Labels: Oasis; Guitar Smashing; Guitar News Daily

bizjournals.com


The Business Journal of Milwaukee

In memory of Waukesha native Les Paul, Musicnotes.com of Madison and Alfred Music Publishing have joined to offer a free online guitar lesson and guitar tab download of the song the legendary guitarist and inventor used to close his performances in New York City.

Visitors to Musicnotes.com, an online publisher of sheet music, is offering a free interactive Guitar Guru Session and guitar tab download of the song "Over the Rainbow" through Sept. 2. Guitar Guru is Musicnotes' guitar tutorial software.

The arrangement being offered was arranged by Grammy award-winning artist Aaron Stang, from Alfred Music Publishing, to match the performance recorded by Les Paul and Chet Atkins and featured on the album, "Masters of the Guitar - Together."

"Les Paul closed every show at the legendary jazz club Iridium in New York City with an instrumental version of this song," said Tim Reiland, chairman of Musicnotes.com. "This song has a very emotional meaning for musicians everywhere."

Les Paul, guitar legend and inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, died Aug. 13 in a New York hospital at the age of 94.

In lieu of payment, Musicnotes and Alfred Music Publishing encourage users who choose to download the song to send donations to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 W. 30th St., Seventh Floor, New York, N.Y., 10001.

A video of Les Paul performing the song from his 1988 concert "Les Paul & Friends" is available on YouTube.

Labels: 1951 Les Paul, Free Down Load, Guitar News Daily

sheboyganpress.com


Man accused of hitting son with guitar gets jail

An illegal immigrant accused of fracturing his son's skull with a toy guitar while trying to hit his wife has been sentenced to jail after accepting a plea agreement in a convoluted case that included a mistrial and a verdict overturned due to juror misconduct, according to court records released Thursday.

The case centers on 25-year-old Israel Gutierrez, a Sheboygan resident who police said swung the guitar at his wife in August 2008 after she made a comment to him as he watched TV. The errant blow struck his 13-month-old son's head, causing a skull fracture and a hemorrhage between the brain and the inside of his skull, according to a criminal complaint.

After two trials failed to resolve the allegations of child abuse, the two sides finalized a plea deal Monday under which a felony child abuse was amended to misdemeanor battery and Gutierrez pleaded no contest to that and two new charges of misdemeanor resisting or obstructing an officer.

"He's been sitting (in jail) for more than a year. He's going to be deported," said District Attorney Joe DeCecco. "After two trials we didn't think it was advisable to continue."

Judge L. Edward Stengel sentenced Gutierrez on Monday to 15 months in jail, though he was also given credit for 380 days spent behind bars while the case progressed. Gutierrez will spend another two and a half months in jail before being deported.

According to court records:

Gutierrez was charged with felony child abuse and misdemeanor battery, the latter charge for a bruised arm his wife suffered while attempting to block the guitar.

A jury in April convicted Gutierrez of battery but hung on the child abuse charge, court records show. A second jury convened June 3 on the child abuse charge and convicted Gutierrez in a trial that lasted less than seven hours.

But the second verdict came under scrutiny after one juror, in a post-trial conversation with Gutierrez's attorney, said another juror had been biased due to the defendant's illegal immigrant status. All jurors had been asked during jury selection if that status would affect their judgment of guilt, and none said it would.

During a recess in the trial, however, one juror told the other he should have acknowledged his bias, saying, "As soon as I heard that..." and then making the out signal used by baseball umpires. Jurors are forbidden from discussing a case while a trial is ongoing.

Gutierrez's attorney then sought to have the jury verdict thrown out, and Stengel granted that request June 26.

Labels: guitar crime, Guitar News Daily

tmz.com

August 23, 2009

Vinnie Vincent Is Suing Kiss Again TMZ is reporting that former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has sued the band several times since he left the group back in 1984 -- but this time he's thrown a cable network into the mix.

Vincent is suing the band, along with A&E Television Networks, for using his image without his permission. According to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Vincent claims his image was used in a DVD boxed set called "Kissology Volume II." In addition to that, Vincent claims his image was used as part of the "roast" episode of A&E's show "Gene Simmons Family Jewels."

Vincent also claims Simmons defamed him on an A&E show called "Private Sessions," though he doesn't specify what defamatory statements were made.

Vincent is seeking unspecified damages.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Kiss, Vinnie Vincent

Texas claims the Guiness World Record for largest group of guitar pickers

The Americans it seems have beaten the Germans again. This time, the event was for the Guinness World record of most guitar players playing simultaneously or as it is recorded in the Guinness book, the largest guitar ensemble. Until this past Sunday, August 23rd, 1,802 participants in Leinfelden-Echterdingen Germany held the record. The German participants, led by Andreas Vockrodt, played 'Smoke on the Water' simultaneously led by the band 'Party Blues in Bb' on June 26th, 2007. The Germans had taken the title when they broke the record that was previously held by 1,683 guitar players playing Smoke on the Water in Kansas City on June 3rd 2007.



The record came back to the USA when a crowd of 1857 guitar pickers braved the 100+ degree heat in Luckenbach, Texas to bring the record back to the USA and more importantly, to Texas. The idea for breaking the record came up when organizers from the Kerrville Folk Festival got together with some folks from Cheatham Street Warehouse, a music venue in San Marcos, Texas to talk about a potential fundraiser for The Welcome Home Project. Once the project was a go, progress for the event was posted on the Voices of a Grateful Nation website. Visitors to the site got periodic updates on the event including the number of signed registrants. As the day of the event drew near, there was still some doubt if the event was going to bring in the amount of guitar players needed to break the record.

The day of the event, there was a steady stream of people that began arriving early in the morning. By 2:00pm, the crowd of guitar players and their friends and family as well as others who had come to listen the some great country music, were all assembled in front of the stage. At around 2:30, the last registered guitar player was counted. The all star band on stage led Gary P Nunn, Monte Montgomery, Jimmy LaFave, John Arthur Martinez, and many others got the crowd fired up by announcing that the record had been broken. All that was left was for everyone with a guitar to play simultaneously for 5 minutes. After a quick refresher on how to play the G chord, all 1857 guitar players began playing the Luckenbach Song (Back to the Basics of Love).

The song, which was obviously the only one appropriate for the event, was recorded in 1977 by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson and put Luckenbach Texas on the map for good. The small town has never looked back and if the Germans or anyone else tries to take the record back, I'm sure we'll again be paying a visit to Luckenbach where you can always find a cold Shiner Beer and where "Everybody's Somebody".

Labels: Guiness World Record, Guitar News Daily

Press Release from the good folks over at Guyatone:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Guyatone introduces new "mighty micro" series of professional-quality effectsGodlyke, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of the second batch of Guyatone mighty micro series compact effect pedals.
Based on Guyatone's award-winning Micro Series effects, the mighty micros offer professional-grade features and exceptional sound quality in an ultra-compact, lightweight chassis that is 33% smaller and 50% lighter than the average stompbox.
The Guyatone mighty micros offer many improvements and additional features that Guyatone users have demanded, all packed into a rugged enclosure that retains the same-sized footprint as the original Micro Series effects.
New features include:
- Lightweight, ultra-durable cast-aluminum chassis
- Top-mounted, no-tools battery compartment with "Smart Screw" and battery "Load Scope"
- Mechanical True Bypass Switching
- Ultra-Bright status LED is easily visible on dark stages
- Professional-grade component selection offers improved sound quality
- Cast Aluminum "Stomp Guard" protects Controls from damage or accidental adjustment
- Adjustable Input Attenuators allow use with any instrument or input signal
- Glow-In-The-Dark Washer for Bypass Switch offers improved visibility on dark stages
- Additional Controls with improved Functionality provide greater tonal options
- Top-mounted jacks save space on crowded pedalboards
- 3-Year Warranty
The second round of mighty micro models will be available in summer, 2009 and features the following models:
MCm5 Micro Chorus - Analog Chorus with Panasonic MN3207 IC and true bypass switching.
STm5 Compressor/Sustainer - VCA Compressor with 3080 OpAmp and true bypass switching
SVm5 Slow Volume - New features include Release and Attenuator control for use with various input signals.
TZm5 Torrid Fuzz - Transistor Fuzz can reproduce classic or modern distortion tones.
For more information on the new Guyatone mighty micro effects, or the complete line of Guyatone products, please visit our website at http://www.guyatone.com/. New dealer inquiries welcome.

Labels: Aerosmith; guitar news, Guyatone, pedals

AEROSMITH READY TO STRIKE BACK AT FRONTMAN STEVEN TYLER

August 20, 2009
sleazeroxx.com

Aerosmith Ready To Strike Back At Frontman Steven Tyler Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa of the Boston Herald report that Aerosmith isn't breaking up, but the rock 'n' roll legends are going on strike until lead singer Steven Tyler straightens up - and sobers up, according to band sources.

"Truthfully, he's a liability for the band," one source told the Track . "He's uninsurable because of all the accidents and cancelled dates."

Steven, 61, who had been the poster boy for the 12 steps, has fallen off the wagon hard and was partying like a teenager at the 69th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota where he fell off the stage during a show, we're told.

As you know by now, the Bad Boys of Boston had to scrap their summer tour last week after Tyler's fall, which left the frontman with a broken left shoulder and 20 stitches in his head.

Since the Sturgis drama the frontman hasn't picked up the phone to call his longtime bandmates Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford, sources said.

Instead, we hear, Tyler's new management company, Union Entertainment Group, dispatches health updates and other Steven news via e-mail to the band's longtime managers Howard Kaufman and Trudy Green .

(Steven's manager John Greenberg at UEG didn't return e-mails yesterday seeking comment.)

"Everyone is very worried about him," said another source who wished to remain anonymous. "All of this didn't happen overnight. Sturgis was just the final straw."

So now, Tyler's bandmates have decided to go on strike from working on their final album for Sony until Steven is "sober and gets healthy," sources told the Track.

The tough love comes a week after a YouTube video was posted of a frail Tyler making a purchase at Pembroke Center Liquors .

But the real scary part of the packie run was the photo that showed the cadaverous singer posing with a fan while wearing a sling and what looked like a pair of Johnny Depp's Willie Wonka shades.

The frightening photo of the father of four was quite the talker on the Internet where, you know, people are so polite and respectful . . .

"Steven is delusional if he thinks the band is going back into the studio this fall," said one of our Aerospies. "It's not happening."

In other words, Dream On, Steven.

Other F.O.T.s think that Tyler, who took up with now-former Live Nation tour accountant Erin Brady after his 17-year marriage busted up, has surrounded himself with sycophants and other hangers-on who "think they're going to cash in on this guy."

"The band fears he's going to end up broke," said the source, adding that Tyler was talked into selling his publishing company for $20 million a few months ago.

Tyler's frail bod has taken many a blow over the past year. The summer tour, which kicked off June 10 and was supposed to wrap up Sept. 16, seemed to be medically cursed.

Steven had a sore leg muscle forcing the cancellation of seven shows in July. (Over the past year, he's been treated for pneumonia and went into rehab in May 2008 when he got hooked on painkillers after foot surgeries.)

But Tyler hasn't been the only member of Aerosmith beset by poor health this year. Bassist Tom Hamilton, who has been battling cancer, had to leave the summer tour for "noninvasive surgery."

And guitar man Brad Whitford missed seven shows after surgery for an injury he suffered after hitting his head exiting his Ferrari.

So, as ever, do stay tuned.

Labels: Aerosmith, Guitar News Daily

The Oregonian


BEAVERTON -- You'd think a guy who apparently loves music would know "The Jig Is Up" in one note.

But apparently not. Sunday night at 9:47, a burglar found himself locked inside the Guitar Center at 9575 S.W. Cascade Ave., as the burglar alarm blared the only note it knows.

Maxwell McCain, 18, later told police he was there to lift a $1,000 bass guitar.

As the alarm sounded, he grabbed the bass and $25,000 in other instruments, police said, piled them at a rear exit and waited for a getaway driver.
Corey Fields

Beaverton police got there first. Once McCain realized police were outside, they said, he hid in the store until a police dog flushed him out. He was being held in the Washington County Jail on accusations of first-degree burglary and first-degree aggravated theft. Police called the alleged driver, Corey Fields, 18, and gave him the choice of coming to the police station or having officers come to his home and waking his folks, said Detective Pam Yazzolino, department spokeswoman.

Fields arrived at the station soon after and was also taken to the jail on accusations of first-degree burglary and theft. Bail for both men was set at $50,000.

McCain hid in the building, then came out after employees locked up for the night, Yazzolino said. After he tripped the alarm, a store representative came out and found the doors locked, Yazzolino said.

The representative didn't see anyone inside but asked police to check the place anyway. After the representative left, McCain apparently thought he was in the clear and began stacking his plunder near the back door.

Labels: guitar crime, Guitar News Daily

AP
MILWAUKEE — Family members, longtime friends and music fans of all ages lined up Friday at a public visitation for Les Paul, the inventor whose creation of the first solid-body electric guitar helped pave the way for rock 'n' roll.

Adam Bollinger never got a chance to see Paul play live.

But the 15-year-old from Plainfield, Ill., knows how important Paul was to rock 'n' roll. That's why he and his mom, Coleen Bollinger, drove two and a half hours to be among the first in line.

"It's just about me paying respects and being here for him," Bollinger said.

Billy Soutar, 46, met Paul in 1985 and struck up a friendship that lasted to Paul's death Aug. 13 in White Plains, N.Y., at age 94.

"He was the kind of guy that no matter how big or lowly you were, he'd be interested in you," Soutar said. "I'm just a schmuck from Chicago who plays guitar. He took me into his house."

Soutar, a musical instrument repairman, drove from Chicago on Friday morning to be at the closed-casket viewing at the Discovery World museum.

It was the public's only chance to pay respects to Paul, and about 1,500 people came during the four-hour viewing, according to the museum.

Paul's closed casket was on display in a small theater in front of a row of windows overlooking Lake Michigan. His music played over loudspeakers. Paul's son Rus and other family members were on hand.

Paul was active until his final days, said his manager, Mike Braunstein of New York.

"Les did not believe in retirement," said Braunstein, whose family has managed Paul's career since the 1930s. "You do work. You go from project to project. ... He left his mark on this planet. Most people don't."

Most of the visitors were like Tim Glander, a music fan who never got to see Paul live.

"It's just my way of saying thank you to him," said Glander, 59, a former school music teacher who drove an hour from Whitewater, Wis.

Paul's New York City funeral on Wednesday, like his burial at Waukesha's Prairie Home Cemetery following the visitation, was private.

Milwaukee native Steve Miller, of the Steve Miller Band, was Paul's godson and attended the private funeral in New York.

Born Lester William Polfuss in 1915 to a German immigrant family in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Paul built his first crystal radio at age 9, about the time he first picked up a guitar.

Nicknamed the "Wizard of Waukesha," Paul built his first electric guitar prototype in 1929 and the first solid-body version 12 years later. Gibson began mass-producing a six-string electric guitar based on his design in 1952.

Versions of that guitar became the standard in rock music, used by such guitar heroes as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.

Paul also was a master in the studio, developing technology and recording techniques that set the standard in the industry. They included using tape echo, multitrack recordings and overdubs.

He was a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Les Paul

necn.com

Shreveport, LA - Hundreds crowded into a Shreveport, Louisiana venue Saturday (8/22) at an attempt to break a Guinness Book world record for the largest guitar ensemble.

But their attempt fell short.

According to Guinness officiators, 875 enthusiastic and talented people from across the globe came out to try their hand at breaking the record.

To beat the record, the crowd of participants had to play for five minutes, simply following the band's lead with no improvisation.

The current record was set in Germany in 2007 with 1,802 people tallied.

Guitar legend James Burton says he wan't disappointed by the failed attempt.

Burton says he and his friends will continue to try to break the record until they pull it off.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, James Burton

wlos.com

August 21, 2009 14:29 EDT

LONDON (AP) -- A city in central England has a request for two street performers.

Stop.

In fact, it's more than a request. The Birmingham City Council has banned the two men from performing there for two years.

It's not just that they're bad -- it's that they've been repeating the same two songs, over and over. And out of tune.

The songs are "Wonderwall" by Oasis and "Faith" by George Michael.

One of the men plays guitar. The other uses garbage can lids to accompany him.

Both are barred from entering a Birmingham suburb and playing musical instruments there.

Labels: Buskers Banned, Guitar News Daily

warwickcourier.co.uk

Tens of thousands of pounds have been offered to a Leamington guitar shop owner for his prized internet address. But 37-year-old Richard Cholerton says the domain name guitars.co.uk for his Richard's Guitars shop, in Regent Street, is worth much more than the £35,000 tabled by an internet advertising company. He turned down the money because he sees the address as being vital to the business, which has provided him with "therapy" after difficult times.

Mr Cholerton said: "The offer was in line with the advertising revenue they thought someone could get with that domain name.

"But it is worth so much more to me on a personal level - I know the value of using it as a vehicle for what I do and it is fundamental to that.

"It has enabled me to live the life which makes me feel good about what I do."

Mr Cholerton first opened Regent Guitars at the same premises just a year after being treated for Hodgkin's disease.

He ran the business from 1995 to 2008 and it was during this time that he paid £10,000 for the internet address.

After an initial boom in trade Mr Cholerton said the business became a "victim of its own success" and trade suffered as he took on more staff, attempted to branch out and start different projects.

Under much stress, Mr Cholerton closed the business and opened under the new name and with a more manageable approach.

He now runs the shop with only one other member of staff and stays logged on 24 hours a day, even while on holiday, to deal with each customer individually.

He said: "In every industry if a business grows it can't provide the same level of customer service as when it started out - you can only give that service if you are a certain size or scale.

"I was very stressed, I didn't want to be part of this growing empire and I took on a bit too much. Now the business is still an integral part of my life but in a positive healthy way.

"It's purely about the guitars and I love it because it is how it all started for me."

Mr Cholerton said the website gets between 800 and 1,000 visits a day, allowing him to sell about 20 specialist guitars each week without having to spend any money on advertising.

The site also showcases the work of skilled guitar-makers.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, guitars.co.uk

Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan has requested former 'Guns N' Roses' rocker Slash to teach her guitar.

The singer-and-actress wants the rocker to help her brush up on her strumming skills, as reported.

"Can you maybe give me guitar lessons? I've lost any sort of magic touch I've ever had," Lohan said.

Lohan - who has previously released two pop albums - earlier took guitar classes for her role in 2003's 'Freaky Friday'. Slash is no stranger to helping musicians improve their skills.

On the last series of 'American Idol', he appeared as a mentor and showed the budding performers how to vow the audiences with their stage presence.

Slash recently revealed he would rather play guitar for 'Black Eyed Peas' singer Fergie than reform Guns N' Roses - the band he left in 1996. Slash joined Fergie on stage at two shows, performing a medley of hits by the 'Black Eyed Peas' and 'Guns N' Roses' classic 'Sweet Child O Mine'.

Ads by Google Blues Guitar DVD Course Play like Eric Clapton, Duane Allman. As seen on Gibson.www.learningguitarnoFlamenco Guitar Lessons Private Spanish Guitar Lessons in San Diego. All ages and levels!www.SanDiegoGuitarLeGuitar Lessons On DVD All styles fun and easy Guitar teacher Robert Deanwww.theroaddogz.com

Speaking after one performance, he said, "Fergie's the only way you'll hear Slash right now."

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Guns N' Roses, Lindsay Lohan, Slash

Billboard.com

DETROIT- As he continues to work on his own boxed set retrospective, Stephen Stills has mined past recordings for a pair of fall archival releases.

On September 22 the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist will release "Manassas -- Pieces," a 15-song collection of outtakes and rarities -- "The bits and pieces we were silly enough to leave off," Stills writes in the liner notes. Manassas, the country rock band he formed in 1971 with Chris Hillman, of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, released two albums: a self-titled two-disc set in 1972 and "Down the Road" in 1973.

"Pieces" includes alternate versions of two "Down the Road" songs, "Do You Remember the Americans" and "Lies," the latter featuring Joe Walsh on guitar. It also features Manassas versions of "Word Game" and "Sugar Babe," which first appeared on "Stephen Stills 2" in 1971, as well as "Like a Fox," which features a then-fledgling Bonnie Raitt on backing vocals.

In the "Pieces" liner notes, Stills writes fondly of Manassas as "the first steel-guitar-driven country/rock band that any of us can remember ... Whatever else has been said about this time of immense creativity, what Manassas turned out was a collection of material that remains the precursor of virtually all of the Nashville country rock productions that followed during the next decade. The energy is unrepentant, the creativity irrepressible, and the value of these recordings irrefutable."

Stills will follow "Pieces" with the October 27 release of "Live at Shepherd's Bush," a CD/DVD set recorded and filmed last fall at a Stills solo show in England. The collection features both solo acoustic and full-band sets, as well as songs from Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young), Manassas, the Stills-Young Band and Stills' solo recordings, along with covers of Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country" and Tom Petty's "Wrong Thing to Do."

There's no word on when Stills' boxed set will be released or of plans for a recording of him jamming with Jimi Hendrix in 1968. Stills' last studio album, "Man Alive!," came out in 2005. He, David Crosby and Graham Nash are recording a covers album with producer Rick Rubin.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Stephen Stills

bizjournals.com



At the request of his family, Discovery World will host a public viewing on Friday for Waukesha-born guitar legend and inventor Les Paul.

Members of the public are invited to pay their respects from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Discovery World Promenade where Paul, who passed away last week at the age of 94, will lie "in repose" in a closed casket. Doors will open at 9 a.m.

Visitors will be able to post their remembrances of Les Paul and thoughts for the family at Discovery World. The museum's "Les Paul’s House of Sound" exhibit will be free and open to the public during the service. Discovery World also will show Les Paul’s final Wisconsin concert in 2008 from the Pabst Theater as part of the tribute.

The visitation and tribute at Discovery World will be held prior to a private family service at the Prairie Home Cemetery in Waukesha.

Paul was one of the foremost influences on 20th-century sound and responsible for the world's most famous guitar, the Les Paul model. Paul's prestigious career in music and invention spans from the 1930s to the present. Though he's indisputably one of America's most popular, influential and accomplished electric guitarists, Paul is best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid-body guitar.

In lieu of flowers or other memorials, well-wishers are encouraged to make contributions to the Les Paul Foundation at 236 W. 30th St., 7th floor, New York, N.Y., 10001.

Labels: 1951 Les Paul, Guitar News Daily

billboard.com

Jim Dickinson, a musician and producer who helped shape the Memphis sound in a career that spanned more than four decades, died Saturday (Aug. 15). He was 67.

His wife, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, said he died in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital after three months of heart and intestinal bleeding problems.

The couple lived in Hernando, Miss., but Dickinson recently had bypass surgery and was undergoing rehabilitation at Methodist University Hospital, his wife said.

Jim Dickinson, perhaps best known as the father of Luther and Cody Dickinson, two-thirds of the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars, managed an outsider's career in an insider's industry. He recorded with and produced greats like Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Big Star, the Rolling Stones, The Replacements and Sam & Dave.

His work in the 1960s and '70s is still influential as young artists rediscover the classic sound of Memphis from that era - a melting pot of rock, pop, blues, country, and rhythm and blues.

"I think he was an incredibly influential individual," Big Star drummer Jody Stephens said Saturday. "I think he defined independent spirit in music, and I think that touched a lot of people."

Dickinson's music was informed by his eclectic and encyclopedic record collection - sold off and rebuilt a few times over the years, usually around Christmas - and his wide array of friends.

"As a producer, it really is all about taste," Jim Dickinson said in a 2008 interview with The Associated Press. "And I'm not the greatest piano player in the world, but I've got damn good taste. I'll sit down and go taste with anybody."

A dabbler in music while in college and later in shows at the famed Overton Park Shell in Memphis, Dickinson was on his way to becoming "a miserable history teacher." But his wife insisted he focus on his music after watching him play shows with the blues legends of Memphis.

"They were rediscovering Furry Lewis and Sleepy John Estes, Rev. Robert Wilkins, these talents that were like gods," Mary Lindsay Dickinson said in 2008. "They were street sweepers. They were yard men. They had no money, no fame, even though they'd invented this style, this musical style that was changing the world. When I saw what he could do with them - he thought he was gonna be a history teacher - I said, 'No, no, no, no, let's try music and see what happens."

Jim Dickinson moved around, traveling with both his own projects and as a sideman until his sons were born. He gave up the road and the lifestyle, built a home studio and settled in to the hard-scrabble life of the independent producer that he jokingly compared to hustling.

His sense of humor, gift for storytelling and open door kept musicians filing through his studio and kitchen as his sons grew up. He took an interest in the boys' music as another father might his sons' baseball career, even drawing Luther and Cody into his own bands. They last released an album together as Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger in 2006.

"Growing up he would play piano and electric guitar and it just always fascinated me, and I always had a little toy guitar of some sort around," Luther Dickinson said in 2008. "And I've really been blessed because I always knew what I wanted to do and it was totally because of my dad and his friends."

Dickinson's career touched on some of the most important music made in the '60s and '70s. He recorded the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" in Muscle Shoals, Ala.; formed the Atlantic Records house band The Dixie Flyers to record with Franklin and other R&B legends in Miami; inspired a legion of indie rock bands through his work with Big Star; collaborated with Ry Cooder on a number of movie scores, including "Paris, Texas;" and played with Dylan on his Grammy-winning return to prominence, "Time Out of Mind."

He credited his work with Big Star on "Third/Sister Lovers" with keeping his tape reels turning over the years, and Stephens found Dickinson's fingerprints all over the album when he listened to it recently.

"There's so many contributions from people that Jim either brought in or helped steer," Stephens said. "And sometimes a brilliant decision is to do nothing, allow space and that sort of thing. His keyboard part in 'Kizza Me' is this great fractured piano that kind of cascades, like the piano's falling down a flight of steps. I think it was all about the spirit and the emotion."

Dickinson's later work as a producer veered wildly across genres, skipping from Mudhoney to T Model Ford to Lucero and Amy Lavere.

"I'm not really a success-oriented person," Dickinson said. "If you look back at my records that I've made as a producer, they're pretty left-wing. It's some pretty off-the-wall stuff. Especially in the punk rock days. I literally took clients because I thought it would impress my children. I did work in the '70s and '80s where that was definitely my main motive."

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Jim Dockinson, Rolling Stones

wjz.com

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) ―

University of Maryland engineering professor Bruce Jacob, like many musicians, hears sounds in his head and struggles to find a way to hear those notes with his ears.

So he and two engineering students spent about a year studying and working with the magnets wrapped in copper wire that use vibrations from guitar strings to create the sounds that come out of speakers, amplifiers and recorders.

Late one night, a year into the project, Jacob said he used a circuit board and finally figured out how to create adjustable guitars able to make any kind of sound -- even the ones that matched what he heard in his head.

"People look their whole lives for that tone they had one particular night, or the tone in their mind," Rick Hogue, owner of Garrett Park Guitars in Annapolis and Severna Park, said. "Hendrix said he couldn't get all the things out that were in his head, he couldn't play everything he heard."

Jacob and students Timothy Babich and Justin Ahmanson designed little pegs on the circuit board in the back of their guitars that configure the coils to just the right sound in a few seconds. Then they formed their own business, Coil, to use their patent pending technology in guitars starting at $1,000. They've invested $100,000 in the company and use University of Maryland office space and money from a university research grant to sell the Korean-made instruments.

Beyond just creating a certain tone -- well any tone, really -- Jacob said Coil guitars transcend the presence the instruments have because of the engineering and math he and the students have put into their work.

"These things are pop culture icons, but 90 percent of them are electrical engineering and mathematics," Jacob said.

But Hogue and other industry members aren't excited yet.

"There's been no real good new designs since 1950," Hogue said. "Rock 'n' roll was born on those instruments."

Michael Molenda, editor in chief of Guitar Player, said, people play guitars for a minute or two and instantly know if it's a good guitar. "They either speak to you or not. It either feels nice and sexy in your hands -- 'I've just gotta have this, it feels like an extension of my soul' -- or it doesn't," he said.

Jacob, even if no one else, has that special feeling about his Coil guitar when he remembers the first time he played it during the year of experimenting.

"I plugged it in, and it just leaped to life. I was like, 'Duuuuuuuuuude! It worked!' I was giddy. I was leaping around the house. I was just trying," Jacob said, "to get that sound in my head."

Labels: Cliff's Mountain Guitars, Coil, gitar news daily

fox8.com

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Guitar News Daily

billboard.com

In a statement issued late Thursday, the band's publicist MSO said "it is with great regret" that the band is canceling the rest of its tour because of injuries that frontman Steven Tyler suffered when he fell off the stage during an Aug. 5 performance in South Dakota.

Tyler broke his left shoulder and needed 20 stitches in his head.

The statement said doctors have advised Tyler to take the time to properly recuperate from his injuries.

"Words can't express the sadness I feel for having to cancel this tour," guitarist Joe Perry said in the statement.

Perry said he wanted to thank the band's loyal fans for sticking by them, adding that the band hopes "we can get the Aerosmith machine up and running again as soon as possible."

The statement said ticket refunds for the remaining tour dates will be available at the place of purchase.

Earlier Thursday, Tyler released a lengthy statement thanking the Sturgis, S.D., police department and others who helped him after the fall. The 61-year-old also thanked the band's crew, the helicopter that evacuated him "for getting me outta there before I bled to death" and the doctors and nurses who treated him.

Tyler said thunderstorms delayed the band's set by an hour, then fuses blew and the audio systems failed shortly after the concert began.

"Well, I wasn't gonna go hide under the big top and play 'ROCK STAR' and wait for everything to be fixed," Tyler said. "I wanted to go out to the crowd to continue the show."

He said he was doing "the Tyler shuffle" when he slipped and fell off the edge of the stage.

"I just want to say that I' m plain grateful that I didn't break my neck," he said. "In truth, after thousands of live shows, falling off the edge four times ain't too bad."

Labels: Aerosmith, Guitar News Daily

ksla.com


SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) -A Shreveport guitar legend is gearing up for his annual festival that generates tons of money each year for Shreveport-Bossier children.

For 2009, the James Burton Festival has announced an Elvis theme for this year's festival, which allows local children to receive free guitars.

Organizers gathered at the James Burton Foundation office Friday afternoon in Shreveport to explain.

Even though Elvis and James both played on the Shreveport Hayrides years ago though they never met until Elvis' comeback tour, Elvis' first concert featured Burton.

On Saturday, August 22nd, anyone who can play an acoustic or unplugged electric guitar is invited to be a part of a record breaking event.

Organizers are hoping to get as many people as they can in front of the Municipal Auditorium, located in downtown Shreveport to play Elvis hits.

The plan is to break a Guiness World Record.

Those interested, should know the event starts at 2 p.m. that Friday and then at 7 p.m. that night, the James Burton and Friends concert will take place at the historic Municipal Auditorium on Elvis Presley Ave.

Concert tickets start at $25 and for every $100, a guitar is given to a child.

Labels: Elvis, Guitar News Daily, James Burton

This is one of the best articals I have read about Les Paul this week.
Gibson.com

The World Has Lost a Remarkable Innovator and Musician: Les Paul Passes Away at 94
08.13.2009

New York, NY...August 13, 2009...Les Paul, acclaimed guitar player, entertainer and inventor, passed away today from complications of severe pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York, surrounded by family and loved ones. He had been receiving the best available treatment through this final battle and in keeping with his persona, he showed incredible strength, tenacity and courage. The family would like to express their heartfelt thanks for the thoughts and prayers from his dear friends and fans. Les Paul was 94.

One of the foremost influences on 20th century sound and responsible for the world's most famous guitar, the Les Paul model, Les Paul's prestigious career in music and invention spans from the 1930s to the present. Though he's indisputably one of America's most popular, influential, and accomplished electric guitarists, Les Paul is best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid body guitar. His groundbreaking design would become the template for Gibson's best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, introduced in 1952. Today, countless musical legends still consider Paul's iconic guitar unmatched in sound and prowess. Among Paul's most enduring contributions are those in the technological realm, including ingenious developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects, and the mechanics of sound in general.

Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Les Paul was already performing publicly as a honky-tonk guitarist by the age of 13. So clear was his calling that Paul dropped out of high school at 17 to play in Sunny Joe Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis. As Paul's mentor, Wolverton was the one to christen him with the stage name "Rhubarb Red," a moniker that would follow him to Chicago in 1934. There, Paul became a bona fide radio star, known as both hillbilly picker Rhubarb Red and Django Reinhardt-informed jazz guitarist Les Paul. His first recordings were done in 1936 on an acoustic-alone as Rhubarb Red, as well as backing blues singer Georgia White. The next year he formed his first trio, but by 1938 he'd moved to New York to begin his tenure on national radio with one of the more popular dance orchestras in the country, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians.

Tinkering with electronics and guitar amplification since his youth, Les Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late '30s. Unhappy with the first generation of commercially available hollowbodies because of their thin tone, lack of sustain, and feedback problems, Paul opted to build an entirely new structure. "I was interested in proving that a vibration-free top was the way to go," he has said. "I even built a guitar out of a railroad rail to prove it. What I wanted was to amplify pure string vibration, without the resonance of the wood getting involved in the sound." With the good graces of Epiphone president Epi Stathopoulo, Paul used the Epiphone plant and machinery in 1941 to bring his vision to fruition. He affectionately dubbed the guitar "The Log."

Les Paul's tireless experiments sometimes proved to be dangerous, and he nearly electrocuted himself in 1940 during a session in the cellar of his Queens apartment. During the next two years of rehabilitation, Les earned his living producing radio music. Forced to put the Pennsylvanians and the rest of his career on hold, Les Paul moved to Hollywood. During World War II, he was drafted into the Army but permitted to stay in California, where he became a regular player for Armed Forces Radio Service. By 1943 he had assembled a trio that regularly performed live, on the radio, and on V-Discs. In 1944 he entered the jazz spotlight "thanks to his dazzling work filling in for Oscar Moore alongside Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, and other superstars" at the first of the prestigious Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts.

By his mid-thirties, Paul had successfully combined Reinhardt-inspired jazz playing and the western swing and twang of his Rhubarb Red persona into one distinctive, electrifying style. In the Les Paul Trio he translated the dizzying runs and unusual harmonies found on Jazz at the Philharmonic into a slower, subtler, more commercial approach. His novelty instrumentals were tighter, brasher, and punctuated with effects. Overall, the trademark Les Paul sound was razor-sharp, clean-shaven, and divinely smooth.

As small combos eclipsed big bands toward the end of World War II, Les Paul Trio's popularity grew. They cut records for Decca both alone and behind the likes of Helen Forrest, the Andrews Sisters, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Dick Hayes, and, most notably, Bing Crosby. Since 1945, when the crooner brought them into the studio to back him on a few numbers, the Trio had become regular guests on Crosby's hit radio show. The highlight of the session was Paul's first No. 1 hit and million-seller, the gorgeous "It's Been a Long, Long Time."

Meanwhile, Paul began to experiment with dubbing live tracks over recorded tracks, also altering the playback speed. This resulted in "Lover (When You're Near Me)," his revolutionary 1947 predecessor to multi-track recording. The hit instrumental featured Les Paul on eight different electric guitar parts, all playing together.

In 1948, Paul nearly lost his life to a devastating car crash that shattered his right arm and elbow. Still, he convinced doctors to set his broken arm in the guitar-picking and cradling position. Laid up but undaunted, Paul acquired a first generation Ampex tape recorder from Crosby in 1949, and began his most important multi-tracking adventure, adding a fourth head to the recorder to create sound-on-sound recordings. While tinkering with the machine and its many possibilities, he also came up with tape delay. These tricks, along with another recent Les Paul innovation "close mic-ing vocals" were integrated for the first time on a single recording: the 1950 No. 1 tour de force "How High the Moon."

This historic track was performed during a duo with future wife Mary Ford. The couple's prolific string of hits for Capitol Records not only included some of the most popular recordings of the early 1950s, but also wrote the book on contemporary studio production. The dense but crystal clear harmonic layering of guitars and vocals, along with Ford's close mic-ed voice and Paul's guitar effects, produced distinctively contemporary recordings with unprecedented sonic qualities. Through hits, tours, and popular radio shows, Paul and Ford kept one foot in the technological vanguard and the other in the cultural mainstream.

All the while, Les Paul continued to pine for the perfect guitar. Though The Log came close, it wasn't quite what he was after. In the early 1950s, Gibson Guitar would cultivate a partnership with Paul that would lead to the creation of the guitar he'd seen only in his dreams. In 1948, Gibson elected to design its first solidbody, and Paul, a self-described "dyed-in-the-wool Gibson man," seemed the right man for the job. Gibson avidly courted the guitar legend, even driving deep into the Pennsylvania mountains to deliver the first model to newlyweds Les Paul and Mary Ford.

"Les played it, and his eyes lighted up," then-Gibson President Ted McCarty has recalled. The year was 1950, and Paul had just signed on as the namesake of Gibson's first electric solidbody, with exclusive design privileges. Working closely with Paul, Gibson forged a relationship that would change popular culture forever. The Gibson Les Paul model "the most powerful and respected electric guitar in history" began with the 1952 release of the Les Paul Goldtop. After introducing the original Les Paul Goldtop in 1952, Gibson issued the Black Beauty, the mahogany-topped Les Paul Custom, in 1954. The Les Paul Junior (1954) and Special (1955) were also introduced before the canonical Les Paul Standard hit the market in 1958. With revolutionary humbucker pickups, this sunburst classic has remained unchanged for the half-century since it hit the market.

"The world has lost a truly innovative and exceptional human being today. I cannot imagine life without Les Paul. He would walk into a room and put a smile on anyone's face. His musical charm was extraordinary and his techniques unmatched anywhere in the world," said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. "We will dedicate ourselves to preserving Les' legacy to insure that it lives on forever. He touched so many lives throughout his remarkable life and his influence extends around the globe and across every boundary. I have lost a dear, personal friend and mentor, a man who has changed so many of our lives for the better."

"I don't think any words can describe the man we know as Les Paul adequately. The English language does not contain words that can pay enough homage to someone like Les. As the "Father of the Electric Guitar", he was not only one of the world's greatest innovators but a legend who created, inspired and contributed to the success of musicians around the world," said Dave Berryman, President of Gibson Guitar. "I have had the privilege to know and work with Les for many, many years and his passing has left a deep personal void. He was simply put " remarkable in every way. As a person, a musician, a friend, an inventor. He will be sorely missed by us all."

With the rise of the rock 'n' roll revolution of 1955, Les Paul and Mary Ford's popularity began to wane with younger listeners, though Paul would prove to be a massive influence on younger generation of guitarists. Still, Paul and Ford maintained their iconic presence with their wildly popular television show, which ran from 1953-1960. In 1964, the couple, parents to a son and daughter, divorced. Paul began playing in Japan, and recorded an LP for London Records before poor health forced him to take time off-as much as someone so inspired can take time off.

In the 1977, Paul resurfaced with a Grammy-winning Chet Atkins collaboration, Chester and Lester. Then the ailing guitarist, who'd already suffered arthritis and permanent hearing loss, had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery.

Ever stubborn, Les recovered, and returned to live performance in the late 1980s. Until recently Les continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, even releasing the 2005 double-Grammy winner Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played, featuring collaborations with a veritable who's who of the electric guitar, including dozens of illustrious fans like Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Joe Perry. In 2008, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life which culminated with a live performance by Les himself.

Les Paul has since become the only individual to share membership into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Les is survived by his three sons Lester (Rus) G. Paul, Gene W. Paul and Robert (Bobby) R. Paul, his daughter Colleen Wess, son-in-law Gary Wess, long time friend Arlene Palmer, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A private Funeral service will be held in New York. A service in Waukesha, WI will be announced at a later date. Details will follow and will be announced for all services. Memorial tributes for the public will be announced at a future date. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10001.

Slash said, "Les Paul was a shining example of how full one's life can be, he was so vibrant and full of positive energy. I'm honored and humbled to have known and played with him over the years, he was an exceptionally brilliant man."

Joe Satriani said, "Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed. He was the original guitar hero, and the kindest of souls. Last October I joined him onstage at The Iridium club in NYC, and he was still shredding. He was and still is an inspiration to us all."

Keb' Mo' said, "He's a guy who played right up to the end, that's what we all want to do! With his brilliant playing and invention of multi track recording, Les Paul changed the face of music history."

Bootsy Collins said, "Yes, it is very painful when you lose a man, his music, and his everyday presence here on this planet called earth. For us musicians that knew the bar that this man Mr. Les Paul set, not only for guitar players but for music in general, especially rock music, the world will never be the same. His famous Gibson Les Paul brand Guitar's are still to this day the number one hottest rock guitar on the market. I got the opportunity in 1991 to do a session with Mr. Paul when I was with Dee-Lite, we did a song called: "A little More of Les". yes, one of my corky titles of course, but It was such an inspiration to be in the presence of such greatness, he will be sadly missed by many. We love you Les!"

Joan Jett said, "I, and everyone at Blackheart Records, mourn the passing of our dear friend, Les Paul. He was a genius inventor, musical innovator, and a wonderful person. Without the advances he pioneered, the recording sciences and the electric guitar would have been left years behind. I will miss him so much."

Ace Frehley said, "The music industry has lost a giant! I'm very saddened by the news of Les Paul's passing. I was lucky enough to have known Les as a friend, and admired him as a musician and innovator. He forever changed the way we listen to music."

Butch Walker said, "Les Paul... I will always owe you.. bigtime..."

Billy Gibbons said, "Les Paul brought six strings to electricity and electricity to six strings. Les Paul was an innovator, a groundbreaker, a risk taker, a mentor and a friend. Try to imagine what we'd be doing if he hadn't come along and changed the world. There will always be more Les to come. That's certified."

Keith Urban said, "I have a mix of emotions today. On one hand, I am deeply saddened at Les Paul’s passing, and on the other a feeling of incredible gratitude and awe for his unquantifiable contribution to the world of music. His name adorns so many of the creations that I communicate through every night out here on the road...He is also very present every time I set foot in the studio and am able to lay multiple tracks as I record, when I use echo, etc., the list of his inventions, in addition to his famous signature model Gibson, are extraordinary. I also feel that even in his nineties, the fact he was still playing every Monday night in New York is perhaps the most beautiful and inspiring achievement of all. As Vince Gill would say, "Go rest high on that mountain Les...cause son, your work on earth is done."

Joe Perry said, "As a guitarist and a fan of music in general, I know the amazing contributions Les Paul made in his lifetime to the art of making music. I think if the general public knew how much of that influence is heard every day in the music that they listen to, they would be amazed. He was a true genius. The few times that I had met him, he made me feel like I had known him forever. He was always sharp, ready to rock and he was always talking about his next gig. Knowing that he is not walking the earth anymore is sad and I have lost a friend. But every time I pick up a guitar I’ll know that his spirit is alive and well right next to me. "

Derek Trucks said, "Les Paul played until the day he died. I admire that... That's the way you live a life."

On his many achievements Derek Trucks said, "You could take any one of the many things he did and it would have been enough for most people. Inventing multi-tracking and then the 1st great solid body electric guitar. The amount of things he pulled off is pretty astounding."

Mick Jones said, "As a child I was introduced to the sound of Les Paul through my parent's record collection. It was a spellbinding moment when I first heard ‘How High The Moon’ featuring Mary Ford. His innovation and recording techniques contributed greatly to the creation of Rock music."

Rickey Medlocke said, "I'm so thankful that this guy was such an incredible genius for developing such a great guitar. I am a 3rd generation Gibson user and I always will be. God bless Les Paul."

Tad Kubler said, "There are very few human beings in history that touched so many people the way Les Paul did. He shared his gifts with everyone and brought people together with his brilliance and devotion to music and the art of sound. It was a privilege to have met him. He will be incredibly missed. But our blessing is to know his spirit and soul will live for eternity in music everywhere."

Wes Scantlon said, "Les and I have the same birthday ... it is an honor to have been born on the same day as such a genius guitarist, innovator and human being"

Neil Portnow (President/CEO of The Recording Academy®) said, "Three-time GRAMMY® winner Les Paul was a musical mastermind whose innovations in electric guitar and recorded music are unparalleled. A 1983 Trustees Award recipient and a 2001 Technical GRAMMY Award recipient, his career and contributions to popular music will forever be celebrated, and will continue to influence future generations of musicians. His magnetic charm and sunny disposition matched his incredible skill set, and he will always be remembered with great fondness, humility, and respect. The music industry has lost a true innovator and legend."

Terry Stewart (President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum) said, "Without Les Paul, we would not have rock and roll as we know it," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "His inventions created the infrastructure for the music and his playing style will ripple through generations. He was truly an architect of rock and roll."

Elliott Easton said, "I am deeply saddened by the passing of Les Paul. It is simply impossible to overstate the impact he has had on the modern world and our culture. There are those that refer to Les as "the Thomas Edison of Music Technology". To me that is inadequate. Thomas Edison never invented a device that could make the world fall in love with you. There isn't a person working in the music industry today that doesn't benefit in some way from Les' pioneering work."

Brian Wilson said, "Les Paul and Mary Ford were among my most favorite musicians in the 50's. He was the first guy to do multi guitar multi track recording and that turned me on to guitars and stacking vocals for our records."

Johnny A. said, "I am personally very saddened by the passing of Mr. Les Paul. As well as being such an iconic figure in the world of music, as a player and inventor, Les was truly a gentleman with an unbeatable sense of humor. It has been my honor to have known and played with him. His spirit will surely be missed."

Dave Navarro, "Les is single handedly responsible for the direction and evolution of the modern rock movement. Period. If you are a fan of modern music, you owe Les Paul an enormous THANK YOU!"

Don Miggs said, "I used to promise myself that every trip back home to NY should be capped off with seeing Les perform. I knew he wasn't going to be around forever and seeing him was a "must-do." Sadly, I never made good on my promise but one night I was walking into a deli and who do I see? Yup. My palms went sweaty, my tongue felt thick and I got a pit in my stomach, but I stopped him with a grunt of some sort. He looked me square in eye like "don't miss this moment," and I gulped and said, "It's because of you I can put food on my family's table, thank you," and he said, "You've done that for yourself, son, but thank you." And he was gone. Ah, Les, thank you thank you."

Randy Bachman said, "I am deeply touched by the passing of Les Paul who I first met in 1959. As a guitarist, composer, electronic innovator and inventor he was beyong genius and there was none other like him. He was a true musical gift from God to the world and spent his life honoring that gift. I proudly play my Les Paul guitars every night on stage and never forget the moments we shared."

Gary Rossington said, "I am very saddened to hear about the passing of Les Paul, he was an amazing guitarist. I play a Les Paul guitar every night and it's the best sounding guitar ever made. I have a framed t-shirt on my wall, signed by Les Paul that I admire when I'm at home, Les was the best!"

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Labels: 1951 Les Paul, Gibson, Guitar News Daily

canoe.ca

Listening to Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry talk, one gets the impression if he heard Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' song The Waiting about now, he'd end up in tears.

The recent injuries sustained to lead singer Steven Tyler from his fall during an Aug. 5 show in Sturgis, South Dakota has put their current North American tour with ZZ Top on hold. And as of yesterday afternoon, Perry, Aerosmith and their management were still in a holding pattern as to the tour's status. The band was scheduled to play Toronto Sept. 3.

"We were supposed to hear something last night," Perry says during a Toronto promotional stop for his upcoming album Have Guitar, Will Travel. "Our manager is on the West Coast and doctors have weird hours. I think we were going to have a conference call either last night or today. As soon as they get going on the West Coast, we'll know what the status of the tour is."

Perry says the tour was truly starting to find its groove with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons appearing during Aerosmith's set while Perry was planning "to sit in with them." As for the status of the remaining dates, including the Western Canadian stops that were postponed, much will depend on what doctors determine is best for Tyler.

"Without a doubt, this has been really frustrating because this is one of the most fun tours that we've done in a long time but also one of the most frustrating ones," Perry says. "What can you do?

"A long time ago after the band got back together we had to cancel a tour early on. I remember after that I just said I'm going to play every night like it's the last one because you just don't know. It's like life. You have to keep an eye on it because you just can't waste any days. It can go away in an instant."


Perhaps the only solace Perry takes from Tyler's fall is that it wasn't worse.

"It's a drag, he really got banged up bad," he says. "It's a good thing, from everything I heard, nothing was internal like a busted spleen or punctured lung."

Labels: Aerosmith, Guitar News Daily

Very sad news from the AP. A legend is gone...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.
According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.
As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll and multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the "tracks" in the finished recording.

Labels: Les Paul; guitar news

nymag.com

The cruel masters at Lego have denied Spinal Tap permission to include on an upcoming DVD a fan-made video of Lego figures performing "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," simply because the song features lyrics like "You're too young and I'm too well hung" and "You're sweet, but you're just four feet and you still got your baby teeth." Even the famed copyright jerks in the Rolling Stones allowed their likenesses to be used elsewhere in the DVD. Says Harry Shearer, "Lego are the only people who strictly said no ... It was Lego Kafka."

Labels: Legos; Spinal Tap

From the islands of Hawaii to the shores of Florida, the Taylor Guitars Road Show is once again making its way around the United States. Now in its third year, the popular Road Show is a guitar lover's dream: a fun, lively in-store gathering that brings enthusiasts together with Taylor clinicians and experts straight from the company's factory in El Cajon, California. At each Road Show, the Taylor Road Show team shares insights on the company's guitar making process, including an informative demonstration on how body shape and wood affect tone. After the demonstration, players are invited to take part in the show's popular "Petting Zoo" segment, during which players have an opportunity to test-drive a variety of different models, including rare and one-off Taylors and custom Build to Order beauties. Admission to each Road Show is free. To see the latest schedule of Road Show dates, please visit: www.taylorguitars.com/roadshow. New dates are added regularly, so be sure to check back often.

Labels: Taylor; roadshow

gear4music.com

The electric guitar riff on Smoke on the Water has been named as the most memorable in rock history.

A list of the top 20 riffs was compiled by Robert of the Radish in The Y! Music Playlist Blog, and Deep Purple's 1972 classic came top.

This put it ahead of other well-known riffs such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones and Day Tripper by The Beatles.

Layla by Derek and the Dominoes also made it into the list, along with You Really Got Me by The Kinks and David Bowie's Rebel Rebel.

"The best riffs are simple, but highly memorable," Robert observed.

"Everyone knows a good one when they hear it and the very best are timeless."

Wild Thing by The Troggs was also highly rated, as was Back In Black by AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.

However, U2 star The Edge might care to differ with the list, as he told MusicRadar this week that Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love contains what he thinks is the "quintessential" electric guitar riff.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Smoke on the Water

thedailystar.com

Oneonta New York - The Oneonta Rock Academy is planning to breathe new life into an old Gibson Sonex this week to help local teens learn about electric guitars.

The academy is sponsoring an "electric-guitar rebuild" workshop that will focus on the Gibson Sonex, a guitar produced in the early 1980s. The workshop, from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Music Square in Southside Mall, is free and open to area middle and high school students.

The Rock Academy is an evolving collaboration among Jim Murphy, his son, Seamus, Jon Romero and Jamie Finneran, said Jim Murphy on Monday.

"What we are trying to do is put musical instruments in the hands of kids who need them," Murphy said.

The rebuilding workshop, which will be led by Seamus Murphy, 14, and Romero, 25, is designed to familiarize teens with how an electric guitar works and is put together.

The "beat-up" Gibson Sonex was acquired through a trade-in by Music Square at Southside Mall, where Romero works, he said Monday.

Romero, who teaches aspiring musicians, said the major components on the guitar will be replaced by the attendees of the workshop.

"Most likely, I'm going to be nothing more than a guide," Romero said. "It's going to be cool."

Education is a key part of the workshop, and Romero said he plans to explain how an electric guitar works.

"I'm going to walk them through the signal path," he said.

Seamus Murphy said he plays a similar type of guitar. That guitar, which sat inside his father's closet for years, will serve as a model for the workshop.

The Oneonta Rock Academy is also holding several fundraisers to raise money for purchasing instruments and equipment for the Oneonta Teen Center.

"They'll be able to sit down and jam," Murphy said.

Finneran's band, Satisfying Finneran, will play a benefit for adults at the Oneonta Moose Lodge on Saturday from 8 to 11 p.m., Jim Murphy said.

Murphy said the academy is inspired by brothers Phil and Dave Alvin, who in 1979 founded the band The Blasters. The brothers learned their trade as teenagers, meeting and playing with blues legends such as T-Bone Walker.

That folk tradition is what the Oneonta Rock Academy is all about, Murphy said, and the focus is on mentoring teenage musicians.

"Music is a good thing," Murphy said. "When they are upset, they can go pick up a guitar or bang on the drums."

Labels: Guitar Luthier, Guitar News Daily

Today is the 100th birthday of Leo Fender. The man who made the electric guitar popular with his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster Fender Guitars. Inventor of the electric bass guitar.
After the sale of the Fender Musical Instrument company he went on to form Music Man where he invented the first popular active bass. The Music Man Stingray.
After the sale of Music Man he went on to G&L where he worked till he died. G&L have released limited edition guitar in honor of their late founder.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Leo Fender

jam.canoe.ca

HARRISON, Ohio - Kid Rock is helping a pizza delivery driver critically injured during a robbery.

Spokesman Nick Stern says the rock star sent the delivery driver a $1,500 check after reading about the attack in The Cincinnati Enquirer while in the southern Ohio city last month for a concert.

Twenty-eight-year-old Harry Colyer told police he was beaten with a brick and a wooden plank July 20 while on a delivery. He has had reconstructive surgery on his broken cheekbones and smashed nose and now has a slight hearing loss.

A 20-year-old man and two teens have been charged in the attack.

Colyer says he didn't ask for the check but it was a nice thing for Kid Rock to do.

Stern says the musician likes to quietly help people in need.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Kid Rock

billboard.com

With a revamped set list and four onstage "deaths," Alice Cooper is shaking things up a bit with his just-launched Theatre of Death North American tour.

"It's Alice all the way, but the formula is totally upside down and backwards," the veteran shock-rocker tells Billboard.com. "It's a celebration of Alice stuff. There's no moral to it. It really is just sort of a celebration of different phases of Alice."

Cooper credits Robert Jess Roth, who directed the original stage production of Walt Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and is a big Cooper fan, with the Theatre of Death concept. "He said, 'I want your lyrics to tell the story,' " recalls Cooper, who had to write a new verse for "Devil's Food" to accommodate Roth's script. "He said, 'I want to tell four stories -- the delinquent Alice, Alice in hell, four different acts. And at the end of each act we kill you; we kill that Alice and introduce the next Alice.'

"He showed me the set list and the ideas and we started talking about what deaths would be good, this and that, and the show just stared forming. All of a sudden we had this elaborate show, new lights and props and costumes and everything, and I really liked it.

Besides the deaths, Cooper is also throwing fans by starting with his usual show-closer, "School's Out" (which is reprised at the end of the night). "People are going, 'What? You don't kill Alice in the first five songs. What's gonna happen?!' To me it's really exciting to do a new show that works like this. And it's more rockin', this show, than the last show. There's more hard rock songs in a row."

Cooper says he plans on filming and recording the Theatre of Death tour at some point before it winds down in December, though he also plans on taking the same show out again in 2010. He also isn't ruling out a future show based on his 2008 album "Along Came a Spider," although he's already started work on his next album, too.

"I've got three or four songs written for it," says Cooper, who says it involves "a new character, a new direction and probably a surprising producer on this one." He plans to hit the studio in early 2010 and finish the album before he heads back out on the road. Cooper also has a part in the upcoming vampire comedy "Suck."

Labels: Alice Cooper, Guitar News Daily

nmisscommentor.com



Mike Seeger, who was in the folk-revival band New Lost City Ramblers, and who documented banjo and other traditional music styles (including little-known ones like the fretless style played in rural Panola County, Mississippi) has died. He's mentioned in Bob Dylan's memoirs (Chronicles, Vol. One). Pete Seeger is his half-brother and Peggy his sister.

He was important in preserving (by playing) and documenting southern folk music; I recommend checking out his website (look at the articles about Appalachian and Old-Time Music).

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Mike Seeger

jam.canoe.ca

NEW YORK - Willy DeVille, who founded the punk group Mink DeVille and was known for his blend of R&B, blues, Dixieland and traditional French Cajun ballads, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 58.

The Oscar-nominated songwriter died at New York's Cabrini Hospital on Thursday of pancreatic cancer, said Carol Kaye at Kayos Productions.

"The rock world has lost another one of its influential pioneers," Kaye said.

Mink DeVille, for which DeVille was the principal songwriter, was billed as one of the most original groups on the New York punk scene after an appearance at the legendary CBGB club in Greenwich Village in the 1970s.

In 1977, the band recorded "Cabretta," a rock and roll/rhythm and blues album with renowned producer Jack Nitzsche. Its featured song, "Spanish Stroll," was a Top 20 hit in Britain. It was followed by the album "Return to Magenta."

Better known in Europe than in the United States, DeVille went solo in 1980 with "Le Chat Bleu." Recorded in Paris and influenced by his admiration for siren Edith Piaf, the album featured "This Must Be the Night" and "Just to Walk That Little Girl Home."


His "Storybook Love," featured in the 1987 movie "The Princess Bride," was nominated for an Academy Award.

"Throughout his career, his musical gumbo was always layered with his deliciously gravelly soul-drenched vocals," Kaye said.

DeVille also spent time in New Orleans and recorded his "Victory Mixture" album with Dr. John, Eddie Bo, Allen Toussaint and others.

His other albums include the soulful "Coupe de Grace" and "Where Angels Fear to Tread." In 1985, "Sportin' Life" featured the European hit song "Italian Shoes."

He was born in Stamford, Conn., and survivors include his wife, Nina, and a son, Sean Borsey.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Mink DeVille

sleazeroxx.com

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, known for dancing with microphone stands adorned with scarves, was airlifted to a hospital early Thursday after falling from the stage during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around after the sound system failed during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the outdoor concert.

Ed Aurand, a security supervisor at the campground who saw the fall, said Tyler stepped backward off the stage's catwalk.

"He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mike stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage," Sanborn said.

Halfway through the performance, Tyler fell onto a couple of fans in the middle of what was a record crowd, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up.

"He was good natured about it," Sanborn said. "He was in good spirits when he got in the helicopter. He was talking and joking with the physician."

"It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening," he said.

Tyler suffered minor head and neck injuries and a shoulder injury, but it wasn't immediately clear how serious that was, Sanborn said.

After he fell, which was halfway through the performance, Tyler was eventually taken backstage, Sanborn said. Around 12:15 a.m., Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the audience Tyler was being taken to the hospital and that the show would not go on.

A physician at the concert venue attended to Tyler and the frontman was flown to Rapid City Regional Hospital, the only major hospital in the region, Sanborn said.

Jennifer Horton, the hospital's vice president of public relations and marketing, said early Thursday that Tyler wasn't in the hospital directory. Under the privacy laws, that means the person is either not there or chose not to be included in the directory, according to the hospital's Web site.

Tyler attended Sturgis last year to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and was back this year to do that again and play at the Buffalo Chip.

Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short but hoped Tyler wasn't seriously hurt.

Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was 8 eight feet from the stage when Tyler fell off, told the Rapid City Journal "you could kind of see it coming because he was dancing all over the stage.

"I hope he's OK," Yellow Robe said. "I could care less about the concert being canceled."

Labels: Aerosmith, Guitar News Daily, Steven Tyler

jsonline.com

It's Tuesday afternoon in a meeting room at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center's domiciliary in Building 123. A small group of veterans and civilians sits in folding chairs clutching and strumming guitars. Chords from a Clapton tune, soft conversation and bursts of laughter float in the air.

The weekly drop-in guitar class hosted by Guitars 4 Vets is in session.

"This program is about expressing emotions," says co-founder Patrick Nettesheim, a Milwaukee-area guitar teacher and musician. "We've set up a relaxed learning atmosphere where the guitar becomes the catalyst for human interaction."

The idea for the nonprofit group was launched in the summer of 2007 when one of Nettesheim's students, Dan Van Buskirk, a Vietnam veteran being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, recognized the therapeutic value of taking guitar lessons.

"Pat's an extremely compassionate man," Van Buskirk says. "We had a lot of talks during my lessons and it really helped me out."

Van Buskirk, who served on a Marine reconnaissance team in Vietnam, said those sessions helped him deal with the survivor guilt that many combat vets face.

"I lost a team and a half of guys over there," he says. "We were not allowed to grieve, and moved from one patrol to the next."

A social worker by training, Van Buskirk suggested that the pair create Guitars 4 Vets as a complementary therapy or outreach to veterans receiving mental health and medical services through the VA system.

"I know what it's like to be in a place where you don't have a sense of security, worth or self-esteem," Van Buskirk says. "I like to do whatever I can to lift guys out of that situation and out of their caves, taking them from a survival mode to a thrive mode."

Alan Harrison of Milwaukee is a participant who is thriving in the music program. The Ohio native served in the U.S. Navy from 1973 to 1994, retiring as a Boatswain's Mate 1st Class.

"For the first time since I've been out of the Navy, I feel the camaraderie again," Harrison says. "These guys are just awesome. They're like my brothers."

A VA shuttle transports Harrison to and from the center for his weekly lessons. He's been a student in the program for six months and, as promised by the group, received a free guitar upon completion of his fifth lesson.

Harrison and his instructor, Meaghan Owens, recently completed co-writing a song inspired by his years in the military. Owens is a Nashville songwriter who grew up in Oconomowoc and is temporarily working in Milwaukee.

The sweet-voiced young woman stresses that their work represents a true collaboration. She crafted Harrison's stories into lyrics and he composed the music.

She also rejects the roles of "teacher" and "student."

"We all teach and learn from each other," Owen says.

A believer in the concept of giving back to one's community, Owens is grateful that she found an outlet to suit her talents.

"The music industry can be a self-centered business," she says. "I'd feel out of balance if I didn't find a way to share and help others. Music is a healing force and it's the gift I have to offer."

Kinthy Pourheydarian served in the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1992. A self-taught saxophonist who enjoys playing with the VA Jam Band (open to clients at the VA Center), the veteran acknowledges that learning a new instrument has done wonders in battling stress.

"When I'm practicing I don't have time to think about other things on my mind," she says. "All I think about is where my fingers are going. It releases anxiety and tension."

Guitar 4 Vets volunteer and board member Pete Ruzicka holds a similar view.

As a 24-year member of the armed forces (first Army, then Air Force Reserves), he experienced the conflicts in Grenada, Desert Storm and Iraq.

"There are times you get bad dreams," the 46-year-old veteran says. "You have to be as strong as you can and get counseling. The guitar lets me focus on something."

An avid guitar player since his teens, Ruzicka is touched as he watches his students start to relax, learn and open up during their guitar lessons.

"Some of them have been in a clamshell all their lives," he says. "When they are able to start talking with me, it brings tears to my eyes."

According to Nettesheim, Guitars 4 Vets is presently serving veterans through VA facilities in Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse and Tomah. And word about the group is spreading. With a small team of volunteers, the group has served about 400 veterans to date.

Nettesheim says requests are coming in from other states, including Illinois and Arizona, to start up these therapeutic programs

"We really need volunteers to help us grow," he says.

For more information on Guitars 4 Vets and volunteer opportunities, visit www.guitarsforvets.org.

Labels: Guitars For Vets

ap.org

Pixie Geldof helped recover a £2,000 guitar from thieves.

The party-loving daughter of Sir Bob Geldof was out doing what she does best with TV presenter friend Caroline Flack at Proud Galleries' Bat Attack! night in London, when she saw Spindle And Wit singer Phil Morris' Gibson axe being purloined from the stage, The Sun reports.

The folk five-piece had played a gig earlier in the evening and were partying at the club, and didn't notice the guitar had gone until 10 minutes later, but luckily Pixie was able to divulge her evidence.

Labels: guitar crime, Pixie Geldof, Spindle And Wit

Canada.com

Alex Stevens says he believes his bass guitar saved his life or, at least, his spine and pelvis.

When the musician saw storm clouds approaching the Big Valley Jamboree stage in Camrose, Alta., on Saturday, he said his first thought was that it was going to rain and he was still plugged in. He didn't suspect the wind was far more dangerous.

Stevens, along with the rest of country star Billy Currington's band, unplugged and hurried off the stage.

Stevens, bass still over his shoulder, never made it.

"For me, it was like being blindsided by a bus," he said from his home in Nashville.

"I was halfway down the stairs off the back of the stage, when a whole section of seating and scaffolding slammed into me from my right side. I was pinned underneath it and unable to move."

Under the debris, Stevens' instrument was mashed against him, but didn't break.

"I'm convinced that, if I hadn't been wearing my bass, my pelvis or back would've been crushed or broken," Stevens said in an e-mail interview.

He wasn't freed until half an hour later, by a forklift.

Stevens was taken to hospital for surgery. He suffered several deep lacerations, including a 12-centimetre gash that severed an artery and damaged two nerves in his left bicep. The nerve damage left two fingers and the thumb of his left hand numb. His entire body is sore from being pinned in an awkward, kneeling position.

"He's in a lot of pain," said his wife, Lauren Stevens. "He's beat up, but the prognosis is good for the feeling to come back. He will be able to play again, its what he loves, its his life."

The solid, one-piece wood guitar is nicked and scratched, but still intact, said Lauren Stevens. "I don't know if he'll play that one again; maybe he'll just hang it up as his lucky bass."

Stevens returned to Nashville on Monday, where he will now recuperate. The band has already cancelled performances for this weekend.

Currington suffered a minor concussion during the stage collapse. He has already released a statement on behalf of the band that offers condolences to the dozens of injured and the one fatal victim, Donna Moore of Lloydminster, Alta.

Labels: Alex Stevens, Big Valley Jamboree, Guitar News Daily

FOUNTAIN VALLEY - Doc Pittillo described the Saturday morning crash that has left him physically unharmed but financially devastated as something akin to a psychedelic experience. "I turned around and actually saw the van come through the window of the store," Pittillo said. "It was slow motion."
Pittillo, owner of The Guitar Doctor, 18171 Euclid St., said he was plucking a guitar in front of his shop about a minute before a minivan slammed into its front window."If I were standing there, my guess is I would have been killed or really badly mangled,” Pittillo said.
"There are usually a lot of people in the front of the shop. Man, if that would have happened with the customers there? Somebody would have been killed... there’s no doubt in my mind. It would have been really ugly."
Only Pittillo and one of his workers, both who were near the back, were at the store at the time. Fire officials said they received a call about 11 a.m. about a vehicle that had crashed into the store at Euclid and Newhope streets. Other details about the crash, such as the driver's name, remain unknown because Fountain Valley Police Department officials did not return multiple calls for comment. Witnesses said that a gold-colored minivan crashed into the shop. The driver, his wife and teen-age daughter were also in the vehicle, they added. All seemed uninjured.
While Pittillo said he is grateful to be unhurt, he said he lost at about $80,000 worth of valuables inside the store, including many vintage guitars. One in particular was a candy apple-red 1965 Fender Stratocaster, worth at least $40,000, he said. "And I have no recourse," Pittillo said. While he had insurance on the actual building, Pittillo said the contents inside were not insured because he couldn't afford it.
"It's not the value so much but that this instrument I played on the road for years," Pittillo said about the '65 Fender.

Labels: guitar crime

thedailyworld.com

ABERDEEN, Wash. - The late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is igniting a new controversy in his hometown of Aberdeen, Wash. This one involves one of the quotes attributed to him on a new granite marker at an unofficial neighborhood park honoring him.

Aberdeen city officials are upset about the quote that says, "Drugs are bad for you. They will f--- you up." The marker contains the full F-word.

The Daily World reports the property is considered a right of way for both Tori Kovach, who lives adjacent to the land and had the idea for the park, and the city, which also owns the nearby Young Street Bridge, where Cobain is said to have spent some time in his youth.

Cobain struggled with drugs and committed suicide in 1994.

Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson says the city Parks Board will consider the fate of the F-word on the stone marker.

Grays Harbor Monument donated the granite stone, which bears eight quotes; Kovach submitted the ones he wanted used.

Monument company Manager Jerry Myers said it would be easy to sandblast the offending letters. "In the granite industry, it'd be a bleep," he said.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain

reuters.com

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry gets to spread his wings on his fifth solo CD, "Joe Perry... Have Guitar Will Travel," which he hopes to release in November.

Perry, who sings on four of the tracks, also expects to tour early next year under the guise of the Joe Perry Project. The album follows a self-titled, Grammy-nominated effort that came out in 2005 and sold 31,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. His first three solo albums, all credited to the Joe Perry Project, were released in the early 1980s when he briefly quit Aerosmith during its drug-fueled nadir.

"Have Guitar ...Will Travel," a nod to the similarly titled 1959 Bo Diddley album, was named by a fan, Joe Piscitelli, after Perry asked for submissions via Twitter. Five of the tracks are sung by a relatively unknown German musician called Hagen. He was discovered by Perry's wife, Billie, on YouTube. The remaining song on the disc is an instrumental. The first single is "Long Way to Go." Other cuts include a cover of the early Fleetwood Mac tune "Somebody's Gonna Get (Their Head Kicked In Tonite)" as well as the new song "Oh Lord," which Perry sings.

"That's kinda like a Jim Morrison-y prayer set to music," Perry told Reuters in a recent interview. "My son sings in the choir at school, and I had him bring in some of his friends and they came in and sang the choruses and things and helped with the vibe. That's the kinda thing I really don't hear in an Aerosmith record."

Aerosmith has not released an album of new material since 2001's "Just Push Play." Efforts to record a follow-up have been interrupted by health problems for virtually every member of the veteran band. Its current North American tour got off to a rough start when seven shows were postponed after singer Steven Tyler was hobbled by a leg injury. The next stop is Sturgis, S.D., on Wednesday.

Labels: Aerosmith, Guitar News Daily, Joe Perry

billboard.com

With another Chickenfoot tour and the first release of his instrumental side band Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats looming, the drummer has October circled on his calendar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' return to active duty.

"That's the plan," Smith tells Billboard.com, noting that what was announced as a one-year break turned into two for the quartet after touring to support 2005's "Stadium Arcadium." "Everybody was like, 'Y'know, I really like having this time off, not being a Chili Pepper and doing other things...It'll be two years in September, so now we're ready. You can't force people to play when they don't want to play or aren't ready to play or whatever -- not in our band, anyway."

Smith expects bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante may come in with some musical ideas, but the group will mostly likely "do a lot of improvising and jamming and songs will come out of that, too. That's what we usually do. I don't know why it would be different."

No prospective release date has even been considered yet, and Smith says he and his bandmates also "haven't talked about" who will produce, though he acknowledges with a laugh that Rick Rubin, who's produced the group's last five studio efforts, "always ends up being the guy...But we haven't discussed it."

The looming Chili Peppers sessions do make Smith "the bad guy" in Chickenfoot, but the other members of the all-star group have assured him they'll continue to work according to his schedule. The quartet, which begins its next tour Aug. 2 in Halifax, has also filmed shows in San Francisco and at this year's Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Aug. 30 show in Atlanta and at least one more will be documented for a possible DVD release.

Meanwhile, Smith is excited about introducing the world to the Meatbats, a group that formed a few years back as an outgrowth of Smith, guitarist Jeff Kolman and keyboardist Ed Roth's work with Glenn Hughes. They first performed live in 2007 and have continued to work together intermittently.

"It's all very loose," Smith says. "It's instrumental music -- power, funk, rock music. It's a niche. We're not going for the Mariah Carey crowd or anything. It's just really fun and they're great guys and we just have fun hanging out and playing."

In addition to debut album, which comes out Sept. 15, the Meatbats have already recorded a second set of songs that Smith predicts will be out in early 2010, along with a live album at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles. "We have three albums in the can and none of them are out yet," Smith says with a laugh. "But we won't wait very long. It's not like we're putting out singles and we have to have some kind of strategy. This is stuff we can put out whenever it feels right."

Labels: Guitar News Daily, John Frusciante, Red Hot Chili Peppers

knoxnews.com

GRANDVIEW, Tenn. - Cliff Hamby has lived his entire life on the Cumberland Plateau, a region that contains some of the largest tracts of unbroken forests in the Eastern United States.

His guitars bear witness to those trees. Hamby builds his instruments out of the native hardwoods that grow on the eastern slope of Walden Ridge, where he and his wife, Carole, own and operate a country store on state Highway 68 called, appropriately enough, "Carole's Country Store."

A self-taught guitar maker, Hamby rejects the standard notion that tropical hardwoods are the best building material for acoustic guitars. Instead of mahogany or rosewood, he uses black walnut, curly maple, and sycamore for his guitars' back and sides.

For the fretboards and bridges, he favors persimmon or Osage-orange for their exceptional strength and density.

"If they import wood to us from South America, they call it exotic wood," Hamby said. "If I ship my wood down there, they call it exotic, so to me, it's all the same."

The Hambys have been running their country store for almost 11 years. It's a classic mom and pop operation that sells everything from Vienna sausages to fishing tackle. The sign outside reads "Cliff's Mountain Guitars."

Hamby's instruments hang on the wall. None of the guitars have pickguards because Hamby doesn't like plastic. He thinks it clashes with the wood, and compromises the instruments' warm, rich tone.

When he first started making guitars, Hamby worked in a side room in the store that was so small, he says "you couldn't cuss a cat in it without getting a mouthful of hair."

These days he works out of a 30-by-42-foot shop he built himself.

He builds only dreadnought-size guitars, and his instruments sell for $2,500 for a standard body and $3,500 for a cutaway. Over the years he has developed his own bracing pattern that he believes gives his guitar tops - or soundboards - greater flexibility without sacrificing strength.

One person who plays a Mountain Guitar is master songwriter Ed Bruce, who wrote "Momma Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."

Hamby's first guitar had a sassafras top, and walnut back and sides. His second guitar had a curly maple body and neck, and for the fretboard he chose persimmon.

Hamby gets his wood from a nearby Rhea County sawmill. It's all local except for some of the spruce, which is shipped from Maine.

Building guitars has given Hamby unique insight into the tonal properties of native hardwoods versus their tropical counterparts. He says guitars with walnut back and sides sound similar to guitars made out of rosewood, and describes the tone of butternut - also called white walnut - as somewhere between mahogany and rosewood.

He likes sycamore for its warm tone, and for the tops of his guitars, he sometimes prefers the light, fine-grained wood from paulownia trees, a species that's native to the Far East, but now grows abundantly in the South.

He says Osage-orange - his favorite wood for bridges and fingerboards - is harder than ebony, and more plentiful, too.

Hamby's shop contains stacks of lumber and quarter-sawn wood, as well as the hand tools and machinery needed to render them into guitars. During a recent visit, he showed his guests some yellow locust, and a pile of rough-cut Osage-orange with the bark still on.

Last but not least, there was a stack of boards cut from mulberry trees.

"I'm going to make a guitar out of that," Hamby said. "It's a good tone wood. A lot of people don't know that."

Labels: Cliff Hamby, Cliff's Mountain Guitars, Guitar News Daily

businessmirror.com

One of the key arguments in my book, The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times, is that companies have to find ways to "love the low end" in order to connect with budget-conscious customers and fend off attacks from low-cost competitors.

A recent Wall Street Journal article ("Guitar Maker Revives No-Frills Act From '30," July 6, 2009) shows how one company has found another benefit of loving the low end: keeping skilled workers gainfully employed as the firm's high-end business shrivels up.

The story describes how legendary guitar maker C.F. Martin & Co. introduced a line of solid-wood guitars called the "1 Series" that sell for less than $1,000. That's 50 percent cheaper than Martin's traditional guitars which feature more inlay and wood-working detail.

Customers have reacted positively to Martin's innovation. The company's high-end guitars are luxury items that generally fall victim to consumer cost-cutting in economic downturns. Now with some of these items edging below $1,000, Martin managed to sell out its first production run of 8,000 1 Series guitars this past April.

Finding a creative way to boost sales has helped the company in another important way. Manual labor plays a vital role in the production of Martin's high-end guitars. Cutting costs to match declining revenues would have resulted in a loss of top-flight production talent. Instead, the company quickly retooled its processes, and kept expert wood-makers working.

Considering the merits of your own low-end play? Start by asking the following three questions:

1. Is there are a large group of customers that would be attracted to a much lower-priced product? If you only sell to relatively wealthy customers, large businesses or customers in highly developed markets, a low-end play might be a great way to expand your market.

2. What would it take to cut the cost of your product or service by 50 percent or more? Consider frills that appeal to the most demanding customers, markups from multiple distribution channels and other overhead elements.

3. How else could loving the low-end benefit your company? A low-end play might let you experiment with new distribution mechanisms that reduce dependency on a single channel, or allow you to edge into emerging markets.

Labels: C.F. Martin Co., Guitar News Daily

firsttracksonline.com

Copper Mountain, CO - The 5th annual Guitar Town at Copper takes place August 7-9 for three days of free performances by guitar legends at this Colorado ski and snowboard resort. Some of the world's best guitarists come together for the event with live performances, guitar workshops and kids' music activities. Weekend-long events include a GuitarArt Silent Auction, Guitar Hero and indoor skatebowl in The Cage, a giant mural, inflatable guitars and Village activities.


The all-acoustic line-up is led by Tommy Emmanuel, one of only three guitarists to be bestowed the title of CGF (Certified Guitar Player) by Chet Atkins. Emmanuel has also been named the 2008 Gold Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist by Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

Festival favorite, John Jorgenson, also an Acoustic Guitar Magazine Gold Award Winner in the 2008 Acoustic Jazz category, returns with his Gypsie Jazz, John Jorgenson Quintet. Former Wings guitarist and acoustic virtuoso, Laurence Juber, will perform for a second time at Guitar Town.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and the original Rock Guitar Hero, Duane Eddy, headlines the electric lineup for Sunday. Former Rolling Stones guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Mick Taylor, starts his U.S. tour at Guitar Town. Brent Mason's band, The Players, are making one of their rare appearances outside of Nashville, comprised of drummer Eddie Bayers, bassist Michael Rhodes, keyboardist John Hobbs and steel guitar player Paul Franklin.

Returning for his fifth Guitar Town appearance is festival favorite songwriter and blues rocker Mark Selby. This year's end-of-the-day jam with The Players backing, Duane Eddy, Mick Taylor, Marty Stuart, Mark Selby and a couple of unannounced surprises should leave the musicians and guitar junkies wanting more.

Two players making their Guitar Town debuts this year are Pete Huttlinger, and Tommy Emmanuel protégé, 17-year-old Joe Robinson, who won Australia's Got Talent 2008. Opening the show and emceeing the weekend as he does every year is L.A. fingerstylist Scott Goldman.

Leading into Guitar Town, Pete Huttlinger will host the Guitar Town guitar clinics with a "Q&A" time to demonstrate and talk about his techniques and arranging ideas. “Tone Quest” Editor and Publisher, David Wilson, moderates the free Saturday and Sunday morning workshops featuring performers sharing their licks, secrets and insight into their style and success.

Tickets and more information are available at www.copperguitartown.com.

Another first this year, Guitar Center in Denver is sponsoring the ArtGuitar Silent Auction. Artists from around the community and around the state have designed, decorated, painted and created art from damaged guitars. These guitars will be displayed in retail stores throughout the Village during the event, and are on display now on the Channel 2 Guitar Center Stage in Denver, in the Red Rocks Visitor Center, and the Copper Frisco Information Center. All proceeds from the silent auction will benefit the Copper Frisco Employee Environmental Fund.

Also at Copper during Guitar Town, the Mountain Home and Outdoor Expo offers a free weekend-long exposition featuring exhibitors that cater to the home and outdoor lifestyle. Featuring more than 120 exhibitors, this expo will feature presentations with cooking tips and ideas, going green, pet training, remodeling and more. Each attendee who brings three non-perishable food items can enter for a chance to win door prizes, children included. The event supports the Summit County Food Bank and local organizations that provide community meals.

Labels: Chet Atkins, Guitar News Daily, Tommy Emmanuel

chicoer.com

PARADISE - A 37-year-old man was arrested after a domestic dispute on West Drive in Paradise Thursday, during which he was allegedly hit over the head with a guitar.

According to Paradise police, Steven Lambach was in violation of a domestic violence restraining order when he came to the West Drive home and got into an argument with the resident, Marilee Grove-Farris.

She reportedly called her 17-year-old son to help her, and the two males then got into a "tussle" inside the house, Sgt. Craig Gallagher said.

Though it was initially believed that a baseball bat may have been used as a weapon during the fight, police determined that it was not, but they are investigating the possible use of golf club.

Grove-Farris told police Lambach head-butted her during the fight. Gallagher said at one point during the struggle, the young man hit Lambach over the head with a guitar, causing a laceration.

All three people involved sustained incidental injuries from the scuffle and medics arrived on scene. Lambach had a head laceration but he sat calmly in a lawn chair while paramedics attended him.

The 9-1-1 call initially received a large response with an ambulance, fire truck and police. Gallagher said the dispatcher could hear a fight going on in the background but no one spoke into the phone.

Lambach was arrested on scene on suspicion of domestic violence and violating his restraining order.

Elizabeth De Alwis is a reporter for the Paradise Post.

Labels: guitar crime, Guitar News Daily, Paradise

mlive.com

KALAMAZOO -- They came from Ohio, from Colorado, from Alabama, from Illinois, from Kalamazoo, and they came hauling black guitar cases bearing the iconic Heritage Guitar logo.

On Friday, nearly 60 proud Heritage Guitar owners from across the country crammed into the company's small Parsons Street factory for the second annual Parson Street Pilgrimage. Later they planned to head to a farm in Plainwell for a Heritage-only jam-session.

Started through an Internet forum for Heritage owners, 23 people came to the first Pilgrimage last year, said Jim Wallace, a forum member who helped start the yearly visit to the Kalamazoo guitar factory.

``People want to come here and see where their guitars are made and meet the people who make them,'' he said.

Wallace called the employees at Heritage artists, and as people wandered into the basement on Friday, they saw some of the artists at work making guitars. A film of sawdust covered nearly everything and gave the factory a sepia tone, almost like looking back in time through old photographs.

Ray Noud, a Heritage employee for five years, laid out frets on a neck by hand. Katie Flamm, also a five-year Heritage veteran, said she typically spends an hour to an hour and a half on each guitar, smoothing out rough edges and rounding it into shape, all by hand.

Victor Dvorak, from Cincinnati, said the machines looked like antiques.

``This is the way that they should be made, and they're carrying on with that,'' he said.

Heritage Guitars was started in 1985 by four former Gibson Guitar Co. employees. The company, at 225 Parsons Street, specializes in handmade guitars praised by musicians for their sound and vintage looks.

Myles Sobczak owns nine Heritage guitars. He bought his first one in 1998 and fell in love with them, he said. He and his wife, Kathy, traveled from Chicago for the tour. Sobczak, who plays in a blues band, said his guitars are conversation-starters wherever he goes -- in addition to sounding great.

The revered Heritage sound is something that Dvorak still has to experience. He just bought his first Heritage, the first guitar he has ever purchased.

``I still don't know how to play it, so I thought I would come and see how they are made,'' he said.

Labels: Guitar News Daily, Heritage, KALAMAZOO