RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

       

ARTIST NEWS

 

Technical Difficulties: This site displays best in Internet Explorer, but viewers using Chrome or other browsers may see a degraded result. Apologies for the inconvenience, which we are working to resolve.

Robben Ford with Miles Davis

This edition we are diving into the Robben Ford appreciation pool, and a good place to start is his time spent with the way special school cool of Miles Davis. Robben Ford has the power to fit into any musical form he wishes to explore. Check out the Blues (and even the Country!) he contributed to Miles Davis' Jazz strokes.

Here and Abroad Cool

Volker Strifler

If you are looking for a working class hero/gunfighter guitar player, who broadens the six-note Blues scale with Mixolydian and Dorian flourishes, and who sings just like you want a Blues guy to sing, you should Google Volker Strifler and get his number. Volker, opening for B.B. King in the video below, plays with the Ford Blues Band. That band includes three Ford brothers, i.e., Robben, Patrick and Mark. This makes Volker "the other guitar player" in that band, according to his own website (use this link). They will be playing Finland's Puisto Blues Festival, as well as dates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.  Volker has been a mainstay of Northern California music for many years, fronting his own band as well as working with the Ford band. In 2006 he released a tremendous album of original tunes, The Dance Goes On, that impressively captured the depth of his talent, of which he is a triple threat: writer/singer/musician. He is a really wide-ranging and gifted songwriter. His childhood was spent in Germany and to this day he maintains a cadre of German musicians with whom he tours Europe. He has his California band, too, and functions kind of like a Napa Valley local who can be seen at venues from Sacramento to San Luis Obispo. Besides his talent, Volker has another calling card in his authenticity. He is about as real as you can find in the entertainment business. Somehow in his earnest and honest performance, he achieves the unthinkable, giving his audience a purity of musical expression that seems not so much about him as it does about a shared musical experience. That's a rare magic and probably comes from being that other guitarist. That is a tribute to Robben Ford, whose probably had more than enough already.

Maybe A Little More...

Robben Ford with Larry Carlton

Here is that other guitarist who plays with Volker Strifler (i.e., Robben Ford) performing in Tokyo with Larry Carlton. What one hears listening to these two, and to their backing band, is silk, as in the fine fabric of their execution. They are tone and technique virtuosos. It isn't so much what they play as how they play what they play.

More Volker

From the Sierra Center Stage series, check out the Ford Blues Band in top form, and check out Volker Strifler. He is the edge in this great band, that is otherwise somewhat ethereal in their approach to the Blues. The interviews with the Ford brothers are charming, too.

All Kinds of Hotel California

Styx and Foreigner have toured together in previous summers, and their planned tour starting this week (May 16) wouldn't be worth the mention were it not for the addition of Don Felder, formerly of The Eagles, as the opening act this time around. Continue below...

Felder is one of the most under-appreciated guitarists in the music world. He replaced Bernie Leadon, when the banjo-plucking Leadon left The Eagles in 1975, and he ushered in a change in the band's sound, making it less country and more rock. When former James Gang guitarist Joe Walsh was added, The Eagles had a dual-soloist setup that gave them an edge they had otherwise sorely lacked. It was Felder who wrote the music to Hotel California, which is arguably the best song in The Eagles repertoire. It is a song so compelling that Styx and Foreigner have teamed with Felder to record a new version of the song, which they will feature on this tour.

"It's a different take on the song," Felder says, "with different people (including Styx's Tommy Shaw and Foreigner's Kelly Hansen) singing different verses and guitar solos by me and then Tommy and Mick. So who knows, we may wind up doing that (song) in the show at the end of the night."

The tour -- which currently has 35 dates locked in and will be adding more soon -- is also the most extensive road trek that Felder, who parted ways with the Eagles in 2000 and released his second solo album, "Road to Forever," in 2012, has lined up as a solo artist.

Felder was famously fired from The Eagles, after Don Henley and Glen Frey rewrote the band's working agreement, paying themselves significantly greater shares of the band's earnings than were paid to the other members. Lawsuits ensued that were finally settled out of court. Felder wanted $50 million. Now at 66 years of age, and doing the longest solo stint of his long career, one suspects that he didn't come out of the legal hassles with his due share. The good news is that the world is going to get to hear a really too little heralded guitarist on is own terms.


Paying Tribute to the Guitar Gods

With this edition, the recently rechristened Creative Culture Journal (CCJ) takes a look at some of those surveys done recently that purport to rank the Top 100 guitarists of all time.

Use this link to read about the surveys completed by industry pros for Rolling Stone, and by readers for Guitar World magazine. There are fascinating contrasts, though both spotlight the fact that there are a lot of great guitar players in just those corners of the world that English speakers attend to. Imagine the lists including virtuosos from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe! If we can find it we will bring it to you, but for now...


The School of Satriani

Left entirely off the Rolling Stone 2013 100 Top Guitarists survey were some pretty extraordinary guitarists, many of whom learned their chops studying with guitar virtuoso and legendary music instructor Joe Satriani. Use this link.


LOOKING FOR SOMETHING YOU SAW IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE? Use this link.


Loren Worsham Honored with Tony Nomination

Congratulations to Sky Pony lead singer Lauren Worsham, who has been nominated for a Tony Award -- Best Featured Actress for her role as Phoebe in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder!  That musical has been nominated for 10 Tonys total, the most for any show this season.


Richard Botto:

Stage 32

 

That confident adult male there to the right is actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist Richard Botto. Add Internet entrepreneur to his resume, for in 2011 he launched the website Stage 32, which (from their Wikipedia page)"links professionals in the entertainment industry including directors, writers, actors and entertainment staff. It caters to film industry professionals with featured bloggers, news from Hollywood and a projects page that allows members to connect with others on film ventures, along with standard social media functions." Use this link for more.


 

Appearances and Tour News


The CCJ is always looking for Websites and media outlets that provide information on the popular music scene, and among the best is the NYC-based site Oh My Rockness. They present constantly updated, and fairly exhaustive, show listings that are a blast to peruse. Check out these links, which will take you to the OMR sites for the three markets they cover:

New York City

Los Angeles

Chicago


State of Emotional Affairs

What does love have to do with anything? Use this link.

 

Sky Pony

This Sky Pony video of their tune "Say You Love Me Like You Mean It" features the full dose of what makes Sky Pony cool. It is a high end unit of really talented musical theater pros who have the advantage of having songs by Kyle Jarrow. He specializes in off-beat weirdness that is sweet, strange, often funny, and typically quite beautiful. Sky Pony is his second big-time band, his first, The Fabulous Entourage, being one of this site's all time favorites.

VOODOO CHILDREN, "Chile" or Child

One of the nicest things Jimi Hendrix left this world was his songbook, filled with tunes that have inspired guitarists since they were first given life by the alien love force himself. From Electric Ladyland, Hendrix' third and final album, "Voodoo Chile" was recorded in 1968.  Use this link to watch a variety of interpretations by guitar greats Stevie Ray Vaughn, Zakk Wylde, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

 

The Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame - What is it Really?

Former Talking Heads member Christ Frantz wrote a really good piece in the Huffington Post recently that shed some light on the selection of inductees into Cleveland's Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame. Somehow it feels important to call it "Cleveland's" Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame because it really is a kind of a Cleveland confection. We have discussed the development of that institution in previous editions of this publication, but to offer a quick recap, the "RnR HoF" was a civic improvement project funded as a centerpiece of a riverfront restoration initiative designed to make Cleveland look modern and relevant to the outside world. San Antonio has its riverwalk, and Cleveland has the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame, though it could probably be argued that San Antonio is a better match to running water than Cleveland is to music history. Whatever, it's just a promotional thing.

That, actually, was the point of Frantz's article, to wit - "...when we talk about the R&R HOF we are talking about a celebration of the music industry. It is a night when the music industry can get dressed up, spend a ton of money for a table and say to themselves, 'See that band up there? They're up there because of me and my people. We took care of business for them so that they could write songs, do tours, have their records played on the radio, and be Rock Stars.'"

This is an excellent insight from someone who knows. Frantz and the other T-Heads were inducted into the HoF in 2002. "We performed together at the induction ceremony for the first time in 18 years, since our lead singer had decided to pursue a full time solo career," wrote Frantz.

That is, of course, what the induction ceremony does, is bring back together a bunch of musicians who probably don't even speak to each other any more, to conjure up the spirits of some long dead band. It is a last reward for a bunch of work well done, not just by the band or performer but by the huge team of people who work to create this ghosty moment, likely coming years after the royalties have slowed to a trickle.

Frantz credits record chiefs like Seymour Stein of Sire Records "who signed us and the Ramones...and Seymour has been on the board of the R&R HoF board since it's beginning". One could see where Seymour might like to blow up the Talking Heads all over again, so the HoF provides the opportunity to assist with that bubble resurrection. Inductees get a little career bounce following the airing of the award ceremony, carried annually as an HBO special.

Frantz's insight into what that night is really about also explains why the induction ceremony feels the way it does. It is tacky in that way that corporate events are tacky, with office mates drunk and slurring their phony accolades for one another.

He goes on to offer large measures of credit to managers, secretaries, agents, promotions people, lawyers, road crews, and sound engineers, and in doing so he does every aspiring musical artist a favor by detailing the reality of the business of making music as a professional. In an era when "Do It Yourself" (DIY) is the byword, encouraging every entrepreneurial creative type in the world to believe that DIY is a viable alternative to being connected and represented by pros, who take all your money for their services, is largely wishful thinking.

For the vast majority, the only way to enter the magic kingdom, if you can imagine Cleveland's Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame to be that, is to be an "inside trader". The DIY thing is a useful alternative in terms of getting one's self noticed, but to get the machinery working that turns players into stars, and gives them viable careers, remains dependent upon deals with industry pros who one can only hope will not turn out to be the devil. That said, only the real dark lords can get you into Cleveland.-RAR

Saustex Stable Turns Out for Margaret Moser

San Antonio-Austin-Texas (aka Saustex) Media is a San Antonio-based record label and entertainment management outfit that specializes in a very specific brand of Texas Alt-Country, Punk, and Outlaw Blues (I made that last one up). They are tons of cross border fun, running a stable of acts that give the impression that Texas is an outlaw paradise of musical mischief. That is probably not be mistake or calculation. Some in the Saustex label do take the whole entertainment thing more seriously than do The Hickoids, performing in the video below, but all have a similar raw edge. A bunch of them got together this week to celebrate Margaret Moser, the retiring Editor-at-Large of The Austin Chronicle and Director of The Austin Music Awards. Ms. Moser is hugely respected in Texas music circles for bringing public attention to musicians who time has forgotten, or who perhaps never got their due share of acclaim. She has been valuable as a musician's liaison, as well, often serving as the nexus between players who really needed to meet one another.

Celebrating Margaret Moser with a roots-rock party were Saustex acts Churchwood, Eve & The Exiles, Hickoids, The Wagoneers, The Painted Redstarts, Paul Oscher, Jon Dee Graham, Rosie Flores, and Kathy Valentine. Proceeds from the event went to the SIMS Foundation. Use this link to see other of the Saustex bands in action.

 

 

Sassparilla

Raucous, melodic Americana outfit Sassparilla, led by songwriter and front man Kevin Blackwell, delivers Pasajero and Hullabaloo, a 19-track, double-disc set of two divergent, but distinctly Sassparilla albums. The two albums, totaling 19 songs, move in polar directions; Pasajero more akin to the band's latest two records (2012's The Darndest Thing and 2013's Magpie), boasts tight studio production and a melodic focus, while the ten tracks of Hullabaloo capture the live essence and playful nature of the band. His reasoning for making two different records, yet packaging them together is simple; to provide fans two distinct experiences: A studio record, and a "come as you are" record. "I've always maintained that bands wear two hats, the live show and the recorded product. With our last two releases, we made studio records. Songs that could be performed live, but with a different energy or spin on them," explains Blackwell. "The recorded product was something I saw as a different entity. With those albums I wanted a recording folks could listen to over and over again and find things they hadn't heard the first couple of times." Below is a video of the band in performance.

Super Furry Animals

We haven't heard from the Super Furry Animals in awhile. Wales' best argument for year around open season on creatures we should otherwise love has been on hiatus since 2010, and since releasing their last album in 2009 as a digital product available through their Website. We do occasionally hear from their eccentric singer-songwriter Gruff Rhys, who has a solo album being released in May (American Interior). Rhys is the product of poet parents, who one senses created within Gruff the sense that everything he does is interesting. He rushed this video out to promote his upcoming album release. What do you think?

Silent Lions

Exploring the possibilities of the red metering zone, Toledo, Ohio's Silent Lions, now a Detroit duo, have an EP out that they are touring behind. Their story is this: Dean Tartaglia simultaneously plays affected octave bass, sampled synths, and manipulated atmospheric vocals, all while drummer Matt Klein grooves and thrashes beside him, often providing soulful singalong melodies and harmonies. The duo’s live shows sound as thick and creamy as they do on record. Their music has been tagged as “heavy soul,” “chill punk” and “Hall and Oates backed by Rage Against The Machine.” Silent Lions’ sophomore six-song EP, The Compartments, is a deeper exploration into genre manipulation. From hip-hop to stoner rock, Silent Lions create moments of lo-fi chaos out of hi-fi clarity. To wit:

Andy Frasco & the U.N.

Sometimes music can be a mystical conveyor of deep thoughts and emotional resonance, which is all fine and good coming out of your car speakers or your home stereo system, but if what you really want to do is party on a boat you need to be skippered by Frasco and his band. Besides providing the unabashed good nature of a party band, they provide some wicked chops in an old school style. They are good fun for the whole family, particularly if the family is drunk. There is more on Frasco below.

Andy Frasco and his band of nomads the U.N. will be road-tripping across the US this Spring and Summer in support of their new full-length studio album Half A Man, set for worldwide release on 06.03.14 through Frasco’s own, newly launched label, Fun Machine Records.

Half A Man Tour will kick off May 14th through the end of July, before returning to tour Europe in August. Highlights along the Half A Man Tour include a handful of Pre-Wakarusa Party shows with Mike Dillion and his band of Outsiders, 2 sets at Wakarusa, as well as performances at Electric Forrest, Riverfest, and Alive After Five, Ridgeway, United Way and Newpark Summer Concert Series’.

Frasco, the 26-year old Los Angeles, CA native singer/songwriter/band maestro/entrepreneur/party starter/everyday hustler, and his band of gypsies “The U.N.” have been dubbed “Party Blues with a touch of Barefoot Boogie.” Frasco’s shows have been described as infectious, entertaining, and feel good. His performances are recognized as orchestrated chaos, inciting frenzied, undeniable good times, dancing, and perhaps even a good ole fashion freak out.

Andy Frasco first got his taste of the music industry managing and promoting bands when he was 16 and began touring at age 18, working with labels such as Drive Thru and Atlantic Records, as well as venues like The Key Club in Hollywood, CA. Embracing a DIY attitude, Andy has been averaging 200+ dates a year, building a loyal following everywhere he goes. To date, Andy has shared the stage with artists such as Joe Walsh, Leon Russell, Galactic, Jackie Greene, Gary Clark Jr, Jakob Dylan, The Flobots, Deer Tick, John Mayer, Fishbone, Luke Nelson, Corey Smith, JJ Grey & Mofro and more.

In 2013, Frasco graced some of the finest clubs and festivals in the U.S. & Europe including Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival, String Cheese Incident’s Festival at Horning’s Hideout, Hatch Festival, Seattle’s Fremont Fair, and Sundance Film Festival.

Frasco has showed no signs of slowing down in 2014, currently winding down his globetrotting Frobilization Tour that included performances at SXSW, Paaspop Festival (NL), Kings Day Festival (NL), Mai Open Air Festival (DE), and the Wine & Dine Festival in Macau, China.

 

 

L.A. Music 1966-75

This BBC documentary on the singer-songwriter era, as it existed in Los Angeles from the mid-60s through the mid-70s, isn't really very good, but it does get one thing right: it all culminated in the Eagles, who represented the nadir of a brief, moderately golden age in American music. They gave the world the "platinum" album, marking 2 million-plus in sales, and turned bland pandering to non-discriminating consumer tastes into the music industry as it exists today. Use this link to see the video on the L.A. links.

 

Songwriting Made Thoughtful

Cliff Goldmacher

Cliff Goldmacher, pictured here, is a songwriter, producer, engineer, author and owner of recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee and Sonoma, California. He may also be one of an evolved species of hairless human, which you see a lot of these days, though that observation may be influenced by this reporter's viewing of endless reruns of "Unsealed: Alien Files". Did you know that there are 160 alien species visiting planet Earth? A significant number of them play instruments - the talented Mr. Goldmacher plays numerous - and perform in rock bands playing some version of metal. That is not really Mr. Goldmacher's thing, but he has worked with multi-platinum selling artists Chris Barron (Lead singer of the Spin Doctors), Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead drummer), Lisa Loeb, and Ke$ha.

Mr. Goldmacher’s songs have been cut by major label artists in genres ranging from country, pop, and jazz to classical crossover. His music has also been used on NPR’s “This American Life” and in national advertising campaigns. His song “Till You Come To Me” spent 27 weeks in the top ten on Billboard Magazine’s jazz chart and finished as the Mediabase #1 and Billboard #2 jazz song of the year.

As an educator, he teaches workshops for BMI, ASCAP, The Stanford Jazz Workshop, The Songwriter’s Guild of America, the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International, Taxi, and The Durango
Songwriter’s Expo. What brought him to the attention of the CCJ was an eBook that he has published, and made available for free, that provides insights on the songwriting process. Read more...

Tommaso Zillio's Theory

Music Theory for Guitar. Knowledge is Power!

The musician who is searching for a deeper understanding of his or her instrument would be well served by becoming a regular visitor to Tommaso Zillio's Music Theory for Guitar website. Tommaso is a full-time professional rock/metal guitarist, teacher, and composer based in Edmonton, AB, Canada. He is the main writer at musictheoryforguitar.com, and collaborates as writer with websites such as ultimate-guitar.com, cyberfret.com, guitar9.com, metalguitarlessons.net, insaneguitar.com, and MyGuitarWorkshop.com, among many others. Among Tommaso's favorite musicians and influences are: Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Joe Satriani, Andy Timmons, Mike Oldfield, Jean-Michel Jarre, Deine Lakaien, Litfiba, Nightwish, Astor Piazzolla, Hans Zimmer.

Besides being an excellent instructor, Zillio does a great job with interviews of guitarists who are able to further demonstrate the approaches to playing the instrument and using it as a composition tool.

Zillio has a really good piece up currently with Obscura guitarist Christian Muenzer, which included his overview of his songwriting techique:

"Most of our riffs still outline a chord progression but in single notes, many notes which are included in the chords, maybe some transition notes.

"But very often, many songs that I write start with a chord progression first. Let's say, for example, I would pick two diatonic chords, like if I'm in the key of E minor for example, I would pick E minor and a B minor chord. Then I would maybe connect them with secondary dominants. I would go E minor, F-sharp 7, B minor, B7 for example. Then I might replace the F-sharp 7 with a G diminished until I get a nice sounding progression which makes sense for the ear but which is not too conventional or diatonic. Like something which is real unique.

"Then from there I try to use those notes to create a certain single note riff maybe, from it. Once I have a really good riff, a really good idea that I like and I figure out the tempo of that, the BPM, I put on a metronome.

The audience for Zillio's site will find much to learn and much to like in terms of comparing their experience with music with those of players like Muenzer. These types of sites - Zillio's and Cliff Goldmacher's (above) - are tremendous resources for players interested in going deeper into their songwriting and performance craft.


Rocking Arkansas in June - Wakarusa Festival

Those folks on Mulberry Mountain in Arkansas are organized for their June 5-8 festival, which in its 11th year will feature 150 acts on four stages. The acts range in style from Electronic Dance Music (EDM) to Americana. Use this link to visit their Website lineup page, which provides further links to information on each of the booked acts.

SURPRISE DISCOVERIES

High-end guitar manufacturers C.F. Martin and Taylor Guitars are both offering affordably priced instruments that are so outstanding that one wonders why anyone would buy their expensive models.

I spent several hours at my local Guitar Center recently playing everything in the store that interested me in the slightest - electric and acoustic - and most of what I found was pretty awful. This was true of virtually all of the top name brands, including Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, and Carvin, among other on the electric side. I did find a PRS that was dynamite, and some other less known brand that was killer, but most of what hangs on the wall there is crap. I came home with renewed appreciation for my Jeff Beck Strat, my Rickenbacker, my Epiphone Broadway, and even my cheapo DeArmond. (That DeArmond sells for $159 and it is the best $159 you will ever spend as a guitarist. It is a great everyday pick-up-and-play type of guitar, and its cool looking. It has toaster pickups that actually bite)

In the Guitar Store acoustic room - the one where they keep the guitars in the $500 range, I found two instruments I could hardly stop playing.

Martin is making a an X series of affordable acoustic-electrics that I found to be extraordinary. Great tone and really easy to play.  The DXR has a high pressure laminate (HPL) back and sides, which is probably where the cost savings reside, but a solid Sitka spruce top. The fabricated back and sides have no impact on the quality of this instrument that I could perceive, though certainly there are more perceptive and more discriminating people than myself in the guitar universe. The DXR can be had in an acoustic-electric arrangement (Fishman electronics) and purchased for $549-$749, I believe. It is a tremendous value, but then...

The freakin' Taylor 114 is every bit as good and possibly better! It has a slightly brighter, snappier tone than does the Martin, at least to my ears. Playing it put me to mind of vintage Gibsons that I have had the pleasure to play but only fleetingly, as they are nearly impossible to find and, these days, to afford. The Taylor 114 is better than almost any acoustic guitar I have ever experienced. In fact, I don't know how it could be more perfect in playability and tone. It is rich and responsive and satisfyingly warm. Both the Martin DXR or the Taylor 114 sound great, whether you are finger or flat-picking or just strumming. As a flat-picker's tool, I'd have a slight preference for the Taylor because it sort of likes being attacked.

The Taylor also uses the Sitka spruce top.   Both guitars have a comparable scale (25.4"), neck radius, and nut width. Either would be a fine buy and serve as tremendous everyday guitars, whether you are playing your living room or your area theater. Both leave me baffled as to why anyone would spend $2,500 to get one of either manufacturers' top-end models. They are showier looking and seem to carry a lot more laminate finish, but they tend to feel a little over presented to my hands. On the other hand, these two guitars featured here feel and sound like items of actual value.-RAR

CHATTERBOX

In progress...

 

Stuff We Stole Off Facebook

Returning in our minds to those Colorado daze...

Judy Rudin, the L.A.-based harmonica player and singer, was a hot item on the Boulder, Colorado music scene back in the 70s and early 80s. A free range bird, she had hitchhiked to Colorado from her native New Jersey en route to her greater life as an artist. Back in those Colorado days, Judy Rudin could pack the Blue Note with people eager to experience her wailing sounds. The similarities to a night with Janet Joplin were too obvious to note and yet unavoidable. To Judy's credit they did not diminish the integrity of her performances in any way. She wasn't imitating anybody, but rather was just blowing like a hurricane and plastering the walls with her own musical passions. It was cool, kids, and probably still is. I haven't seen her in years, but always loved her. She has worked with stellar San Francisco music producer  Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes), who has produced hitmakers Christina Aguilera (who had a worldwide hit with Perry's "Beautiful"), Gwen Stefani ("What You Waiting For?" from her album Love. Angel. Music. Baby.), Adam Lambert's "A Loaded Smile" and Grace Slick ("Knock Me Out"), as well as albums  by Courtney Love and Kelly Osbourne.

Mark Hallman and Robert McEntee: Someone named Jan Bowman shot this photograph of these two talented young dudes near Boulder, Colorado back in mid-70s. Hair grew wild then. They played together in the band Navarro, which for a time was songwriting legend Carole King's show band. Mark Hallman has been the operator of Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas for years, recording a long roster of top-name talent.

Below is another Bowman photograph of the Navarro boys picking on the front porch with Larry Novick. While it appears to have been taken circa 1875, this musical event actually occurred in 1975.

 

Spencer Bohren

Spencer Bohren, who some readers of this site will know from his long residence in New Orleans, and still others from his earlier time on the Boulder, Colorado music scene, has for years been doing his educational one-man-show DOWN THE DIRT ROAD BLUES. Recently he did this for for 2,000 students in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but this time with modification.  The Walton Arts Center was interested in giving their students state ownership of the piece, so Spencer brought in new characters from Arkansas to tell the story of America's music. In addition, the show was given new life with historic photos projected as a backdrop to several scenes, and stage sets provided further enhancement to the story. Use this link to learn more about Spencer Bohren and his program that teaches the history of the Blues.

 

   

 

 

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Copyright © November, 2018 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)