Acoustic Guitar 260.pdf

NICKEL CREEK REUNITES FOR SURPRISE SUMMER TOUR! 4 SONGS TO PLAY BECK LOSER BLUE MOON

AUGUST 2014 | 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR | ACOUST

CROSBY, STILLS & NASH SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES NORMAN BLAKE WHISKEY BEFORE BREAKFAST

L A E V E R R E A DE R S E V O L R I E TH FOR THE 8 2 D N I T MAR HOW TO PLAY BACH WRITE A SONG EMBELLISH YOUR CHORDS PREVENT WRIST INJURIES

4 1 0 2 E R O +M E C I O H C PLAYER’S S T L U S E R POLL

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B r e a k u p s o n g s f o r me n and t heir

inner demons.

There is no endorsement of Taylor Guitars by the Dept. of Defense, Dept. of the Navy or the U.S. Marine Corps.

ORIGINAL PHOTO BY LANCE CPL. AARON P. MANKIN

MIKE, A COMBAT-SEASONED MARINE, HAD ALWAYS BEEN BRAVE. BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL HE RETURNED HOME FROM HIS TOUR IN IRAQ, THAT HE REVEALED JUST HOW FEARLESS HE REALLY WAS. BECAUSE AS SOON AS MIKE STEPPED BACK ONTO U.S. SOIL, HE STEPPED OUT ONTO A HUGE LIMB BY WRITING AND PERFORMING SONGS THAT UNEARTHED THE KIND OF SUBJECT MATTER MOST RETURNING SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN NEVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT — REOPENING WOUNDS IN ORDER TO HEAL THEM. AND THOUGH MIKE REALIZED HE WOULD STIR UP A LOT OF ANGER, DARKNESS AND PAIN, HE ALSO KNEW HE COULD HELP HIS FELLOW SERVICE MEMBERS COPE WITH THEIR DEMONS IN A WAY THAT WAS A LITTLE LESS DAUNTING. THROUGH MUSIC MIKE INSPIRES US, AND REMINDS US THAT THE WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE HIM. FOR MORE ABOUT MIKE AND OTHER STORIES OF PEOPLE WITH THE COURAGE TO STEP FORWARD, visit taylorguitars.com

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CONTENTS FEATURES

“When I first started doing solo shows, it was a little intimidating. While I was still in the band [Old Crow Medicine Show], I’d done a few little shows around LA with friends sitting in, but going out on my own was a totally different thing. I had to figure out how to fill the space when I wasn’t playing, and come up with new ways to play guitar that would make the songs bubble and bounce underneath the vocal part.” –WILLIE WATSON

44 This Bird Has Flown Former Old Crow Medicine Show guitarist Willie Watson finds peace of mind on solo debut BY KENNY BERKOWITZ

48 Nickel Hits a Quarter Alt-country trio Nickel Creek celebrates 25th anniversary with new album and tour BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

53 SPECIAL FOCUS

Player’s Choice Awards! The finest guitars, sound systems, accessories, and more in our 2014 readers poll

MISCELLANY 10 FROM THE HOME OFFICE 12 OPENING ACT 93 EVENTS 94 MARKETPLACE 96 AD INDEX 98 GREAT ACOUSTICS AUGUST 2014 VOLUME 24, NO. 14, ISSUE 260 ON THE COVER MARTIN D-28 MARQUIS PHOTOGRAPHER HUGH O’CONNOR

Willie Watson stares down the past on solo debut p44

AcousticGuitar.com 5

CONTENTS

SPONSORED

Classical Guitar Virtuoso Jason Vieaux Breaks Down “Bourrée” by J.S. Bach

Here come ol’ flattop—the unique guitars of Martin Keith p77

NEWS

AG TRADE

14 The Beat Tom Freund brings soul to So-Cal on Two Moons

73 Shop Talk Go wireless with the PanaMag pickup from Shadow Electronics

16 News Spotlight Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz unplugs on Yes!

75 Makers & Shakers Martin Keith’s guitars are infused with skilled craftsmanship, a keen eye for design, and the legend of Woodstock

In this free sample lesson, Jason chose “Bourée” as a counterpoint piece for intermediate players. He discusses how to focus on the baseline to help you actively hear the melodic nature of the piece and ends with a performance (from multiple angles) that demonstrates the fluid style that he is known for.

PLAY

20 Songcraft Learn to identify the structural elements of pop songs 22 Songs to Play “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills & Nash (22); “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” a version of the traditional folk song inspired by Norman Blake (26); “Loser” (31) and “Blue Moon” by Beck (32) 35 Here’s How Stretches to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome 36 The Basics Liven up your playing with sus chords 40 Weekly Workout Challenge yourself with Bach’s ‘Invention No. 4’

78 Guitar Guru What gives a guitar its “voice”? 80 Review: Cordoba Acero D10 The mild-mannered guitar with the ferocious sound

To watch the free lesson, go to

AcousticGuitar.com/ How-To/Bouree

84 Review: ScoreCloud Express New app helps you capture your music, note for note MIXED MEDIA

89 Playlist What’s old is new again in John Fullbright’s Songs, plus the latest from Keb’ Mo,’ Carlene Carter, Bradford Lee Folk, and Conor Oberst

SPONSORED AcousticGuitar.com 7

SPONSORED

AG ONLINE

ArtistWorks Instructor Martin Taylor Expands on his Foundation for Fingerstyle Magic

Martin Taylor is renowned for his signature style, combining bass, chords and melody into a solo jazz symphony. In this lesson, he builds on a previous lesson for AcousticGuitar.com that breaks the fretboard into a series of root/10th scales. These root/10th combination scales and transition points help you build mini chord progressions all around the neck.

Alex de Grassi

Your Potential—Unlimited!

AcousticGuitar.com/ How-To/Transition

Hundreds of acoustic guitarists have taken advantage of our Friday flash sales. Join in by checking out AcousticGuitar.com/Deals. Recent offerings include the Rhythm Guitar Essentials book, the complete Blues Guitar Basics video guide, and a lesson on modern bluegrass technique—all at low, low prices!

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SPONSORED 8 August 2014

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Acoustic Guitar Unlimited offers clear, concise text-and-video guitar instruction with new lessons added each week. This easy-to-navigate, tablet-ready site makes it simple to learn anywhere, anytime. You’ll learn from such expert acoustic guitarists as Alex de Grassi (above), Sean McGowan, Scott Nygaard, Steve James, Happy Traum, David Hamburger, Teja Gerken, Andy Ellis, Orville Johnson, and many others. No matter what your skill level or area of interest—fingerstyle, flatpicking, slide, Carter-style, slack-key, bluegrass, blues, swing, jazz, folk, Celtic, or more—you decide what to learn from our extensive roster of more than 70 complete courses. Mix and match—the options are unlimited. Take a tour, enjoy a free lesson, or sign up for a one-month free trial at AcousticGuitarU.com!

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To watch the free lesson, go to

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Hear how Tom Brosseau creates his “wishing well” sound, see where Dawn Landes positions condenser mics, and learn how Muriel Anderson plays harmonics. Find all that (plus some great performances) at AcousticGuitar.com/Sessions. Look for a new session each week.

Tom Brosseau

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CMY

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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

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Editorial Director & Interim Editor Greg Cahill Editor at Large Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Managing Editor Jason Walsh Senior Editor Mark Segal Kemp Senior Editor David Knowles Production Designer Brad Amorosino Production Manager Hugh O’Connor Contributing Editors Kenny Berkowitz, Andrew DuBrock, David Hamburger, Steve James, Orville Johnson, Richard Johnston, Sean McGowan, Jane Miller, Greg Olwell, Adam Perlmutter, Rick Turner, Doug Young

Martin HD28V

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larence “Leo” Roehl is a lucky guy. A lot of readers might say he’s the luckiest of guys. Fifteen years ago, Roehl—now a 65-yearold retired sheriff’s deputy from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota—won a special Martin HD28V, one of two “photo-negative” Vintage Series guitars the venerable instrument manufacturer contributed to Acoustic Guitar magazine’s 10th anniversary giveaway in which, each month, a reader won a custom guitar from one of 12 guitar makers; AG kept an identical model for the office. Recently, since 10,000 readers and Facebook friends once again voted the Martin D-28 as their favorite model in this year’s Player’s Choice Awards, we got to wondering what happened to Roehl’s old black-and-white Martin. So, senior editor Mark Segal Kemp contacted Roehl by phone and asked if he still has it. Sure enough, it’s still by his side. “At the time, I’d just had heart surgery, and since I was just sitting around here doing nothing, I thought, heck, I’ll just fill this thing out,” he said of his decision to enter the giveaway. “Surprised the heck out of me when I got a letter from you guys saying I’d won it. It was very exciting. I’d never had a Martin before. I hadn’t won anything like this ever. I’d had a number of acoustics, a couple of acoustic-electrics, but this one is a real humdinger. “The sound of it is really nice, really mellow.” And what kind of music does Roehl play? “I like the older guys,” he offered. “I’m more of an early-rocker–type of guy. I don’t like the real clean music. I like to hear stuff you can feel, you

can enjoy it and not have to be pretty about it. Blues and music like that.” The black-and-white HD28V, designed by Martin archivist Dick Boak (the body is finished in black, other key components are made of white micarta), remains popular around the AG office. Like Leo, I’m pretty keen on it, too. Before the Great Recession, I’d saved up to have one built for me, but I used the money toward a down payment on a house instead (sigh). Of course, we all have our guitar stories. And our readers graciously shared some of theirs in the essays found in the Player’s Choice Awards feature. Kemp even contributed a personal note about the Gibson Hummingbird that got away. One thing I can tell you about Kemp is that’s he’s a helluva storyteller (he’s told me about that Gibson several times and I expect I’ll hear about it a few more times along the way). And he’s a helluva editor. I’m pleased to announce that Kemp—a former senior editor at Rolling Stone and onetime vice president at MTV, who has been instrumental in the recent relaunch of Acoustic Guitar—will be taking the reins next month as the magazine’s new editor. I look forward to working alongside him as the AG team ushers this great periodical into its 25th year. —GREG CAHILL, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Corrections & Clarifications Due to a clerical error that may have affected the outcome of the polling, Santa Cruz Guitar Co. was excluded from the following additional categories for which they were eligible: Small-bodied Flat Top, Dreadnought, and Mid-size Flattop.

INTERACTIVE SERVICES Interactive Services Director Lyzy Lusterman Creative Content Manager Joey Lusterman Creative Content Coordinator Winston Mapa Digital Developer Breeze Kinsey Community Relations Coordinator Courtnee Rhone Single Copy Sales Consultant Tom Ferruggia

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TO SUBSCRIBE to Acoustic Guitar magazine, call (800) 827 6837 or visit us online at AcousticGuitar.com. As a subscriber, you enjoy the convenience of home delivery and you never miss an issue. You can take care of all your subscription needs at our online Subscriber Services page (AcousticGuitar.com/ Subscriber-Services): pay your bill, renew, give a gift, change your address, and get answers to any questions you may have about your subscription. A single issue costs $6.99; an individual subscription is $39.95 per year; institutional subscriptions are also available. International subscribers must order airmail delivery.

TO ADVERTISE in Acoustic Guitar, the only publication of its kind read by 150,000 guitar players and makers every month, call Cindi Kazarian at (510) 215-0025, or e-mail her at [email protected].

10 August 2014

RETAILERS To find out how you can carry Acoustic Guitar magazine in your store, contact Alfred Publishing at (800) 292-6122. Except where otherwise noted, all contents © 2014 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.

PRS Acoustics A Culture of Quality

© 2014 PRS Guitars / Photos by Marc Quigley

Born in our Maryland shop, PRS acoustics are heirloom instruments with remarkable tone and exquisite playability. A small team of experienced luthiers handcraft all of our Maryland-made acoustic instruments with passion and attention to detail.

The PRS Guitars’ Acoustic Team.

OPENING ACT

12 August 2014

ZAC BROWN & JERRY DOUGLAS SUMMER CAMP MUSIC FESTIVAL

CHILLICOTHE, ILLINOIS MAY 25, 2014 PHOTO BY JAY BLAKESBERG


NEWS

Freund’s latest recording was fueled by his Venice hometown, trusty Martin D-35, and tasty Indian takeout

THE BEAT

Beach Boy

On ‘Two Moons,’ LA troubadour Tom Freund pays tribute to life in Venice, California

Tom Freund Two Moons Surf Road

BY DAVID KNOWLES

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f you want to hear what California feels like, Tom Freund’s new album is a good place to start. Recorded at Freund’s Venice Beach studio, Two Moons (Surf Road) channels Randy Newman and celebrates the eccentric town where Freund and others proudly fly their freak flag. “I think a lot of these songs, particularly ‘Weekend Guy’ and ‘Let Me Be Who I Want to Be,’ are definitely very Venice songs,” Freund says. “Having my studio here and playing live in this part of town, I got a lot of inspiration from Venice. It’s a cool part of town because you can walk around a lot. It’s a little less car culture than the rest of LA.” Holed up in his studio, Freund hunkered down on his new batch of songs, sweating the details in a way he never has before—namely, as the album’s producer. The studio’s beachside environs helped keep Freund in the right frame of mind for the project.

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“The studio’s nothing fancy, but it’s in a pretty vibrant place near the beach,” Freund says. “I was able to invite people to the studio and add a lot of tracks in the comfort and time zone of my own place.” Among the special guests is Freund’s singersongwriter pal Brett Dennen, who co-wrote the Newman-inspired track “Weekend Guy.”

The studio’s beachside environs helped keep Freund in the right frame of mind for the project. “I started that song and I was halfway through it and he came over for Indian food and we finished the song,” Freund says. “On a different day, I had him sing eight backup vocal parts in the middle section.”

As with all of Freund’s records, there is ample acoustic guitar on Two Moons, but two particular models carry the bulk of the duties. “My trusty Martin D-35—I’ve had the guitar since 1984, when I bought it new. It was a combined Christmas and birthday present, because I knew exactly what guitar I wanted,” Freund says. “The Martin is just beautiful. It has gotten deeper and deeper and deeper. The other acoustic I got when I made my first record—I had an equipment budget and I got a Collings, in the same shape as a D-35. That guitar has grown and grown, like a beautiful pair of jeans.” Since releasing Pleasure and Pain with Ben Harper back in 1992, Freund has honed his songwriting chops and, in the process, clarified his artistic direction. “I felt like I had a grasp on what I wanted to hear,” he says of his newest project. “The songs are super personal and I felt like I understood how I wanted them to go.” AG

GUITAR GREAT GEORGE SHUFFLER DEAD AT 88

‘DUELING BANJOS’ WRITER DEAD AT 93

OKEE DOKEE BROS. TAKE AN ‘APPALACHIAN ADVENTURE’

George Shuffler, who pioneered a crosspicking style later embraced by a new generation of bluegrass players, died on April 7 at the age of 88. Merging a three-finger banjo roll with Maybelle Carter’s signature melody and bass line style, Shuffler was an innovator who left his own indelible mark on music. “I’ve tried to do it right, and I think that it has caught on pretty good,” Shuffler told the website bluegrasstoday.com, before falling into poor health. For the better part of his adult life, Shuffler toured with the Stanley Brothers, and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, but will forever be remembered for his cross picking. “It comes natural to me because I’ve done it so long, I reckon,” Shuffler said. “I don’t see why everyone can’t do it.”

Arthur Smith, the bluegrass legend behind some of the most influential songs of all time, died on April 3 at the age of 93. Few musical refrains were more recognizable than the calland-response lead line from “Dueling Banjos,” the adaptation of Smith’s “Feudin’ Banjos” that was featured in the 1972 film Deliverance. The rollicking tune served as a calling card for virtuosic string players for decades. In 1946, Smith also wrote “Guitar Boogie,” a song later covered by the Liverpool, England skiffle group the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles.

Building on the success of their GrammyAward-winning kids album, Can You Canoe?, guitarist Joe Mailander and banjo player Justin Lansing, aka the Okee Dokee Brothers, have released Through the Woods. A roots music and bluegrass affair with striking harmonies and spot-on picking, the new album is sure to appeal to grownups as much as it will to kids. Subtitled “An Appalachian Adventure Album,” a 50-minute accompanying DVD extols the virtues of camping, hiking, and a love and respect of the great outdoors. AG

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

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ARTHUR SMITH PHOTO COURTESY WBT/WBTV CORPORATE RECORDS COLLECTION HELD BY J. MURREY ATKINS LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS


NEWS SPOTLIGHT

Songs Pulled From a Hat

It’s Raining Jane—Hallelujah! Jason Mraz, with his ‘Yes!’ collaborators.

Jason Mraz teams up with the all-female folk-rock band Raining Jane on an acoustic gem BY DAVID KNOWLES

“I

was finally able to make what I call my first acoustic album,” singer-songwriter and guitarist Jason Mraz says from his home in San Diego, California, one day after appearing as a guest mentor on the hit TV show American Idol. Given that the former coffee-house performer has mostly played acoustic guitar on the seven million records and 48 million singles he has already sold in his short career, that may seem like an odd statement. But on his fifth full-length release, Yes! (Atlantic), Mraz has teamed up with the all-female LA folk-rock group Raining Jane —Mai Bloomfield, Chaska Potter, Mona Tavakoli, and Becky Gebhardt—to make an album with far less electric feel than his previous efforts. “For years and years, I’ve wanted to make an acoustic album,” Mraz says. “Ever since I was signed, I thought I would be an acoustic artist, having really all my songs written on acoustic—I was always struggling with the pop production and then having to duplicate that on stage.” The low-key vibe on Yes! evokes a group of simpatico musicians hanging out in a rehearsal space and picking up acoustic instruments while the tape is running. As Mraz explains,

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that’s close to how the project came about. “I’ve been collaborating with the Janes for about seven years, and we’ve always loved the songs that we’ve written and the demos we’ve made,” he says. “Last summer, we decided we’d listen to just the songs, and there before us was this really beautiful record. We said, let’s pursue this—let’s share with the world what we’ve been secretly working on for the last few years.”

‘We said, let’s pursue this—let’s share with the world what we’ve been secretly working on for the last few years.’ —JASON MRAZ

For a guy whose biggest hit to date, “I’m Yours,” was written while surfing and hanging out in Hawaii, the songwriting process on Yes! proved equally laid back, but also unique. “We’d just start playing and jamming, maybe someone comes in with a chord progression or sometimes we’d play a game where we’d each

come up with two-chord progressions and throw them in a hat and then as we’d pull them out we’d say, those are the chords we’re going to start with,” Mraz says. “It got us out of our habits and forced us into new melodies and ideas.” In the studio, Mraz used a Taylor nylonstring guitar, and a Rockbridge steel-string, the latter of which he discovered via Dave Matthews. “I call mine the mahogany dread [short for dreadnought]. When I got it from Rockbridge, they told me they hadn’t changed the strings in about two or three years, and I recorded the entire Love Is a Four Letter Word album with it,” he says. “Then, two or three years later, I recorded this album with it, still with the same strings. It’s great. It sounds like a vintage Gibson, the kind you’d want to hear in your living room.” Above all, Mraz hopes that—thanks to an absence of studio wizardry—the authenticity of the new record will come through. “Honesty is what we’re looking for,” he explains. “You don’t need a lot of production to tell the story, and to understand the song. The melody itself and the rhythm in the guitar should be enough to hook you in.” AG

La Défense STRONG.YOUNG.DURABLE.

Fait Main en France • Hand Made in France

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Rodney Crowell and Collings Guitars

Rodney Crowell and his 1993 Collings C10 Deluxe

Serious Guitars | www.CollingsGuitars.com | (512) 288-7770

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Acoustic Classic TOAST YOUR TOAST WITH ‘WHISKEY’

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Songbook SOY UN BECK HANSEN, BABY

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The Basics PRIME SUS SPECS

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Weekly Workout BACH, THE FATHER OF ‘INVENTION’

PLAY

Norman Blake p26 PHOTO BY JACK VARTOOGIAN/GETTY IMAGES


SONGCRAFT The simplest type of chorus uses the same music as the verse, as in “This Land Is Your Land,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “You Are My Sunshine.” Usually, though, the chorus brings a change of melody—often rising into a higher register. Examples of verse-chorus songs with a contrasting chorus include Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susannah,” James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James,” the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” and Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel.” Beck’s “Loser” follows a pattern that you’ll hear pretty much anytime you turn on the radio these days: rapped verses and a sung chorus. It’s tougher to tell a complex story in a verse-chorus song, simply because the repeating chorus takes up much of the space. Instead, the strength of the verse-chorus form is capturing a feeling . . . and then lodging in listeners’ heads. Understanding how songs are built can help you create your own.

Compose Yourself

Identify common structural elements of popular songwriting BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

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eneath all the nuances of melody, chord progression, and lyrics, most songs are built from the same basic parts—some kind of repeating sequence of verse, chorus, bridge, and so on. To write a song or even learn to play someone else’s song, being able to identify these parts and understand how they fit together is an essential skill. Here’s a guide to some of the song forms commonly used in popular music, with classic examples drawn from folk, rock, country, and pop. VERSE ONLY The most basic song form has only one section: the verse—the same melody and chord progression repeats through the entire piece while the words change. This is the traditional ballad form, as used in “Pretty Polly,” “The House Carpenter,” and “Man of Constant Sorrow,” for instance, and carried on by such songwriters as Bob Dylan (“All Along the Watchtower”), Chuck Berry (“Promised Land”), and Richard Thompson (“1952 Vincent Black Lightning”). As these examples suggest, the verse-only form is a great storytelling vehicle (murder and tragedy are optional but recommended). Since the music isn’t changing, listeners can focus on the unfolding narrative. So you might consider writing in this form when the story is the most important aspect of the song.

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VERSE WITH REFRAIN Some songs use the verse-only form, but each verse ends (or sometimes begins) with the same phrase or line: the refrain. The refrain usually contains the song’s title, too. Examples include Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line,” Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and Wilco’s adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s “California Stars.” The line can be a little blurry between a refrain and a chorus (covered next). The difference is that a refrain is shorter—usually just one line of lyrics—and doesn’t feel like a separate section of the song. It’s more like the conclusion of the verse. The verse-refrain form retains the storytelling power of using verses only, while adding the benefits of repetition for sticking in a listener’s memory. VERSE & CHORUS You know the chorus when it hits: it’s the singalong and raise-your-cigarette-lighter part, with the same words each time and almost always the song’s hook and/or title, in a distinct section that repeats typically three or four times. While the verses carry the story forward, the chorus nails the song’s main theme, image, or feeling.

VERSE & BRIDGE Some songs have a second contrasting section— with a different melody and chords from the verse—that doesn’t feel like the focal point of the song the way a chorus does. Known as a bridge, it’s more like a short diversion from the verses, and it’s not repeated over and over—it comes up once or maybe twice. The bridge is also known (especially on the eastern side of the Atlantic) as the middle eight. Songs that use only a verse and bridge often have an old-fashioned sound, because the 32-bar AABA form was common in Tin Pan Alley songwriting. Examples include Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” (the bridge begins, “One day I’ll wish upon a star”), Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” (“Why she had to go”), and John Lennon’s “Imagine” (“You may say I’m a dreamer”). In terms of the music, the bridge often modulates to a new key, changes up the rhythmic feel, or introduces a melodic idea quite different from the verse.

LISTEN TO THIS! Richard Thompson ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ Rumor & Sigh

VERSE, CHORUS & BRIDGE Using a three-part form of verse, chorus, and bridge opens up a lot of possibilities for songwriting. With three parts, the verses (A) move the story along, the chorus (B) delivers the hook, and the bridge (C) gives listeners a break from the predictable back and forth of verse and chorus. Many songs use a structure like ABABCAB, where the bridge provides a refreshing change before the final verse and chorus. The Lennon-McCartney catalog is chock full of clever uses of the verse-chorus-bridge form. “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” for instance, follows the ABABCAB form mentioned above and then adds one more CAB (the bridge is, “And when I touch you . . .”). “Eight Days a Week” follows the exact same form (with the addition of an intro and outro—more on those below), as does “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

To cite some songs mentioned above: “Over the Rainbow” has a coda with the line “If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why, can’t I?” And “Eight Days a Week” uses the same up-the-neck guitar riff for its instrumental intro and outro. In the middle of songs, too, there often are interludes that provide a little breathing room—for instance, between the chorus and the next verse or the bridge. Most commonly an interlude simply repeats the intro. That’s what happens in “Proud Mary,” where the intro chord pattern returns as an interlude after the chorus plays a couple of times.

PRECHORUS Especially in the realms of pop and rock, songwriters often add a prechorus, a short section of four bars or so that sets up the chorus and uses the same words and music each time. Think of Tom Petty’s “Refugee”—the prechorus goes, “It don’t make no difference to me . . .” and builds anticipation for the chorus: “You don’t have to live like a refugee.” Similarly, in Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” the prechorus starts with “Big wheels keep on turning” and leads into the chorus: “Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river.” To pick a few examples from recent pop charts, Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” has a prechorus beginning with “We’ve come too far,” and Lorde’s “Royals” has an extended prechorus starting with “But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom.” In both cases, these repeating sections launch into the big chorus and, you guessed it, the title/hook. Many pop songs skip the bridge and just use a verse-prechorus-chorus form. Pop music is built on repetition, and the prechorus-chorus combo maximizes that—and makes the song hard to get out of your head even when you dearly wish you could.

LISTEN TO THIS!

INTROS, OUTROS & INTERLUDES In addition to the major sections above, a song may have smaller bits and pieces that add a little variety. At the top might be an intro, which is typically a short instrumental passage that’s sometimes built from a piece of the chorus or another part of the song. At the end, a song may have an outro (also known, more formally, as a coda). The outro is sometimes an extension of the last chorus, with some kind of development in the melody, harmony, or words.

Creedence Clearwater Revival ‘Proud Mary’ Bayou Country

USING SONG FORM These basic components of songs may be familiar to you, but pay closer attention to them. When you listen to songs, try identifying the sections. Oftentimes you’ll be able to guess what comes next—for instance, after a verse/ chorus/verse/chorus, there’s a good bet a bridge or interlude is coming. It’s also illuminating to notice when songwriters arrange the parts in unexpected ways. Find structural ideas to try in your own songwriting. Becoming more conversant with song form gives you a shorthand for communicating with other musicians. And in writing, a good sense of structure can provide you with a kind of schematic for a song in progress. That’ll help you figure out how many verses you need, or if the song is too repetitive and could use a bridge. In songwriting, as in all forms of art, the content should ultimately dictate the form. You’re sitting at the guitar, and you happen upon a cool melodic line and chord pattern. Follow and develop that idea, and eventually you will recognize that it sounds like a verse or a chorus or whatever—and you’ll start to get a sense of the structure of the song you’re trying to create. At that point, it’s your job is to fill it in with the story that wants to be told. AG


ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Only the lonely: Stephen Stills

Oh ‘Suite’ Nuthin’!

Don’t be put off by its length—‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ is as simple as it is timeless BY ANDREW DUBROCK

“S

uite: Judy Blue Eyes” is the antithesis of a radio-pop hit. Clocking in at more than seven minutes with three distinct sections (a “suite” of tunes), it’s a miracle it found its way onto the radio at all, and amazing that it reached No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100. But every so often a tune transcends the boundaries of pop, and this song embodies the sound and soul of Crosby, Stills & Nash—it was destined to be a timeless hit and one of the group’s most iconic songs. Forty-five years ago, this song, from CSN’s self-titled debut album, helped launch the acoustic-guitar revolution. Penned by Stephen Stills, the tune chronicles his relationship with singer Judy Collins as they were splitting up. Don’t let the sheer number of chords below intimidate you. The song itself isn’t that complicated; it’s just long! To start, get yourself into the droning E-E-E-E-B-E tuning Stills used for the song. (If you don’t want to risk breaking your D string by tuning up a whole step, try tuning everything down to D-D-D-D-A-D and

22 August 2014

capo at the second fret.) The opening riff is shown at right (riff 1), and this riff comes back again between the second and third verses. Throughout the first section, Stills occasionally substitutes full barre chords for the Asus2 and Bsus4 chords. Try this out by barring with your index finger across all six strings at the fifth and seventh fret, respectively, and use these voicings as a contrast whenever it sounds good to you. To grab the A7sus4 chords that punctuate the ends of each line, Stills wraps his thumb over the neck of the guitar to fret the bottom two strings while using his index finger to barre the top two strings, two frets lower. In the second section, try riff 2 whenever an E5 chord is shown, and strum all the other chords. (Of course, you can always just strum the E5 chord shape as well, instead of the riff.) The outro uses many “chords,” but they’re really all just the same two-fingered shape slid around the fretboard. See riff 3 to get this under your fingers before diving into the lyrics and chords section. AG

PHOTO BY ELEANOR STILLS

SONG TO PLAY

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes BY CROSBY, STILLS & NASH WORDS AND MUSIC BY STEPHEN STILLS

Chords, Tuning: E E E E B E

ˇˆ ˇD 6sus2 A sus2 B sus4 A 7sus4

E5

000000

2300 00

E

D /E

0 000 21

8 fr.

E

(2)

0000 31

E000sus2 111

2300 00

5 fr.

7 fr.

T T 00 11

E7

(2)

000031

230000

7 fr.

0 000 3 1

E 7sus4 10 fr.

5 fr.

# # # œœ & # œœ

7 fr.

14 fr.

œœ œœ œœ œœ

4 5 0 0

B

0 2

0 0

0 2

0 0

A5

4 5

¿¿ # # # # 4 œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ n # œœ n œœ # œœ 4 œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ & œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ ¿¿ 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 7 5 E

000 111

9 fr.

E 5( 2)

2 x0 3 xx

12 fr.

0 0

B

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

‚‚ ..

0 0

0 0

Riff 2 (section ii)

E5

œœ œ œœ œ œœ œœ œœœ œœ œœœ Œ

œœ

0 0

0 0

0 2 0 0

0 0 0 0

D add9/F# D sus2

0 2 0 0

˙

0 0 0 0

j j ‰ œœ ‰ n œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ n œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ J

B sus4

## & # # œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ B

œœ

œœ

Riff 1 (Intro and section i)

0000 21

E6

10 fr.

10 fr.

0 0

Riff 3 (section iii)

Words and Music by Stephen Stills. Copyright © 1970 Gold Hill Music, Inc. Copyright Renewed. All Rights Reserved Used by Permission. Reprinted with Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.

000111

(2) # D sus2 A 5 B2sus4 D2add9/F x0 3 xx x0 3 xx 2 x0 3 xx

2 x0 3 xx

D /E

10 fr.

E5

. 12. 12

Harm.

j œ

œ

0

0

œ 0

0 0

œœ 5 7

0 0 0 0

0 0

0 0

œœ œœ œ œ œ 0

4 5

5 7

0 0

0

A5

D add9/F# D sus2

j j ‰ œœ ‰ n œ ‰ œ œ Œ œ n œœ œœ œœ J

B sus4

œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ

E5

5 0

5 0

5 0

7 0

7 0

14 0

10 0

10 10 0 0

12 12 0 0

5 0

5 0

5 0

7 0

7 0

14 0

10 0

12 12 0 0

5

5

5

7

7

14

10

10 10

12 12

5

5

5

7

7

14

10

12 12

Intro

E5

E

Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

Asus2 A7sus4

I am lonely

i E5

1.

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

It’s getting to the point where I’m no fun anymore Asus2 A7sus4

I am sorry

E5

Bsus4

Asus2

A7sus4

I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are E5

Asus2

You make it hard


CROSBY, STILLS & NASH | SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES E5

2.

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

Remember what we’ve said and done and felt about each other

A7sus4 D6sus2

Asus2 A7sus4

Asus2

Can I tell it like it is, and listen to me, baby

Oh, babe, have mercy E5

E5

What have you got to lose?

Asus2

E5

D6sus2

Bsus4

Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now

Asus2

It’s my heart that’s something that’s dying E5

Asus2 A7sus4

that’s what I have to lose

I am not dreaming E5

Bsus4

Asus2

A7sus4

I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are

E5

Asus2

6. I’ve got an answer, I’m going to y away

E5

You make it hard

A7sus4

E5

What have I got to lose? E5

3.

Asus2

E5

Will you come see me Thursdays and Saturdays A7sus4

Asus2 A7sus4

E5

What have you got to lose?

And I am crying E5

Asus2

Bsus4

Tearing yourself away from me now, you are free

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

This does not mean I don’t love you, I do, that’s forever Asus2 A7sus4

D/E

Yes, and for always E5

D/E(2) E

E D/E

7. Chestnut brown canary, ruby throated sparrow Bsus4

Asus2

A7sus4


iii

D/E(2)

E(2)

E7

E7sus4 E6

Sing a song, don’t be long, thrill me to the marrow

Asus2

You make it hard

D/E

E

D/E(2) E

D/E

8. Voices of the angels, ring around the moonlight E5

4.

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

Something inside is telling me that I’ve got your secret

D/E(2)

E(2)

E7

E7sus4 E6

Asking me said she’s so free, how can you catch the sparrow?

Asus2 A7sus4

Are you still listening? E5

Asus2

E5

Bsus4

Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart Asus2 A7sus4 Bsus4

Asus2

A7sus4


Asus2

E5

Asus2

You make it hard,_____ and you make it hard E5

Asus2

E5

And you make it hard,_____ and you make it hard

9. Lacy lilting lyric, losing love lamenting D/E(2)

E5 E5

What have you got to lose? Asus2

Tuesday morning, please be gone, I’m tired of you

24 August 2014

E7sus4 E6

E6(2)

E9sus4

Outro A5

(2)

E6

E6(2)

E9sus4

E9sus4

(2)

E6

E9sus4

E6(2) Esus2

Bsus4(2) Dadd9/F# Dsus2

Doo doo doo doo doo, doo Bsus4

(2)

E5(2)

doo doo doo doo doo

Dadd9/F# Dsus2 E5(2)

doo

doo doo

(Repeat both lines 7 times with ad-lib vocals)

Asus2

Friday evening, Sunday in the afternoon

E5

E7

Doo doo doo doo doo, doo

ii

A7sus4

E(2)

E9sus4

A5

5.

D/E(2) E

E D/E

Change my life, make it right, be my lady

And I love you E5

D/E

Angelus Custom

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

SONG TO PLAY

A Powerful Shot

Whiskey Before Breakfast

BY SCOTT NYGAARD

TRADITIONAL ARRANGED BY SCOTT NYGAARD

‘Whiskey Before Breakfast’ is an old-time fiddle tune with a kick

E

ver since bluegrass great Norman Blake recorded “Whiskey Before Breakfast” as a solo-guitar instrumental on his 1976 Rounder album (also titled Whiskey Before Breakfast), this old-time fiddle tune has been a flatpicking standard. Blake also recorded it with Tony Rice for Blake and Rice, although on that version he plays mandolin Capoalong II with Rice’s guitar. The version notated here is inspired by Capo II q = 208 the crosspicking in Blake’s playing, particularly

q = 208

Capo II

q = 208

& A &

C

4 444

A A

C .C

measures 13 and 14. To imitate his distinctive style of crosspicking, approach the notes as if you’re strumming through the small chord shapes, creating a sound halfway between strums and single notes. AG

This arrangement is excerpted from Bluegrass Guitar Essentials: Learn to Play Bass Runs, Fiddle Tunes, Bluesy Solos & More. The 72-page book (with CD

Norman Blake

demos) is available at store.AcousticGuitar.com.

œ . œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ .. œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ F 0 œœ œ.. œ 0œ 2 3 0 œ 101œ œ 0œ 2œ 0œ 3œ 2œ œ0 0 0 2 0 3 . 33 0 2 3 3 2 0 3

œœ C œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ C G œœ 1 œ œ œ112 œœ œ 10œ 2 3 1 0 2 1 F F

C

G G

œ œ œ œ œ œ

C C

œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ Cœ œ œ œ œ 0 œœ 1 œ œ 0 0 œ œ œ 1 0 2 3 œœ

& 44 .. œ œ œ 0œ 2œ 0œ 2 0 0 3 2 0 2 3 B 2 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 3 3 3 2 0 2 3 B 3 0 1 0 1 1 1 1B . 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 3 .3 0 2 3 F C 33 2 3 0 G2 3 C 0 2 BC 0 2 0 3 2 Dm 3 0 2 B 3 œ œ œ F C G C C & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ3 œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœ ... ... œ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œjj œ . Dœœœm œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . œœ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Bœ . . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ F C 3 G C C Dm œœ . . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ j œœ œ œ œ œ . . 0 0 & œœœœœ œœ œœœœœœœœ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ 3 1 1 3 1 3 3 œ œ œœœœœ œ œ. œ. 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 2 1 . . 1 3 1 3 3 3 3 2 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 B 3 2 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 . . 33 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 B 0 0 1 . . 1 3 1 3 3 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 2 3 3 2C3 2 0 G2 3 0 2 3 G 0 2 3 F . . 3 C0 2 F C3 2 3 0 G0 C 3 2 3 B Gœ œ œ œ œ Cœ œ œ œ Gœ œ œ Fœ œ œ C F C 3 G C œœ . & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ3 œ œ œ œ . œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ .. œ & 3 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœ œœœœ 3 G C G F C F C G œ œ C 3 œ œ œ œ0 œ1 œ0 œ œ œ œ œ œ 0œ œ œ 0 œ œ œœ . 0 0 œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ . 1 . œ œ œ œ œ 3 1 0 5 5 3 3 1 1œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 4 2 0 2 0 3 1 0 5 5 3 3 1 1 1 . 2 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 2 0 5 4 2 0 2 0 3 2 3 2 3 0 B 2 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 . 3 2 3 2 3 B 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 5 5 3 3 1 1 1 . 2 0 5 4 2 0 2 0 0 26 August 2014 2 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 . 3 2 3 2 3 B

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SONGBOOK

‘You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve’ —Beck, 1994

Loser Take All

20 years after Beck’s debut, turns out it was critics who were ‘choking on the splinters’ BY MARK SEGAL KEMP

T

wo decades ago this year, a doe-eyed young hipster from Los Angeles came from out of nowhere with an edgy, bluesy, acoustic-guitar sound, a beat box, and surreal Dylan-esque lyrics about plastic eyeballs, beefcake pantyhose, cocaine nose jobs, and Cheez Whiz. You might have been forgiven for suggesting “Loser”—with its madcap rapped verses and lackadaisically sung refrain—made no sense at all. But Beck, who claimed inspiration from artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Mississippi John Hurt, and the noisy avant-punk band Sonic Youth, told me in a Rolling Stone cover story three years later that such suggestions were offensive to him. “It’s weird that in America, almost every review I see says, ‘Oh, the lyrics are nonsense; they don’t mean anything; they’re not important; he’s not really saying anything,’” Beck said. “I’ve written hundreds of songs, and I got bored of saying things the same way. I wanted to use the language differently.” That, Beck did. And “Loser,” driven by its seductive mix of

country-blues, folk, and hip-hop, became one of the more surprising hit songs of 1994. Actually, it became one of the more surprising hits in Billboard history—so much so that some dismissed it as merely a novelty. “The press did a good job of haranguing [Beck],” Interview’s Ray Rogers wrote in 1996, “slamming the singer as a flash-in-the-pan novelty and harnessing him with the dreaded ‘slacker’ tag.” Twelve albums and numerous classic songs later, from the clever “Devil’s Haircut” to the earnest “Nobody’s Fault but My Own,” to his innovative sheet-music project Song Reader, Beck has proved not only to be anything but a novelty, but he’s become one of the most influential artists of the modern era, his sound and stylistic mishmash informing the music of artists as wide ranging as indie rockers, hip-hop acts, and acoustic singer-songwriters. In celebration of Beck’s career, Acoustic Guitar offers his first hit, “Loser” (p. 31), and a new song, “Blue Moon,” (p. 32) from his latest album, Morning Phase. AG


SONG TO PLAY

Cutting Some Slack

Loser

Tune down for this raucous 1990s don’t-call-him-a-slacker anthem

B

efore attempting the acoustic slide riff in “Loser,” first tune to open-D (D–A–D– F#–A–D). Fit the slide over your ring or pinky finger and start the upward slides on the “and” of beats 1 and 2 at around the second fret. Note that these slides are more about the slide than the initial double stop, so strike the strings and immediately start your slide. The same holds true for the downward slide on beat 4, but this one lasts longer—the full beat—so

BY BECK HANSEN & KARL STEPHENSON

make sure to pace your slide so that you have enough room on the fretboard to continue it throughout that beat. If you do it too quickly, you’ll run out of fretboard! Early in the song, Beck alternates this riff with a sitar lick below, right, arranged for guitar. Later on, he layers the two together, at which point it makes sense to play just the slide riff (unless you have another guitarist to play

the other part). Note that the slide riff itself only uses the bottom three strings. This means that you can also play it in dropped-D tuning (D–A–D–G–B–E), if you want, and many people do play it this way. The advantage of using open-D tuning is that if you accidentally hit any unwanted strings, they’ll still sound fine (whereas the other strings in dropped-D tuning will sound more discordant). —ANDREW DUBROCK

Chords

Open-D Tuning: D A D F # A D

D5

ˇ

Words by Beck Hansen. Music by Beck Hansen and Karl Stephenson. Copyright © 1993 by Universal Music - MGB Songs, Nothin’ Fluxin’ Music and Cyanide Breathmint Music. All Rights for Nothin’ Fluxin’ Music Administered by Universal Music - MGB Songs. All Rights for Cyanide Breathmint Music Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc. International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.

000 xxx

ˇ ˇˇ

Riff

# 4 & #4

Sitar Lick

œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ

œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œ

0 0 2 0 4

B

0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 2

In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey Butane in my viens so I’m out to cut the junkie With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose Kill the headlights and put it in neutral Stock car aming with a loser and the cruise control Baby’s in Reno with the vitamin D Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love seat Someone keeps saying I’m insane to complain About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt Don’t believe everything that you breathe You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve So shave your face with some mace in the dark Saving all your food stamps and burning down the trailer park Yo, cut it

0 0 2 04

4 05 0

5 5 5

D5

1.

4 0 2 0

D5

2.

Forces of evil in a bozo nightmare Banned all the music with a phony gas chamber Cause one’s got a weasel and the other’s got a ag One’s on the pole, shove the other in a bag With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose job The daytime crap of the folksinger slop He hung himself with a guitar string Slap the turkey neck and it’s hanging from a pigeon wing You can’t write if you can’t relate Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate And my time is a piece of wax falling on a termite Who’s choking on the splinters Repeat Chorus Breakdown (with ad-lib lyrics) Repeat Chorus (two times, fade out)

Chorus D5

Soy un perdedor I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me? Soy un perdedor I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me?


SONG TO PLAY

Phases of the ‘Moon’

Blue Moon

The quirky Beck nearly eclipses himself with this track from Morning Phase

A

standout track on Beck’s 2014 release, Morning Phase, “Blue Moon” features a bevy of acoustic guitars and mandolin floating in a sea of piano, electric guitars, and percussion, with Beck’s dreamy reverbdrenched vocals echoing on top. Though there are multiple acoustic guitars on the recording, the parts are similar, and are shown as one arrangement in the following transcription. After an intro centered around a root-position C chord with hammer-ons and

Intro

& 44

BY BECK HANSEN

pull-offs, the rhythm lays back into a steady eighth-note strum pattern that carries into the verse. Beck instills his own quirkiness on the tune by deviating the chord progression slightly on the second verse and chorus. When you reach measure 16, while playing the second verse, add the Gsus4–G progression shown in parentheses to match what Beck plays on record. Likewise, in the second chorus at measure 36, Beck substitutes an A major chord for the F shape shown.

Incidentally, he rarely—if ever— plays this A chord in live band performances of the tune. Whether or not it was a happy accident, it’s an unexpected, but cool, chord change to add in if you like. In live performances, Beck usually just plays single bass notes in the guitar break (measures 49–52). To pluck the arranged part, you’ll need to play fingerstyle (or with a hybrid pickand-fingers), using your thumb on the bass notes and your fingers to pluck the upper strings. —A.D.

C /G

œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœœ

(multiple gtrs. arr. for one)

B

3 3

2 3

3 3

1 0 2

1 2 3

3 3

3 3

2 3

0 2

0

0

0 2

Am

F

C /G

2 2 0

2 3 3 1

0 2 3 3

1

0

0 2

1 0

2

0 1

0

2 3 3

2 3 3

1 0 2 3 3

œœ œœœ œ

0 1 0 2 3 3

œœ Û Û œœ œœœ œ œ

0 1 0 2 3 3

À À

0 0 0

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Words and Music by Beck Hansen. Copyright © 2014 Youthless. All Rights Administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing. All Rights Reserved Used by Permission. Reprinted with Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.

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BECK | BLUE MOON

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Lies that will divide us both in time 34 August 2014

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HERE’S HOW

No Pain, No Gain? Not True!

5 stretches to help you prevent carpal tunnel syndrome BY OCTOBER CRIFASI

G

ood wrist, hand, and nerve health is not always a priority when it comes to practice time. And yet, if the issue is overlooked for too long, serious problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis could be the result. The good news is that a regular warm-up routine at the beginning of your practice can help prevent the possibility of pain and injury. The five stretches listed here take only a few minutes to perform and are a great way to relax and focus before you play. After 15 to 20 minutes of concentrated playing, be sure to stop and stretch, as prolonged periods of intense play can cause swelling and inflammation in your hand and wrist. If you experience pain, numbness, or tingling in your hands even after stretching, stop playing and take a break. If the pain persists, be sure to seek the counsel of a medical professional. Contrary to the famous exercise slogan, playing through the pain is never a good idea.

MASSAGE Using your fingers, massage both sides of your neck and continue down to the tops of the shoulders (also known as the trapezius muscles). Do not massage directly on the cervical spine. Breathe as you do this, allowing the muscles to relax. Continue to massage down the arms, one at a time, and into the hands. Massage the heel and palm of each hand. Continue into the fingers. Shake out your shoulders and arms for a few seconds before continuing to the next stretch.

WRIST FLEXOR STRETCH Extend one arm forward with the palm of your hand facing up. With the opposite hand, grasp the fingers of your extended hand and gently pull them back and down, keeping your arm straight. You should feel a stretch throughout the inside of the forearm. This stretch works deep into the arm, so don’t be surprised if you feel a twinge of tightness. Take deep breaths as you hold the stretch and imagine all tightness releasing from your arm. Hold this stretch for 15 to 20 seconds before releasing. Repeat on the other arm.

WRIST EXTENSOR STRETCH It is very important to stretch muscles using both ranges of motion; in other words, if you stretch one way, be sure to also stretch the other way. While this stretch may not feel as intense as its companion, it is a deep stretch, so go easy on how much strength you use in executing the movement. Extend one arm forward with the palm of the hand facing down. This time, with the opposite hand, take hold of the heel and top of the extended hand (not fingers). Pull your hand gently forward and then down, keeping the arm straight and shoulder relaxed. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds, shake out the arm, and repeat on the opposite side.

1

WRIST STRETCH With your arms extended straight out and at shoulder level, tilt the palms of both hands down toward the floor. Make sure your shoulders are relaxed. Slowly turn one hand up toward the sky while the other remains facing the floor, keeping your arms straight and in front of you. Now, do the other hand. Perform this stretch for 20 to 30 seconds, alternating hands, and breathe naturally while you do it. Shake out your shoulders and arms once finished.

2

4

3

PRAYER STRETCH Press your palms together in front of your chest. Keeping your palms pressed together, slowly move your hands down toward your stomach. Stop the movement when you begin to feel a stretch in the forearms. The palms should remain together throughout. Hold the stretch for 10 to 15 seconds and release. Repeat this stretch two more times.

5

October Crifasi is a professional guitarist, songwriter, and music educator in Los Angeles. She is founder and director of Girls Guitar School.


THE BASICS

In Living Color Embellish your songs with sus chords BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

Y

ou know the sound: Pete Townshend’s furious rock strumming on the opening verse of the Who’s “Pinball Wizard,” the sweet riff Bob Dylan plays at the beginning of “Tangled Up in Blue.” Those are sus4 chords resolving into major chords, and they provide great opportunities to add color to your guitar parts. Many other classic acoustic-based songs, including James Taylor’s “Country Road” and “Fire and Rain,” rely heavily on sus2 and sus4 chords for embellishment. The nice thing about suspended chords— essential vocabulary in all sorts of music—is that they typically involve just a one-finger change from a familiar chord form. Sus chords follow a simple formula: a basic chord consists of the root, third, and fifth; in a sus chord, you replace the third with either the second (for a sus2) or the fourth (for a sus4). Check out Ex. 1, which shows D and A sus chords. In the D major chord, the third is the F# note on the high E string; for Dsus2, replace the third with the second (E); and for Dsus4, replace it with the fourth (G). Follow the same pattern for the A chords: in this case, the third is C#, the second is B, and the fourth is D—all played on the second string. Strum through the example slowly, and listen to how the sus chords sound unresolved. When you play a Dsus4, for instance, your ears want it to resolve to D major. Try these D and A sus chords in a strum pattern in Ex. 2. Notice that the sus4 and sus2 chords liven up what would otherwise be two measures of D and two measures of A. This is one of the key functions of sus chords: to add movement and variety when the underlying progression isn’t changing much. In Ex. 3, check out sus chord fingerings for C and F. You’ll see that in the C sus chords, you need to mute some strings. This is to remove all the thirds, so they are true sus chords (a chord that includes the third and also the second or fourth has a slightly different sound than a sus chord and would be called an add chord). Put these C and F sus chords to work in Ex. 4. In measures 1 and 3, hammer on to the fourth string, second fret, to go from Csus2 to C; in measure 2, do the same thing on the third

36

August 2014

Strum through these chords slowly, and listen to how the sus chords sound unresolved.

Ex. 1

D

x x0 132

D sus2

D sus4 xx0 134

x x0 132

x0 21 3 0

A

A sus2

A sus4

˙˙˙ ˙

˙˙ ˙ ˙

˙˙ ˙˙

0 3 2 0

3 3 2 0

2 3 2 0

˙˙˙ ˙ ˙

˙˙˙ ˙ ˙

˙˙˙ ˙ ˙

xx0120

# 4 ˙˙ & # 4 ˙˙ 2 3 2 0

B

D

x0 21 0 0

0 2 2 2 0

A

x0 21 4 0

0 0 2 2 0

x0 21 3 0

˙˙˙ ˙ ˙

0 3 2 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

In a strum pattern, notice how the sus4 and sus2 chords liven things up.

Ex. 2

D

D sus4

x x0 132

# œ œ & # 44 œœœ œœœ 2 3 2 0

B

D

xx0 134

2 3 2 0

D sus2

x x0 132

A

xx0120

A sus4

x0 21 3 0

A

x0 21 4 0

A sus2

x0 21 3 0

x0 21 0 0

œœ œœ

œœ œœ

œœ œœ

œœ œœ

œœ œœ œœ œœ

œœœ œ

œœœ œ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœœ œœ œœ

œœœ œœ

œœœ œœ

2 3 2 0

3 3 2 0

3 3 2 0

2 3 2 0

2 3 2 0

0 3 2 0

0 3 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

0 3 2 2 0

0 3 2 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 0

2 3 2 0

0 2 2 2 0

You will need to mute some strings in the Csus chords

Ex. 3

C

x 32 0 1 0

˙ & 44 ˙˙˙ ˙ B

0 1 0 2 3

C sus2

C sus4

˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙˙ ˙

1 0 0 3

1 0 3 3

x 3 00 1 x

x 3 401 x

x 32 0 1 0

C

xx 3 21 1

F

F sus2

F sus4 xx 34 1 1

xx 3 21 1

˙˙ ˙˙ ˙

˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙ ˙˙

1 1 2 3

1 1 0 3

1 1 3 3

1 1 2 3

0 1 0 2 3

xx 3011

F

Practice your hammer-ons in this example.

Ex. 4

C sus2 C

C sus2 F sus2 F

x 3 00 1 x x 32 0 1 0

x 3 00 1 x

& 44 œœœ œ œœœ j œœœ ... œ œ œ 1 0 0 3

B

2

1 0 2

3

xx 3011

C sus4 C

x 3 00 1 x x 32 0 1 0

x 3 401 x x 32 0 1 0

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1 0 0

3

F sus2 C sus2 C

xx 3011 xx 3 21 1

2

3

1 1 2

1 1 0

3

1 0 0 3

2

3

œœ œœ ˙ œœ œœ ˙˙ œ ˙

˙˙ ˙˙ ˙

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2 3

3

0 1 0 2

1 0 3 3

LISTEN TO THESE!

On a G, you can play sus chords in two ways in open position.

Ex. 5

G

3 x0 0 0 4

G sus2 G sus4

G

G sus2 G sus4

3 x0 0 0 4

32 0 0 xx

˙˙ ˙

˙˙ ˙˙ ˙

˙ ˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙ ˙˙

˙˙ ˙

˙˙˙ ˙

˙˙ ˙˙

0 0 2 3

0 0 0 3

0 0 3 3

0 0 2 3

3 0 0 0

2 0

3 1 0 0

3 0 0 0

3

3

3

3

30 0 0 x x

3 4 0 0 xx

G

3 x00 14

˙ & 44 ˙˙˙ ˙ B

G

3 x0 2 x x

32 0 0 xx

E sus4 0 234 00

The Who ‘Pinball Wizard’ Tommy

E

0 23 1 00

˙˙˙ ˙˙ ˙˙ # ˙˙˙ ˙ ˙

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

Rock between a G and Gsus4 in this pattern that’s similar to ‘Tangled Up in Blue.’

Ex. 6

G

G sus4

3 x0 0 0 4

&

# 4 4

B

G

3 x00 14

˙

G sus4

3 x0 0 0 4

˙ ˙˙ ˙

œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ

3 0 0 0

3 0 0

3 3 1 1 1 0 0

3 x00 14

˙

3 3 1 1 0 0 0

3

˙ ˙˙ ˙

œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ

3 0 0 0

3 0 0

3 3 1 1 1 0 0

Bob Dylan ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ Blood on the Tracks

3 3 1 1 0 0 0

3

Play the chords for a riff that sounds similar to ‘Pinball Wizard.’

Ex. 7

E0 234 sus4 00

E

0 23 1 00

# # # # 4 œ .. œj œ œ œ 4 œœœ .. œœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ & œœ .. œœ œœ œœ œœ B

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

œœœ œœ œœœ œœœ œœ œœœ œœ œœœ œœ œœ œœœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ 0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 2 2 0

œœ ... œœ . œœ ..

0 0 1 2 2 0

j œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ

0 0 1 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

œœ œœ œœ

œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ

0 0 1 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

0 0 1 2 2 0

œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ

0 0 1 2 2 0

James Taylor ‘Fire and Rain’ Sweet Baby James

0 0 1 2 2 0


THE BASICS | PLAY

string to go from Fsus2 to F. This hammer-on figure is a very common use of the sus2. On a G, you can play sus chords in two ways in open position, voiced on the upper strings or on the lower strings, as shown in Ex. 5. Both voicings come in handy in different situations. In the first set of G chords, lean the ring finger of your fretting hand against the fifth string to mute it. Finally, the last measure of this example shows the lush Esus4 chord, which sounds sweet resolving to an E major. Now that you’ve got a good library of sus chords, here are a few more examples of how you can use them. Ex. 6 rocks between G and Gsus4 in a pattern similar to the “Tangled Up in Blue” intro. In measures 2 and 4, hammer on to the first fret of the second string with your index finger to change to the Gsus4, then pull off to the open string to go back to G. The Esus4-to-E groove of Ex. 7 is reminiscent of “Pinball Wizard,” though in a different key, and sounds particularly good played fast (the Townshend windmill is optional). Finally, Ex. 8 closes the lesson with James Taylor-style sus-chord embellishments of D and A. Use hammer-ons and pulloffs to really dial in the JT sound. AG

Use these sus-chord embellishments for a James Taylor-like sound.

Ex. 8

D sus2 D

D sus4 D D sus2

xx0120 x x0 132

j œœ œ . œ

# 4 & #4

0 3 2 0

B

B

j œœœ œ . œœ

0 0 2 2 0

œ

œ

2

0

0

3 3 2 0

x x0 132

œ J

œ

0

3

A sus4 A A sus2

x0 21 0 0 x0 21 3 0

&

˙

œœ œœ

2

A sus2 A

##

D

xx0 134 x x0 132 xx0120

˙

œ

œ

2

0

0

3 2 2 0

2

2

A

x0 21 4 0 x0 21 3 0 x0 21 0 0

œœ œœ

œ.

x0 21 3 0

œ 2

œ J

œ.

0

2

Anyone can claim to be the best...

...but we can prove it. www.ameritage.com / 1.866.669.8932 38

August 2014

HEAD & SHOULDERS ABOVE THE REST.

IT’S A BOLD STATEMENT, BUT THERE IT IS. Every detail of an Alvarez guitar is the culmination of tireless research, development and innovation in pursuit of a superior player experience.

alvarezguitars.com

WEEKLY WORKOUT

A Not-So-Little Feat Get ambitious with J.S. Bach’s “Invention No. 4” BY SEAN McGOWAN

L

earning the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and arranging it for the guitar is a technical feat, whether you play fingerstyle or with a pick. However, you will garner a huge return with a deeper sense of harmony, melodic form and, of course, technical dexterity. Bach’s music has long been standard fare for classical guitarists, and has also enjoyed recent popularity with contemporary acoustic musicians through the recorded works of steel-string fingerstylists Tony McManus and Robin Bullock, as well as the mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile. This Weekly Workout is devoted to learning and articulating Bach’s “Invention No. 4 in D minor BWV 775.”

Bach composed a series of two- and threepart inventions as technical études for his keyboard students. Here, you will focus on learning and playing the top part. However, the sheet music for this and other pieces are readily available, and they make great workouts to practice and perform with another guitarist playing the second part. When played and heard together, the inherent harmonic beauty of 18th-century counterpoint is revealed.

TIP 1 BEGINNERS’

Try working through the piece two measures at a time, and gradually put the measures together in four-bar, then eight-bar phrases.

WEEK ONE As you work through this étude, keep in mind that the fingerings notated in the tablature are merely guidelines; feel free to rework fingerings, fret and string locations as you see fit. You want to achieve a smooth and clean articulation throughout the étude. “Invention No. 4” will provide a great workout for both hands, but particularly the picking hand, integrating alternate picking with string crossing and skipping techniques. With

Tony McManus

regard to the fretting hand, be sure to play the entire piece in position. Positions are indicated on the score by Roman numerals above the notation. This means the fretting hand will always be in a comfortable, one-finger-per-fret posture. For example, the first three measures are in second position, which means the first note (fifth fret A string) will be fingered with the fretting hand pinky, followed by the index finger playing the E on the D string, etc. When

Week One

II

3 œ œ œ œ & b4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ 2

B

5

2

2 3 5

3

3

2

4

3

5

2

3

œ

1

2

œ

V

3

2

5

œ 1 2œ 1œ 4œ 2œ 1 œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ

œ

œ #œ 1

2

1

5

6

7

5 6 8

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7

6

7

5 6 8

B

5

5 8

8 6 5

7

5

5 7

5 6 8

8 6 5 7

7 5

7

5 6

40 August 2014

Week Two

II

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7

5 6 5

6

6 5 6

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8 6 5

œœœœœœ III

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3 5

5

3 5

SPONSORED

you get to measure 4, you will switch to fifth position and stay there through measure 12. On occasion, there will be notes that are placed on the same fret but on different strings. In these cases, observe the fingerings (the small numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 above the notes), as you will slip in and out of position at times. For example, measure 6 features two successive notes (C and B ) on the sixth fret G and E strings. Finger the C with your index finger and the high B with the middle. This enables you to essentially stay in fifth position; the index finger simply shifts to the sixth fret and back to fifth to capture the third note of the measure, the high A on the fifth fret E string.

TIP 2 BEGINNERS’

Try to use alternate picking throughout the étude, even when crossing and skipping over strings. Maintain a relaxed, effortless posture with the wrist of the picking hand.

WEEK TWO This week you will learn the next section, starting with measure 13. You are back in second position before quickly shifting down to first position for the 16th-note figures in measure 19. To articulate this passage, use hammer-ons and pull-offs while picking each quarter note of the measure. So, each 16th-note figure will be articulated: pickHO-PO-HO throughout the bar. Measures 22 to 25 feature some tricky string skipping in second position. Be sure to practice this very slowly— preferably with a metronome—and follow the fingerings closely. In measures 26 and 27 you will work your way back up to fourth position with two quick shifts. The first occurs with a move up to third position halfway through measure 26, with the index finger grabbing the D on the B string. Notice, however, the fingering (1-3-4) remains consistent throughout the measure, which makes it fairly easy to play. Measure 27 starts with a shift to fourth position via the middle finger reaching over to grab the sixth fret G on the D string. This move is followed by the ring finger grabbing the F on the B string, and then the index finger on the fifth fret E. With the next note (D on the seventh fret G string), you are back in fourth position where you will remain for much of week three.

TIP 3 BEGINNERS’

Learn from the Best! Blues in the Gorge October 2-5, 2014

Avoid moving the fingers of the fretting hand too far away from the fretboard. Your fretting hand fingers should have a slight curvature, with the fingertips solidly and accurately fretting each note.

WEEK THREE You will kick off this week with measure 28. This section of the piece features a temporary tonal center of A minor, using the A melodic minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F -G). In measure 30, the index finger will reach down to the third fret, A string, to play the C on the first beat. However, you will stay in fourth position—the index just stretches down to the third fret. Whenever you play in position, so to speak, you have access to a six-fret span: the index and pinky can both stretch down or up a fret, while the middle and ring fingers stay in position. This is partially why classical guitarists—as well as string players—always seem to retain an ergonomic and comfortable posture, even during difficult passages. As mentioned earlier, try to get the sheet music and practice both parts of the invention with a friend to listen to the counterpoint. At the very least, check out a recording by a pianist such as Glenn Gould so you can hear both parts interacting with one another. Even though there aren’t any chord changes listed at the top, harmony and chord progressions are created simply by the melodies. Notice, for example, that the first note of every measure from 30 to 35 outlines the A melodic minor scale from C all the way up to A. This creates the sense of different chords happening every measure. To this end, make sure to accent the first note of each bar. This will outline the harmony as well as keep your rhythmic phrasing steady and on the beat. This week concludes with a shift back down to second position halfway through measure 38, quickly setting up a Gm tonal center by outlining a D major triad in measure 39, functioning as a V chord of Gm, which is outlined in measure 40.

WEEK FOUR This week, you will work on wrapping up this étude, starting with measure 41. Measure 42 features a shift back to fifth position, before returning to the main theme of the piece in measure 44. In measures 48 to 50, you have one

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WEEKLY WORKOUT | PLAY

TIP 4

TIPœ 5œ

BEGINNERS’

Week One

BEGINNERS’

more example position shifting with dexterous WeekofOne finger switching.IIMeasures 48 and 49 end and V V 2 II 1 find 1 2 and 4 2 1 2 1with moving 2 1 1 start, respectively, with two consecutive D notes. Experiment lines—even For a project, go to the library 1 2 1 4 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 I’ve chosen to play the note in two separate locajust one measure—to different positions, sheet music and recorded examples tions for a couple of reasons. First, you need to keys, and string sets. This kind of pracof Bach’s music. His solo partitas are move back down to second position; playing the tice, though challenging at first, will exceptional technical workouts, and second D on the third fret B string will help facildo wonders for your technique and sound much more rewarding than itate that move. Also, sometimes a melody is melodic sense. simply practicing or patterns. 5 scales 6 6 5 6 5 8 6 5 3 5 5 6 8 5 6 articulated more sharply using two different 3 5 5 6 8 8 6 5 2 3 3 2 2 6 7 6 2 6 7 6 2 3 5 2 3 pitches. 3It is2 3 2 3 5 locations to finger two consecutive 3 5 5 2 3 5 4 5 3 2 a technique string players use frequently— 5 4 5 pianists, on the other hand, cannot do this! features the main theme, literally taken from This would be especially effective if you were measures 5 to 7. This melody clearly outlines a playing a tune that had a driving 12/8 type of EXTRA CREDIT i-V-i minor cadence, in this case Dm-A7(b9)feel. Finally, Ex. 3 borrowsIII a line from measures III In addition to simply practicing the music of Dm. Of course, the line will work in any key. 16 to 19, which happens to work great over an F Bach, it’s a great exercise to incorporate some Let’s say you were playing a fiddle tune that major chord (or the relative minor, Dm). As you of his7 melodic lines into your own lead playing. featured a cadence of Em-B7-Em—simply move can see and hear, this line would work beauti7 Many contemporary musicians in all genres, the line up two frets to play in E minor. fully in an up-tempo flatpicking solo. AG from bebop to prog rock to newgrass, have Now, adapt the same melodic line to an 5 5 done this to great effect. example in 4/4 time. Ex. 2 does this by changing Sean McGowan (seanmcgowanguitar.com) is a jazz 5 8 6 5 6 5 6 8 5 5 5 6 8 8 6 5 5 6 5 6 3 5 3 5 Start with6 a7short phrase8and figures, 5 6melodic 8 6 see 5 7 the 5 5lines 5 6triplet 8 8 6 which 5 7 5occupy 6 7 guitarist 5 6 based in Denver, where 5 5 the 3 guitar 5 7 into 7 5one 5 he3 directs 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7 5 5 8 tunes. Ex. 1 7 program 5 at the University of Colorado. how you can integrate it into other measure of 4/4 as opposed to two bars of 3/4.

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42 August 2014

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44 August 2014

PHOTO BY MONKEYBIRD

OLD TIMES JUST LIKE

FORM ER OLD CROW GUITARIST

WILLIE WATSON

FINDS PEACE OF M IND ON SOLO DEBUT BY KENNY BERKOWITZ

T

hese days, Willie Watson is keeping it simple. Two years after creative differences led to his departure from Old Crow Medicine Show, the beloved bluegrass group he co-founded in 1998, Watson has returned to the pleasures—and challenges—of playing all by himself. “When I first started doing solo shows, it was a little intimidating,” says Watson, talking by phone from his home in Topanga Canyon, California, where he’s lived for the past nine years. “While I was still in the band, I’d done a few little shows around LA with friends sitting in, but going out on my own was a totally different thing. I had to figure out how to fill the space when I wasn’t playing, and come up with new ways to play guitar that would make the songs bubble and bounce underneath the vocal part. “Somehow, it all came together when it needed to,” Watson says.

For his new solo debut, Folk Singer Vol. 1 (Acony),Watson reached deep into his collection of old 78s, pulling out such chestnuts as Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” and Charley Jordan’s “Keep It Clean,” along with more obscure cuts by Rabbit Brown (“James Alley Blues”), Roscoe Holcomb (“Mexican Cowboy”), and Land Norris (“Kitty Puss”). Produced by longtime friend David Rawlings, the album is the perfect bridge to the string music of the 1920s, a time when black and white musicians freely borrowed from one another. And with the wail of Watson’s harmonica, the snap of his clawhammer banjo, the bass-blues runs on his guitar, and the twang in his voice, that era comes roaring back to life. “The way I sing and the way I play comes from things I’ve already heard,” Watson says. “All the influences come from the sound these old records make. Ultimately, I suppose they come out sounding unique, but when a song is


going down, that’s not something that crosses my mind. I’m not a historian, I’m not trying to preserve anything. I just pick out the parts I like, and do whatever I have to do. “Real simple. Just telling it like it is.”

need to be on the record—they’re my strongest songs.” But at the end of the day, a lot of those songs didn’t make it, which is why this one is called Vol. 1, and how you know there’s going to be a volume two.

What was your plan for recording this first solo album? Go in with a handful of traditional tunes and do what I do, presenting them in a very simple way, standing in front of the microphone, and singing them one after another. I don’t think we did any song more than three times, and for the most part, the versions we used were first takes. There were some that I’ve been doing for a while, and I went into the studio thinking, “These definitely

You’ve worked with David Rawlings for a long time, going back to the first Old Crow album, and lately with the Dave Rawlings Machine. What does he bring to your sessions? Dave has amazing ears, and he can hear things in the music that a lot of other people can’t. We’re on the same page about most everything most of the time, including what gets us excited about the old music and our approach to recording. There’s really nothing digital involved. It’s all analog, it’s all on tape, it’s all done with old microphones. Really, I just sing and play. Dave makes the record.

Willie Watson Folk Singer Vol. 1 Acony

What gets you excited about ‘Midnight Special,’ which you’ve covered here? It’s a good train song, but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s about being downtrodden and being uplifted. I’ve been listening to Leadbelly now for a couple of months, like all the time. “Midnight Special” has this spiritual

Willie Watson, keeping it simple

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aspect that my voice can relate to, and some of the verses are just great. There’s one that starts talking about Jumping Little Judy, who brought jumping to the whole round world, then by the end of the verse, she tells him that his wife is dead. Those are some of the coolest lines I’ve ever heard, and they make me think, “What the hell is going on here?” When you’re singing a lyric like that, how do you make sense of it? I don’t really have to. I don’t have to understand exactly what they’re saying all the time, as long as I can put myself in that position to emotionally portray what’s happening. In [Charley Jordan’s] “Keep It Clean” there are so many nonsense words in there, like, “If you want to get the rabbit out the L-O-G, you got to put on a stump like a D-O-G.” Now, I don’t know exactly what that means, but it’s funny as hell. The mystery is cool, keeps me guessing.

WHAT WILLIE WATSON PLAYS GUITARS Larrivee OM-01, Larrivee OM-03 (left), Larrivee OM-50 STRINGS D’Addario phosphorbronze mediums

BANJO 1957 Gibson RB 100 archtop HARMONICA AND RACK Lee Oskar AMPLIFICATION Shure SM 57 microphone CAPO Kyser PICKS 80mm Clayton rounded triangles

Performance 2 Smaller, lighter, faster

How does Leadbelly’s guitar playing affect yours? He does a lot of those bass runs, where he’s playing melodies and bass lines and blues runs on the low notes, and that’s always something I’ve done. My ear gravitates toward that, just because it’s something I can do. I’m not a virtuoso guitar player like a lot of bluegrass pickers. I don’t take a lot of leads. I can play solos, but if I’m standing up there with Sean Watkins, I’m going to throw the solo to him. Because he’s going to do a helluva job and I can just back him up, playing those bass runs that keep things moving along, which is something old-timey music has really got down. Like in Old Crow, I didn’t take a lot of leads in that band either, because it wasn’t my job. Do you miss Old Crow? Certain aspects of it. The shows could be really fun, when everybody was right on and playing really well together. I miss that. But ultimately, I’m really happy with what I’m doing now. How has your life changed in the past two years? There’s a lot of pressure in the musical world to be a songwriter, and I don’t have to deal with that anymore. It’s really very relieving to do what I love to do and listen to this old music. I still write songs, but I don’t feel the need to write. I don’t think my songs are as good as “Midnight Special,” so I’d much rather just get up there and sing “Midnight Special.” Makes me a lot happier, and I think it makes everybody who’s listening a lot happier, too. It’s a great weight that’s been lifted off me. AG

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TH E AG I NTE RVI EW

NICKEL CREEK AT 25

Inside the joyous reunion of the trailblazing trio BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

ot many bands celebrate a 25th anniversary when the members are still in their 30s. But that’s the case with Nickel Creek, which was born in southern California when the bluegrass whiz kids Chris Thile and Sara Watkins were eight, and Sara’s brother Sean was the old guy at 12. This year the Grammywinning trio marks the 25-year milestone with the album A Dotted Line, which showcases all their strengths—from acoustic instrumental mastery to rich vocal harmonies to inventive folk-rock songwriting.

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48 August 2014

Nickel Creek’s reunion album and accompanying tour dates are especially welcome since the band is coming off a seven-year hiatus. The three musicians gave fans plenty of great music during that break: Sara released her first solo albums; Sean formed the duo Fiction Family with Jon Foreman; Sean and Sara played in the band Works Progress Administration and co-hosted the Watkins Family Hour concert series and podcast in Los Angeles; and Thile was all over the place—with the Punch Brothers, in a bluegrass duo with

guitarist Michael Daves, with the all-star Goat Rodeo Sessions (Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Stuart Duncan), tackling Bach sonatas and partitas on mandolin, prominently involved in the recent New York Town Hall concert celebrating the release of the film Inside Llewyn Davis; and even scoring a MacArthur genius grant. All these individual accomplishments aside, though, there’s a special joy in the sound that Thile and the Watkins siblings make together—and they certainly feel it themselves.

“Sean and Sara feel like my musical brother and sister, and the Punch Brothers are like my musical best friends,” Thile says. “Being together with two people for 25 years, there’s a certain heat-seeking–missile aspect of making music together that a band that’s been together seven or eight years doesn’t have.” In the midst of Nickel Creek’s frenetic spring schedule of media appearances, including gigs on The Tonight Show and A Prairie Home Companion, I spoke with Sean about the creative chemistry behind the band. (For additional thoughts from Chris and Sara, see pages 51 and 52.) Through all his solo and band projects, Sean has continued to grow as a songwriter, and, in fact, followed Nickel Creek’s A Dotted Line with his fourth solo album, All I Do Is Lie—a more traditional and acoustic production than his electronics-heavy 2006 release Blinders On. In Nickel Creek, Sean’s guitar is the glue that holds together Chris’ propulsive mandolin and Sara’s melodic fiddle. “His rhythm playing is so strong, and his concept of melody is a big part of his musicianship,” Sara says of Sean, now 37. “He’s a secret weapon in any band.” Playing with Nickel Creek again, does it feel as if you’re picking up where you left off, or is there a new sort of energy? Both those things, actually. That’s why we’re doing it. We didn’t set out to do this at all. It was a really organic way it came together. Early last year, we realized this would be our 25th year as a band, since we didn’t ever really consider ourselves broken up—we always felt it was a hiatus. So we thought it would be fun to do some shows to commemorate that, and we thought maybe we should put a little EP together. We got together to write for that, and we had about five days at Chris’ apartment in New York. None of us knew what to expect. I mean, we’re really good friends and we’ve been close for years and hung out a lot, but we didn’t know how things would be creatively. It could have been regressive. We found very quickly that it was a lot easier to write together than it had been in the past, and I think that’s due to us all being in our 30s. We’re much more comfortable with ourselves personally and musically. So it came together really naturally. The writing went so easily we thought, “Shoot, let’s just do a real record!” Was the writing more collaborative on these new songs than it was in the past? Yeah. On the first couple of records, we didn’t really write together at all. It was just, “Here’s a song—do you like it or not?” We collaborated a lot on Why Should the Fire Die?, but this was even more so.

PHOTOS BY BRANTLEY GUTIERREZ

Together since childhood, Nickel Creek went on hiatus in 2007.

Sean’s guitar is the glue that holds together Chris’ propulsive mandolin and Sara’s melodic fiddle.

Nickel Creek A Dotted Line Nonesuch

For that week of writing, we showed up with a lot of song starts. I had a verse and a chorus for the song “Christmas Eve,” and Sara had a song with a melody in “Destination”—she didn’t really have words for it. So we showed up with these little bits and pieces and just filled in each other’s songs. We got most of the music done in that first week—we got, I think, eight songs pretty well sketched out, music and chords and everything, and the words followed later. We took these demos home and worked on words individually, and then got together again and ironed them out and got each others’ approval.

Was ‘Rest of My Life,’ the surprisingly downbeat album opener, another song idea you brought to the group? Yeah. I had basically the melody and the chords and that little [opening] riff. Sara knew about it—I had it for a long time, maybe five years. I’d been trying to put words to it and just couldn’t find anything. I played it for Chris, and he liked it and asked if he could sing it. He said he had some lyrical ideas. So we finished the musical part of it together that week, and then he did the words. These little bits and pieces, it’s great to keep them around. Having the iPhone or some


recording device that’s mobile is really important for me. I have these little ideas all the time, and I don’t necessarily finish them. If you can keep them around, most likely at some point they’ll get used if they’re good. How do you feel you’ve grown as a guitarist or songwriter during this hiatus from Nickel Creek? Stepping away from Nickel Creek was good because playing in a band for that many years, especially when you started so young, it’s easy to lose the definition of who you are as a musician. You’re so tied to one entity that you don’t really know where your musical talent ends and someone else’s begins. If you have success, it’s all sort of lumped into one ball. And that’s great—that’s the beauty of a band—but it’s also important to know who you are. Essentially I feel like [the hiatus] was graduating high school or college. It’s like, all right, you’ve got the tools to get out into the world and do it on your own. Doing stuff on my own, I’ve learned about who I am as a songwriter, the type of songs that I want to write, and what I don’t like about my old stuff. We’ve all had to stand on our own two legs as singers, and so we’re a little bit more comfortable with our voices and feel stronger individually. So singing and doing harmonies is easier than it used to be. The harmonies really jump out from this record. They sound so rich and joyous. We had an unspoken rule that if we could use harmony in a particular part in a song, we should do it. For a long time we stayed away from putting harmony in every song. Growing up playing bluegrass, that’s just what you do, and then at a certain point we thought it wasn’t cool. We certainly have always loved harmony, but this time we really embraced it and tried to feature it as much as we could. That’s one of our strengths, and we thought it would be a shame not to capitalize on that. On a song like ‘21st of May,’ you tap into bluegrass, but other songs use more of an indie folk/rock harmonic vocabulary. Do you think of those two modes of writing as distinct from each other? I don’t really. Certainly, if I want to write a song that falls into one of those categories, I know how to do it. I know what to do if someone says, write a bluegrass song. But when I’m writing my own songs, I don’t think about it. To me, a good song is one that really conveys a certain feeling, and the music serves as a suitable vehicle for something that you want to say or convey. That can take many forms. I think it’s best to just do it and try to let the song dictate what it wants.

50 August 2014

On ‘21st of May,’ you play a nice instrumental version of the melody. In writing that song, did you find the vocal melody first and play it on the guitar, or vice versa? I had that melody lying around a long time, like maybe six or seven years. I don’t remember exactly writing it, but I think I came up with the melody on guitar. I wanted it to be reminiscent of frailing banjo style, that kind of half picking, half strumming. I really like that sound. It’s easy to get a melody in there and have there also be chord information. At the time I was trying to write songs that would be strong on their own, just with me playing guitar. Another song I wrote around that time was “Somebody More Like You.” So I’d had that melody, but I couldn’t find lyrics to match it until I was driving around one day. It was May 20, and there was this gigantic billboard near where I was living in LA that just said “The 21st of May is the End.” That song lyrically came together really quick once I realized what the song should be about.

Early ’90s: ‘Lots of cowboy songs,’ recalls Watkins.

In other songs, you often play opensounding sus chords and the like. Is that partly because Chris’ rhythm is so intense that you are free to focus on coloring the harmony? Absolutely. There’s a lot of times when I can think of my contribution to a song more like a pianist, because like you said, the mandolin is providing the rhythm as well as chord information. I can step away from being the rhythm guitarist that a lot of acoustic guitarists have to be, especially in bluegrass. And that’s really fun. The way Chris plays, it definitely frees me up quite a bit. For the new album, did you play together most of the time in the studio? Yeah, everything but vocals. On “Destination,” I think Sara sang the vocal, too—she was isolated in another room. The studio we were at is owned by Eric Valentine, our producer, in LA. We were in a triangle, and then bass would be in another room, because he had special mics on that.

The band set up in a triangle for much of the recording of ‘A Dotted Line.’

SARA WATKINS EMERGES Of all the members of Nickel Creek, Sara Watkins is the one whose musical life changed the most dramatically during the band’s hiatus. During the time off, she released her first solo albums and, she says, “learned so much by just jumping headfirst into my career—all the decisions that go into making a record and touring a record and figuring out who you are and who you want to be onstage.” Her tours with the Decemberists, Jackson Browne, and Garrison Keillor were also opportunities to grow—and to

SARA WATKINS PHOTO BY AARON REDFIELD

bring new strengths back to Nickel Creek. “By learning how to be a better support person, you also learn how to be a better front person,” she says. “And by learning how to be a better front person, you can then be a better band mate.” During the writing sessions for A Dotted Line, Sara shared the beginnings of “Destination”—the first song the band worked on together. “Sean and Chris immediately put it through the Sean-andChris machine, and it became

this rhythmically powerful thing,” she says. “We worked on the bridge and changed up some of the phrases and adjusted it a lot, and it became this wonderful co-written song for the band. That was a really fun process to go through.” Another song she brought to the album was Sam Phillips’ gorgeous “Where Is Love Now,” which Sara had performed at Watson Family Hour shows and elsewhere. Sara’s close relationship with Sean is particularly important in the writing process.

“He’s generally one of the first people I play a song for if I have a new idea,” she says. “Very often I don’t even need feedback. The other day I had a song and I was like, ‘I have this thing—I don’t really want any feedback yet, I just need to play it for you.’ I played it for him and I was like, ‘Thanks, now I know what I need to do in this song.’ “When you play it for somebody you respect, it just makes the stakes a little higher, and you notice, “Oh, that lyric that I was trying to overlook really stands out like a sore thumb.’”


Was there lots of bleed in the guitar, mandolin, and fiddle mics then? Lots of bleed. You can hear it all over the record—Chris especially bleeding into my mic. We were probably about 20 feet away in a triangle and facing each other. Actually, to save time and also just for good vibes, we did a lot of the harmony that way, too. We had three mics, but we were right next to each other, in a smaller triangle. The parts where it was just us singing solo we would do separately and do a few passes, maybe like four or five passes. The harmony stuff we did together to save time, but it also just ended up making us sound better because it’s really fun and easy to sing live.

CHRIS THILE’S LYRIC LESSONS

When you play with Nickel Creek now, do you feel you’re reconnecting in any way with what it was like to play as little kids? Not really as kids. I mean we went through so many phases. Musically, we changed so much over the years. For a long time it was more traditional bluegrass, and then a Western-music phase—lots of cowboy songs—and we started to do more new-acoustic-type stuff. So what we’re doing now is way different than what we started out doing. It feels nostalgic in a certain way, but it’s more like ten years ago or the last few tours—that’s where I’m connecting nostalgically. This is exciting because the music is new and we feel very proud of it, but it’s also very comfortable because we’re so used to playing with each other and being in these roles. When we get together and play, it’s like, there’s that sound that we’ve always made. AG

Thile isn’t interested in the songwriting-as-therapy approach.

of all his many bands and projects, Chris Thile says Nickel Creek brings out some special qualities in the music. “I love writing songs with Sean and Sara—songs where the chords kind of lift you up,” he says. In his words, Nickel Creek’s music is “not trying to reinvent the wheel, but trying to make it roll as smoothly as it can.” One of the song-starts Thile brought to the new album was the gorgeously melancholy “Love of Mine,” which Thile says “felt like a Nickel Creek idea.” He describes the lyrical concept as a guy singing a love song to his own ability to love—essentially feeling impressed with his own outpouring of love more than being interested in an actual person. That’s a “tangled web to weave,” he admits, and Sean and Sara helped make sure it came across. Another song on A Dotted Line that originated with Thile is “You Don’t Know What’s

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Going On,” which he started writing around a decade ago when his first marriage was unraveling (he recently remarried). He worked on the song during that tumultuous time, but eventually shelved it—the topic was still too hot, he says. But when he revisited the song with Sara and Sean, he was able to approach it more as an observer. “I felt like the song got new life with the fact that it was no longer really a song about me,” he recalls. “To be honest, I hardly even remembered what that guy was so angry about, so I could go in and fix up the story.” Thile adds, “To me, there’s very little interest in a song that personal. I think that people should be able to tell their own stories through the songs that you write. Even if personal experience is the first mover, [the song] can’t purely exist as this couch time for you with your audience as your therapist—I think that’s insufferable. The great lyricists of our time find a way to help us tell our own stories with their lyrics.” AG

WHAT SEAN WATKINS PLAYS

GUITARS Sean Watkins’ main acoustic guitar is a 1954 Gibson J-45. While recording 2005’s Why Should the Fire Die?, he played vintage J-45s borrowed from Jon Brion and Jackson Browne and began a long search for one of his own that sounded as good. Watkins finally found one about five years ago in Nashville. On the song “Love of Mine,” from A Dotted Line, he played his dad’s ’40s Martin D-18, tuned down to C#. On tour with Nickel Creek this year, he’s bringing a Bourgeois dreadnought for the low-tuned guitar parts. AMPLIFICATION His normal setup is an LR Baggs Lyric microphone through a Baggs Venue DI. On the Nickel Creek tour, he’s plugging some guitars into a Radial Tonebone preamp, plus a volume pedal. MISCELLANY Watkins uses a variety of capos, Elixir Nanoweb medium strings (.013s), and Wegen TF 120 picks.

CHRIS THILE PHOTO BY BRANTLEY GUTIERREZ

2014 SO MANY GREAT GUITARS, SO LITTLE TIME But that didn’t stop us from asking readers to name the best of the best

PLAYER’S CHOICE

AWARDS 55

THE TOP TEN This year’s models: Martin, Eastman, Taylor, and more

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GUITARS OF THE YEAR From small-body flattops to jumbo giants, and everything in between

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ODE TO A D-28 Why the Martin mainstay is a ‘big’ deal

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DREAM A LITTLE DREAM Money is no object— name your ax of choice!

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BARGAIN HUNTING Money is tight— name your ax of choice!

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UNDER THE BOARDWALK Choosing a seaside guitar is no, er, day at the beach…

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ACOUSTIC PUNK These guitars will have you Blitzkrieg Boppin’…

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THE GUITARS THAT GOT AWAY Is it better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all?

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OTHER INSTRUMENTS Because sometimes you need banjos, mandolins & more

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ACCESSORIES Strings, tuners, capos, and cases— a little help from your guitar’s friends

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STAGE & STUDIO Readers step up to the mic with their amps & sound-system selections

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LEARNING TO FLY Get your guitar education with these instructional resources


PICK&PLAY

AG READERS CHOOSE THEIR FAVORITE GUITARS & GEAR FOR 2014 54 August 2014

eople enjoy making lists—lists of stuff we like and lists of stuff we don’t like. It’s in our DNA. It satisfies that most obsessive part of our brains. We argue endlessly about whether Dylan’s new record is his greatest since Blonde on Blonde or his worst since Self Portrait. These days, we even argue over whether Self Portrait was unfairly maligned in the first place. Same with guitars and gear. A recent thread at AcousticGuitarForum.com asked participants, “What does everyone seem to love, but you don’t?” The guy who initiated it—Jason Paul, from Texas—primed the pump with his own pet peeves, which included sunburst finish (“lots of people go ga-ga over it. I

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just don’t get it”) and fingerstyle playing (“for the most part it sounds like easy-listening. . . . I’ll take a flatpick please”). His comments got others going. DesertTwang, from Tucson, Arizona, didn’t much care for “the Beatles, gloss finish, and ukuleles.” And Muffinhead, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, declared: “Don’t care for Tommy Emmanuel. Don’t like the Blues. Don’t like jumbo guitars.” Clearly, one player’s prized jumbo is another player’s oversized monstrosity. So this year, AG not only asked you to vote for your favorite guitars, gear, and other accessories, we also threw in a few fun topics for you to argue over—like Best Budget Acoustic, Best Acoustic Guitar for a Beach Party, and Best Acoustic

PLAYER’S CHOICE AWARDS

TOP TEN AG’s Player’s Choice Awards receives thousands of votes across a broad range of guitar categories. The following were 2014’s ten most-mentioned models:

MARTIN D-28 EASTMAN E10D TAYLOR 814CE A new favorite around the AG office: Taylor 150e 12-string.

Guitar for Punk Rock. We asked you about the guitar you let slip away, and about your dream acoustic—the one you’d have if money were no object. More than 13,500 of you voted in 37 categories in the 2014 Player’s Choice Awards for your favorite guitars, stage and studio equipment, accessories, educational resources, and more. Since most of you are partial to brands rather than specific models, the top brands in each category received Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. But we didn’t ignore your comments on specific models. That’s where the fun topics come in. Enjoy the awards ceremony folks—and may the arguing begin. —MARK SEGAL KEMP

4

WINGERT MODEL E

5

SCHENK FE GRAND FINGERSTYLE

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BOURGEOIS AGED TONE

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KEVIN RYAN NIGHTINGALE

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PETROS TUNNEL 13

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GIBSON J-45

10

HUSS & DALTON OM


PLAYER’S CHOICE AWARDS

PLAYER’S CHOICE AWARDS | 2014

READERS PICK THEIR FAVORITE GUITARS

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ne thing is for sure: Readers of Acoustic Guitar are enamored of the big three acoustic guitar comp a n i e s — M a r t i n , Ta y l o r, a n d Gibson. That isn’t to say that some of you didn’t give high marks to other manufacturers in the Acoustic Guitar of the Year category, including Eastman, Cordoba, Washburn, Schenk, Bourgeois, Wingert, and Fender—the companies that made up the rest of the Top Ten. A decent number of you chose smaller companies for this award: Santa Cruz Guitars fared well, for instance, as did Kevin Ryan and Greg Brandt. But for the most part, you went big in the main category. And what were the most-mentioned models? Those would be the Martin D-28 (see “Loves of a Blonde,” p 58), Eastman’s E10D, and Taylor’s 814ce. Despite the acoustic focus of this contest, many of you couldn’t resist listing two old faithful electrics: Fender’s Stratocaster and Gibson’s Les Paul—the fifth and sixth most popular models overall. Here are your choices for the more specific categories: SMALL-BODY FLATTOP The diminutive flattop has it all—intimate style, easy to handle, and ideal for amplification Gold: Martin Silver: Gibson Bronze: Eastman MID-SIZE FLATTOP One of the most versatile styles, its size allows for ample volume, but with a rich, balanced tone Gold: Martin Silver: Eastman Bronze: Gibson DREADNOUGHT A flatpicker’s dream, the 14-fret squareshouldered design was first introduced by Martin in 1934 Gold: Martin Silver: Taylor Bronze: Gibson

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FIRST PLACE MARTIN D-28

SECOND PLACE TAYLOR 814CE

THIRD PLACE EASTMAN E10D

ACOUSTIC-ELECTRIC Pickup-fitted, preamped, and perfect for home recording or stage, the electrified acoustic offers the best of both worlds Gold: Taylor Silver: Martin Bronze: Gibson TRAVEL Minis, fold-ups, and narrow portables, just the ticket for the ax-slinger on the go

JUMBO Rounded shoulders and ample body are well-suited for everything from heavy strumming to delicate fingerstyle

ARCHTOP The jazz-age classic gets its name from the arched top and back, and its smooth sound from violin-style F-shaped sound holes

Gold: Gibson Silver: Taylor Bronze: Martin

Gold: D’Angelico Silver: Washburn Bronze: Guild

RESONATOR The distinctive metal “resonator” top-face and sound holes to the side of the fingerboard create an unforgettable sound, and an unforgettable look

SQUARE NECK Part of the resonator family, with a squareshaped neck, typically played in lap style

Gold: National Reso-Phonic Silver: Gretsch Bronze: Gibson NYLON STRING Also known as a “classical guitar,” the traditional design features a wider neck and synthetic strings ideal for fingerstyle Gold: Cordoba Silver: Taylor Bronze: Schenk

Gold: Gibson Silver: National Reso-Phonic Bronze: Gretsch 12-STRING Six string pairings, each pair tuned an octave apart to achieve a natural chorus effect Gold: Taylor Silver: Martin Bronze: Guild

Gold: Taylor Silver: Martin Bronze: Traveler ELECTRIC From jazz to rockabilly to metal, there’s no denying the power of a guitar, a pickup and an amp Gold: Fender Silver: Gibson Bronze: Paul Reed Smith SMALL-SCALE MANUFACTURER Larger than an independent luthier, but far smaller than a factory—offering customization at a price similar to the big companies Gold: Schenk Silver: Bourgeois Bronze: Santa Cruz CUSTOM MAKER Luthiers with that one-of-a-kind personal touch Gold: Kathy Wingert Silver: Rod Schenk Bronze: Kevin Ryan



Martin D-28 Marquis— still the king of dreadnoughts

LOVES OF A BLONDE THE MARTIN D-28: AN APPRECIATION BY MARK SEGAL KEMP When they started playing, he leaned over and whispered in my ear. “See that guitar?” I nodded. “That’s a 1969 Martin D-28. Hear me when I say if I had to choose between a beautiful girl and that guitar, I’d choose the guitar. Natch.” He took a huge gulp of water, clearly affected. “Naturally,” I whispered. “It could be why you’re still single.” —Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass

he year was 1972. I was 12 years old and seated with friends in the front row of the only movie theater in our small Southern mill town, watching my first rock flick, The Concert for Bangladesh. Bob Dylan was on the screen, bigger than life. His hair a shaggy mess, he wore blue jeans and a denim jacket, and had a

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shiny harmonica holder around his neck that looked like some strange orthopedic device. Pressed close against his chest was a giant Martin D-28. I’d never seen an acoustic guitar from such a huge perspective, and was mesmerized. As far as I knew, there was no other kind of acoustic in the world. I wasn’t alone. By the 1970s, the D-28 was already an icon—the quintessential American guitar. It’s no surprise that the instrument consistently scores high in AG’s Player’s Choice Awards, and this year is no different. In the Guitar of the Year category, Martin tops the list, and the D-28 is the model of choice, easily beating the others. Pretty much anybody who’s ever played an acoustic guitar has at least strummed a few chords on a D-28. Scores of notable artists have regularly played D-28s at some point in their careers, including Dylan, Hank Williams, Lester Flatt, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Tony Rice, the dazzling flatpicker who tracked down and

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acquired his hero Clarence White’s pre-war D-28 (serial number 58957) two years after the former Byrd and Kentucky Colonel’s death in 1973. Rice had first met the guitar in 1960, when he was a 9-year-old prodigy living in southern California. He was backstage at one of his earliest public performances, and White was there, too. “I saw that old D-28, and it didn’t have a name on the headstock,” Rice recalled to Fretboard Journal in 2007. “So I asked, ‘What kind of a guitar is that?’ And Clarence said, ‘It’s a Martin.’” Rice had never seen a D-28. “The only thing I knew was that it looked like hell, but it sounded like a million bucks to a 9-year-old kid.” Fifteen years later, Rice would own the guitar. But what is it about the D-28 that’s so attractive, so compelling—so seductive that budding acoustic guitarists would choose this instrument over the companionship of another human being? Martin historian Dick Boak has an idea—and there’s nothing particularly magical about it. “The romance comes from the fact that it’s a great guitar at a pretty reasonable price,” he says. “And for that reason, a who’s who of legendary performers have used the D-28 in their music. It’s the warhorse of the music industry.”

BIGGER IS BETTER C.F. Martin & Company began making its D-series guitars in the early 1930s, naming the big square-shoulder instruments after the uncommonly large dreadnought battleships of the early 20th century. Like those nautical behemoths, Martin’s dreadnoughts were much larger than earlier guitars, and they projected a louder, more bass-heavy sound. The company didn’t much care for the instruments initially, but country string bands fancied them. It seems that when string-band guitarists played the giants alongside banjos and fiddles, the projection was a big plus. The bands could use a Martin dreadnought, and its loud, bass-heavy s ou nd would b e h e a r d o v e r th e o th e r instruments. But why did the D-28, in particular, become the most popular dreadnought? It wasn’t, at first. By 1937, three years after Martin began actively marketing its D series, the D-18 was its best-selling dreadnought. While the D-45 was notable for its flashier design elements and higher price, the differences between the D-18 and D-28 were fairly minimal. Both instruments had spruce tops; both were rather plain-looking, although the D-28 added a subtle herringbone-pattern trim; and while Martin used rosewood for the D-28’s back and sides, it used mahogany for the D-18’s. Over the years, as Martin continued modifying and evolving the dreadnoughts’ bracing and

weight, the D-18 and D-28 remained pretty much neck-in-neck in terms of popularity. Two elements that may have nudged the D-28 ahead of the pack in terms of popularity were the herringbone trim and scalloped top braces, which the company had dropped in the 1940s, making the earlier D-28s hot items among guitar aficionados. In 1976, when Martin began producing the old-style D-28 again, it became the company’s best-selling model. Much of the D-28’s popularity may also be its sweet tonal qualities. The guitar shares the tonewoods of its pricier cousin, the D-45, giving it a warmer, richer, and more resonant sound; the D-18, by contrast, has a brighter, clearer, and crisper sound. “The D-28’s warm tones make it an ideal instrument for songwriting and livingroom play, and also for vocal accompaniment,” Boak says. “The D-18 is more appropriate for the studio because of its treble response.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE Bob Dylan played lots of different brands and models of guitars in the years before and after I saw him with that D-28 in The Concert for Bangladesh. His first guitar was a 1949 Martin 00-17, but when he went into the studio in 1961 to record his debut album, he’d moved on to a Gibson J-50. His most famous guitar was the 1930s Gibson Nick Lucas Special he used on Another Side of Bob Dylan and Bringing it All Back Home. By 1969, Dylan was playing the Gibson J-200 pictured on the cover of Nashville Skyline, but he still liked Martins, and in the early ’70s was regularly playing several different double-0 models. In the decades since, he’s played a mix of Gibsons, Martins, and the occasional Washburn. But in 1999, Dylan saw another D-28 that blew his mind—in the pages of Acoustic Guitar, of course. It was an odd-looking creature—a photographic negative of a normal D-28, in which the body was black and the pickguard and other typically dark parts white. Two of those guitars had been custom-made for Acoustic Guitar’s 10th anniversary special issue—one went to AG reader Clarence “Leo” Roehl and the other remains in our office—but Dylan wanted his own. So, he commissioned Martin to make him one (Martin asked AG if was OK, but who says no to Bobby D?). Dylan’s was slightly different: It had two pickguards instead of one. Late last year, when I arrived at this magazine, one of the first things I did was pull out that Martin Acoustic Guitar 10th Anniversary Special D-28 and strum the opening chords to “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” It felt as though I had come full circle. In this case, at least, there really was no other kind of acoustic in the world.



“Ervin Somogyi custom-built flattop.” Brenda Cohen Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“Actually, it would be two guitars, both Taylors. First would be their six-string baritone—solid Sitka spruce top and solid Indian rosewood back and sides—and second would be a new Grand Orchestra from their BTO program. I’d want an Adirondack spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides and likely some of their beautiful mother-of-pearl inlay.” Philip Greer, Jr. Austin, Texas

“The guitar that luthier Todd Stock is building for me in Maryland. It is a Norman Blake-inspired design, with a 14-fret Brazilian rosewood OM-sized body, a European spruce top, and a 12-fret 24.9-length fretboard.” Jim Snitker Greenville, South Carolina Dream until your dreams come true, AG readers

WHAT’S YOUR DREAM ACOUSTIC GUITAR? our answers to this question were all over the map, and rightly so. After all, a dream is a dream, whether or not it comes true. Still, most of you are practical: you want goodsounding guitars, no matter the price. You want a good name. Lots of you want Martins, from any era, because you know they’re dependable instruments. Same with Gibsons, Taylors, and other big brands. Then there are those who are interested in the unique hand-crafted creations of particular luthiers. Some of you already own your dream instruments, and others are currently having your dream guitars made. Here is what a few readers said:

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“It would be the extremely beautiful and rare D’Aquisto Solo presently on sale at Rudy’s Music in NYC. Rare, exquisite, and the pinnacle of guitar making.” Tony Horlor Parksville, British Colombia, Canada

“Custom from Batson Guitar: Engelmann spruce/Brazilian rosewood. AER acoustic amp. Done. That’s it.”

“A Conde Hermanos Flamenca Blanca, Martin HD-28VS, Taylor 816e, and Ramirez 1A classical, in that order.” Stephen Carney Germantown, Ohio

“A ’70s Ovation Deacon with Ghost modular acoustic bridge, and some nice bright Gretsch pickups with the ability to do split coil. The body and neck would be solid mahogany, two carbon-fiber truss rods in the neck, 22 stainless-steel fretted. The mahogany body would be chambered.” Michael Hummel Chandler, Arizona

Chong Wei Klang, Malaysia

“I have not yet met this guitar.” “Bourgeois Country Boy Deluxe in sunburst.” Mark Milazzo Petaluma, California

Johanne Gallant Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

“I always tell kids to go to a place where there is a whole room full of guitars and play them all. If you pay attention, one will pick you. If it’s too expensive it will give you something to work for, and if not, take it home!” Robert Mathews Acworth, Georgia

“For the fingerstylist, I’d recommend a Seagull Maritime SWS folk guitar, and for others, the Taylor GS mini.” Guadalupe Ybarra Auburn, California

“The Little Martin LXM, it’s small, with a great sound, and it’s good for kids or people with small hands.” Sarah Park San Francisco, California

“Mitchell guitars play and feel great! Better than most guitars I’ve played that were in the $1,000-and-up range.” Gerald Steelfox Hemet, California

“The Art & Lutherie folk guitar has decent sound for the money, and not a huge investment in case they don’t follow through.” Thomas Bryant Seattle, Washington

WHAT’S THE BEST BUDGET GUITAR? ot too many years ago, “budget guitar” was code for an instrument with impossibly high action and terrible sound. Things have changed dramatically since those bad old days. As reader Charles Plott, from Beavercreek, Ohio, commented, “Almost any of the new low-cost guitars are so much better than when I was a kid—after they get a proper setup from someone who gives a bug’s balls about doing a good job!”

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“I have an Alvarez AP66ESB and love it. Strong projection, easy playability, excellent finish, and electronics. I play it more than my Taylor and three Martins.” Thom Miller Sigel, Pennsylvania We’re still pondering Charles’ choice of imagery, but his point is well taken. You offered up tons of recommendations spanning nearly every brand of guitar available, from entry-level companies like Koreanmade Cort to well-built mid-level Yamahas to budget Taylors and Martins. Even this gem from proud Roseville, California, dad Michael Teague: “The one my daughter made in woodshop in eighth grade.” Here are a few more choice comments:

“The Eastman E10D is what I call the Girlfriend guitar, because if the relationship goes south and she trashes your instrument, you can still pick up another Eastman E10D without breaking your bank account.” James Rosenthal Bloomington, Minnesota



WHAT’S THE BEST ACOUSTIC GUITAR FOR A BEACH PARTY? eaded to the coast with friends? Want to set the tone with some pickin’ and singin’? We asked you to tell us the best guitar to bring along for a beach party, and lots of you mentioned Baby Taylors, Martin Backpacks, and other travel guitars. Even more of you cautioned to bring an old beater or one of the budget guitars mentioned earlier. We were pretty surprised by how many of you were willing to take your $2,000-plus high-end Martins and Gibsons down by the seashore. Here are some choice comments:

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Here comes the sun: Which guitar is best equipped to withstand the sandy, windswept climes of the seaboard? 62 August 2014

“Ovation Celebrity: Makes a good oar when the tide comes in as well.”

“Any Yamaha—cause they’re cheap and bulletproof.” Patrick Shearer

Larry Scott Saanichton, Canada

“A ukulele for the beach! Ideally one made of koa.” “I would choose the Epiphone 160 model, as it sounds well enough and things could happen to it at the beach you wouldn’t want to subject your Martin D-41 to.” Jake Podolsky Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“My old Yamaha acoustic—it already has dents and scratches, so sand won’t do it any harm.” Troy Blackmore Vancouver, Canada

Tom Tracy Lumberport, West Virginia

“Kenny Chesney’s.” Terri Grinner Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Punk is about attitude, not amplitude. The Subways at the Ramones Museum & Bar in Berlin.

BEST ACOUSTIC GUITAR FOR PUNK ROCK?

“A Gibson Hummingbird—strong enough to take it and quirky enough to look it.” Jake Podolsky Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“An old Harmony acoustic—one with some good old fret buzz.” Adam Hauck Poland, New York

“May I use your guitar, please?” hy some folks think acoustic guitars and punk rock don’t mix is an enduring mystery. After all, wasn’t that a Martin Johnny Ramone was strumming on “I Want You Around,” in the bedroom scene of Rock ’n’ Roll High School? We asked for your ideas on the best acoustic guitar for punk, and you cited everything from expensive Gibsons to cheap thrift-store instruments. One of the top answers was, of course, Fender’s Tim Armstrong Hellcat acoustic, named for the shredding guitarist of ’90s punk band Rancid. Another popular answer was, “I don’t know. I hate punk.” Watch out: Next time we may be asking you to name the best acoustic guitar for hip-hop!

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“Believe it or not, a Martin, because of how it rings.”

John Reynolds Houston, Texas

Kenneth Bogle Belmont, North Carolina

“Can you play punk on an acoustic?” “Any old snotty guitar.” Thomas Bryant Seattle, Washington

Tim Hall Sydney, Australia



THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY he last of the big-time losers shouted before he drove away, ‘I’ll be right back as soon as I crack the one that got away.’” Tom Waits wasn’t singing about a lost guitar in that wacky nugget of Dylan-esque surrealism from 1976’s Small Change, but how many of us can identify with the big-time loser who lets an amazing guitar slip between our fingers? We asked about the guitars you let slip away and got some great tales of woe. You may notice a familiar name among these—one of AG’s editors. You may even find some of these folks in your local pub, “spilling whiskey,” as Waits also croaked, “and learning songs about the one that got away.”

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Gone, but not forgotten: Gibson Hummingbird

“A 1971 Martin D-28. I saved up for a year to buy that guitar. Stolen in Phoenix in 1973. I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to replace it, and having been moderately successful, I probably have replaced it more than once with more expensive and better-sounding guitars. Wouldn’t know for sure without once again holding that special hunk of wood in my hands and strumming a big fat G chord. The serial number was 288181, in case anyone’s interested. And, man, I’m still interested after all these years.” Michael Olsen Fargo, North Dakota

“Lost the opportunity to buy a Larrivee L-03 Silver Oak limited edition. Coincidentally, I later met the guy who bought it and jammed with him.” Nathan Tasker Nashville, Tennessee

“I loved my Martin 000-40S Ragpicker’s Dream. Sang the song I wrote for my wife at our wedding on a working cattle ranch outside of Douglas, Arizona. Then needed the money to pay immigration lawyers to move to Canada for the birth of my daughter. I have never seen one since.” David Holan St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada

“A reddish-blond Guild that I saw in a Connecticut pawn shop 30 years ago. Played like an unbelievably sweet dream. I traveled and made some money, but four months later, when I came back, the blonde was gone.” Mike DeDivitis

“1930s Gibson—a gift from my uncle when I was 15. Painted peace symbols, flowers, kitty faces, and clouds all over it with my mom’s old nail polish. Traded it for a Renault Dauphine to drive to college.” Charles Plott Beavercreek, Ohio

“I had a beautiful Haruo that I traveled the world with, but mostly demolished by falling on it as I was tripping over a ramp while running in the dark to catch a train in China. Loved that guitar.” Glenn Dornfeld New York, New York

Bought a 1965 Gibson Hummingbird for $200 when I was a teenager in the mid-’70s—wrote my first crappy songs on it, used it in jam sessions with friends in high school, played it at clubs while in college in eastern North Carolina. But I left it in the trunk of my car one night when a bunch of us drove up to Virginia to see the Grateful Dead. After the show we returned to find the trunk popped open and my beloved Hummingbird gone. It’d be worth at least 15 times as much today, but the monetary value is irrelevant to me. I loved that guitar. I still talk about it fairly regularly. Just ask anybody here at AG. I think they’re probably sick of hearing about the Hummingbird that fluttered away.” Mark Segal Kemp Richmond, California

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OTHER INSTRUMENTS ou can’t throw a party and not invite diversity. Otherwise, your party will be a bit boring. Therefore, we asked you to also vote for your favorite banjos, mandolins, and ukes. Here’s what you came up with. Who knows, next year we may invite a few sitars and ouds to the gala.

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Deering Goodtime Zombie Killer 5-String

BANJOS The lightning-fast picking from these circular, synthetic-topped resonators is heard these days in everything from bluegrass to alt-country to rock Gold: Deering Silver: Gibson Bronze: Washburn MANDOLINS A cousin of the lute, there are many styles of these diminutive instruments—the archtop is most commonly associated with American folk music Gold: Gibson Silver: Collings Bronze: Eastman UKULELE Portable, affordable and irresistibly fun to play, “ukes” have grown beyond their Polynesian origins and are now more popular than ever Gold: Martin Silver: Lanikai Bronze: Cordoba



Snark SN-1 Guitar and Bass Tuner

ACCESSORIES coustic players know there’s more to achieving the perfect sound than simply picking out the kind of wood that makes up a guitar’s back and sides. With a few well-chosen accessories— from strings, to effects pedals, to capos and tuners—guitars from every price point can spring to life, and should be viewed less as an afterthought than an integral part of playing the instrument. While asking readers to rate their favorite accessories might seem like a purely subjective

A

STEEL STRINGS Whether it’s the warm, airy tones of phosphor, or the bright sound of bronze—steel strings have been the staple of acoustic guitars since the turn of the 20th century

ULTIMATE FIDELITY.

Flex Cab, Flex Pre

Flex Pre: an exceptionally transparent, full-featured, guitar/mic preamp you can have at your fingertips. Flex Cab: an amazingly compact, high fidelity, tri-amped powered enclosure. Alone or together, they’re the ultimate at faithfully and flexibly reproducing your instrumental and vocal sound. See the many advantages of Flex at our website. Then feel them with a 2-week trial audition through an AI dealer.

Find a dealer at acousticimg.com Uniquely musical. Acoustic Image products are protected by the industry’s best warranty.

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AC_Flex_Acoustic Guitar3.indd 1

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Gold: D’Addario Silver: Elixir Bronze: Ernie Ball NYLON STRINGS In the tradition of 19th century Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres, these soft synthetic strings are a favorite among classical, flamenco, and quite a few jazz guitarists Gold: D’Addario Silver: Martin Bronze: Ernie Ball EFFECTS Reverb, distortion, compression, delay— nothing enhances your sound like putting the “pedal” to the metal Gold: BOSS Silver: Line 6 Bronze: DigiTech

exercise, we were struck by a few stand-out winners among the otherwise evenly divided voting. D’Addario, for instance, was the string maker of choice in the nylon-string category, notching 37 percent of the vote as compared with 13 percent for Martin and nine percent for Ernie Ball. BOSS, meanwhile, was the only manufacturer to receive double-digit support from readers, with 27 percent saying they favored the company’s line of effects, while Line 6 came in second place with 9 percent of the votes.

ELECTRONIC TUNERS Nothing saves valuable playing time like a trusty gizmo to help you get to “low E” Gold: Snark Silver: Korg Bronze: BOSS CASES Whether packing it for your tour bus, or (heaven forbid) storing it in your garage, it pays to protect your guitar from the unforgiving elements Gold: Fender Silver: Gibson Bronze: Gator CAPOS Stay in key—any key, in fact—with these simple string-clutching devices Gold: G7th Silver: Kyser Bronze: Shubb OTHER ACCESSORIES There’s no shortage of cool doodads and thingamajigs for the guitar-accessory junkie in all of us Gold: Dunlop Silver: Fender Bronze: D’Addario Planet Waves

STAGE & STUDIO hether you’re on stage or in the studio, finding the perfect acoustic guitar sound often requires a gear assist from an amplifier, preamp, PA system, or pickup. This year, our readers singled out Fishman and L.R. Baggs in multiple categories when it comes to rating the best companies whose products add volume to an acoustic. As for PA systems, audiophiles won’t be surprised to learn that Bose and Mackie topped the list, but numerous brands were singled out, including Yamaha, JBL, Peavey, and others.

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AMPLIFIERS Whether in the smallest coffee house or on the biggest stage, no performer can go without a vibrant, full-range sound Gold: Fishman Silver: Fender Bronze: AER STAND-ALONE PREAMPS Boost your pickup, add EQ, battle feedback—often all at the same time Gold: L.R. Baggs Silver: Fishman Bronze: Radial Engineering PA SYSTEMS Make sure they hear you in the back row with a balanced system that properly encompasses the room Gold: Bose Silver: Mackie Bronze: Yamaha UNDERSADDLE PICKUPS These transducers are the norm for amplifying a flattop—whether as factory installed equipment or after-sale add-ons

Neumann TLM102

Equally important in the quest for sonic nirvana is selecting the proper microphone and recording system that is not only navigable but powerful enough to give you all the options you need. With the continued evolution of digital technology, the power to make great recordings has never been more attainable, and Apple Computer got the nod from our readers as the go-to company for the do-it-yourselfer. Of course, adding a Shure, Neumann, or Sennheiser microphone certainly helps to round out any home studio.

MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUPS Easy to install in a steel-string flattop’s soundhole, their convenience is matched by a warm tone and ability to capture nuance in a guitar’s sound Gold: L.R. Baggs Silver: Fishman Bronze: Seymour Duncan COMPUTER RECORDING SYSTEMS The days of the 8-track are over—your laptop is the recording studio of the 21st century Gold: Apple Silver: Avid Bronze: PreSonus MICROPHONES Whether for singing, recording or amplifying your guitar on stage, you only sound as good as your microphone Gold: Shure Silver: Neumann Bronze: Sennheiser

Gold: L.R. Baggs Silver: Fishman Bronze: DiMarzio



Guitar Week, July 27-Aug. 2, with

Beppe Gambetta, Tim Thompson, David Jacobs-Strain, Al Petteway, Sean McGowan, Stephen Bennett, Steve Baughman, Pat Donohue, Robin Bullock, Folk Arts Workshops at Vicki Genfan, Warren Wilson College Toby Walker, PO Box 9000 Scott Ainslie, Asheville NC 28815 Gerald Ross, 828.298.3434 www.swangathering.com Ed Dodson, Greg Ruby, Pat Kirtley & more. • Trad. Song Week, July 6-12 • Celtic Week, July 13-19 • Old-Time Week, July 20-26 • Contemporary Folk Week, July 27- Aug. 2 • Mando & Banjo Week, August 3-9 • Fiddle Week, August 3-9

Elliott Capos Crafters of the

Elliott Pushbutton, Elite and “ The McKinney” by Elliott

More than just a capo... 979-421-9393 ElliottCapos.com

Elliott Capos (Phill Elliott)

American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa.

See our website for information on all other banjo and guitar styles and sizes, with pricing.

68 August 2014

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES uitar whiz Tommy Emmanuel recently told AG that, to him, fearless guitar playing meant “being willing to jump in and learn from others.” If a fret vet like Emmanuel can still reap the benefits of a dose of solid guitar instruction— then that speaks no end to how the rest of us could do with a slate of quality acoustic classes, timely tapping tips, or simply an instructor to point out which fingers go on which strings. There was no shortage of opinions this year about which music camps, online sources, and instructional guides can get players nimbly fingering Aeloian scales the fastest. From the submersion programs of Berklee Guitar Sessions to the more casual instruction of GuitarTricks. com, it’s no overstatement to say we are living in a golden age of guitar gurus. And whether you’re a seasoned virtuoso like Emmanuel, or simply trying to figure out which end of the pick to hold, when it comes to lifelong learning, there’s only one piece of advice for every guitar player: be fearless.

G

Silver medal winner Steve Kaufman

MUSIC CAMPS AND WORKSHOPS Few methods of guitar training can equal the old mainstay—play with other developing musicians, while learning from the masters

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL From the chords to “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” to a note-for-note transcription of Van Halen’s “Eruption,” the secrets to your favorite songs are only a strum away…

Gold Berklee Guitar Sessions Silver Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamps Bronze Guitar Workshop Plus

Gold Guitar Tricks Silver Hal Leonard Bronze Legacy Learning Systems

BEST ONLINE GUITAR RESOURCE The information superhighway has become a one-stop-shop for excellent ax instruction Gold Guitar Tricks Silver Jam Play Bronze Justin Guitar

Tosin Abasi at Guitar Workshop Plus 2013

GU ITAR MAKER

2014 GUITAR MAKER DIRECTORY

D I R E C TO R Y

THE GUITAR PLAYER’S GUIDE TO INDIVIDUAL LUTHIERS, MID-SIZE SHOPS, LARGE-SCALE MANUFACTURERS, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

BOB GRAMANN

122 Laurel Avenue Fredericksburg, VA 22408 (504) 898-0611 [email protected] bobgramann.com/guitar

BRIAN HOWARD GUITARS

Handmade steel-string guitars with a soft touch, pleasant feel, and big full-toned sound. All–domestic wood models available. Prices from $2300. Also: Plunky open-backed banjos and loud acoustic bass guitars.

608 W. Main Street Hummelstown, PA 17036 (717) 566-9883 [email protected] brianhowardguitars.com

BISCHOFF GUITARS

Custom made to be played! A beautiful blend of golden-era design and modern playability. Responsive and dynamic instruments made entirely by hand in my small lutherie. With the attention to detail that can only be found in a handcrafted guitar.

(715) 834-3751 [email protected] facebook.com/bischoff.guitars bischoffguitars.com Building guitars and friendships one at a time since 1975.

Greg Brandt BROCK ACOUSTICS (408) 605-3121 [email protected] Brockacoustics.com Handcrafting steel-string guitars with superior tone and projection since 1981.

BOWERMAN GUITARS 63379 O.B. Riley Rd. Bend, OR 97701 (541) 460-2424 [email protected] bowermanguitars.com Elegant and exquisitely crafted 6 string, tenor, Weissenborn style guitars and mandolins for performing and aspiring musicians.

SPECIAL ADVE RTISI NG SECTION

Maker of Guitars

GREG BRANDT, MAKER OF GUITARS 12017 Martha Street Valley Village, CA 91607 (818) 980-9348 [email protected] gregbrandtguitars.com Building in the Los Angeles area for over 35 years, specializing in nylon-string guitars for classical, jazz, and studio players Commissions and repairs.



GOODALL GUITARS

DURST GUITARS 204 Kanawha Dr. Weirton, WV 26062 (304) 723-4469 [email protected] durstguitars.com Robert Durst designed the Durst ergonomic lower bout for his guitar to improve the functionality & sound quality while allowing the strumming arm to relax in a more natural position providing a more comfortable playing experience.

541 South Franklin St. Fort Bragg, CA 95437 (707) 962-1620 [email protected] goodallguitars.com Starting Price: $5,500. James Goodall and Luke Goodall individually handcraft to inspire steel-string and nylon string guitars with legendary tone, craftsmanship and playability. Beautiful figured tone woods and elegant appointments since 1972.

HILL GUITARS HENSE CLASSICAL GUITAR STRINGS Hense Classic Guitar Strings Martin Hense Germany [email protected] martinhense.de Special coating on the winding wire to avoid blemishes and corrosion. Dealerships for several countries open! Please visit us at Summer NAMM.

8011 Hwy 9 Ben Lomond, CA 95005 (831) 336-9317 (831) 336-9428 [email protected] hillguitar.com America’s premier classical guitar company for over 40 years. Producing concert quality instruments with musical and aesthetic qualities second to none, offering them at a price that makes them accessible to just about anyone.

KAROL GUITARS 3936 Seebring Crescent Missassauga, ONT L5L 3X9 Canada (905) 607-9397 [email protected] karol-guitars.com

FLEISHMAN INSTRUMENTS 205 Knoll Haven Dr. Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707) 823-3537 [email protected] fleishmaninstruments.com

Celebrating 14 years of custom building heirloom quality instruments – 6 and 12 string acoustics, harp guitars, baritones, doublenecks, electrics –hand built using the finest materials. Also offering hands-on building instruction.

Harry Fleishman has been building delicious, one-of-a-kind guitars for over 40 years, with exquisite design, inspiring tone, and personalized playability. Let’s build YOU a guitar that expresses YOU.

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HOFFMAN GUITARS 2219 East Franklin Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612) 338-1079 [email protected] hoffmanguitars.com Since 1971 Charlie Hoffman has built over 600 guitars. Charlie enjoys working with customers to create instruments which reflect the customer’s needs and desires.

KINGSLIGHT GUITARS (360) 633-7026 [email protected] kingslightguitars.com ”From my hands to yours”…acoustic guitars, baritones, basses, 12-strings built with care and quality to your specifications. Now based in Bremerton, WA. Reasonably priced. Short wait time.

LEO POSCH CUSTOM STRINGED INSTRUMENTS 5981 Wellman Road Mc Louth, KS 66054 (913) 796-6400 [email protected] leoposch.com Leo combines traditional materials and workmanship with innovative features and designs. Superior customer service and craftsmanship since 1980.


TIM REEDE CUSTOM GUITARS (612) 721-8032 reedeguitars.com

PELLERIN GUITARS LOWDEN GUITARS 34 Down Business Park County Down, BT30 9UP IRELAND +44 28 4461 9161 [email protected] GeorgeLowden.com George Lowden began making his acoustic guitars in Ireland in 1974, selling them worldwide through specialist dealers since 1981. Twelve craftsmen, including 2 of his sons, build Lowden guitars by hand under his supervision.

138, King Thetford Mines, QC G6G 2X8, Canada (418) 335-9471 [email protected] pelleringuitars.com We build harp-guitars and steel-string guitars with responsive lows, clear mids, and resonant highs, as well as harmonious and solid orchestration at both high and low volumes, with balance and definition, are all the features that makes a Pellerin instrument exceptional.

Phoenix Mandolins PHOENIX MANDOLINS

MCKNIGHT GUITARS Morral, Ohio (740) 465-2371 mcknightguitars.com Look for us at the 2014 Woodstock Invitational. Wear your McKnight Guitar shirt to win a prize.

Classic beauty. Compelling sound. Uncompromising quality. Presented at the most prestigious guitar shows in North America and featured in the book “Meeting the Makers.”

RizzoloGuitars RIZZOLO GUITARS

1A Hall Street, Brunswick, Melbourne Victoria 3056 Australia (61) 3-9939-3191 [email protected] rizzologuitars.com Exquisitely crafted and richly toned acoustic and archtop guitars made individually with skill and love for the discerning player. Custom guitars using the finest exotic, domestic, and local timbers.

159 Saint George Road South Thomaston, ME 04858 (207) 354-0397 [email protected] PhoenixMandolins.com Building professional-quality mandolins renowned for craftsmanship, playability, and tone. Particular expertise with light-string and jazz models.

PORTLAND GUITAR 4920 SW 42nd Ave. Portland, OR 97221 (503) 245-3276 [email protected] portlandguitar.com Jay Dickinson builds handcrafted acoustic guitars, basses, and ukuleles with user adjustable tilt action necks and innovative bracing and bridge designs. Jay also builds artistically elegant guitar stands to complement his guitars.

PEDERSON CUSTOM GUITARS 535 N. 13 St. Forest City, Iowa 50436 (641) -590-2593 [email protected] pedersoncustomguitars.com Custom hand-made acoustic guitars including many options. Adjustable acoustic bone saddles. Some of the most high tech acoustic guitars in the industry. 15” and 16” models, Adjustable necks, back of neck details. Multiscale options, woods, inlay, custom rosettes. SPECIAL ADVE RTISI NG SECTION

SANTA CRUZ GUITAR COMPANY 151-C Harvey West Blvd. Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (831) 425-0999 [email protected] santacruzguitar.com Since 1976, SCGC has handcrafted the most sophisticated acoustics available, each hand voiced and tuned with unrivaled playability, sustain and complexity by Richard Hoover and his small team of talented luthiers in Santa Cruz, CA.



ROZAWOOD Havirska 518 Kolin, CZ28002, Czech Republic +420 607 193328 [email protected] rozawood.cz Rob Ickes, Jerry Douglas or Mike Marshall are well-known US players of ROZAWOOD resophonic guitars, octave mandolins and mandocellos made by Roman Zajicek, one of the finest European guitar makers. Flattop and tenor, terz or baritone guitars are the next part of ROZAWOOD production.

TONY VINES GUITARS P.O. Box 2 Flag Pond, TN. 37657 USA (423) 735-8825 [email protected] tonyvinesguitars.com Celebrating 25 years of making fine handcrafted acoustic guitars. See Tony’s new website featuring his latest creations the “SL” and “CX” models!

GET TO KNOW YOUR GUITAR. We predict that some day all new guitars will come equipped with a copy of the Acoustic Guitar Owner’s Manual. After all, you’ve made a big investment in your guitar. You deserve to know how it works, how to maintain its value, and how to keep it sounding great.

THORELL FINE GUITARS 43 S 100 W Logan, Utah 84319 (435) 713-9507 [email protected] thorellguitars.com Ryan’s guitars are known for their unique styling, tone, and world class playability. His hand built guitars are owned by some of the best players in the world including Frank Vignola, Vinny Raniolo, and Tommy Emmanuel.

JONI MITCHELL * SCOTT LAW * BADI ASSAD * TOM BROSSEAU

NICKEL CREEK

* WILLIE WATSON * JASON MRAZ * CARLENE CARTER

5 SONGS TO PLAY GRATEFUL DEAD

Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad

JONI MITCHELL

Chelsea Morning JULY 2014 | 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

AUGUST 2014 | 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR | ACOUST

JOHN PRINE

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

PHIL OCHS

4 SONGS TO PLAY BECK LOSER BLUE MOON CROSBY, STILLS & NASH SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES

VETERAN GUITAR AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CO. Texarkana, USA [email protected] veteranguitar.com Veteran Guitars are handmade from the finest woods and materials. While the Veteran Guitar is ideal for anyone, custom personalization is available to honor and recognize any individual’s military service. Also available, the BOHICA Ammo Box Guitar. Check us out!

NORMAN BLAKE WHISKEY BEFORE BREAKFAST

Power & the Glory

SCOTT LAW

‘Guitar junkies and

ADERS REVEAL

Bells of Unity

JOHN THREEIR LOVE BUTLER BUSKING HIS WAY TO THE BIGTIME THE

FOR MARTIN D-28 SPECIA

GEAR THAT GROOVES GIBSON J-29 BREEDLOVE LEGACY AUDITORIUM GRETSCH NEW YORKER

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US NYLON -ST GU ITA RIN G RS

HOW TO

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WRITE A SONG EMBELLISH YOUR CHORDS PREVENT WRIST INJURIES

Get to know the music, musicians, and instruments that matter. Subscribe to Acoustic Guitar today: acousticguitar.com/Subscribe

72 August 2014

novices alike will find

+ MORE 2014

ZAVALETA’S LA CASA DE GUITARRAS

much interesting and

PO Box 37214 Tucson, AZ 85740 (520) 906-0533 [email protected] zavaletas-guitarras.com

useful information in this

Specialists in classical and flamenco guitars from Spain: Paulino Bernabe, Angel Benito Aguado, Vicente Carrillo, Andres Dominguez, Eduardo Ferrer, Aaron Garcia Ruiz, Paco Marin, Jose Ruiz Pedregosa, Pedro Maldonado, Jesus Bellido, and many others.


book.’ —Wood & Steel

learn more at store.AcousticGuitar.com

AG TRADE

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Makers & Shakers MARTIN KEITH BUILDS UPON A LEGEND

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Guitar Guru AM I HEARING ‘VOICINGS’?

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New Gear CORDOBA ACERO D10

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Great Acoustics BEDELL MAKES A LUCKY STRIKE

SHOPTALK

No Modifications Needed

Shadow Electronics unveils new PanaMag wireless soundhole pickup system BY GARY PARKS

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or owners of vintage acoustic guitars, it can be a daunting dilemma: How to add a decent pickup system without doing damage to an instrument’s coveted original condition. Shadow Electronics is attempting to solve that problem with its new PanaMag wireless soundhole system, which allows guitarists to convert acoustics into performance-ready guitars with zero structural impact. Mark Romansky, a product specialist with the company, notes that the ease of setting up the PanaMag was something that customers and guitar stores both stressed as a top priority. “They told us they wanted to be able to quickly and easily install our product for their customers while they were in the shop,” Romansky says. Incorporating a magnetic pickup, digital wireless transmitter, tone and pan controls,

chromatic tuner, and a rechargeable power source, the PanaMag wireless system ($399 street) was “designed to be a fully featured, onestop solution for performers,” Romansky says. Fitting into the soundhole of an acoustic, the system requires no modification of the instrument to achieve completely wire-free amplification of a guitar. Confirming how simple the PanaMag is to use, I quickly put one in a Martin acoustic, and found that loosening and then retuning the strings was the most time-consuming part of the process. Unlike the company’s PanaFlex system, which requires professional installation, the new PanaMag pops right in without the need to mount under-saddle hardware. “When we asked [players] what features they wanted, they told us they wanted everything that we had built in to the PanaFlex,” Shadow founder

Joe Marinic says. “They loved it the way it was— they just didn’t want to alter their instrument.” With a panoramic stereo output, the sound quality is equally as impressive as its ease of installation. “The panoramic setting gives your playing more texture by spreading the sound of the strings from left to right when using a stereo speaker setup, especially with arpeggios and fingerpicking,” Romansky adds. “And when you play one part on the lower and another on the higher strings, it almost sounds like two guitars playing together.” Because the system is wireless, you’ll need to recharge its internal batteries after approximately six hours of use, but the PanaMag has an accessible jack that allows you to do so without having to remove it from the soundhole. AG For more information visit shadow-electronics.com


Hoffee Cases welcomes our latest endorser, Chris Thile.

carbonfibercases.com

BRIEFS GIBSON MILLS GUTHRIE’S CHILDHOOD HOME This land is your land—and Woody Guthrie’s former home is now someone else’s guitar. Gibson Guitars has auctioned off eight custommade guitars built with wood from Woody Guthrie’s childhood home in Okemah, Oklahoma. Only eight Woody Guthrie London House Model Southern Jumbo guitars were made, with Gibson luthiers crafting fingerboards and bridges from the white oak floor joists of the fire-damaged Guthrie homestead in Okemah. The Guthrie family moved from the property in the late 1920s, but enough usable wood remained for the guitars. The proceeds from the auction, which took place in May, went to Woody Guthrie London House, a nonprofit group leading the charge to rebuild the folk legend’s boyhood home, known as London House, to its early-20th-century state. —JASON WALSH

FENDER SHUTTERS OVATION’S US FACTORY The curtain has closed on Ovation’s made-inthe-USA line of acoustic guitars, as parent company Fender Musical Instruments in April announced the closing of the brand’s longtime domestic manufacturing facility in New Hartford, Connecticut. Citing “current market conditions and insufficient volume levels,” Fender officials released a statement saying production would cease in New Hartford, affecting 46 employees. Ovation guitars, however, will continue to be built outside the U.S.—the brand has production locations in China, South Korea, and Indonesia. The Guild guitar brand, which had also been made at the New Hartford plant, was sold by Fender in May to Cordoba Music Group. The first Ovation guitars were introduced in the mid-1960s by Charles Kaman, a former helicopter designer and amateur guitarist who pioneered a synthetic acoustic guitar body— with rounded back and sides and multiple soundholes near the neck—that he felt could produce a richer sound. The initial line of Ovations were popularized by country singer Glen Campbell and blues guitarist Josh White. Eventually, Kaman’s guitars found their way into the hands of a who’s who of popular acoustic guitar performers—including Robert Fripp, Melissa Etheridge, Paul Simon, Kaki King, Bob Marley, and Roy Clark, among others. Fender acquired the Kaman Musical Corporation in 2008. Charles Kaman passed away at age 91 in 2011. —JW

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MAKERS & SHAKERS has been home to a dense concentration of musical instrument makers, including Joe Veillette, Mike Tobias, Harvey Citron, Stu Spector, and the late Thomas Humphrey, whose ideas have informed each other’s works. Keith was born into that informal consortium, at the same time enjoying strong ties to the region’s community of performers. His father is Bill Keith, the eminent five-string banjo player who rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and later played in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Among the elder Keith’s contributions to the banjo’s development are a trademark melodic approach—a variation on the Scruggs style known as the Keith style—as well as the invention of specialized tuning machines that allow for quick changes between open tunings. A tall, thin man of 35, with an affable grin, Martin Keith deeply understands the legacy into which he was raised. “My personal history is connected to the folk-music scene that developed around Woodstock in the late ’60s and early ’70s, which included my dad, along with people like Geoff Muldaur, Larry Campbell, Cindy Cashdollar, and Happy and Artie Traum, most of whom have known me since I was very young.” Keith says. “To the extent that those experiences were musically formative, I feel really lucky to have been born in Woodstock—though more in a second-generation kind of way.”

Martin Keith is carving out his own place in Woodstock history.

Woodstock, Baby

Martin Keith draws the inspiration for his guitar designs from a deep and legendary well of creativity BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

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ot long after Martin Keith took up guitar and bass at 15, he began scaring together cheap electric instruments, like no-name Precision basses and Flying V’s, acquiring them through want ads and friends who’d lost interest in pursuing music. In his bedroom workshop, Keith scrutinized the construction of the instruments and subjected them to improvements. Today, Keith applies that knowledge to his modest trade—building six to ten modern-looking guitars and basses from ancient, locally sourced woods in a rustic home shop in rural, upstate New York.

“My point of entry was electronics modifications—essentially, a lot of time spent trying to turn these poor, misfit instruments into something other than what they were,” Keith says. Actually, his point of entry was the wildly creative environment of Woodstock, the fabled village in the Catskill Mountains about 100 miles north of Manhattan. Most music fans still associate Woodstock with the three-day rock festival of the same name held in neighboring Bethel in the summer of 1969. But long before then—and in the decades since—Woodstock has been an artist colony, first and foremost. In addition to its painters, writers, and musicians, the community

A RUSTIC SHOP In the late 1990s, in Poughkeepsie, New York, Keith spent as much time playing in bands and learning about instrument-making as he did studying literature as a student at Marist College. He began an apprenticeship with luthier Joe Veillette, whose clients include high-profile players ranging from James Taylor to Eddie Van Halen. Keith credits Veillette, with whom he still builds guitars, for teaching him a concept that is fundamental to his art—that is, thinking more about the overall coherence and harmony in musical instrument design than getting caught up in cosmetic flourishes. “I learned that the goal is for the guitar to read as a single whole entity, rather than a collection of individual elements,” he says. Keith now divides his time between Veillette’s workshop and his own. His shop is a three-minute drive from Big Pink, the house in nearby Saugerties that served as a hangout and laboratory for Bob Dylan and the Band, and leant its name to the group’s first album. Keith’s neighbor is Elliott Landy, known for his iconic photographs of those music icons. Until recently, the road was unpaved. Keith’s shop, which abuts his home, is nestled among a thick of covering trees. In the summer, the main window overlooks a garden of vegetables and


MAKERS & SHAKERS MAKERS & SHAKERS | AG TRADE fruits, and in the cold seasons the leftovers from instrument making are put to smart use. “All the guitar cutoffs go into the stove to heat my house,” Keith says. At 300 square feet, the shop is cozy. Keith built it himself, using locally milled pine for the siding, flooring, and sheathing. Perhaps fittingly, while working on the shop, he used an old Volkswagen Microbus as a tool shed. Though the vehicle is long gone, its logo is now mounted in tribute on a pin router in the shop. The space is packed with stacks of wood, shelves crammed with tools and fixtures, and a bunch of old equipment, including tools such as the lathe and milling machine he uses to custom-make some of his proprietary hardware. “I have a bit more machinery than the average acoustic builder,” Keith says. “Honestly, most of what I have would be more at home on a small factory floor—mid-20th-century industrial tools and machines, big and heavy, lots of cast iron. Overkill, on some levels, but they work very, very well. I have a soft spot for these old dinosaurs, and they can actually compete pretty favorably with CNC [computerized machining technology] in terms of speed, efficiency, and quality of result.” DEEP CONNECTIONS The mostly local woods Keith uses for his acoustics include maple and walnut. In some cases, he has a special connection to the materials. “I have walnut and maple planks harvested from trees I used to climb as a kid,” he says. Like many luthiers, Keith finds the best mahogany, once regarded as a budget wood, to be preferable for the backs and sides of his guitars. And while he’s used plenty of ebony and rosewood, he’s lately been exploring such alternatives as wenge, a tropical species that has been used for years in electric-guitar building and is slowly gaining traction as a viable choice for acoustic backs and sides. “I think it’s a truly exceptional-sounding and very beautiful wood with a whole lot to say. I can see it becoming a new classic,” Keith says. “There are also a couple of South-American woods, like Katalox, which I think are underrated and will probably develop some popularity as the tried-and-true materials become more and more scarce.” For his soundboards, Keith often uses Sitka spruce, though he’s not married to it. “I don’t have any strong feelings about top woods by species, as I try my best to judge them on a perpiece basis,” he says. “There is so much variation within any given species that the only way to make practical decisions is case-by-case.” J.R. Rogers, founder of the Acoustic Guitar Forum website, owns a Martin Keith flattop with a Sitka spruce top, named “Panama Red”

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Keith’s signature model is the Auriole. Its moveable neck allows for easy adjustments; the art-deco-inspired design, below, delivers well-integrated bass notes.

THE INNER WORKINGS OF A MARTIN KEITH ACOUSTIC Some of the nontraditional details on Keith’s acoustics are obscured by their construction. The necks are built from a lightweight, resonant core of basswood and a thin outer shell, usually made of mahogany. In place of a standard truss rod is a lightweight carbonfiber element that adds considerable stiffness.

for its South American mahogany back and sides and bloodwood binding and trim. Rogers says the combination of woods, along with the guitar’s handcrafted build, give it a special sound. “The guitar has a strong, unique voice that is inspiring, whether gently played fingerstyle or pounded with a pick,” Rogers says. “The body resonates so freely, and as a result has this powerful response that maintains its clarity in a way that no traditional guitar I’ve known does.” MODERN DESIGNS Decidedly modern-looking, Keith’s basic steelstring guitar—the Auriole, available either as a

The neck is stealthily mated to the body with a pair of aluminum parts that slide together, dovetail-like; the neck can be moved up and down using a small tool that fits into the back of the guitar just below the neck joint. This system allows for fast and easy adjustment, even when the strings are tuned to pitch, while also offering other conveniences. “A fringe benefit is that the neck can also be very easily removed— for travel, routine maintenance such as re-fretting, or even replacement,” Keith says.

standard or baritone—is distinguished by an offset soundhole and a sculptural bridge and tailpiece assembly that serve a tangible function. “By moving the structural weak spot off-axis and away from the bridge,” he says of the soundhole placement, “it permits a lighter structure overall, with less bracing required to maintain the guitar’s long-term health. Since the string only has so much energy to give, the lighter instrument will always respond with greater speed, more volume, and better dynamics.” Aesthetically, Keith borrows ideas from the art deco and art nouveau movements, which he admires for their crisp, clean design, as well as from the ordinary things that catch his eyes, from furniture to automobiles. “At least once a day I find myself looking at objects and trying to imagine the process that went into their design and manufacture,” he says. “There is a lot of hidden effort and beauty in some everyday things, and a lot of ingenuity that went into their realization. Thinking about how any given object is made can be a rewarding exercise.” Keith doesn’t force a visual idea on an instrument for the sake of aesthetics alone, says his

mentor Veillette, who admits he’s always been skeptical of fancy decorative work and “overcomplicated mechanical devices that look interesting but do little to enhance an instrument’s performance.” Veillette’s outlook is that, above all, a guitar should sound and play well. “Though Keith’s guitars are unique,” Veillette says, “I see this same outlook in his work.” A HYBRID APPROACH To a luthier like Keith, the look and sound of an instrument can’t be separated. “I think there is a lot to be said for the effect that a guitar’s appearance has on the mindset and mood of the player,” he says. “I’d like to think that seeing and playing a visually distinctive instrument might elicit a different reaction, a different approach, or a different touch from the player. “Few people will pick up a vintage Stella and play ‘Stella,’” he adds, referring to “Stella by Starlight,” the great jazz standard. “The guitar definitely guides the player, to an extent.” In a sense, Keith’s guitars are hybrids, situated in a gray area between the flattop and archtop worlds. Although the Auriole, for instance, doesn’t have a carved top, its bridge

and tailpiece would not be out of place on a jazz box. The Elfin, on the other hand—a diminutive, fully acoustic hollowbody—has a flattop bridge with pins. As such, the instruments are geared to players who aren’t committed to either type of guitar. “The guitars are light and loud, with quite a bit of bass, and they respond very quickly, so they work well for modern fingerstyle and solo playing,” Keith says. “They’re not designed as a heavy-strumming kind of instrument, although at least one of my clients uses his primarily as a rhythm guitar. “Hopefully,” Keith adds, “my instruments have something to say to people whose needs aren’t quite met by the usual options.” Standing outside his workshop, surrounded by all those tall oaks and pines, Keith acknowledges the role Woodstock plays in such forwardthinking notions of guitar design. “The idea of making art and music is completely familiar to— and fully supported by—the community here,” he says. “It’s really gratifying to feel like part of that history, to be part of the group of guitar builders that have settled here, and to feel like everyone else that lives here understands and appreciates the need for people like us.” AG

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.

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GUITAR GURU

No two woods are equal—though some are more equal than others

How are Guitars Voiced? BY DANA BOURGEOIS

What does it mean to ‘voice’ an acoustic guitar, and how are guitars voiced? How do I know if I’m buying a guitar that has been hand-voiced? —RICHARD FERGUSON, EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA

In my view, the sound of a guitar is primarily attributable to its design and to the individual woods that it’s made from. Voicing is a process of optimizing the interaction between these two variables. A dreadnought sounds recognizably like a dreadnought, regardless of the woods used. Change minor design elements and it still sounds like a dreadnought. A mahogany dreadnought, though, does sound different from a rosewood dreadnought. Just ask any bluegrass player. And a reasonably experienced ear can hear similarities between a mahogany D and most other mahogany guitars. But no two mahogany dreadnoughts, even of identical construction,

GOT A QUESTION? Uncertain about guitar care and maintenance? The ins-and-outs of guitar building? Or a topic related to your gear?

78 August 2014

sound exactly alike. One reason is that different pieces of wood have different physical characteristics, which may include grain orientation, long and cross-grain stiffness, density, velocity of sound, damping factors, etc. Players sometimes ask if one piece of wood is inherently better than another. My short answer is that most wood isn’t at all suitable for making fine guitars, and only a tiny fraction of all wood is so magical that it sounds amazing, no matter how it’s used. Between those extremes, other woods can make outstanding guitars, though only if treated properly. Here’s where voicing comes in. Most players understand that voicing involves brace carving. But voicing can also involve selecting wood because it’s better for one type of guitar than another, thicknessing for a specific soundboard span or bracing system, graduating a soundboard edge to compensate for variable stiffness, setting a neck to a specific bridge height to control string load, or even applying a custom finish to compliment other sonic factors. In my book, voicing involves any procedure or combination of procedures intended to optimize the way individual woods work in the context of a selected guitar design. There are, of course, limits to what voicing can accomplish. Mahogany can’t be turned into

Ask Acoustic Guitar’s resident Guitar Guru. Send an email titled “Guitar Guru” to senior editor Mark Kemp at mark.kemp@ stringletter.com, and he’ll forward it to the expert luthier.

Brazilian rosewood, and an L-00 can’t be turned into an OM. And unless you’re working with one of those magical tops, tuning to a specific resonant frequency might well sacrifice some other desirable characteristic. Because every maker has a different idea of what a guitar should be, it should come as no surprise that methods of voicing are correspondingly diverse. And while it’s generally believed that individual luthiers engage in more hand-voicing than larger makers, premium production shops, informed by an enormous wealth of experience, frequently lavish equivalent voicing attention on individual guitars. It’s difficult for players to know how much hand-voicing any guitar has received. But if a guitar sounds great, does this really matter? I’ve had memorable brainstorming conversations with Bob Taylor about voicing guitars using industrial engineering and robotics, and have no doubt that a well-engineered, automated system could produce better guitars than building to strictly uniform dimensions. The brave new world may be upon us someday soon, folks, because the technology already exists. AG Dana Bourgeois is a master luthier and the founder of Bourgeois Guitars in Lewiston, Maine.

If AG selects your question for publication, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of AG’s The Acoustic Guitar Owner’s Manual.

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NEW GEAR

Solid Engelmann Spruce top

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

It may look like a mild-mannered classical guitar, but Córdoba’s Acero D10 has steel strings that bark and bite BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

Rosewood back and sides

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ome guitars take a while to reveal their charms. Others, like Córdoba’s new Acero D10, with its booming, but balanced voice and easy playability—to say nothing of its elegant modern appearance—win you over right away. The guitar behaves like a classic dreadnought, but there’s a subtle complexity to its sound and responsiveness, attributes that owe to the instrument’s unique build. THE FEEL & SOUND Thanks to its Spanish-style construction, the D10 is lightweight, around 4.75 pounds. It’s well

80 August 2014

Mahogany neck

Ebony fretboard

Gold-plated Grover tuners

1.8-inch nut width

AT A GLANCE

CORDOBA ACERO D10

BODY Dreadnought. Solid Engelmann spruce top with solid rosewood back and sides. High-gloss polyurethane finish. NECK Mahogany neck. Satin finish. Ebony

balanced between neck and body, and comfortable to hold in both seated and standing positions. The C-shaped neck has a generous profile, but feels fast and easy in all registers, and the wide nut, 1.8 inches, allows plenty of room for the fretting fingers. With a perfect low action, it feels effortless to play barre chords for extended periods and swift single-note excursions. When strumming a single open-E chord, you’ll find the D10 sounds terrific, with a rich dark voice and a bold presence. The sound has a nice balance between registers and between fundamentals and overtones; the instrument

fretboard and rosewood bridge. 25-inch scale length. 1.8-inch nut width. Gold Grover tuners. EXTRAS Elixir Phospor Bronze Nanoweb (12–53) strings. Córdoba

feels responsive and has an impressive amount of sustain and overhead. And the D10 handles that open-E chord just as well as it does a complex harmony like an 11th-position E altered seventh chord (fretted, lowest string to highest, 0-11-12-12-13-12), on which there is an appreciable separation between the notes. I try a variety of accompaniment approaches on the D10, from Carter-style to Hot Club-style strumming. All are satisfying to play, thanks to the instrument’s resounding bass and overall liveliness. (And you needn’t worry that all the

HumiCase. Also available with a cutaway and electronics (D10–CE). PRICE $1,020 list; $849.99 street. Designed in California; made in China. cordobaguitars.com.

strumming will cause cosmetic damage, because inside the case’s accessory compartment Córdoba has included a transparent, adhesive pickguard.) A versatile performer, the D10 fares as well for fingerpicking. The wide nut and saddle spacing provide ample room for the picking fingers to do their work. It takes very little force to get decent volume from the guitar, which sounds equally robust in standard as in alternate tunings like DADGAD and open C. The sophisticated voice lends itself to fare ranging from Celtic fingerpicking to country-style blues, and even classical.


NEW GEAR | AG TRADE

FROM NYLON STRINGS TO STEEL STRINGS Córdoba was founded in 1997, an extension of Guitar Salon International (GSI), the West Coast’s premier outlet for new and vintage nylon-string guitars. The Córdoba Music Group is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and has a range of guitars and other instruments, such as ukuleles that are built overseas, in China and Spain, as well as a select group of guitars built in its new custom shop, in Oxnard, California.

Cordoba 20SM Soprano Ukulele

The imported instruments range from traditional designs to those with sleek necks and built-in electronics outfitted for the modern performer. All are known to offer exceptional bang for the buck, and with a street price of well under $1,000, the D10, from Córdoba’s new Acero series of steel-string guitars, is no exception.

82 August 2014

Acero D10: The advantages of nylon in a steel-string dreadnought

THE DESIGN & BUILD Córdoba has long offered crossover designs in which nylon-string guitars are modified with attributes like narrow nuts and slenderer necks, making them friendlier to steel-string players. The company turns this idea on its head with the D10, a steel-string guitar that is constructed in the manner of a nylon-string. Instead of a traditional dovetail joint, the D10’s neck is assembled using the Spanish heel, an integrated method in which the heel is notched to accept the sides, and the entire body is then built around the neck and sides. This makes for a more stable neck-to-body junction, which is said to increase the guitar’s resonance. Instead of the standard steel-string X-bracing pattern inside, there’s a neat composite of the Torres fan and the X styles, a system devised to enhance the soundboard’s vibrating potential, with the goal of producing a more robust tone. The D10 boasts all-solid-wood construction. Its soundboard is made from Engelmann spruce, while the back and sides are rosewood; the guitar’s mahogany neck sports an ebony fingerboard. The review model is built from a selection of these tonewoods that would not look out of place on a boutique guitar. The finely grained spruce has a lovely pale yellow coloring that works nicely with the dark-chocolate-colored, quarter-sawn rosewood. A pleasing use of wood is also seen in the D10’s gracefully restrained ornamentation. The body binding is made not from celluloid but mahogany, with a matching back strip and end strip. The rosette is formed by a duo of acacia (an Asian species comparable to koa) rings, and the same wood is used on the fretboard for a subtle, segmented inlay at the 12th fret. The fretboard’s

side dots are made of maple and the guitar is rounded out by a raised central layer of rosewood on the headstock and a rosewood heel cap whose carved motif echoes that of the fretboard inlay. Despite its modest price tag, this D10 review model is a nicely built guitar by any standard. The fretwork is meticulous, and the TUSQ nut and saddle are precisely notched. On the body, the thin polyurethane finish is rubbed to a faultless gloss, and in the box things are similarly clean. BUILT-IN HUMIDIFIER The D10 includes a Córdoba archtop wood case with HumiCase technology installed inside. This handy feature is a plus for a guitarist traveling among different climate zones, or one whose instrument must contend with drying indoor heat during winter. It’s fast and intuitive to refill the humidifier, which is basically a circular sponge-like material housed in a plastic enclosure that snaps into the lid of the case. MADE TO PLAY With the Acero D10, Córdoba has successfully applied nylon-string construction principles to steel-string design, resulting in an instrument with a smooth playability and an outstanding sound and responsiveness. Some players will no doubt be opposed to an imported guitar, but those unconcerned with provenance will be rewarded with a smart companion that will stack up favorably against much more expensive guitars. AG Contributing editor Adam Perlmutter transcribes, arranges, and engraves music for numerous publications.

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NEW GEAR

Version 2.0 is a full step up from earlier music-notation apps— even if you’re a half-step off.

AT A GLANCE

SCORECLOUD EXPRESS SPECS Version 2.0, updated Dec. 5, 2013. Size: 35.5 MB. Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. FEATURES In-App and cloudbased storage of your songs. Works with a wide range of musical instruments. Playback with a number of different sounds or the original recording. Designed for recording in quiet and noisy environments. Share songs by email, Twitter or Facebook (iOS 6 or higher). Save up to four songs in Song Archive. Sign up for ScoreCloud account to save an unlimited number of songs in the cloud and on your iOS device, and to synchronize your songs with ScoreCloud Studio on your computer. PRICE $.99. Made in Sweden. scorecloud.com/express

84 August 2014

Songcatcher Revisited

New ScoreCloud Express app rewrites the book on capturing your musical ideas BY ANDREW DUBROCK

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ongwriters and composers have relied on handheld recording devices to catch their inspiration for years, but reliable audiorecognition programs that can turn those sketches into written music have been inconsistent, at best. Swedish company DoReMIR entered this industry several years ago with ScoreCleaner, and recently updated and expanded the program into ScoreCloud. In December, ScoreCloud Express for iOS hit the market, and I was excited to see how this mobile version could translate my singing and playing into notation, all on my iPhone. RECORDING & ANALYZING ScoreCloud Express transcribes monophonic lines (single notes) by dictating pitches and durations into a written score. There are no click tracks or pre-programming to worry about—simply hit “record” and start singing and playing your melody when you’re ready. Not only is ScoreCloud Express able to translate audio into written notation, it also pulls your melodies into a relative key framework. What does that mean? Well, any decent

audio program can analyze and translate a melody if your guitar is perfectly in tune or if you’re a robot singer with perfect pitch—that’s because you’ll always play or sing melodies that match absolute values of those notes. But what if you’re away from a tuner and you sing or play a melody a touch flat or sharp throughout? I tested this by detuning my guitar roughly onequarter tone, played a melody in C major, and ScoreCloud Express pulled it perfectly up to the key of C. When I played the same melody up a half-step in the key of D, ScoreCloud Express transcribed the melody in C major again. While this may seem strange, I found it impressive, because it shows that the program analyzes a passage in a relative, rather than an absolute, manner. Instead of adjusting some notes sharp and other notes flat, it adjusted all notes relative to each other so that they fit into the closest key the program could find. If it transcribes something into a key a half-step off, it’s easy enough to use the editing tools to move it where you want. It was a little easier to get perfect results with the guitar than with voice. That’s because a

tuned guitar will generally play each note relatively the same distance away from absolute pitch. When we sing, it’s much more likely that some notes will be a little flat and others sharp, giving the program more opportunities to push a note a half-step away from where it was intended. This is easy enough to fix. If there are too many errors, you can always try again, and if there are only a few, it’s easy to edit.

‘Not only is ScoreCloud Express able to translate audio into written notation, but it pulls your melodies into a relative key framework.’

quarter-note triplets). If you edit something incorrectly, you can revert back to the unedited version, but I couldn’t find a way to undo a single edit at a time, which would be a nice addition. Aside from the documentation issues, I found the editing more powerful than I expected from a handheld device. For more editing options, you can always download the desktop version of ScoreCloud and edit your song there. A REAL BARGAIN ScoreCloud Express allows you to save just four passages on your phone, but by signing up

for a free account, you can store an unlimited number of passages online. Once you record a passage, it lives in the cloud, which makes it easier to share and edit the piece with other devices. You can play each passage back through one of several midi-generated sounds or your original audio (it saves that online, too). It took only a click for me to email a link to my desktop machine, where I could either edit the song on ScoreCloud or import it into Finale or any other notation software program. At only $.99, this iPhone app is a steal. Any composer or songwriter who wants a quick way of getting their sketches down on paper ought to give it a try. AG

POWERFUL EDITING FUNCTIONS Editing a file is fairly straightforward, but there was virtually no documentation about it at the time of this review. Entering the “edit” page gives you nine editing options: title, key signature (or transposition), clef, time signature, tempo, notes, pickup, and timing. Many of these editing options are easy to use, but it takes a few minutes to get used to deleting and shifting notes. When you select “delete,” it actually toggles through two options that allow you to either replace the note with a rest or extend the previous note’s value to fill in for the deleted note. Shifting a note left or right changes it by a 16th-note increment, but when the previous note is a 16th note or smaller, it halves the value of the previous note and adds that amount to the note you’ve selected. I found the pickup editor useful, since the program doesn’t always know when you’re starting with a pickup. And while some may find the “timing” button helpful, it had a propensity to change the note values in strange ways just to make them fit (like turning straight eighth notes into


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PLAYLIST KEB’ MO’ FINDS HIS ‘AMERICANA’ MOJO

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PLAYLIST CONOR OBERST TURNS ‘UPSIDE DOWN’

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PLAYLIST ‘Fullbright deftly straddles the worlds of pop and folk in Songs, a collection that sounds both contemporary and timeless.’

John Fullbright Songs Blue Dirt

Songs About Songs

Okie singer-songwriter John Fullbright delivers on the promise of his debut BY PAT MORAN

O

n his second album for Blue Dirt Records, Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Fullbright delivers on the promise of his elegant studio debut From the Ground Up, which netted him a Grammy nod in 2013 and drew comparisons to rootsy mavericks such as Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. Like those two titans of Americana, Fullbright deftly straddles the worlds of pop and folk in Songs, a collection that sounds both contemporary and timeless. Raised in Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma, Fullbright has been mentioned as a successor to that great Dust Bowl laureate—a latter-day, high-plains troubadour with a grainy, conversational delivery and a hardscrabble, humanist outlook. Certainly, the ghosts of Guthrie and Tom Joad linger in Fullbright’s vocals, but his plainspoken words are wrapped in richer arrangements. And when he delivers a deceptively direct phrase like “write a

song about a song,” it’s packed with layers of meaning about how we process emotions and why songwriters write. It’s not just the words, though. The memorable melodies on Fullbright’s latest effort also seem simpler than they are, employing harmonies and chord changes that often wander off the straightforward folk-wordsmith reservation. His thumbnail sketches veer from rollicking ranchera (“Going Home”) to Panhandle chamber pop (secular hymn “All That You Know”), with some songs incorporating idiosyncratic shadings of gospel and rolling R&B. He plays piano and employs an arsenal of acoustic guitars (a Martin D-18, a Guild JF-30, an Alvarez 12-string, and a $50 pawnshop nylon-string) to underpin his melodies, while a spare, yet in-the-pocket rhythm section winds through several tunes. The core of each track was cut live, and they all crackle with the electricity of musicians playing in synch and in the same room.

The opener, “Happy,” an unabashed celebration of living that also serves as a witty takedown of brooding songwriters who court sorrow for inspiration, is powered by kick drum and chugging guitar as it builds to a honky-tonk crescendo. In other songs, the music is stripped to a single dominant instrument—the barstool piano that supports Fullbright’s roughed-up delivery on “She Knows”; the cyclical, fingerpicked guitar figure that winds through the plaintive “Until You Were Gone.” Regardless of the song’s setting, Fullbright sings with deadpan, poetic precision about the conflicted heart: He caresses precious moments as they slip away on the Wurlitzerdriven “All That You Know”; identifies with the hard-pressed lovers “running on a razor blade” in “Keeping Hope Alive”; and laments accidental tragedy mired in mud and rain in the elemental “High Road,” which quotes the misty Scottish ballad “Loch Lomond.” If there is a through line to Songs, it’s an examination of the act of writing—how we use words to order experience and make sense of the world. Yet with casual, cutting humor, Fullbright acknowledges that the world may indeed be senseless, and his economic verses marry the lyricism of 1970s folk-pop to the scalpel-like surety of crime noir novelist Dashiell Hammett. You may not notice the lean, whiplash phrase “I spent the coin I used to toss” when Fullbright casually drops it into the surging rocker “Never Cry Again,” but it lingers long after. While Fullbright’s songs pulse with urgency, they also sound like lost ’70s FM radio classics that got trapped in the ether. It’s no accident. With this layered, rewarding collection of mostly acoustic-based pop gems, Fullbright conjures a world where the perfect record can change your life. AG


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PLAYLIST | MIXED MEDIA

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90 August 2014

Keb’ Mo’

Carlene Carter

BluesAmericana Kind of Blue Music

Carter Girl Rounder/Concord

New album harkens back to Mo’s better blues

Former new-wave wild child keeps the circle unbroken

Keb’ Mo’ makes clear from the get-go that Blues Americana will not be the lackluster R&B/litejazz/blues-rock schlock that his last disc, The Reflection, was. Sputtering into motion with drums and an elastic bass line, it clicks into gear with simple banjo picking and mandolin strumming in “The Worst Is Yet to Come,” an edgy and uncomfortable song, despite its nice, sweet shuffle. It also happens to contain one of the album’s lyrical highlights: “Got back to my house / Opened up the door / She took everything I had / And the dog took a s*** on the floor.” That’s a hard opening statement to follow, but Mo’ manages to continue his BluesAmericana journey with several compelling stylistic twists and turns—from the spare guitar intro and Holy Ghost vocal harmonies that fire up the gospel-ish “Somebody Hurt You” to the raw and shimmering resonator that gives way to straightforward modern blues in “I’m Gonna Be Your Man” (wherein he quotes Muddy Waters’ “I’m a full-grown man!”); from the acoustic- and pedal-steel-fueled contemporary country of “For Better or Worse” to his signature acoustic country-blues fingerpicking on “More For Your Money.” Mo’ gives ’50s bluesman Jimmy Rogers’ “That’s Alright” the menacing spit and swagger of a bar-band performance, and adds the celebratory crackle of early New Orleans jazz—sousaphone, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, banjo, and a big flatulent tuba—to the delightful “Old Me Better,” a song about slowing down that contains the album’s second-best lyrics: “I like the old me better—I was a lot more fun.” That’s for sure. But this set proves that the new Mo’ still has a little of the old mojo.

Even back in her days as a new waver, Carlene Carter never strayed far from her roots, channeling the spirit of her mother (June Carter Cash), aunts (Anita and Helen Carter), and grandmother (Maybelle Carter) in every twang and pluck. Now 58, she closes the circle on Carter Girl, embracing past and present with such standards as “Gold Watch and Chain” alongside her own “Me and the Wildwood Rose” (a song about traveling with her grandmother), and “Lonesome Valley 2003,” about the deaths of her mother and stepfather Johnny Cash. Some songs, such as “Troublesome Water”—a duet with Willie Nelson—hew closer to the original Carter spirit than others. One track, “I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow,” includes actual overdubbed ’60s vocals by Anita, Helen, June, and Johnny, with Cowboy Jack Clement on guitar. But even the ones that sound the most contemporary—courtesy of an LA/Nashville electric band that includes drummer Jim Keltner, electric and steel guitarist Greg Leisz, and producer Don Was on bass—remain true to the family’s core as its music evolved from the 1920s to the ’70s. Carter plays acoustic guitar on almost every song, hard-strumming the fast ones, gently fingerpicking the slow ones, and always locking in the rhythm. She has Carter-style picking in her DNA, as she makes clear throughout, driving these songs with a high-octane version of Maybelle’s scratch while leaving the solos to Leisz, Val McCallum, and Blake Mills, who hover adeptly between country and country rock. It’s a loving tribute that does justice to these songs, and lets Carlene Carter take her rightful place at the center of a living, breathing tradition.

—MARK SEGAL KEMP

—KENNY BERKOWITZ

Bradford Lee Folk & the Bluegrass Playboys Somewhere Far Away BradfordLeeFolk.com

It may not be pure bluegrass, but the voice is high and lonesome With a last name like “Folk” and a band called “the Bluegrass Playboys,” it wouldn’t be a stretch to guess that Bradford Lee Folk respects tradition. His sweet, high-lonesome tenor certainly sounds like the voice of a guy who spent his childhood sequestered in a bedroom spinning old Bill Monroe records, honing every delicate hiccup and bittersweet moan. But you can also hear the spirit of punk and more progressive strains of bluegrass in these songs—a devil-may-care attitude blended with a casual, freewheeling delivery that puts heart before technical precision. “Foolish Game of Love” rollicks out of the gate like a long-lost track from Old & in the Way, with Folk bemoaning the lie of the romantic Hallmark card while understated banjo, fiddle, mandolin, rhythm and fingerpicked guitar, and a soft upright bass chug along behind. The playing is solid, but this is no platform for instrumental showmanship—the spotlight is on Folk’s singing. And what a terrific instrument! His voice conjures the richness and nuance of vocalists ranging from Monroe to Ricky Skaggs, as Folk puts just the right emotional emphasis on key words and syllables. The lyrics are another thing. Folk writes in an awkwardly primitive stream-of-consciousness that reads like a series of non sequiturs, but still manages somehow to come off as poetry when he’s singing. The music may not be bluegrass with a capital “B,” and the lyrics aren’t even Dylan with a small “d,” but Bradford Lee Folk has nonetheless managed to deliver a solid set of country string-band-backed singing in a homemade project that’s worthy of attention. —MSK

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Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain Nonesuch

The prolific songwriter reframes his jittery desperation

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“Life’s a rollercoaster—keep your arms inside,” Conor Oberst sings in “You Are Your Mother’s Child,” on Upside Down Mountain, his first collection of new music in three years, and you’d better heed his warning. Built on a framework of compelling folk storytelling, the album’s very name conjures cognitive dissonance. Over gently rolling, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, “You Are Your Mother’s Child” unfurls seemingly innocuous family moments—little-league games, trick-or-treating, grad-uation—but being Oberst, he gives them a dark twist, referring to a parent’s love as “protective poison,” thereby deliberately undercutting the burnished Hallmark glow. In these 11 songs, Oberst seeks solace amid life’s emotional storms, but he’s not balancing some new “mature” vision against his earlier, jittery emo outlook. Rather, the album’s slideglossed, organ-splashed arrangements weave an ornate Arabian Nights rug—which Oberst pulls from under your feet with pitch-black details, like the body that’s washed ashore in the noir-ish “Desert Island Questionnaire.” For every lifecoach exhortation to “just cross the bridge” (which comes in the wah-wah-drenched “Double Life”), a crumbling mask reveals desperation. Throughout the album, Oberst’s anxious vocals ride atop liquid, fingerpicked acoustics, cantering country rhythms, and a hazy chamberpop ambiance. Added layers of instrumentation, hallucinogenic in their lushness, include player piano, gated drums, and spidery electric guitars. Framing Oberst’s disturbing pop and folk storytelling with candy-floss production, the singer reveals a world turned upside down, where the best coping mechanism may be prizing love, no matter how damaged or fleeting. —PAT MORAN

EVENTS

Ontario bound: Amanda Rheaume

August Pickathon Happy Valley, Oregon AUGUST 1 – 3 pickathon.com

This year Pickathon takes another step toward its goal of being “the best weekend festival of the year.” And with a glance at the impressive 2014 lineup, that step looks more like a leap. Readying their fingers for a three-day marathon picking session this year are Jonathan Richman, Nickel Creek, X, Valerie June, Robbie Fulks, the Sadies, Della Mae, Willie Watson, Love as Laughter, and more. Bring your reusables—it’s a no-plastics zone for cups, dishware and utensils.

Country on the River Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin AUGUST 7 – 9 countryontheriver.com

The young country fest turns 5 this summer with a little help from friends Tracy Lawrence, the

PHOTO BY SEAN SISK

Band Perry, Jason Aldean, Sawyer Brown, and Trick Pony. This year, the very good music will mix with a very good cause—as Operation Troop Aid was recently named the festival’s “official charity,” with a portion of proceedings from the event going to the nonprofit which provides care packages for U.S. service members.

Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Lyons, Colorado AUGUST 15 – 17 bluegrass.com/folks

The 2014 high-altitude showcase will include Ani DiFranco, Josh Ritter, Elephant Revival, Peter Himmelman, Imelda May, a songwriters forum, and its usual mix of mountain air and folk-music blare in what’s called the “summit on the song” in Estes Park.

Philadelphia Folk Festival Upper Salford, Philadelphia AUGUST 15 - 17 pfs.org

For the 53 rd incarnation of the Philadelphia Folksong Society’s annual barnyard blowout, the Old Pool Farm will be herding such guitar grazers as Loudon Wainwright III, Old Crow

Medicine Show, the Lone Bellow, the Steep Canyon Rangers, as well as festival regulars Janis Ian, Shemekia Copeland, and Tempest. Bring the kids—not only is family camping encouraged, but there’s a load of fun for the young’uns, including arts and crafts, roaming jugglers, storytelling, and a chance to perform live as part of the Great Groove Band.

Summerfolk Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada AUGUST 15 - 17 summerfolk.org

The festival that is “all about stories—whether sung, spoken, crafted, or lived” continues for its 39th year with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Oh Susanna, t h e Opposite of Everything, Amanda Rheaume, Our Shotgun Wedding, the Walkervilles, and plenty more guitar slinging and frenzied flatpicking. (The festival has had its rainy years, so plan accordingly!) And in a prefestival salute to a fellow-Canadian, Summerfolk presents the Songs of Neil Young on August 13 at the Harmony Center in Owen Sound, featuring Our Shotgun Wedding, the Choir That Rocks, the Mackenzie Blues Band, the Sons of Perry, and more than enough “my my, hey heys” to go around. AG


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GREAT ACOUSTICS

Flower power: Bedell’s ‘Lucky Strike’ orchestra model

A Tale of Two Trees Bedell’s Lucky Strike combines conservation, extraordinary tonewoods, and one awesome big-fish story BY PAT MORAN

L

ucky Strike’s story begins in not one, but two primeval forests. The one-of-a-kind guitar—the signature instrument in Bedell’s new Antiquity series—was made from wood harvested in both a Central American jungle and a Northern California redwood forest. The Central American wood came from a tree in the Mayan Jungle known famously as “The Tree,” a felled Honduran mahogany giant estimated to be 500 years old when it was discovered in 1965. Wood from the Tree—a source of specialty guitars made by companies ranging from Breedlove and Santa Cruz to Taylor and Martin—is visually stunning, quilted mahogany, the sets from it yielding a warm, focused tone. The Northern California redwood used in Lucky Strike was nearly 500 years old when a massive storm sent it crashing to the Humboldt County forest floor. It lay suspended above a ravine, air-drying for more than 30 years,

attaining the tonal warmth of cedar and the clarity of spruce. Dubbed “Lucky Strike,” due to the fortuitous circumstances that insured the wood’s quality, the redwood was discovered and harvested in 1993. Named for the latter, Bedell’s Lucky Strike Orchestra is the result of pairing woods from these two extraordinary trees: coupling the Honduran mahogany back and side sets from the Tree with a California redwood top from the Lucky Strike. An African-ebony fretboard and a nitro-gloss finish complete the guitar’s stylish appearance. The Lucky Strike Orchestra is the poster child for Bedell’s “Seed to Song” wood procurement process, in which the company relies exclusively on sustainably harvested trees, many salvaged from forest floors. The process begins with a simple question that Tom Bedell, the company’s president, poses in a

conversation about the eco-friendly initiative: “How do you build the finest guitars that nature will allow and not harm the forest?” A key part of the Seed to Song package is the literature—included with each instrument— that “tells the story behind the wood used in that guitar,” Bedell says. And it is here that the story of Lucky Strike takes an unexpected turn, involving the family of a country music legend. “The person who sourced the Lucky Strike tonewood for us was told that Craig Carter, a relative of June Carter Cash’s, harvested this redwood, and that the tree was found on June’s property,” Bedell says. That tale had already gone into the company’s literature when genealogy research into the Carter family tree uncovered a dead end. “We found the chart for June Carter Cash and her extended family, but Craig Carter was not on it.” Despite the haziness of the June Carter Cash connection, the tale behind the Bedell Antiquity Lucky Strike remains rich and remarkable, and while Bedell stresses that better vetting of the stories is essential, most important are the instrument’s sound and look. “Tonally, mahogany from the Tree has a warmer midrange than rosewood and it’s not as bright as maple,” Bedell says. “The magic of the ‘Lucky Strike’ is that its natural drying process has resulted in the warmth of redwood with the power and projection of spruce.” Visually, a design grace note caps the guitarmaking process begun in those two forests long ago. A gold mother-of-pearl sunflower-shaped inlay surrounds the sound hole of the Lucky Strike. That sunflower is a reminder of the sun gods that protected the Mayan Jungle when both the Tree and the Lucky Strike first sprouted 500 years ago. In that respect, Bedell says, “Pairing the Tree with the Lucky Strike redwood is literally a marriage made in heaven.” AG

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 #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Pitney Bowes International Mail Services, P.O. Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. Postmaster: Please make changes online at AcousticGuitar.com or send to Acoustic Guitar, String Letter Publishing, Inc., PO Box 3500, Big Sandy, TX 75755.

98 August 2014

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NOTES

Unplugged since 1833.

This 1939 000-42 (EC) was built during a time when everything was unplugged. And it still sounded sweet during its legendary 1992 performance. www.martinguitar.com

Acoustic Guitar 260.pdf

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