File this under “I did not know that.” Derek Trucks is the great-nephew of  baseball pitcher Virgil Trucks, who pitched two no-hitters for the Detroit Tigers in the 1950s. Derek and his family are actually big baseball fans, and he even kept a Virgil Trucks baseball card on one of his guitars for years. MLB.com columnist Peter Gammons has written an article about a recent meeting between Derek and Virgil. It’s a pretty interesting read, so go check it out. Also, baseball season is right around the corner.

Behind the Rock is an Internet show that features fan interviews with their favorite artists. In episode 4, Davy Knowles was interviewed on his bus. He talks about his influences, what’s on his iPod, who he’d like to work with in the future, and how he passes his time when on tour. The interview also features some live footage of Knowles and Back Door Slam playing in Seattle.

Behind the Rock Davy Knowles from Murray Wasylnuk on Vimeo.

Joe Bonamassa has recently been on a press tour talking about his upcoming album Black Rock (aff link). He’s also been playing some songs from the album. Here’s Joe playing Three Times a Fool:

Dinosaur Rock Guitar recently interviewed Joe Bonamassa. In the interview, Bonamassa discusses his upcoming album Black Rock, his recently released (excellent) DVD Live from the Royal Albert Hall, and recording with his supergroup Black Country:

I’m playing a Gibson Explorer and a Les Paul with a couple of old Super Leads, really stripped down approach. Nothing majestic. So what if the guitar stutters a bit in the solo, so what if it’s clean but it’s heavy? Heavy-handed old school, you know. Glenn’s the primary singer and I’m happy to let him do it, coz if you’ve got Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen cooking for you, why the hell would you wanna make the salad?  He’s fucking brilliant! So, at the end of the day it’s like, I have no ego, I’d be happy to just play rhythms! I think people will be pleasantly surprised at the level of writing and the level of care going into it. I’m excited about it! I however don’t wanna over-hype it. I’m not that happy the rumour is out. My thing is more – here’s the record, enjoy it or not. There’s no pretence going on. It’s like the LA rumours – This is gonna be bigger than bread! No, it’s not. People still need bread, they don’t need this fucking record. So, calm down, let us be creative and let us do our jobs. It won’t come out if it sucks.

I love his attitude about it. I can’t wait to hear what they’re working on.

Josh Gooch is an 18-year-old blues guitarist based out of San Diego. Gooch regularly performs in the San Diego area with the Road Dogs. He recently recorded a gospel record with Bonnie Bramlett and was featured on Don’t Wake Albert (aff link) by Highly Kind.

Last November, he performed as one of the five finalists of the Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. Although he broke a string during his electric song, his performance was my favorite of the five finalists and I thought he should have won. Guitar Center recently put his performance online on their channel on YouTube:

I think Gooch has a very bright future ahead of him.

Guitar Center recently interviewed Slash about his guitars, his amplifiers, his effects, his technique, and song writing. In the interview, he talks about his new “Appetite for Destruction” Les Paul model that he and Gibson are working on as well as his new amp that he and Marshall are working on.

Here’s Slash talking about his guitars:

Also check out the other videos from the interview:

Tools of the Trade: Amplifiers
Technique and Style
Fat Strings and Simple Effects
Song Writing

Last year, Page Hamilton released a guitar instructional DVD titled Sonic Shapes. I’ve mentioned before that I was a big fan of Hamilton’s and his band Helmet when I first started playing guitar in the 90s. He was one of the first musicians I knew of who tuned to drop-D.

On Sonic Shapes, Hamilton illustrates some of the concepts and approaches he takes when writing music for Helmet. Hamilton is a long-time student of jazz and avant-garde guitar, and it’s interesting to hear him talk about how he builds the chords for Helmet music, which seem deceptively simple at first. However, the chords and scales he uses are fairly atypical for the type of music he plays. Throughout the instructional portion of the DVD, Page plays an ESP guitar without distortion so you can really get a feel for how the chords sound without the effects that he normally uses.

In addition to demonstrating how he goes about composing some of Helmet’s music, the DVD features a section of Hamilton’s tips on practicing. He mentions a routine called “Super Chops,” which was developed by Howard Roberts, that he has adapted for his own use. Hamilton suggests always having material on hand so that you can utilize your time wisely. For example, when he’s on the road, he always has a folder of material that he’s working on. He also suggests keeping a practice log so that you can keep track of your progress and of what you want to work on.

As a bonus, the DVD features some live footage of Helmet, where you can see some of the concepts Hamilton discusses earlier in the DVD in action.

Tommy Emmanuel recently released an album with jazz guitarist Frank Vignola titled Just Between Frets. This album is volume 11 in the Groovemaster series, which has featured many other excellent guitarists including Phil Keaggy, Laurence Juber, Preston Reed, and John Jorgenson. This collaboration between Emmanuel and Vignola pairs Emmanuel’s inimitable acoustic guitar style with Vignola’s jazz guitar style, which yields a very pleasing result. In the duo format, Emmanuel seems to be able to stretch out a little bit more than he might usually do in a solo environment.

The track listing for the album is:

01 – Tenderly (3:53)
02 – Clouds/Nuages (4:57)
03 – How High the Moon (4:23)
04 – I’ve Got a Crush on You* (1:00)
05 – Young at Heart* (3:23)
06 – Swing 39/Swing 42 (6:18)
07 – Sweet Dreams (3:33)
08 – Paper Moon (5:36)
09 – Django’s Castle (4:20)
10 – Swing 09 (3:29)
11 – NatureBoy (4:31)
12 – Just Us 4 All (7:34)

Here’s a video of Emmanuel playing with Vignola:

Gibson recently introduced the Keb’ Mo’ signature Bluesmaster acoustic guitar. The guitar is loosely based on Keb’s Epiphone Bluesmaster, which was a popular parlor-sized guitar that Gibson discontinued about 10 years ago. The Keb Mo’ Bluesmaster features a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and a bound, rosewood fingerboard. It is available in a natural or sunburst finish. Gibson has recently posted a video of Keb’ Mo’ discussing the guitar.

As a fan of both parlor-sized guitars and Keb’ Mo’, I’m glad to see Gibson come out with this model. However, I’d also like to see them reintroduce the Epiphone Bluesmaster.

You may have heard by now that Joe Bonamassa is teaming up with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, and Derek Shirinian to form Black Country. They’ve recorded about six tracks already and will be reconvening in March to finish an album to be released later in the year. I’m looking forward to hearing what they come up with; with these guys, I bet it’s going to be a rockin’ album. Here’s a video of Bonamassa and Hughes playing together last November at Guitar Center’s King of the Blues competition: