Posted on

2018 Historic Collection 1959 Les Paul Standard

I love a Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul guitar. The heavy guitar feels right in my hands. The strings vibration is nothing like any other guitar I’ve played. For the past decade, or so, I’ve collected four Les Pauls, and I reviewed two of them for you here: My valued ’57 Les Paul VOS and my beloved 56′ Goldtop.

In the image below, you can see all four of my Les Pauls, and the newest one, on the front left, is my 2018 Historic Collection 1959 Les Paul Standard “Dark Bourbon Fade” just purchased from Wildwood Guitars in Louisville, Colorado — and on the front right, is the first Les Paul Standard “Iced Tea Burst” I purchased back in 2008.

I find it wildly fascinating that the two guitars, built a decade apart from each other, so closely resemble each other, while also being alarmingly different in distinctive, yet charming, ways. 2008 was the first wacky year for “The New” Les Paul Standard that included “weight relief” holes carved out of the body, an asymmetrical neck and locking tuners. My new Les Paul is part of the Gibson Custom Shop Historic Collection, and it arrived yesterday, fresh from Wildwood.

Continue reading → 2018 Historic Collection 1959 Les Paul Standard

Posted on

When Sunny Gets Blue and Sunshine Blows Through the Blues

“When Sunny Gets Blue” is one of the greatest Blues/Jazz songs ever written. You can sing it slow and creeping with an oozing loss, or you can snap it up and make the song fast and raspy.  The lyric is especially keen — you can take it as a comment on a personality, or a conundrum of living in the sunshine when the world is dark around you:

When Sunny gets blue, her eyes get gray and cloudy,
Then the rain begins to fall, pitter-patter, pitter-patter,
Love is gone, so what can matter,
Ain’t no new lover man come to call.

Many of us probably have a Sunny or two in our lives — some versions gloomier than others, but today, I want to share a 10-second memory of a ray of sun.  Her friends and co-workers call her “Sunshine” and the name fits her without a fog.

Continue reading → When Sunny Gets Blue and Sunshine Blows Through the Blues

Posted on

Back to the Blues!

After a long and fulfilling experience playing fingerstyle Jazz chord harmonies on my Jazz guitars for the past few years, I have slowly been weaning my way back to the fingerstyle Blues that started me on this new musical journey in the first place.

I’m sure the Clapton Martin acoustic and Martin D-42 had something to do with this slow circling back to the center — but I do think it’s more than just that.

There’s a whole rush of intensity and emotion for me when I play the Blues.  I immediately feel connected back to a time of suffering and empathy that I do not always have while playing Rock or Jazz or Country music.

There is a deep and longing sadness in the Blues and it is in those marks of human sacrifice and resurrection that we learn to become kinder and more prescient human beings — at least during the melancholy life of a finger plucked Mississippi Delta Blues song.

So, I’m “Back to the Blues” — but not the “Boles Blues” started in 2009 — that great blog title and content will stay embedded here forever in Boles Blogs.

Continue reading → Back to the Blues!

Posted on

Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck, Live at the White House in 1962

Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck are two of the greatest minds to ever stand and sit in the performance of classic modern Jazz .  In 1962, fate brought them together with President Kennedy, for a cobbled-together performance that has now just recently been rediscovered in the aftermath of Dave Brubeck’s death at 91 years and 364 days in December, 2012, and the result is the instant-wonder:  Bennett & Brubeck — The White House Sessions, Live — 1962!

Continue reading → Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck, Live at the White House in 1962

Posted on

Reviewing Chris Potter as He Sounds The Sirens

I just downloaded “The Sirens” from iTunes and Chris Potter filled my mind with grand spans of time and travel spilling out of my speakers and into my apartment in an all-new adaptation of the famous Homer classic.

Continue reading → Reviewing Chris Potter as He Sounds The Sirens

Posted on

Louis Armstrong and the Great Swiss Kriss Evacuation

Louis Armstrong was one of the greatest musicians in the short history of human entertainment.  What few people know, though, is Louis was also a great advertising pitchman.  His favorite product to shill was Swiss Kriss — a laxative he used daily.  He would give Swiss Kriss to friends and new acquaintances as hello gifts.

Continue reading → Louis Armstrong and the Great Swiss Kriss Evacuation

Posted on

Dan Auerbach Locks Down Dr. John

I am a big Dr. John fan.  I love his piano.  I’m crazy about his voice.  In his latest album, Locked Down, that dropped on April 3, 2012, Dr. John strangely fades away a bit as Black Keys producer and performer Dan Auerbach places his hands on Dr. John’s keyboard.  The result is a bit of a disappointing mishmash of a previously undeniable musical identity:

Storied musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dr. John–Mac Rebennack–will release LOCKED DOWN, a startling album that marks a significant departure from his recent efforts, on April 3, 2012. The new album, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, will be Dr. John’s first for Nonesuch Records.

It’s an entirely new approach for the iconic Dr. John, featuring as it does his collaboration with Auerbach and a band of young musicians Auerbach hand-picked to make LOCKED DOWN at his studio Easy Eye Sound in Nashville. “It was way cool cutting this record with Dan and the crew he put together for it,” says Rebennack. “It’s reel HIP.

Continue reading → Dan Auerbach Locks Down Dr. John