There is one song that proves if you have The Blues chops or not —
“Stormy Monday” — and Carlos Santana and Buddy Guy recently played
that song together to tether their Blues history of being and
wanting in performance.
Continue reading → Santana and Buddy Guy Shred Stormy Monday
What is the best guitar for playing the electric Blues? A Fender Eric Clapton Custom Shop Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul Standard? I’m narrowing the Gibson vs. Fender debate to a couple of guitars since I have one of each in hand and I play The Blues on both. Better men than I have been broken trying to make this comparison fairly sing — so I will do my best to give you a competent, if not persnickety, breakdown of
my experience.
There’s one thing that’s true about learning to play The Blues. You’re going to get cut and your entire hand is going to hurt. There’s one instant salve that will save you and restore your faith in music: Nines.
Continue reading → How to Feel Good About Bending and Barring The Blues
If you play the electric guitar, you likely have a stompbox or two — a “stompbox” is an electronic device that sits between your guitar and your amp to change the sound of your guitar in dramatic and subtle ways — and I have a whole drawerful of stompboxes that I bought, tried, and put away in my drawer.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get your hands around an excellent electric guitar for playing The Blues. Here’s the first electric I bought — The Deluxe Nashville Power Tele — eagerly acquired after a couple of decades away from my Martin acoustic. I have the Honey Blonde version seen below on the left and I do love it so.
If you’re a fan of The Blues, there are two books that must be found on your bookshelf. The first is Tom Wheeler’s excellent book — “The Soul of Tone” — that celebrates 60 years of Fender Amps.
There are guitars — and then there are GUITARS! — and while I haven’t written about it much yet, I share with you today that my current favorite guitar for playing the Blues is my Eric Clapton “Blackie” Signature Stratocaster made by the Fender Custom Shop. I don’t have the $24,000.00USD Guitar Center Blackie tribute guitar — I just have a regular black “Blackie.” Oh, and yes, I too, made the switch from Ernie Ball Slinkys to D’Addario EXL110’s… just like Eric did.
Continue reading → The Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster Review
If you play the guitar, you gotta love Redd Volkaert and his mastery of the Fender Telecaster. Redd wants to teach you how to play Country Blues in his fantastic and warm and funny DVD, “TeleTwang.”
Continue reading → The Amazing Redd Volkaert and His TeleTwang
If you play the guitar, you know the hunt for the perfect strap can be a lifelong longing. I’m happy to report the discovery of Planet Waves Locking straps for your guitar. You don’t have to replace anything on your guitar to use the strap. The Planet Waves locking system is safe for your guitar and once the strap is locked onto your guitar, nothing is going anywhere.
We expressed our love for guitarist Jim Campilongo in our — Jim Campilongo Goes Orange — review and Jim has mentioned our review, but not linked back to us, from his MySpace:
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