the same instrument. But I can say that this particular guitar sounds damn good. DESIGN & CRAFTSMANSHIP
and dots on the bridge pins, along with rope purfling that circles both the soundboard and soundhole. The guitar’s Canadian maple binding on the top and back offers a subtly luxurious touch, though it’s aesthetically at odds with the ivoroid neck binding and heel cap. All of the details are rendered flawlessly on the review model, boasting a level of craftsmanship expected of more expensive guitars. The bone nut and saddle were cut with great precision, the frets smoothly crowned and polished. Pores on the woods have been evenly filled and the satin finish smoothly applied. All of the
loped Parabolic Hybrid” system, which is another way of saying that it merges Larrivée’s
The look of the OM-40R is fairly spartan, with traditional abalone diamonds on the fretboard
binding is flush and tidy, and there’s not a trace of excess glue outside or inside the guitar.
78 April 2014
Inside the OM-40R is where things get really interesting. The soundboard is supported by Larrivée’s first new bracing pattern in four decades.
AcousticGuitar.com 79
VER SATILE VOICE
With its orchestra-sized body and 1.75-inch nut, the OM-40R demands to be fingerpicked, so I subjected the guitar to some basic Travis picking and found it well-balanced between the registers. The bass is thick, but not overpowering, the midrange has an appealing bark, and the treble sounds rich and clear on both open and fretted notes, all of which ring true and free of distortion. It’s easy to do alternate tunings on the OM-40R, thanks to the guitar’s 18:1 Grover machine heads, which, with their open gears, have a vintage look, but modern performance. The guitar loses none of its lustrous sound whe n fin ger pic ked in ope n-G, DAD GAD , or Sebastopol (open-D), and it is responsive to pick-hand nuances. The guitar sounds as terrific played with a plectrum as it does when fingerpicked. With ample headroom, it stands up well to forceful 16th-note pendulum strumming, with a tone almost as cutting as that of a very good dreadnought. Single-note lines stand out on the OM-40R, too, with a fast response and plenty of blossom, which means the guitar will work for anything from bluegrass to swing. A SE RI OUS CO NTE ND ER
There’s no shortage of all-solid, US-made orchestra models on the market these days. But few guitars in the OM-40R’s price range deliver this much. It might not dazzle with its looks, but this guitar’s excellent sound and playability make it a serious contender among much more expensive instruments, and any player in the market for a fine OM would be remiss not to give it a spin. AG Contributing editorAdam Perlmuttertranscribes, arranges, and engraves music for numerous publications.
80 April 2014
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NEW GEAR
Little Big Man New Traveler AG-105 offers a full-scale neck and bright acoustic sounds BY TEJA GERKEN
T
he Traveler Acoustic AG-105isn’t the only mini-guitar to come in a half-size, dreadnought-shaped body, but with gearless tuners hidden behind the bridge, it’s certainly the most unusual. It looks downright Frankensteinian—like a Baby Taylor with the headless neck of one of those Steinberger electrics. Why so weird? With all that efficiency of space, designers were able to use the same scale length as your average Martin D-28. That means when you pick up this tiny, 32¼-inch instrument, it doesn’t feel like a diminutive, on-the-road substitute for the real thing. It feels like the real thing. Lots of guitar companies carry travel or small-size guitars. In addition to the Baby Taylor, there’s the Little Martin, the Blackbird Rider, and many others. But the Southern California–based Traveler Guitar focuses solely on minis. Until now, the company’s instruments all were solid-body electrics that required headphones or an amp tobe heard. No longer. The AG-105 comes in both a regular acoustic model and an acoustic-electric—or EQ—version. I checked out the acoustic-electric, which is just compact enough to fit into the overhead compartments of most airplanes, or atop the luggage in
your car’s trunk. STRAP IT ON!
Like most small-bodied travel guitars, this one requires some effort to hold comfortably without slouching over. Using a strap helps get the neck into an ergonomic playing position, and this guitar comes with two strap buttons attached. The comfort of playing on a full-scale neck offers a welcome change from the crammed feeling you get playing most travel guitars. It also increases the string tension, so that the guitar feels more like a regular steel-string under your fingers. The string spacing at the saddle is, to me, unnecessarily narrow, although interestingly, the neck is wide enough to support having the strings spread out more than they are. Given how the saddle is notched for each string, it would be easy to modify the guitar for wider spacing. TUNE IT UP!
Rather than requiring special strings with ball ends on both sides (as Steinberger electrics do), the Traveler uses a clamping mechanism similar to the string locks in the Floyd Rose–style setups of some electric guitars. Operated with a small Allen wrench, there are three clamps just behind the nut, each of which secures a pair of strings. On the other end of the guitar, the regular ball ends of the strings go into what the company calls its Streamline tuning system, in which a k nurle d-head scre w me chani sm t ighte ns or loose ns the string. The result is a setup similar to a trapeze tailpiece. Tuning with the Str eamline sys tem take s a little gett ing used to, but overall, it works well, and because of the high gear ratio, it’s easy to achieve precise results. 82 April 2014
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Watch ArtistWorks Instructor Bryan Sutton’s Rousing Rendition of “Hangman’s Reel”
AT A GLANCE
TRAVE LE R AG-105 BODY Mini-dreadnought
SCALE LENGTH
STRINGS Light-gauge
body. Solid spruce top. Laminated mahogany back and sides. X-bracing. Satin finish.
25.5-inch scale.
D’Addario EXP-16.
NUT 13/4-inch width.
ELECTRONICS Shadow
When he’s not teaching via his Online Bluegrass Guitar School, Bryan Sutton
TUNING NECK Mahogany neck.
Streamline tuning system.
Ebonized rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 15-fret to body.
STRING SPACING
21/16-inch at saddle.
electronics with built-in tuner, headphone output, and auxinput (for connecting MP3 players, etc.). PRICE $714.99 list.
$499.99 street. Made in China. travelerguitar.com.
spends much of his time bowling over audiences and fellow musicians with his amazing bluegrass skills. In this performance from a recent tribute to Doc Watson, it’s easy to see why members of Doc’s band tapped Bryan to pick up the torch from Doc himself. His rendition of “Hangman’s Reel” is mesmerizing, and shows why
PLUG IT IN!
Played without amplification, the Traveler’s tonality reflects its small resonant chamber— that is, its trebles and mids overpower the sparse bass response. With a distinctive flattop voice and enough volume to make it satisfying to play, it could keep up with an acoustic jam, provided no one’s playing too loud. Plug the Traveler into an amp—like, say, the AER Compact 60 that I used—and the guitar’s performance belies its small size. Equipped with a custom Shadow pickup and preamp system, the Traveler has a sound that is hard to distinguish from that of a full-size guitar. The onboard tone controls allowed me to fine-tune thesound, and I could easily imagine using it on stage. Traveler’s AG-105 is a cool guitar for several reasons. For one thing, having a full-scale instrument with a compact overall size is useful; for another, the headless design and Streamline tuning system make for an interesting design. If you’ve been looking for a small guitar to take anywhere you’re going, this one is well worth checking out. AG Teja Gerkenis a contributing editor to Acoustic Guitar and a performing musician.
Bryan is considered by many to be the fastest and most fluid picker on the bluegrass scene.
Watch the video now at
AcousticGuitar.com/ How-To/Hangmans-Reel
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NEW GEAR
Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing Popular small, but powerful, AER Compact 60/3 acoustic amp is better than ever BY TEJA GERKEN
O
PUMP UP THE VOLUME! ne thing is immediately clear when I NO FRILLS plug into this amp: AER is not reinIn the two decades since it was founded, in OK, so the changes to the amp’s design are venting a success ful wheel. For the 1992, Germany’s AER (their slogan is “the minimal. What about its sound? According most part, the new Compact 60/3 is virtually Aco ustic People”) has bec ome one of the to AER’s co-founder Udo Roesner, the interchangeable with the previous version, most respected makers of amplifiers dedicompany tried to make the amp slightly the trusty AER Compact 60. cated to reproducing acoustic instruments. more open, dynamic, and modern sounding. What do I mean by that? Almost since the beginning, the Compact 60 So, armed with my trusty custom Martin Well, this amp has great transparency, has been the company’s workhorse—small, OM, which has an L.R. Baggs Dual Source whic h m eans that it faithfully repr oduc es powerful, and transparent sounding—and system installed, I set out to test the 60/3, what you put into it. Some players prefer an the amp is now in its third generation. keeping my own earlier version of the amp amp with more coloration, which may help The Compact 60’s success is due, in part, set up as a reference. get a more natural sound from certain to its businesslike demeanor. Completely I immediately got a sound that was fat, pickups or guitars. But if you’re in search of devoid of bells and whistles, the unit is basiyet crisp and also dynamic. accuracy, the AER is hard to beat. cally a black box with an easy-to-navigate Part of the secret to AER’s ability to get so control panel. With the exception of a differmuch volume out of the Compact 60/3—it’s ent effects-control knob and rearranged jacks definitely loud enough to compete with a in the amp’s back, the 60/3 looks identical to drummer or to play a small gig with no other its predecessor. There are two channels, one sound reinforcement—is through the use of optimized for guitar, the other designed as a a dynamic type of compression. While it microphone channe l, but with its combinabecomes audible at higher volumes, it tion XLR/1/4-inch input, it can also serve as doesn’t sound unmusical. I tried the amp a second instrument channel. during a rehearsal with a percussionist
The Compact 60’s success is due, in part, to its businesslike demeanor
AT A GLANCE
AER C OM PACT 60 /3 SPECS 60 watts. One eight-inch twin-
cone full-range speaker. Two channels. 1/4-inch input (with optional nine-volt phantom power), high/low switch with 10 db pad, gain, color, bass, middle, and treble control on guitar channel. Combination 1/4-inch/XLR input (with 24-volt phantom power), line/mic switch, gain, bass, and treble controls on mic channel. Digital effects with two reverbs, delay, and chorus. Master volume. XLR DI-output. Line out, tuner, out, and headphone outputs. Effects send and return, and TRS effect footswitch jacks. 10.2 x 12.8 x 9.25 inches. 14.3 pounds. Padded carrying case included. Made in Germany. Distributed by Musiquip, Inc. aer-amps.com PRICE $1,299 list; $1,099 street.
84 April 2014
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Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamps Look at this unbelievable 2014 Instructor Line-Up!
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playing cajon and cymbals, using an Alvarez ABT60 baritone guitar equipped with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend pickup, and it was impressive how this little amp was able to keep up with the low baritone rumble. Still, there are some subtle differences between the new 60/3 and the older Compact 60. First, the new amp is slightly lighter. More importantly, the guitar channel’s midrange control is more effective than on previous versions. For example, with my own second-generation Compact 60, I usually add an external preamp with EQ to the signal as a way to expand on its built-in EQ offerings. With the 60/3, there is much less of a need to do this. I also found the 60/3’s reverb to be slightly richer sounding, especially when listening to its decay. Another effects-related difference is that the 60/3 no longer offers a combination of chorus and reverb. Also, I wish that the amp allowed the effects to be sent through the DI output, as this would be useful in many settings. As it is, the effects are only audible through the speaker, or the 1/4-inch line output—the same arrangement as in the amp’s previous versions. With its clean design, easy-to-carry dimensions, and punchy, transparent sound, AER’s Compact 60/3 is a great amp. There are acous-
Dan Crary, Roy Curry, Jim Hurst, Old Time and Traditional Week - June 8-14: Flatpicking: Roberto Della Veccia and Steve Kaufman , Fingerpicking:Clive Carrol, Pat Kirtley, Todd Hallawell ; Old Time Fiddle:Brad Leftwich and Stacy Phillips; Old Time Singing:Evie Laden ; Mt. Dulcimer:Joe Collins ; Old Time Banjo:Jim Pankey; Hammer Dulcimer:Linda Thomas Mitch Corbin, Mark Cosgrove, Chris Jones, Bluegrass Week - June 15-21: Flatpicking: Mike Dowling, David Keenan, Chris Newman, Wayne Taylor, Doug Yeomans; Mandolin: Carlo Aonzo, Steve Smith, Bruce Graybill, Barry Mitterhoff, Roland White, Radim Zenkl; Bluegrass Banjo:Eddie Collins, Gary Davis, Murphy Henry, Ned Luberecki ; Dobro ™: Stacy Phillips, Jimmy Heffernan; Bass: Rusty Holloway, Missy Raines, and Steve Roy; Songwriting:Kate Campbell; Bluegrass Fiddle:Becky Buller, Josh Goforth, Annie Staninec; Bluegrass Singing Class:Sally Jones and Don Rigsby; Jam Instructors On Staff
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tic amps with more features, louder volume, and lower prices, but it’s hard to argue with the smart overall utility and natural voice that AER specializes in. AG Teja Gerkenis a contributing gear editor.
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AcousticGuitar.com 85
SUMMER 2014 • ALL AGES • ALL LEVELS
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PLAYLIST
Take the Long Way Home Rosanne Cash reaches back to her Southern roots to create a great American song cycle BY MARK SEGAL KEMP
osanne Cash’s genius as a singer and songwriter is that she’s become an American-music icon not because of her legendary father, Johnny Cash, but in spite of him. On her breakthrough album of 1981, Seven Year Ache, she distinguished herself as a songwriter of great depth, and an interpretive singer able to truly take ownership of other writers’ works. She had Linda Ronstadt’s emotionally resonant voice, but also a literary knack for storytelling and a musically adventurous spirit. After ushering in a new era of smart pop-country, Cash moved on to become one of the most brutally honest confessional singer-songwriters of the 1990s and 2000s, chronicling the heartaches of her failed marriage to fellow singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell on Interiors (1990), its emotional aftermath on The Wheel (1993), and the back-to-back losses of her father, step-mother June Carter Black Cadillac (2006). Cash, and mother Vivian Liberto Distin on Four years ago, Cash returned with The List, a collection of songs her father once told her she needed to know in order to understand American music. It ranged from such standards as “Motherless Children” and “Miss the Mississippi and You” to her
bass player in Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Two. One of the highlights is another acoustic-based ballad, the Civil War-themed “When the Master Calls the Roll,” co-written by ex-husband Crowell, whom Cash has called one of the greatest living songwriters. Its refrain features a motley cast of gravel-voiced singers, including Crowell and a few other fairly decent living songwriters: Kris Kristofferson, Tony Joe White, John Prine, and the late Levon Helm’s daughter Amy.
celebrated step-grandfather A.P. Carter’s “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow” to Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.” All of that history comes to bear on Cash’s spectacular new album, The River & the Thread, in which she graduates from pop-country and confessional singer-songwriter to great American musical storyteller in a tradition that extends from the early American composer Stephen Foster to Randy Newman. The river in this song cycle is, of course, the Mississippi and the thread is our primal connection to it. Like Newman’s Good Old
the depth, breadth, solid storytelling, and narrative thread that can elevate them to the category of American literature. You can practically name them on one hand: Sinatra’s September of My Years, Willie Nelson’s Phases and Stages, Newman’s Sail Away, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Lou Reed’s New York. You may now add to that lofty list Rosanne Cash’s The River & the Thread. AG
R
Rosanne Cash
The River and the Thread
Blue Note rosannecash.com
88
April 2014
Boys—or Tom Petty’sSouthern Accents —The River & the Thread paints a vivid and visceral portrait of the South, with c omplex characters and musical arrangements that borrow from distinctly American styles, ranging from acoustic blues (“Tell Heaven”) and Appalachian ballads (“World of Strange Design”) to the sweetly orchestrated parlor style associated with Foster (“Night School”). It’s not just the lyrical and stylistic shadings that give The River & the Thread its power, though. Cash’s husband and longtime collaborator, guitarist John Leventhal, co-wrote, arranged, and produced the music, bringing just the right nuance and mood to each song. He puts the crisp acoustic-blues guitar that underlines such spare tr acks as “Tell Heaven” and “World of Strange Design” front and center, and adds s ubtle reverb and swelling strings to give “The Long Way Home” its sense of both claustrophobia and wide-open space. An A-plus list of singers and players deeply connected to the South add color and texture to the musical narrative. Guitarist Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks) puts his vaguely Middle Eastern-by-way-of-theblues touch to “Modern Blue,” about a Southerner who journeys from Memphis to Europe and back again. John Paul White, of the Civil Wars, harmonizes with Cash on the acoustic ballad “Etta’s Song,” a tribute to the late Etta Grant and her husband Marshall, the srcinal
The river is the Mississippi and the thread is our primal connection to it. Not many American pop song cycles have
E ID R B C M K IC R T A P Y A L C —
H S A C
Billie Joe + Norah
Los Lobos
Scott Law
Foreverly
Disconnected in New York City
Black Mountain
Reprise
429 Records
Volcano Underground
Unlikely tribute to Everlys is surprisingly perfect
The East L.A. band powers down for an eclectic set
Scott Law deputizes impressive posse of pickers & singers
On the surface, it’s an odd pairing: Billie Joe Armstrong, the snarling front-man for longtime East Bay pop-punk band Green Day, does a set of acoustic covers of old country songs with Norah Jones, the torch-and country-singing daughter of Indian classical composer Ravi Shankar. Add to that the inspiration for the collaboration (a tribute to the Everly Brothersbefore Phil Everly’s recent death) and the unlikely choice of material (an album of obscure covers the Everlys themselves did as a tribute back in 1958), and you have one of the stranger pop-music projects in recent memory. And yet, Billie Joe and Norah come off on Foreverly about as gracefully and naturally as Gram and Emmylou. The moment their voices lock together on the opening track “Roving Gambler,” they don’t let go. It’s as if Armstrong and Jones had been listening to the nuances of Phil and Don Everly’s harmonies their whole lives. The story goes that Armstrong discovered the Everlys’ Songs Our Daddy Taught Usand decided he wanted to cover the entire set, Everlys-style, rather than turn in yet another variation on such over-covered Don and Phil songs as “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Love Hurts,” or “Gone Gone Gone” (covered by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant). It was a counterintuitive idea that
Even when they’re unplugged, Los Lobos are positively electric. Just check out the band’s all-acoustic live set of mostly traditional Spanish-language folk songs,Acoustic en Vivo, from 2005. It’s a firestorm of fluttering nylon strings and harmony vocals. Disconnected in New York City, recorded at City Winery in late 2012, is different. It brings acoustic instrumentation to typically plugged-in titles like “The Neighborhood,” replacing the squalling leads Los Lobos put to the song on another 2005 performance set, the electricLive at the Fillmore, with cooler, slinkier noodling, and a warmer, more muted sax part. More than specific instrumental flourishes, though, this intimate setting makes the biggest difference in lineup and song selection. Where the Spanish-language date featured acoustic guitars with no drums and only occasional horns, and the Fillmore performance included several grungy rockers and lots of wailing leads, this set broadens the instrumental palette to include guest percussionist Camilo Quinones (Allmans, Santana) and mixes the band’s English-language bar-rock with rousing srcinal Spanish-language folk songs, like “Maria Christina,” “Chuco’s Cumbia,” and “La Venganza de los Pelados.” Played live on acoustic instruments, the Spanish material is what really takesoff
This Portland, Oregon, guitarist straddles two worlds. He’s a popular player on the jam-band circuit, plugging into an Alembic electric with an owl inlay and spinning sweet improvisational passages that would bring a smile to the most ardent Grateful Dead fan. Unplugged, as he is here, Law (an alumnus of Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings) is steeped in the bluegrass tradition. His precise, but soulful, flatpicking harkens back to Lester Flatt of Flatt & Scruggs (the album includes a cover of their “I’ll Stay Around”). Otherwise, all but one additional track is srcinal. Law is joined by an all-star cast of singers and players that includes vocalists Aoife O’Donovan and Nicki Bluhm; guitarist Stash Wyslouch, dobro player Anders Beck; mandolinist Dominick Leslie; fiddlers Darol Anger, Luke Price, Mike Barnett, and Tashina and Tristan Clarridge; banjo player Greg Liszt; mandolinist Dominick Leslie; and bassist Samson Grisman (David Grisman’s son); among others. The core of that group, the Deadly Gentlemen, can be heard on the album’s eight instrumentals. There are toe-tapping straight-ahead fiddle tunes (“Five Pines”), homespun country (“Leave the Leavin’ Up to You”), and bluegrass breakdowns (“Instead of
works spectacularly, as Armstrong’s surprisingly supple twang glides effortlessly over, under, and in between Jones’ honey-sweet vocals, moving from the sublime “Down in the Willowy Garden” to the harmonized hums on “Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet” to a guitars- and fiddles-fueled take on the folk standard “Barbara Allen.”
here, the fiery nylon strings thistime fanning Me”). At times, as on “Big Lightning over a wildfire of horns and percussion. It’spretty Kansas,” the introduction of progressive disappointing, then, that the weakest track bluegrass and Celtic elements is reminison the album was supposed tobe the showcent of the best MCA country-jazz recordstopper—a medley that begins well with “La ings of the 1980s. Bamba,” loses steam as itsegues into “Good The closing track, the beautiful dobroLovin’,” and then refuses to end. (The deluxe driven ballad “I Remember Silas,” shows version of this set includes a second disc of just how lyrical Law’s music can be. music and a DVD.) —MS K —GREG CAHILL
—MS K
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PLAYLIST | MIXED MEDIA
Doug Paisley
Kandia Crazy Horse
Strong Feelings
Stampede
No Quarter
Hillgrass Bluebilly
Toronto singer/songwriter delivers Former rock critic releases deceptively nostalgic sound long-overdue country album
I love my Wilborn Guitar! Ben is a truly artful maker, with a brilliant eye, a gifted hand, and an exquisite ear. You could not ask for more in a handmade guitar. GILLIAN WELCH NASHVILLE, TENN
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April 2014
Laid-back and soft-spoken, Toronto’s Doug Paisley has a way of sneaking up on you. He’s a throwback, playing ’70s country about 40 years too late, so if the songs already sound familiar, it’s because they are, with a touch of Don Williams here, a little Charlie Rich there, and echoes of Ian Tyson just about everywhere. On the surface, they’re quietly reassuring, bringing back memories of peaceful, easier times. But all too q uickly, nostalgia gives way to
After a decade-long career as a rock critic, Kandia Crazy Horse decided it was time to leave the world of music journalism and start her career as a musician. Given the scarcity of black female country stars, Crazy Horse (a long-time country fan) knew there was new ground she could break, so she recorded a country album of her own. The result is stunning. Stampede opens on “California,” a slow, sweet ballad driven by acoustic guitar, pedal
loss, and nothing seems right anymore, steel, and Crazy Horse’s irresistiblyhusky from the weightiness of the Garth Hudson voice. With every track, Crazy Horse subverts piano intro that opens “Radio Girl” to the any expectations the listener may have oddly lighthearted whistling that closes gained from previous songs, floatingeffort“Because I Love You,” as if love could ever lessly from the sentimental ballad of “Califorbe that simple. nia,” to the rocking “Congo Square,” to the On “What’s Up is Down,” the duet old-school “Gunfight at the Golden Corral,” vocals are strangely, beautifully out of to the beautifully bluesy “Americana.” Her sync. On “A Song My Love Can Sing,” the exploration of country takes the listener on a chorus is so upbeat you’re tapping your gorgeous, unpredictable musical journey, feet before you realize the woman he’s which should please both country music vetsinging to is long gone, never to come erans and the uninitiated alike. back, and probably for good reason, too. Full of intersecting cultural lines, Paisley’s guitar, with its flatpicked low sincere songwriting, a genre-bending scope strings and fingerpicked highs, remains at of sound, and unflinching bravery, Stamthe center of the mix, but Strong Feelings is pede is a powerful musical debut from far more produced than his 2010 breakout, Crazy Horse, who has the strength, soul, Constant Companion , giving these songs a and talent to serve as a role model for smoother polish, greater depth, and a other black women who want to enter the deceptively sweet mix of push and pull. world of country music. —KENNY B ERKOWITZ — AMB ER VO N NAG EL
NEW & NOTEWORTHY
Robin & Linda Williams
Dakota Dave Hull
Look for these other notable releases:
Back 40 Red House
Under the North Star Arabica
Will Kimbrough
Scott H. Biram
Sideshow Love Daphne
Nothin’ But Blood Bloodshot
New Bums Voices in a Rented Room
Drag City Indie-folk duo plays pretty guitars over angry songs The first time they met, in San Francisco’s Mission district, Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) and Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) didn’t get along, and it’s not hard to see why. There’s a pained and troubled sense of humor underlying these 12 songs, making it hard to know how seriously we’re supposed to listen, with lines like “Sad wolfman in a Carl Sagan sweater/Bride of Frankenstein in denim and leather/You’ve got to admit we look good together/But Pigeon Town’s got earthquake weather/You only get fucked in Pigeon town.”
‘There’s plenty of anti-folk anger here, along with Dylanist absurdity.’
There’s plenty of anti-folk anger here (“Your Bullshit”), along with Dylanist absurdity (“The Killers and Me”) and Cohenesque despair (“Burned”), but the vocals are surprisingly gentle, the harmonies pretty, and the guitars even prettier. On 12-string, Quinn fingerpicks patterns with the lightest touch, anchoring the rhythm as Chasny plays ever-expanding circles around him, either on six-string or electric, improvising long, unlikely, rapturous lines in the best ’60s-folk tradition. It’s a heady combination, as immediate as two friends singing in a rented room, their guitars lovingly recorded in lo-fi, and playing their parts in this newer, weirder America. —KB
Add “Down By the Riverside” to Your Fingerstyle Repertoire Learn to play Steve Baughman’s arrangement of the traditional tune with Acoustic Guitar’s Gospel Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar. The video and PDF lesson can be yours for only $3.99.
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GOSPEL SONGS FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE
By St e ve Baug hman
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EVENTS
N A M T E I R D L A N O R
Peter Rowan plays MerleFest
April Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival
growing ever since. The festival will take place April 18–20 at the Bell House in Baltimore, Maryland Brooklyn, and will feature old-time, blues, and folk acts of all kinds, including APRIL missiontix.com/charmcitybluegrass Nathan Salsburg, the Whiskey Spitters, East River Stringband, Nathan M. Nothing like a day of folk and flowers in the Godfrey, and more. The festival also park. On April 26, the beautiful Druid Hill features workshops and contests, including Park in Baltimore, Maryland, will be filled jam sessions, a square dance, and the everwith acoustic-music fans waiting to hear popular banjo toss—whoever throws a the likes ofJerry Douglas, Noam Pikelny banjo the farthest wins a free banjo (not & Friends, Sierra Hull, and many others at the one you tossed, of course). the Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival. Between sets, festival-goers can take a stroll through the park and visit the Howard Old Settler’s Music Festival Peters Rawlings Conservatory, a Driftwood, Texas 19th-century glass conservatory and APRIL botanic garden. Plus, $2 of every general oldsettlersmusicfest.org admission festival ticket will go toward supporting the conservatory. Located just outside of Austin in Driftwood, Texas, the Old Settler’s Music Festival boasts an exciting, Americana-heavy lineup
BrooklynNew FolkYork Festival Brooklyn, APRIL
brooklynfolkfest.com Inspired by New York folk-music revivals of the past and present, string-band musician Eli Smith began the Brooklyn Folk Festival six years ago, and it has been
for 2014. FeaturingShovels & Rope, the Devil Makes Three, Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott, Elephant Revival, Della Mae, and many more, this festival has something for just about everyone, including performance workshops, kids’ activities, camping, and food and drink with plenty of local, organic, and vegetarian options. The festival runs April 10–13.
Della Mae
MerleFest
Wilkesboro, North Carolina APRIL
merlefest.org The legendary “traditional plus” festival is back for another year, and its lineup, as usual, is staggering. This year’s festival includes Carolina Chocolate Drops, Della Mae, Rory Block, Peter Rowan, Steep Canyon Rangers, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, and a slew of other incredible acoustic artists representing a wide range of genres. The festival is dedicated to Doc Watson’s son Merle, who died in a tractor accident in 1985 at the age of 36.
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MARKETPLACE
WILLIAM “GRIT” LASKIN Guitarmaker since 1971 Originator of the “Armrest” body-bevel Co-srcinator of the Sideport Soundhole Original AwardWinning Inlay Art
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ACOUSTIC CONNECTIONS. Microphones and pickups for guitars, violins, mandolins, banjos, and other stringed instruments. Brands include: MiniFlex 2Mic Soundhole Microphones; GHS Soundhole mics; McIntyre, L.R. Baggs, and B-Band pickups; Elixir strings and Homepsun Tapes. International orders are welcome. On the Web at www.acousticon.com
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April 2014
Introducing Finger-Tone® Fingerstyle ® Now you can get the same pure sound of fingernails and fingertips from a light weight metal finger pick AVAILABL E AT YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC STORE OR CONTACT:
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Considering the Melody
Considering the Melody FINGERSTYLE JAZZ GUITAR ESSENTIALS Learn techniquesfor syncopating ,articulating , and harmoniz ing fing erstyle jaz z g uitarmelodies.
Rh y t h m i c a p p r o a c h e s f o r p l a y i n g m e l o d i e s wi t h a u n i q u e ,p e r s o n a l t o u c h
Exe r c s e s a m e d a t harm o nz ng m elo dy lnes and creat ing co unt erpo int
Creating Basic Bass Melodies
CART ER-ST YLE GUIT AR BASICS
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This helpful guide and learn how to play
In cl u d e s 8m i n u t e s o f vi d e o
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SONGWRIT ING BASICS FOR GUIT ARIST S
START WRITING SONGS
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An Epic Guitar Larry Campbell’s 1996 Linda Manzer baritone celebrates his love of mythology BY BAKER RORICK
L
arry Campbell was on tour with k.d. lang in Canada in1996 when he ran into luthier Linda Manzer at a Toronto workshop and commissioned this baritone guitar. Campbell, the multi-instrumentalist who’s played with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and many others, was looking for something with epic appeal. “Enraptured with King Arthur and the Avalon mythology,” Campbell suggested the theme for a graphic headstock design that inspired Manzer to create “Excalibur and the Lady of t he Lake,” which is inlaid with abalone, mother of pearl, silver (from a melted-down Canadian dime), garnet, curly birds-eye maple, mahogany, plus hand-painted details. Considered the queen of Canadian luthiers, Manzer is renowned for her acoustic archtop, flattop and radical, multiple-necked and many-stringed harp guitar creations. She’s created 28 instruments for Pat Metheny alone. Cambell’s acoustic baritone is Manzer’s st andard model. Its 15 9/16-inch wide c utaway body ha s a German spruce top and Curly Koa bac k and sides with Manzer’s innovative tapered body depth – the “Manzer Wedge” – of 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches. The neck is mahogany with an ebony fingerboard, bound in ebony with abalone side dots, a 1 13/16-inch nut width, and scale length of 29 inches. Meant to be tuned A to A or B to B, with .070 to .018 strings, Campbell has upped his string gauge to a heavier .080 set for his “default tuning” of AEADF#A, the baritone equivalent of Drop D. Campbell, a Grammy-winning producer and Americana Music Awards Instrumentalist of the Year, has used this guitar on numerous recordings, including Jorma Kaukonen’s “River of Time” and Helm’s “Dirt Farmer” and “Electric Dirt.” Its hauntingly beautiful voice can be heard to best effect on “Rooftops,” the title song on his 2005 solo acoustic CD of Celtic fiddle tunes played on guitar. AG Baker Rorick, director of the Woodstock Invitational Luthier Showcase, is a frequent contributor to Acoustic Guitar. Acoustic Guitar (ISSN 1049-9261) is published monthly by String Letter Publishing, Inc., 501 Canal Blvd., Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. Periodical postage paid at Richmond, CA 94804
and additional mailing offices. Printed in USA. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #4061 2608. Canada Returns to be sent toPitney Bowes International Mail Services, P .O. Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. Postmaster: Please make changes online at AcousticGuitar.com or sendAcoustic to Guitar, String Letter Publishing, Inc., PO Box 3500, Big Sandy, TX 75755. 98
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