According to the Washington Post, Jack Bruce has indicated that he will be playing “an unspecified show or shows” with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker later this year. Cream reunited before in 2005, but Bruce and Baker’s long-standing personality conflict reared its ugly head again, affecting the reunion. I hope that the same issues don’t pop up again and that the reunion goes well. I’m too young to have caught them in their heyday, so I’m hopeful that I will be able to see them this time around.

In the past, I’ve pretty much ignored any coverage of John 5’s music, mostly because of his association with Marilyn Manson. I’m not really a fan of Manson’s, so I didn’t pay much attention to his guitar players. However, I’ve missed out on some great guitar playing. For some reason or another, not too long ago I stumbled across John 5’s MySpace page and checked out some of his music. I became intrigued and starting checking out his music in more depth.

I’ve been very impressed; as his fans already know, John is a phenomenal guitar player. He has a command of many different styles of music and somehow manages to merge Heavy Metal and Country chicken pickin’ so that it sounds great!

The first album of John 5’s that I picked up was his Songs For Sanity album, which is actually his second album. Steve Vai and Albert Lee make guest appearances on the album. This is one of the best guitar albums I’ve heard in a long time. The album starts out fairly heavy, but melodic. A few songs into it, he gets a little country. One of the more interesting songs on the album is called “Behind the Nut Love” which features him bending strings behind the nut of the neck. On YouTube, you can view a guitar lesson of John 5 showing how to play “Behind the Nut Love.” He also displays some beautiful acoustic guitar playing on the album, as well. Unlike some guitar albums I’ve heard in the past, the songs are interesting and the guitar playing is excellent.

John 5 has recently released a new album called The Devil Knows My Name. Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson make guest appearances on the new album. Although I still don’t care much for his imagery, I’m now a fan of his playing and I’m looking to hearing more from him. I’d highly recommend picking up any of his albums.

I don’t know what it is about rosewood fretboards, but a guitar with a rosewood fretboard feels entirely different (and better) to me than a guitar with a maple fretboard. I’ve always liked the looks of rosewood fretboards better, and I’ve always owned guitars with rosewood fretboards, but it was only recently that I realized that there was more to it than simply looks. The guitar actually feels and plays better to me. I was in a local guitar shop over the weekend checking out some Telecasters and tried to play two almost identical guitars, except for the fretboard. It was obvious within a few seconds of playing which one played better to me, and, truth be told, the guitar with the maple fretboard was set up better, but I still liked the rosewood guitar better. I admit that it’s entirely possible that this is all psychological. Do you have a preference, too, or is this all in my head?

Ovation Guitars has recently introduced the Ovation VXT hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. I saw a few of these intruments this weekend at a local guitar store, and they look fantastic. The VXT contains two Seymour Duncan ‘59 humbuckers for a range of electric sounds, and an acoustic preamp for the acoustic tones. The top is made of spruce, and the body is made of mahogony. Two colors are available: black and sunburst. Ovation has set up a MySpace page for the VXT, as well as a YouTube channel where you can view videos of the VXT. After watching a few of the videos, the VXT appears to be very versatile.

I was recently informed that there was an issue with the commenting system on the Web site and people were unable to leave comments. I apologize if you’ve tried to leave a comment in the past and you weren’t able to. I believe that I have fixed the issue, but there’s still a bit of an issue with the caching functionality, which I’m working on. At any rate, you should now be able to leave a comment on the posts, but it may take 12-24 hours before it gets displayed. If you’d like to contact me directly with a comment or a question, you can reach at the e-mail address listed on the About page.

Bo Diddley suffered a stroke following a concert several days ago, but his condition is improving. He’s still in intensive care and his speech is still impaired, but the doctors are encouraged with his progress. His manager indicated that he’s going to get a guitar while in the hospital and entertain the other patients. Hopefully, that will lift everyone’s spirits. I hope that he continues to improve and that he’s able to recovery completely. (via IG Blog)

According to Gibson.com, a Tennessee man has legally married his ES-335. I’m sure that this is either a publicity stunt for Gibson or for Cory Moore, the man who supposedly married his guitar, but it’s a funny story, nonetheless. A choice quote from the press release:

Not surprisingly, this is Moore’s first marriage. He has no children. Moore laughed when asked if there could be a Les Paul Junior in his future. “That would be crazy,” he said.

The Eric Steckel Band is a guitar-oriented blues-based band from Jacksonville, Fl. Havana is the name of their latest release, and it features 11 tracks recorded live at the Havana club in Pennsylvania. The CD features a mixture of original songs and covers, including the following songs: San-Ho-Zay, Radio Blues, Espirita, Me and My Guitar, Philips Highway, The Thrill Is Gone, Deep Fried, Jaywalkin, Hey Sister, Little Wing, and All Your Love. As a side note, the physical CD itself is interesting in that it looks and feels like a record.

At first glance, it’s easy to say that the most remarkable thing about the Eric Steckel Band is that guitarist Eric Steckel is still only 16 years old, but once you start listening to him play, you realize that the most remarkable thing about the band is Eric’s guitar playing. His playing belies his age with a maturity and soulfulness that shines through on each track.

Eric and his band infuse some fun and enthusiasm into the blues-rock genre with a style of their own, while hinting towards his influences such as BB, Albert and Freddie King. His take on classics like The Thrill Is Gone and Little Wing are fresh and unique, and the original tracks display how Eric is taking his influences and creating something new.

Even though Eric is only 16, Havana is his third CD release. His first CD, A Few Degress Warmer, was released when he was only 11 years old. He has already played with blues legends, including John Mayall, Hubert Sumlin, and many well-known blues artists, such as Joe Kubek, Bnois King, Kenny Neal, Debbie Davies, and Bob Margolin.

Like many blues-rockers, Eric uses a Fender Stratocaster, and he endorses Allessandro Working Dog amps. Some bootleg-style videos are available on the Eric Steckel Band Web site, where you can check out some live performances by Eric and his band.

All in all, I think that Havana is a very solid album by Eric and his band, and it really highlights what a talented guitarist Eric is. The only nit I have about the album is that it’s obvious that the focus is on the guitar playing, not the vocals, as they do not seem very polished. However, at 16, Eric has plenty of time to develop a unique vocal style in addition to his excellent guitar playing, and the vocals are good enough that they don’t take away from the experience at all. It’ll be interesting to see how Eric and his band develop over the next few years.

On May 19, 2007, Ibanez is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Ibanez Jem guitar with an event they are calling JemStock. Steve Vai will be making an appearance, as will Bill Reim, the president of Ibanez. The event will be held at Zone Music in Cotati, CA. Live music will be provided by Doug Doppler, Tommy Merry, and the Ibanez All Stars.

David Seah recently posted on his Web site about a guitar practice form created by Lori Linstruth. As David mentions, Lori has some fairly simple advice for gradually getting better on a musical instrument:

…it seems logical that the keys to gradual, steady improvement on a musical instrument are simple:

1) Decide what you want to play,
2) practice until you can do it, and
3) repeat as necessary.*

(*Preferably regularly and at increasing levels of challenge.)

It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

Lori has created a practice form she calls the ShredTracker that you can use to track your practice progress on a daily basis. The form contains a spot for 5 days worth of practice, and you simply fill in notes about your practice that day. This allows you to track your progress over time, which can help motivate and inspire you to continue.

She has created both a pink and blue version, as well as a filled out form to illustrate how she uses it. You can download all of the forms from her Lorinator blog.

David’s post provides a short video of Lori playing an arpeggio sequence, where you can see why people were asking her how she got so good!