Slidin' with the boys and girls ...

Feeling a bit under the weather today, so I decided to post a video tribute to some of our favorite slide players tonight - hope you all enjoy this lovely little trip down memory lane!


First up the legendary and absolutely brilliant Ry Cooder, performing "Vigilante Man" live on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973 ...

Second on our bill, the ethereal, but oh so solid Bonnie Raitt, performing "Sugar Mama" live on Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special in 1977 - she's scary good in this ...

And last up, but far from least - those absolutely lovable English boys, The Faces, performing "Richmond" live on the BBC's Top of the Pops in 1971 (featuring both Ron Wood and the late Ronnie Lane on slide) ...

Also, a bonus track I chose for tonight - which has nothing to do with slide guitar - but man, Ron Wood kills on the guitar solo in this live performance by The Faces of "Maybe I'm Amazed" for the BBC's Sounds for Saturdays in 1971 - and the rest of the boys in the band are crazy good!!  They were all so young here, and so happy - watching this put a smile on my face, and made my day just a little brighter ...

Like I said, crazy good! ... thanks boys!!

In from the storm with Jimi ...

This will be the first of many entries that Jesse and I will post about Jimi Hendrix. One of the most important figures in the music scene from the mid 1960s until his death in 1970, Hendrix's influence remains a constant in the world of rock and pop today. He was, and still is a legend - someone who took electric guitar playing to a whole new level of creativity, while at the same time paying homage to those who came before him - and a player who approached performance with the sensibility of a fine artist.

Towards the end of his life, Hendrix was on par with some of the more socially conscious players of his era, bringing a sense of intellectual importance to the music he and other artists created during those years. For him the guitar was a tool that he could use to reach out to people through the language of music - and in interviews he had an almost metaphysical way of looking at how music was linked to the social issues of the day. Part playful trickster and part elder statesman, his turbulent childhood and tragic death were eclipsed by the heights he reached during the peak of his career.  And throughout it all, he left a lasting impression on those who he encountered - and a lasting legacy for those of us who discovered him long after he was gone.

Hendrix with the amazing Buddy Miles during their Band of Gypsys days

Here are a few clips of Hendrix in action ... a) from a press conference in September, 1969, promoting a benefit concert for the United Block Association (UBA) in Harlem, at which he performed ... b) his interview and performance on the Dick Cavett Show in 1970 (if you who would like to skip Cavett's monologue, just fast forward to 5min 35sec) ... c) his absolutely brilliant performance of "Machine Gun" during the New Years concert at the Filmore East in 1970 ... and finally, d) a clip of Hendrix performing "In From the Storm" from the film Rainbow Bridge, filmed during the concert on Maui (July, 1970) ... enjoy!

Kickin' it with Mike Stern ...

It is almost 90F (32C) outside - a lovely but sweltering day for Bellingham - and Jesse and I decided to let a pro do the talking for us today ... the amazing and brilliant Mike Stern. Not only is he one of the most widely respected jazz guitarists around, with strong roots in the blues and rock, but he also happens to be one of the most charming professional artists who we have met over the years. A frequent visitor at the University of Washington Music Department (where Jesse's brother Marc teaches), he is fabulous in the workshop setting with students, generously sharing his knowledge and wonderful stories, and making everyone feel at ease.

I cannot find any information about where this two-part interview/mini-workshop was filmed - but it reminded me a lot of when we saw Mike a couple of years ago at the UW. He has absolutely perfect technique and an amazingly positive attitude about everything - a real joy to watch and learn from!

And here is a recording of a live performance by Mike in Paris a few years back, featuring Richard Bona on bass, Dennis Chambers on drums, and Bob Franceschini on sax  - enjoy!

It's all about Wata ...

Enough already with the men around here - it's about time I posted something about a female guitarist - and an absolutely brilliant one at that ... roar!

Allow me to introduce you to Wata, lead guitarist of the Japanese experimental rock band Boris ...

Image from the ModDB's Metal Appreciation Society - copyright by Damon Allen Davison

A musician who is way too cool, and way more eclectic than your average joe ...

Image from Wikimedia, taken by Tim Bray at Vancouver's Biltmore nightclub in 2011

And one who knows how to dress it up, when she wants to ...

Promo shot of Wata by Miki Matshushima, for Boris's 2011 album Attention Please

Sometimes she drones - sometimes she shreds - sometimes she riffs up an amazing storm ...

Crossing the Bridge of Sighs ...

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;

A palace and a prison in each hand ...

                    ~~Lord Byron

                                                            Why so unforgiving, and why so cold;

                                                            Been a long time crossing, Bridge of Sighs ...

                                                                                ~~Robin Trower

From the first hint of atmospheric effects, to the last droning notes of a brilliantly executed chord progression, the title track off Robin Trower's 1974 solo album The Bridge of Sighs sets a mood that fits the theme of the song. That short, yet emotionally long walk across the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) was the last view of freedom granted to the petty thieves and other small-time criminals of 17th and 18th-century Venice; men and women who were often unfairly tried in the palace of the Doge, and if found guilty, sent to their fate in the dungeons of the "New Prison" on the other side of the Rio di Palazzo - a fate from which many of them never returned. That final hint of daylight, moonlight, starlight through the stone grillwork midway across - maybe a brief glimpse through those narrow openings of wind-rippled waves sparkling off San Giorgio's white marble facade - and as Lord Byron aptly wrote, "a palace and a prison in each hand" as they stood for mere seconds between freedom and the horrors of incarceration.

Trower's haunting rift and melancholy lyrics transport the listener to that moment, standing balanced between light and dark, and looking through the prisoner's eyes as they ask why. Working through a chord progression that includes major and minor 7ths, he maintained the perfect amount of sustain and distortion in his performance, capturing the atmosphere of time and place with the repetition of a relatively simple signature. As Robert Fripp once said: "Robin Trower is one of the very few English guitarists that have mastered bends and wobbles. Not only has he got inside them, with an instinctive knowing of their affective power, but they went to live inside his hands. ... This was a man who hung himself on the details: the quality of sound, nuances of each inflection and tearing bend, and abandonment to the feel of the moment." In this song, that sense of abandonment is apparent at every shift - from verse to chorus, from beginning to end, the listener is drawn into another world, where they walk alongside the guilty, crossing the Bridge of Sighs.

The Bridge of Sighs album features James Dewer on vocals and bass and Reg Isidore on drums, and was produced by Trower's former bandmate Matthew Fisher (of Procul Harum), with sound engineering by Geoff Emerick (best known for his work on The Beatles' Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road).