Anthony Stauffer, who teaches blues guitar lessons at StevieSnacks.com, has released a new premium lesson series called “Albert’s Influence,” which examines two complete solos in the style of Albert King. I’ve seen a number of video lessons from Anthony, and they are all very good. This series looks to continue that tradition, if not raise the bar.

The “Albert’s Influence” lesson series contains over three hours of lessons. Between the two solos, Anthony illustrates and teaches 73 licks that span 108 bars. In addition to the licks, Anthony teaches timing and phrasing, which is especially important when playing Albert’s style of blues. A nice feature of the videos is a progression bar that follows along on the screen showing you what bar the lick is being played in.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn this style of blues guitar playing, I would recommend this series. You can buy the series as a download ($55) or a set of two DVDs ($65).

Check out a free lesson taken from the series below:

“Once you’ve discovered you enjoy playing the guitar, you can’t stop playing the guitar.”

In his article “Building the Guitar You’ll Keep” for Wired.com, Chuck Squatriglia offers an excellent glimpse into Richard Hoover and his company, Santa Cruz Guitars.

It’s an unhurried place. Guitars are built one at a time, by hand, a process that takes eight weeks or more. Almost every guitar in the joint is already spoken for, and if you order one today you won’t be playing it until this fall.

I’ve had the opportunity to hear Hoover speak about wood, and I would venture to say that there are few people that know tonewoods as well as Hoover does. The story of his company is, for me, perhaps even more interesting, and Squatriglia does a good job of profiling both Hoover and the company. Hoover clearly has a passion for building high-quality guitars. And, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of playing a Santa Cruz Guitar, you know that Hoover’s passion manifests itself in some of the highest quality guitars made today.

As an added bonus, the article features some excellent photography of the Santa Cruz Guitars shop taken by Jim Merithew.

(Thanks to Darren M. for pointing me to this article.)

Pete Thorn is a very busy session and touring guitarist, having recently worked with artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Chris Cornell, Jewell, and James Blunt, among others. He has just released his first solo album, titled Guitar Nerd:

“The goal was to make a great sounding instrumental rock guitar record, with no compromises artistically or stylistically” says Pete. “I didn’t worry about what is “cool” or “not cool”, I just played a bit of everything that I like to play! In short, “Guitar Nerd” is a true reflection of me – I am (and always will be) a guitar nerd!”

Jon over at Guitar Noize has a full review of the album. I’ve only heard clips, but I like what I’ve heard so far.

To help promote the album’s release, Thorn is doing a very interesting thing. If you order the CD from CD Baby between now and May 31, you will get a CD that contains instructions for how to download a 70-minute guitar lesson taught by Thorn himself. In the lesson, he’ll show you how to play a solo from the track “Monster Movie,” as well as a full song lesson for the solo piece “Promise.” The cost of the CD plus the lesson is $18.97. After May 31, you will no longer be able to purchase the lesson, but the price of the CD will drop to $13.97, and you will also be able to purchase the CD (or download) at all the regular locations (iTunes, Amazon, etc). I think having a special offer like this for early purchasers is an excellent way to offer real fans a little something extra. I hope other artists follow Thorn’s lead.

A recent post on the Telecaster forum pointed me to this 2002 documentary called You See Me Laughin’ about musicians from the North Mississippi Hill Country. Many of these musicians lived very rough lives, from which they’ve created a rich history of music. The documentary covers some of their struggles as well as the music that came from it. The documentary is posted as four parts, which I’ve embedded below.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Anthony Pepitone has made available the complete set from Sean Costello’s last performance at the Living Room in New York City, which occurred on March 9, 2006. I’ve watched a number of these videos individually on YouTube, and they are really well done. I’m glad that Anthony has made the complete set available as a single video. Check out the set below:

Black Country Communion’s second album, simply titled Black Country Communion 2, is set to be released on June 14. To help promote the release, BCC are giving away a free download of the song “Outsider”. I like the main riff of the song, and Joe Bonamassa’s guitar playing is, as usual, excellent.