Is Beauty Contextual?
A fascinating and very well-written article by the Washington Post called Pearls Before Breakfast follows world-class violinist Joshua Bell as he plays some of the world’s most beautiful music to an audience of people in a hurry to get to work. I won’t reveal the details of the article, but it’s interesting to think about whether I would have recognized the talent if I were in the position of running past on my way to work. I wandered around downtown this past weekend where several street musicians were playing. I couldn’t tell you anything about them or what they were playing.
Fender Custom Shop
The Fender Custom Shop is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. The Fender Custom Shop is responsible for Fender’s Custom Artist, Custom Classic, Custom Shop Limited Edition and Time Machine guitars and basses, which are some of Fender’s highest quality instruments. Additionally, the Custom Shop is responsible for the Tribute series guitars, such as the Eric Clapton Blackie Tribute, the Stevie Ray Vaughan Number One Tribute, and the Jeff Beck Esquire Tribute.
The Fender Custom Shop has also recently created a Shelby GT Strat as part of the Play Loud - Go Fast contest where you can win the guitar and a Ford Shelby GT, which is an awesome car.
Congratulations to the Fender Custom Shop on 20 years of great guitars!
Guitar Foundation of America
The Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) is holding its annual convention and competition this fall from October 16-October 21 in Los Angeles at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The competition is open to any classical guitarist not represented by a major management company. The winner of the competition is awarded $7500, a GFA-sponsored tour, a CD recording, inclusion in a Mel Bay DVD, as well as several other prizes.
G3 Live at the Ryman Auditorium
This past week I was able to catch the G3 concert as it rolled through Nashville at the historic Ryman Auditorium. Overall, the show was excellent and each guitarist played a great set.
Paul Gilbert and his band played first. The most surprising part of Paul’s set was not how great Paul was (I knew that he was going to be excellent), but how great Bruce Bouillet was. Bruce played with Paul in Racer X, and they played several Racer X songs during their G3 performance, as well as several songs from Paul’s new CD titled Get Out of My Yard. This set was probably my least favorite of the night, primarily because at times the music fell away to make room for the shredding. Going into the concert, I knew little about Paul Gilbert other than what I’d read about in guitar magazines. I’d heard his latest CD, but that’s about as much Paul Gilbert music as I’ve heard. Suffice it to say Paul Gilbert is as great a guitar player as I’d heard he was.
John Petrucci played next, and his performance was my favorite of the night. Similar to Gilbert’s performance, the most amazing part of the show wasn’t necessarily Petrucci’s playing, which was awesome, but the performances of bass player Dave LaRue and drummer Mike Portnoy. Portnoy’s performance was especially good, and I heard many people around me talking as much about him as they were about Petrucci. Of cource, Portnoy and Petrucci have been playing together in Dream Theater for years, so it’s not surprising to see how good they were together. Petrucci played songs from his solo CD Suspended Animation, which I’d highly recommend getting. Petrucci’s playing was awesome, and the music was excellent.
Joe Satriani took the stage last, and it was great to finally be able to see him live after hearing his records for so many years. I didn’t know it, but Surfing with the Alien was released 20 years ago, and Satriani played several songs from that album. My favorite Satriani tune of the night was Cool #9. Dave LaRue performed double duty and played bass for Satriani, and his bass playing was great throughout the night. During Satriani’s performance, Petrucci came out and played a solo on one of the songs, followed by Paul Gilbert coming out and playing with them.
The “G3″ part of the show followed where all three guitarists jam together. If you’ve ever seen a G3 concert before, you know that this part of the show is one of the best parts of the night. They started off playing several Hendrix tunes, including Foxey Lady, Purple Haze and a small portion of Voodoo Chile. It was neat to see the interaction among the guitarists, but at times it was almost too much of a cacophony of noise. However, this could have been due to a poor mix at the soundboard.
If the G3 tour stops anywhere near your town, then I’d highly recommend going. It was a great night of guitar playing, and each guitarist played a great set.
Read a review from this year’s G3 concert in Chicago here.
Guitar Hero 2 for XBOX 360
Guitar Hero 2 is going to be released for the XBOX 360 today, April 3, 2007. It’s previously only been available for the Playstation 2, and I only own an XBOX 360 so I’ve been looking forward to Guitar Hero 2 being released for the XBOX platform. I haven’t played Guitar Hero 2, but I played the original Guitar Hero on the Playstation 2, and it was a lot of fun. Guitar Hero 2 includes more than 55 songs, including songs by Van Halen, the Police, Primus, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine, Aerosmith, Kiss, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses, the Allman Brothers and more.
Buy Guitar Hero 2 from Amazon.com.
Laney 40th Anniversary
Amplifier company Laney is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. A friend had a Laney in the 90s, but I haven’t heard much about them since and didn’t realize how long they had been around. I was reminded of Laney the other day when I saw G3 in concert and noticed that Paul Gilbert uses Laney amplifiers. Tony Iommi and the guitarists from Dragonforce are also Laney users. Reading the history of Laney is fairly interesting. Lyndon Laney, the founder, played in a band called “The Band of Joy” with none other than John Bonham and Robert Plant before they moved on to Led Zeppelin.
Dave Mustaine Now Endorsing Dean Guitars
Longtime Jackson guitar endorsee and later ESP guitar endorsee Dave Mustaine is now endorsing Dean guitars and has a signature series of flying V-style Dean guitars called the Dave Mustaine VMNT1 and the Dave Mustaine VMNT Limited. The other current Megadeth guitarist, Glen Drover, is also using Dean guitars.
Dean guitars were perhaps made most famous by the late Dimebag Darrel from Pantera, but Dean is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year and they have a wide range of guitars and basses. Other Dean endorsees are Michael Schenker, Leslie West (Mountain), the Trivium guitarists, Michael Angelo Batio, Jerry Cantrell, bassist Brian Bromberg among many others.
EMI to Announce DRM-free Online Music?
Technical/Computer news site Ars Technica is reporting that EMI will announce on Monday, April 2, plans to remove DRM from their online music catalog. If this news is true, this could be the catalyst that forces other music labels to remove DRM from their music. I’m a big believer in the fact that adding DRM to music does not help reduce piracy. It is speculated that DRM-free EMI music would be available via Apple’s iTunes, as well as other online music stores. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to be present at the announcement in London.
As a software producer by day, I’ve seen the negative effects of piracy first-hand. However, no matter how much anti-piracy measures you take, the thieves only become better at breaking them. Online music piracy has only increased since Napster arrived on the scene 7 or so years ago, so the current anti-piracy measures are only affecting the people who legitimately purchase music from one store only to find that they are unable to play that music on an incompatible device. I believe that the artists and labels should be rewarded for producing great music, but the current DRM measures are not working. Hopefully, if the EMI news is true, we can look back and say that EMI helped usher in the end of DRMed music.
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival
Eric Clapton has announced that the second Crossroads Guitar Festival will be held this year on July 28, 2007 in Chicago, at Toyota Park. Similar to the first Crossroads Guitar Festival, Clapton is assembling a Who’s Who of guitarists to play at the show, including Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mayer, Derek Trucks, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Randolph, Sonny Landreth, John McLaughlin, Doyle Bramhall II and many more. I have the DVD from the first show, and based on that, I’m sure the second show will be great, too.
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About
Welcome to my guitar blog! My name is Josh, and this site is my attempt to celebrate the guitar, its history, and its players. Read more...
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