Patsy Cline - Honkey Tonk Angel
I've got this disc playing in the CD player as I write this because it is SO good! Patsy Cline was such a breath of fresh air in the Honky Tonk era of the late fifties-early sixties and this greatest hit's disc showcases some of her best-loved songs and performances.
The set list:
Walkin' After Midnight
Never No More
Turn The Cards Slowly
Lovesick Blues
Let The Teardrops Falls
Hungry For Love
A Poor Man's Roses
Today, Tomorrow And Forever
Crazy Dream
If Only I Could Stay Asleep
The songs have all been digitally re-mastered and actually sound VERY good, not your usual sterile digital crap.
There are a couple of real treats on this disc. First off is the great job her various bands did playing the tunes. Some real smoking blues and honky tonk guitar and piano playing going on here, that's for sure! Also a treat is the "rock and roll" version of Hank William's trademark hit "Lovesick Blues". It doesn't exactly work (the phrasing is a bit cramped) but I loved it. Gems like this are hard to find and this one makes a good addition to the collection.
The only bad part is that the hit "Crazy" isn't included, but the rest of these great songs will make you a Patsy Cline fan guarenteed!
The disc is part of the "American Legends" series from Allegro, Inc and is cat# ALE192015, so do yourself a favor and BUY IT!!
GR
Posted: Wednesday 18th October 2006, 3:29 PM
Stray Cats - "Rumble In Brixton" DVD
This exciting 2004 release of a live Stray Cats gig in England is a rockabilly lover's delight. The boys are in fine form as Brian Setzer leads the trio through a long set of their hits, favorites and a few lesser known tunes.
The set list:
Rumble In Brighton
Double Talkin' Baby
Something's Wrong With My Radio
Ubangi Stomp
Stray Cat Strut
Gene & Eddie
Too Hip Gotta Go
Sleepwalk
I Won't Stand In Your Way
My Baby Left Me
Blast Off
18 Miles To Memphis
Bring It Back Again
Fishnet Stockings
Runaway Boys
Rock This Town
That's All Right
Good Rockin' Tonight
Twenty Flight Rock
(She's) Sexy + 17
Please Don't Touch
New Bonus Studio Track:
Mystery Train Kept A Rollin'
The sound recording is excellent as is the camera work. The stage show is sparse and uncluttered, reflecting the 'Cat's approach of simple 3-piece rockabilly roots music (how refreshing, muscians that can actually PLAY their instruments and don't need fog, lazers and dancers!;). The DVD comes with behind the scenes tour footage, vintage pics and a long session of the Stray Cats in the studio recording a new song (the rather lame "Mystery Train Kept A Rollin' - a "tribute" type yawner that kind of shows why rockabilly can be a rather limiting genre - though one I love;)
I give the disk a four star rating - you can order a copy through Amazon on this page. Enjoy!
GB
Posted: Tuesday 18th July 2006, 11:50 AM
Fender Highway 1 Telecaster Review
Here's a shot of my current favorite "can't put it down - go to" guitar! My Fender Highway 1 Telecaster!
It's the sunburst model with the thin finish (although it is NOT "Nitro") and maple 9.5 radius neck. The body is alder and rather light. It's an awesome tone machine with a very-full sounding "chimey" tone. It almost sounds like a strat at times, but with that nice tele "spank" when you dig in with the pick. The neck pickup is AWESOME - clean it has a beautiful glass-like harp sound, and with some good hot tube grit behind it makes a smokey blues tone that I love. The middle setting is more strat-like, and the bridge is nice, but can get kind of ice-picky at times. You need to roll the tone knob back a bit.
The guitar comes with a vintage bridge with 3 threaded steel saddles which is nice, but I might pop a set of brass Glendale compensated saddles in there to smooth out the bridge pickup. I think the pickups are the same Fender is using in the 50's reissue teles and 50's reissue Esquire (which I also just bought and love - review to come shortly). They seem to be pretty "sweet" and "airy" on the top end if you will....
Some people don't like the thin finish, but I love it. I do think it makes a diference in the tone, as my other tele's don't sound quite as "wide" as this one. By "wide" I mean having such a seemingly full sonic spectrum. Kinda' scooped but huge. To my ears very pleasing.
It will also "relic" pretty easy with the thin finish, so if you're rather anal about your guitars, you might not like it. I bought it because I want to play the shit out of it, so a little battle damage just adds to the mojo for me.
You can grab them for around the low-to-mid $600's from following the MusciansFriend links on this site. Check out the honey blond ones, they are sweeeet!
Get to spanking that tele!!!
GB
Posted: Wednesday 26th April 2006, 4:07 PM
Freddie King - The!!! Beat 1966
This is one of my favorite guitar DVDs for sure - it's a collection of appearances that the great blues giant Freddie King did on a local Dallas television show in the 1960's called "The!!! Beat".
He plays a ton of his hits accompanied by the show's rocking band - a band led by Gatemouth Brown and also having Jimi Hendrixes' old bass playing friend Billy Cox in it. WHOA! Talk about some serious star power players.
The clips/songs include:
Funny Bone (2 versions)
Have You Ever Loved A Woman
San-Ho-Say (2 versions)
I'm Tore Down
Hide Away (2 versions)
I Love The Woman
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag(!)
See See Baby
Sitting On The Boatdock
Shuffle
She Put The Whammy On Me
Freedie's playing is top notch and he obviously enjoys himself on the show. He plays his cherry-red Gibson 345 the whole time and really rips it up. He's even joined by some local highschool girls doing go-go dances while he plays on a few numbers (remember it was a local TV show, so many people from the Dallas area were in the audience). The production is good and the audio is pretty clean. You can hear his voice and guitar nice and clear.
The disk also includes 3 bonus tracks from a gig he did in Sweden just before his death in 1973. Those songs are:
Have You Ever Loved A Woman
'Blues Band Shuffle
Big Leg Woman
His playing has matured a bit here, but to me, it looks like he's not having a very good time. Might be the passive faces of all the REALLY white Nordic kids in the crowd just kind of sitting there as he jams it out.
If you love Freddy King or just great guitar instrumentals GET THIS DISK!
It's put out by Vestapol and can be ordered via Amazon on this page (dvd # vestapol 13014).
GB
Posted: Tuesday 28th March 2006, 12:59 PM
T-Bone Walker Signature Licks DVD
This is one of my favorite guitar instructional disks featuring two of my all time favorite players - the blues legend T-Bone Walker and modern whiz Duke Robillard.
First up, the song's covered:
You Don't Love Me
Love Is A Gamble
T-Bone Shuffle
T-Bone Boogie
I Get So Weary
This is an AWESOME DVD! My hype aside, if you would like to get a glimpse into T-Bone's seminal blues guitar style, this is a good place to start (aside from listening to his many recordings, 'natch;). Duke shows various 7th and 9th chord vamps, progressions and turnarounds that you can use and mutate into virtually any modern style blues playing you care to. Covered are both major and minor blues/chords and T-Bone's approach to lead playing over these type progressions. Duke is a master guitarist and it's easy to just put on the disc and kickback and watch his smooth playing of the material. I always learn something new, some new nuance I over-looked on each viewing, so this DVD will keep giving you the goods time and time again. I recommend it highly.
One quick note - T-Bone's style and feel is all about letting the groove "swing", so be prepared to get loose! He was a dancer before he became a guitar playing and the man knows how to play with feel. Enjoy!
This is a Hal Leonard release and is available from Amazon.Com through the links on this site.
GB
Posted: Wednesday 15th March 2006, 2:47 PM
The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People
Thought I might just do a mini-review of something I've been listening to for the past week - The Cramps!
Remember them? They were the fore-runners of the whole psycho-billy thang way back in the late 70's and early 80's. I know, I know, they're still around, but this is about one of their seminal records (now a cd) entitled "Bad Music For Bad People".
The song list:
Garbageman
New Kind Of Kick
Love Me
I Can't Hardly Stand It
She Said
Goo Goo Muck
Save It
Human Fly
Drug Train
TV Set
Uranium Rock
Okay, music abilities aside, these guys were GREAT! I mean, Poison Ivy was the BOMB! A guitar-slinging babe in fishnets and beehive hairdo's peeling off twangy rockabilly licks as Lux Interior yodled and jabbered his crazy b-movie lyrics? They were like a darkside B-52's to me, always enjoyable and just this side of polished and perfect. I always love raw emotion over chops in my music and The Cramps ALWAYS delivered.
The CD's production is crude at best, but that's the whole point, right?
So if you want a blast of something REAL, grab this CD and rock it, baby!
GB
Posted: Wednesday 11th January 2006, 9:29 PM
Berklee Workshop DVD - Jazz Guitar Techniques: Modal Voicings
I got this DVD while out and about because I thought it dealt with modes (ie: Dorian, Ionian, etc, in a diatonic way) but when I got home I found it was a more advanced concept lesson in jazz comping and non-traditional chord voicings. The teacher is Rick Peckham and he is an assistant chairman of the guitar department at the Berklee School of Music...and it shows!
This guy is GOOD. He explains the material well and shows nice examples of various techniques like - "tension and release" "altered Dominants" "Chromatic and diatonic embellishment" and more. One of his tenets is that one should never practice guitar without some kind of drum machine or musical accompaniment so you're always playing in time and hearing some sort of harmony. A simple thought, but how many of us guitar players noodle away on the couch while watching TV? A little musical discipline is a good thing and to this end he uses a little sampler to play chord sequences into and then accompany when he's working things out. I liked this idea so much I ran out a bought a sampler to use for the same thing....now I just got to read the damn manual and get it going;)
Like many Hal Leonard products, the DVD is well laid out and concludes with a neat performance piece from Peckham that will give you a good "view" of his approach to modal voicings. I'm not really a "jazzbo", but found this DVD well worth watching again and again. You can always learn from great players, no matter what the genre.
Just do a search on the box on this page for the title and have at it!
GB
Posted: Tuesday 27th December 2005, 4:51 PM
Gibson Faded Les Paul Review
My buddy Paul Howard has been having a love-fest with his new faded les Paul, so he was kind enough to write up a little review for us:
I like it
Ever since the first time I picked one up, I've always wanted a Les Paul but the price was always the obstacle. I just couldn't afford a couple grand and there isn't much point in accepting compromise when picking out a major guitar like that. So, I waited. A short while ago, while I was checking out some Epiphones, my buddy at Guitar Center thrust a Vintage Studio into my hands and told me I could have it for only a few bucks more. You can always tell a really cool guitar from way it feels in your hands. From the moment I picked it up I could tell it was the real thing. I already knew from past experience that American -made Gibson means just that: an American Gibson. This guitar lives up to what that means.
It could never win any awards for its' appearance. It is plain red-cherry vintage stain with a light coat of sealer. There is no sanding finish, you can see flecks of blue in the wood grain, which is open. The pickguard and hardware are in black with "studio" knobs. The only mod I made was to change these to the traditional gold hi-hats. It gave it a nice personal touch. What's under the hood in this guitar is what really makes it cool.
Based on the '57 Black Beauty, the body is all mahogany. The pickups are a set of Alnico 5 Burstbucker Pros. The neck is a '59 contoured.
Man, this neck is out of this world! It is so easy and comfortable to play. The action is the smoothest and most responsive I've encountered. Players with both large and small hands commented on the comfort. I never get tired on this guitar. The bending and expression on this fretboard is great, I find myself doing things I never would have tried on other guitars, (except my Strat, of course!).
The pickups are equally amazing, they have more dynamic range and openness than most humbuckers, the dynamic expression you can get with your playing technique alone without ever touching a knob is unreal.
As far as tone, the open finish body and Burstbucker combination produce a tone so rich and unfiltered that dialing-in the Les Paul tone I'm after is really easy on any modern amp. You could spend a lifetime exploring the tonal possibilities here. It makes the most out of every amp I plug it into. The hardware is very good, it holds tune beautifully.
The tone circuit is genuine Gibson as well, this is no small thing. The better the pots respond, the more shaping of your tone. These pots are great. Purists might argue that the heavy finish on the standard Les Paul is part of the tone and they are right. Open grained guitars are another sound. The question is whether that sound is the real thing and will give you what the guitar is known for. I think the answer is yes. The vintage finish guitars from both Gibson and Fender are great instruments. I wouldn't trade this guitar. It's a great Les Paul!
I'm not waiting anymore. I'm playing and I'm really diggin it. Since I got this guitar, I just can't put it down.
This is exactly the kind of guitar you might overlook in l well-stocked store. It is really plain to look at, no kidding, it is. It also comes in an even duller brown. But if you're out to make some noise and climb the Sonic Olympus until you're eye-to-eye with it, this axe is the real thing.
PH
Posted: Monday 12th December 2005, 4:52 PM
Albert Collins In Concert DVD
Here's one of my all time favorite blues artists - the Ice Man himself, Albert Collins. This tele slinger from Texas was always a great show and marvel to watch as he blasted out some of the coolest telecaster licks this side of the great divide. With his unusual F#m open tuning and finger picked/plucked right hand attack, Albert always made you gasp at his command of rythm and melody.
This concert was shot in Baden-Baden, Germany, back in October of 1988 in a nice big club. It's a well-recorded set featuring a great band (with horns and fellow blues guitarist Debbie Davies) doing a hot batch of Alberts favorites and standards. Duke Robbilard joins him onstage for a rocking version of "Frosty", one of Albert's signature tunes.
The song list is:
Sack Of Woe
Listen Here
Tired Man
Lights On Nobody Home
Mastercharge
Blackcat Bone
I Ain't Drunk
I Got That Feeling
Frosty
There is some serious guitar playing here and well worth the price of the DVD. I've watched it probably twenty times and still get something new each time. I was fortunate enough to see Albert live three times before he died in 1993 and he was awesome to say the least. Stinging solos and a real showman who always pleased his audience. Blues fans will surely want to add this DVD to their collection (you can grab it through Amazon on this page).
GB
Posted: Friday 9th December 2005, 3:26 PM
Fender Squier Telecaster Custom
Here's my current "I can't put it down" guitar -
It's a scratch-and-dent Squier Tele Custom that I snagged at GC for, get this - $135! I know they only list for $199, but it still felt like a good deal, and MAN, was I right!
I've always loved telecasters (I got 4 of them!;), but never really had the chance to try one with humbuckers, so I thought this would be a cheap way to try one out. The neck on this little baby feels awesome, nice and chunky with a slick satin finish. The fret work and assembly on this guitar is first rate, too. The bridge is a modern six saddle style and keeps intoned nicely. The electronics (pots) are kinda cheapo and might end up getting replaced, but the two humbucking pickups are really good. At first I thought they were a tad compressed and dull sounding, but after tweaking the eq on my amp (Vox 100W Valvetronix - I'm digging the AC30 setting with this axe) slightly they have a great tone of their own in all three postions. It still twangs a bit, but what it really does is SNARL!
At first, I had considered swapping the pickups out for a set of P-90s, but I've since changed my mind as I don't want to take a chance on losing the unique tone I'm now digging from this guitar....BUT I was still anxious to try that famed gnarly P-90 tone in a tele body style...SO, I went ahead and ordered a Squier Tele Custom II from MusciansFriend.Com to play and will now get to compare the two first hand through my own rig!!!
The prices on these new Squiers are awesome and people who turn their noses up at Squier guitars need to take a second look at some of the models Fender is putting out these days. You might be surprised at what you'll find! (I also own a Squier '51 sunburst which I'll review later on).
GB
Posted: Tuesday 6th December 2005, 4:25 PM
Gibson Faded SG Guitar
Here's a pic of one of my newest guitars -
It's a new Gibson faded SG in brown. It's so new I still haven't taken the sticker off the pickguard (excuse the shitty pic, I'm still tweaking my new digital camera). It comes with 2 Gibson 490 humbuckers and plays like a beauty.....although I have to admit, I've been so busy messing with my new Fender Squire Tele Custom I haven't shown it the proper love in days....
I had gone to get a faded SG in red with the ebony neck, but these brown ones were the only models they had left, so after checking out a couple I selected this one. It has a rosewood neck and it's sweet. The finish of the wood looks really good too.
The neck is nice and thick (I have big hands so I dig guitars with chunky necks) and the action makes 10's feel like 9's when you play. The 490's are real thick in the mids and have a real high output - crunch city!
I had been thinking of sticking some P-90's in her, but since I don't have any other 490 style guitars in the collection, I decided to keep it stock. The sound is very articulate when playing lead, but it can get muddy real fast when playing chords with too much distortion (is there such a thing? hehe). Clean it sounds good, almost like an acoustic.
I'll do a better review after I have it a few months and get to really wring out the tones. The price was right (you can get'em for around $690 still) so if you're looking for that classic crunch but don't want the weight of a Les Paul around your neck, check out an SG!
GB
Posted: Monday 5th December 2005, 6:03 PM
B.B.King Live By Request
This DVD features blues legend B.B.King doing a "call-in" type concert with his band and invited friends. The show was an A&E Network special broadcast and the idea was that callers could phone in and request any song they wanted from B.B. and the band. It was a good gag and the band is game for the songs, but the A&E Network hosts are irritating and so freaking plastic you want to hit the fast forward every time they show up.
The songs that make up this DVD are:
Let The Good Times Roll
Sweet Little Angel
Bad Case Of Love
Night Life
Neighborhood Affair
Exactly Like You
Guess Who
The Thrill Is Gone
Rock Me Baby - with Jeff Beck
Key To The Highway - With Jeff Beck
When Love Comes To Town
Caldonia
I'll Survie
Paying The Cost To Be The Boss - With Jeff Beck
The playing is rather subdued for one reason - old B.B. is now 80 years old and it shows. Now don't get me wrong, I hope I'm even ALIVE at that age, let alone playing live gigs, but the years have taken a toll on King's playing and singing. Gone is the fire and intensity of his earlier singing and playing, replaced by a more mellow restrained effort.
Don't get me wrong, the man's still a genius, it's just this is more of a marking time gig than anything earth-shattering.
Now Jeff Beck joins him for a few numbers and here things DO get interesting. Beck's current atonal style is a weird match for B.B.'s silk smooth blues stylings. I had heard one person say "Yeah, Beck just comes on and makes a bunch of stupid noises with his guitar" but I actually enjoyed it. It's nice to see something other than the same old pentetonic noodlings we've all heard for the last 70 years from guitarists (I'm guilty of it too;).
So, I'd say this DVD is something that's nice to have in the collection, but it's not a must for B.B.King fans. You can get it still through Amazon (right from this page) so check it out, if only for Beck's stuff.
GB
Posted: Tuesday 15th November 2005, 1:40 PM
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GuitaRiffic Archives
Patsy Cline - Honkey Tonk Angel
Stray Cats - "Rumble In Brixton" DVD
Fender Highway 1 Telecaster Review
Freddie King - The!!! Beat 1966
T-Bone Walker Signature Licks DVD
The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People
Berklee Workshop DVD - Jazz Guitar Techniques: Modal Voicings
Gibson Faded Les Paul Review
Albert Collins In Concert DVD
Fender Squier Telecaster Custom
Gibson Faded SG Guitar
B.B.King Live By Request
Cream At The Royal Albert Hall
Albert king "Live In Sweden" DVD
50's Rockabilly Guitar Instructional Tape
Robben Ford - The Blues And Beyond Instructional DVD
The Fabulous Thunderbirds Invitation Only DVD
Guitariffic Goes Live!
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