It’s here, on sale now, Katherine Penfold’s new CD, Journals. Katherine is an very talented vocalist, song writer, and performer. Yours truly contributed to the project with guitar on a few of the tracks. The wah and auto-wah got a bit of a workout, most tracks were recorded with the Swart Atomic Space Tone and the trusty Fender Custom Classic Stratocaster and Telecaster. Here is a small sample of one of the tracks. Click on the here to order now!!!
Summer has been a great break for me. Did a great gig in Russell with Katherine Penfold and then the family went to Newfoundland and Laborador for a few weeks. Tons of fun. But I’m back now and returning to posting on the blog. I’m in the process of reinventing my guitar sound. Every once and a while you just have to switch things up a bit. So out with the old and in with the new. The Fuchs TDS 50 and 212 cabinet are on the way out along with the MIDI driven rack etc… replaced by a new Tone King Metropolitan.
I saw this clip and knew this amp was something special. Tone King amps are what Mark Knopfler has been using for his clean sound and I’ve been mesmurized by this sound ever since I heard the Kill to Get Crimson album.
It’s Here! Buy the new Mike Blair CD Alone Under The Stars. Songs, vocals, and acoustic guitar by Mike Blair. Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, mandolin, percussion, engineering, and production by Carl Strempler. Buy your copy here!
In Part 2 of Land That I Love I took a different approach to the track. I’m facinated by the intermingling of sadness and joy. It’s important to differentiate between happiness and joy. Happiness is a temporary emotional state that focus just on the immediate positive situation. To me, joy is a deeper state that revels in the full range of experiences of life. Regardless of what happens to you, a deep faith in an eternal hope results in joy. In this track I tried to bring the mornfulness of the slide sound evolving into the joy of the hope that stretches before us.
From a musical perspective I was inspired by the Classic Album DVD Queen – The Making Of: A Night A The Opera. The multiple layers of thick singing guitar sounds. I slowly bought in more slide tracks, fitting them together and then building it with more and more tracks with both licks and harmonies. Underneath the track I used the guitar as a percussion device, tuned to open E, hitting harmonics. You can hear more of that as the track fades. All slide was recorded with my Danelectro into an Fulltone OCD (version 1) into a T-Rex Replica and then into the Swart Atomic Space Tone. If you are wondering what the difference between different Fulltone OCD pedals is check out this YouTube clip.
It has been a while since my last posting. I’ve been quite busy finishing Mike Blair’s “Alone Under The Stars” album. Last night the “GOLD” master was handed over to him to send to production. This will be available on iTunes and you can get a physical copy from other sources. A CD release party is in the works. Watch for Mike on tour across Western Canada this summer promoting the record.
Every artist needs an inspiring place to write and practice. Hal Ryckman came by my office with the idea of renting some space for the various bands we are in. Wanting to really have a place to play were the band could hear itself and nobody would care how late we played had a lot of appeal to me. His son’s band has a practice space in a building near our office downtown. So…off we went to check out what was available. We found this space and knew right away it was perfect. I suggested to Hal that we pickup some fiberglass panels and wrap them in material. One Saturday we headed to Mitchell’s Fabrics in downtown Winnipeg and went straight down to the bargain rack. There we found three colours of the same fabric and right away knew this was the ticket. The next Friday right after work we set out to create 30 panels and mount them on the walls. The spray glue we used was a tad intoxicating and when I went to the bathroom during a break as I stood washing my hands I found that I was literally stuck to the floor. Opps. As I lifted my feet the tiles started to pull from the bathroom floor. I hope the building super doesn’t read this blog!
Sometimes its worth picking up those little free download cards from Starbucks. I happened upon the song “Asking for Flowers” by just such a download. As soon as I heard the song I knew there was something very special going on with this record.
My favorite recording for 2008 is Kathleen Edwards, “Asking for Flowers”.
Song writing, perfect guitar tones, compelling and unique vocals. I just keep playing this record. You know you have something special when a record sounds better and better to you with every listening. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for sad songs. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for broken and evocative vocals. But listen to those guitar sounds, semi-distorted, layered, and throbbing with lush tremolo . Fantastic!
There is nothing flashy about his record. If you are looking for shredding, you are not going to find any here just beautifully composed, recorded, and executed parts and counter melodies. Colin Cripps, who has worked with Bryan Adams and Sarah McLaughlin, shows how its done. It doesn’t hurt that Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) plays organ or Greg Leisz (Wilco, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow) play pedal steel.
The record opens with “Buffalo”. I love how you can hear the creaking of the piano and the squeak of the pedals. From the opening bar you know this is not going to not be the usual sanitized pop album. The vocals haven’t been tuned to death and the raw emotion comes through.
The title track “Asking For Flowers” is a brilliantly crafted tune. The guitar solos have this scratchy bite that captures the frustration and anger of the tune perfectly. “Alicia Ross” is the true story of the murder of a young women in Markham, Ontario, one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard.
“I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory” with lines like “Your the Great One, I’m Marty McSorley” this is a piece of true Canadiana. Great pedal steel playing on that cut. Every tune on this record is strong ending with the atmospheric “Goodnight, California”.
Great music moves you and this record moves me every time I listen to it. The palpable mornfullness of these songs make this my #1 pick for 2008.
If you have never paid attention to Ry Cooder it is well past time you did. A quick browse on YouTube will show you evidence of his pure artistry. One of the greatest perveyors of slide guitar that has ever walk the face of the earth. He’s the hidden man. He’s the seminal figure in roots rock music. Follow this link on Ry Cooder and read up on his exploits in the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s, 90′s, and beyond. He has been a pioneer recording one of the first all digital recordings “Bop Till You Drop”. That recording demonstrated his deep gospel influences. On Mavis Staples’ 2007 recording ”We’ll Never Turn Back”, Ry produced the record and again showed his deep understanding of earthy black gospel music. Ry’s playing has always had a roughness about it. Like hands that have worked a hoe. This deep connection with nuance and regional music has always drawn me to his playing. It’s never about flash. It’s always about substance…and humour. He plays all styles of music with an heir of respect.
And so I come to my #2 favorite recording of 2008. Ry Cooder’s, “I, Flathead”. This is the third in Ry’s California Trilogy of concept records. Ry uses the backstory of drag racing culture on the salt flats of California to explore Bakersfield influences, Bob Wills and the Texas Cowboys,
The hilarious tune, “Spayed Kooley”, is about a dog that will attack you if you sing out of tune. This is a not so subtle reference to Spade Cooley the notorious (for good reason, read his wiki profile) fiddle playing band leader. Steel Guitar Heaven harkens back to Bob Wills and the Texas Cowboys. Interestly, Spade Cooley didn’t make it to Steel Guitar Heaven. It is easy to think about music as fitting into clear catagories, such as Rock, Country, Blues, Jazz, and Bluegrass. This is not how music evolved in North America. This is a oversimplification designed to help marketing. It has nothing to do with how musicians play music or how the music of today has evolved. North America is a melting pot of influences. Musicians play all styles. Check out the jazz influences on ”My Dwarf is Getting Tired”. In fact, just check out this whole recording. It is my #2 pick for 2008.
Being in a retrospective mood I thought I might share my top 3 favorite recordings of 2008. These are albums that I’ve found hard to take off of my MP3 player and keep going back to for inspiration. The choices may surprise you.
#3 Al Green – Lay It Down
The Reverend brings it on this album. Sure his instrument isn’t what it used to be but true artistry is about getting the most out of what you’ve got. The mellow thick guitar tones bring to mind Eric Gale’s guitar work in the late 70′s and early 80′s when he held court in New York’s session scene (check out Paul Simon’s One-Trick Pony). Rich grooving bass lines throughout. The drum sounds are played with nothing but feel, then run through outboard analog compressors, amp farm (on the hats believe it or not), and then compressed again. This combination forms a subtle backdrop keeping your focus on one of the greatest voices in R&B. Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson produced this great example of how an album can take on distinctive analog sound in this modern age of pristine recording techniques. Recorded direct off the floor with the song writers, band, and vocalists all in the room together give this record a vibe somewhere between Memphis and Motown.
Many guitar players listen to guitar players for inspiration. For me its Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Al Green. If you can capture just a bit of that soul in your playing you’ve got something worth listening to.
Moonlight Ride is a song that will preceed Alone Under The Stars on Mike Blair’s CD. Here I’ve posted the rough backing tracks without the vocal. Final vocals need to be recorded for the tune. In this tune I’ve used a very Brad Paisley like approach. Telecaster tones feature throughout. The use of tremolo on guitar has become very popular. It has replaced the Chorus pedal as a popular treatment for the guitar to add an element of motion to the guitar sound. The rhythm guitar track was originally only a Telecaster through an compressor into the Swart. I added a second track using a P-90 equipped Paul Reed Smith McCarty. The lead is just the Telecaster into the Keeley Compressor into the Swart turned up. Pick with authority and that’s all it takes to get that Nashville sound.
