The Black Strat, the book about David Gilmour’s legendary black Stratocaster by Gilmour’s long-time guitar tech Phil Taylor, is being released by Hal Leonard on Monday, September 22. The book has been expanded and revised for this second edition.

The release of the book is to coincide with the release of Gilmour’s new 2CD/2DVD set, Live at Gdansk. Also, Fender will be releasing the David Gilmour Signature Stratocasters on Monday, so it’s a big day for Gilmour!

Unfortunately, I’m sure it’ll also be a bittersweet day for Gilmour, as Pink Floyd founder Richard Wright passed away this week. In an odd coincidence, my father-in-law has been in town for the past few weeks, and we’ve watched several Pink Floyd/Gilmour DVDs, where Wright is featured prominently.

For more information about The Black Strat, visit the official Web site for the book.

The Experience Hendrix Tour is gearing back up for some more shows, with this year’s tour happening from October 15 and November 7. Like years past, this year’s tour will include many great artists. This year’s lineup includes Eric Johnson, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brad Whitford, Doyle Bramhall II, Eric Gales, Mato Nanji, Chris Layton, as well as other special guest artists. With artists of that caliber, it’s bound to be a great show!

I’m very excited to announce that the new design of Guitar Lifestyle has been launched! If you’re viewing this post in an RSS reader, please visit the site to see the new design.

My good friends at Purr Design did the redesign work, and I’m very happy with the result. They are very easy to work with, and they do excellent work. With the redesign, I wanted to accomplish two things: 1) have a unique theme to help Guitar Lifestyle stand out a little more, and 2) highlight a little more the fact that this is a guitar-related site. I think the new design does a very good job of accomplishing both objectives. Thanks, Lindsay and Taylor!

If you happen to notice anything wonky while browsing around the site, please let me know. Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new design!

Jonny Lang traveled back through Nashville a couple of weeks ago, playing a concert at the legendary Ryman Auditorium on 08/30/08. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Lang in concert three times now, and each time has been as good or better than the last.

I was actually surprised to hear that Lang was travelling back through Nashville. My wife and I saw him when he passed through a little over a year ago and since he hasn’t released any new music since then, it was surprising to see his name pop up on the Ryman Web site. What was perhaps more surprising was that the crowd was even larger this time around than the last! I’m glad to see that he continues to draw large crowds.

Another surprise was that when the show started, Lang came out on stage carrying a Les Paul. It was a little odd to see him with a Les Paul given his history of playing thinline Telecasters. I don’t recall him ever playing a Les Paul in the other concerts of his that I’ve been to. Of course, the Tele made an appearance later in the show. And, I thought his Tele sounded better than the Les Paul. While the Les Paul sounded good, the tone of the Tele was great!

As you would expect, he played a lot of his hits, which I always enjoy hearing. His playing was intense and inspired, perhaps even more so than the last time I saw him live. Although he’s a great guitarist, I wouldn’t categorize Lang as a highly technical player, but he always plays with a lot of passion.

I really enjoyed seeing Jonny Lang, and the Ryman is one of my favorite venues here in Nashville. If you get a chance to see either, I highly recommend doing so.

If you’re curious about what Metallica’s new album Death Magnetic sounds like, they have offered a stream of the entire Death Magnetic album on their Web site. Surprising, given their earlier stance against Napster. I’m happy to see them trying to move past all of that.

As a big fan of their earlier records, I was very curious to hear the new album, especially given the hype around Rick Rubin producing the album. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. However, I think the album is actually pretty good. I don’t think it’s a full return to their earlier glory, but if Master of Puppets and And Justice For All are on one end of the scale and St. Anger is on the other, Death Magnetic definitely trends more towards the former records than the latter.

The StagePlayer is a combination folding stool/guitar stand created by Nick Vail Designs. I use a folding stool similar to this when I play guitar, and I can see the benefit to having an attached guitar stand.

Here are some of the features of the StagePlayer:

• no assembly required
• weighs only 10lbs
• fully padded and comfortable
• fits most guitars, basses, and banjos
• neck support and non-slip foam on the folding support arms
• safe for all finishes
• rugged metal construction
• holds up to 250lbs

DragoArt.com features drawing tutorials for drawing many different objects. Recently, a drawing tutorial was posted on how to draw Kirk Hammett’s signature ESP guitar. Another post by the same artist described how to draw an acoustic guitar. These are interesting tutorials. If you’re interested in drawing, you should check them out.

I was browsing YouTube over the weekend looking at guitar-related videos and noticed some videos by a blues artist named Sean Costello. Costello had a classic voice, and was a great guitar player.

Unfortunately, Costello passed away this past April, just shy of his 29th birthday. This interview was completed hours before his death.

Before his death, Costello recorded several albums, which highlight what a talent Costello was. His most recent album, We Can Get Together, was released in February of this year.

Here’s a video of Costello performing a song called “Love is Amazing,” which has a great groove to it:

JamLegend is an online game in the vein of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. According to the JamLegend Web site:

Enjoy a potentially unlimited song list through a new platform allowing artists to promote their music in an engaging way. JamLegend features massive online multiplayer for real-time showdowns between thousands of players, as well as turn based competition for dueling with a friend. Robust social features, leaderboards, real-time notifications, and social network integration round out the features list. Best of all, it’s free.

JamLegend seems to be positioning itself as not only an online game, but a place for artists to launch new songs that fans can then play. The site is currently in private beta, but you can sign up for an invite code and watch a trailer on the JamLegend.com Web site.

BBC News is reporting that members of Led Zeppelin are in the studio working on new songs. Jason Bonham is playing drums with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on the sessions, but Robert Plant has not been involved. Furthermore, it would seem unlikely that an album would actually come of the sessions. According to Bonham:

“Lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out [before an album could be made].”