Liquid Tension Experiment - Chicago, IL 6/25/08
Gustavo Assis-Brasil - Hybrid Picking Exercises - Single Note Permutations (Book)
Return to Forever - Chicago, IL 6/20/08
John McLaughlin - Floating Point
Paul Giibert - Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar
Allan Holdsworth - Live at The Baked Potato 1/18/08
« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
Great news!
The new Uncle Moe's Space Ranch album "Moe's Town" will be released May 8th. It is now available for pre-order through Amazon.com (link is below). This much-anticipated album features Brett Garsed & T.J. Helmerich on guitars, Gary Willis on bass, Dennis Chambers on drums, and Scott Kinsey on keys.
Jean-Luc Ponty's new album "The Acatama Experience" (featuring Allan Holdsworth and Phillip Catherine on guitar) will be released May 22nd 2007.
Press Release
Here's some great footage of a recent Brett Garsed guitar clinic at Guitar-X in the UK. On May 18th, Brett will play at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles with Joel Taylor - drums, and Ric Fierabracci - bass.
UPDATE: Brett will also be playing May 11th at Tone Merchants, with Joel and Ric.
I saw the G3 show last night at the Congress Theater in Chicago, and was completely blown away. Talk about getting your money's worth. The current incarnation of G3 for 2007 features Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, and of course Joe Satriani. Each guy played an amazing set of tunes, before all 3 got together at the end for some great jams.
Paul
Gilbert opened the show, and his set was my favorite of the night. He
played several songs from his latest album, Get Out Of My Yard, plus
some Racer X tunes, his solo tune Space Ship One, and some Mr. Big stuff
at the end. Bruce Bouillet
(Paul's old partner-in-crime from Racer X) is playing second guitar in
Paul's band for this tour, and he's one of the reason's I liked this
set so much.
Bruce was AWESOME. He's playing better than ever, and the
inclusion of a second guitar really enhanced the tunes. It was so cool
to hear Scarified, for example, done up right with the original
guitar harmonies. Bruce added harmony lines to the Get Out Of My Yard
tunes also, and had several great solos (ie. the outro to Radiator). He was whipping out some awesome Zakk Wylde-esque pentatonics,
and lots of cool string-skipping and hybrid-picking licks too. I
definitely want to hear more from Bruce in the future. Paul's playing
was incredible all night. It sounds like a cliche, but he makes
everything look easy. I prefer his playing now to when he first came
on the scene with Racer X back in the mid-80's. He has a real strong
blues/classic rock influence in his phrasing that wasn't there 20 years
ago. His bending and vibrato are always dead on, and the dynamics in
his touch sound very mature. Having said that, he was also shredding
his brains out. His fast picked stuff was so punchy and tight that you
felt like you were getting kicked in the chest on some of his runs. All
his fast stuff was squeaky clean. His playing on Rusty Old Boat was
particularly good. Very cool, funky phrasing with awesome shredding as
well. Paul's wife Emi took a nice keyboard solo on that song also. Overall, Gilbert's band had a fun, enthusiastic presence
that made them sound like they've been playing together for a long
time. This was a well-rehearsed, tight band that was fun to watch.
John Petrucci came up next, and if I had to describe his set in one word, it would be HEAVY. His opening tune, Jaws Of Life, was the heaviest thing I have ever heard. Petrucci played a seven-string Ernie Ball guitar on that song, and some others, which made things even heavier. However, on some tunes, it was so heavy and loud, that it was hard to discern what was being played. He did play a couple of lighter songs as well; Lost Without You was really good. But overall, Petrucci's set had the effect of a heavy metal freight train bearing down on you. His solos were great, but some of his picked runs were just a blur. This was especially true if he was using the neck pickup, and the run had smaller intervals. Petrucci was backed up by Dave LaRue on bass, and Mike Portnoy on drums. LaRue had several nice solos (LaRuuuuuuue!), and Portnoy was just a mad-man. What a great drummer. He was throwing sticks all over the place, and was just generally beating the crap out of his kit. He and Petrucci were both very popular with the crowd (I saw lots of Dream Theater t-shirts).
Joe
Satriani's band played last (Double-duty Dave LaRue played bass for
Satriani also). I really liked Satriani's set. He mentioned Surfing
With The Alien was released 20 years ago, so he played several songs
from that album. Ice 9 and Circles were both great. My favorite song
from his set was Cool #9. The thing I dig about Satriani is his use of old-school blues licks, and Cool #9 was a great example
of this. When he goes into pentatonic box territory, the bends, vibrato, and
phrasing are always very solid and authentic-sounding. Another fun tune
was Crowd Chant. In this song, Satch plays a line, then has the crowd
repeat it back to him. The audience was way into it.
One of the
fun parts of G3 of course is the big jam at the end. After Satriani's
final song (Always With Me, Always With You), he went immediately into
a slow major-sounding three chord vamp. Petrucci then walked on and
played a very cool solo that kept building and building. Then Gilbert
came on played a fantastic solo with some of his patented
string-skipping triad lines. Very cool. They then played a Hendrix
tribute that consisted of Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, and a snippet of Voodoo
Chile. After that it was the Jeff Beck classic Going Down, and finally
Jumping Jack Flash closed the show. Satriani sang Going Down, and
Gilbert sang the others (Gilbert's vocals on Jumping Jack Flash were
really great). Going Down was my favorite jam of the night. All 3 guys
sounded great on this tune. I kind of wish they'd play some different
stuff for these jams though. These are great tunes, but they've
been doing Hendrix songs for years now. There are lots of classic
instrumental guitar jams they could play too (speaking of Jeff Beck,
how about playing Freeway Jam or Led Boots for a change?). Regardless,
the jams did not disappoint. Gilbert was wailing,
and he seemed to enjoy listening to the other guys play too. At one
point, after Petrucci played a wicked fast-picking run, Gilbert used
his classic pick-enabled drill to counter Petrucci's attack. Too funny.
This was an awesome night of guitar craziness. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I heard they won't be filming any of these shows for a DVD. That's too bad, because it would sell like hotcakes if they did. If this version of G3 comes to your town, you must go see it. Highly recommended.
View more photo's from the Chicago 3/24/07 G3 show
UPDATE: Here's a video I took of Going Down. The audio is not great. It was so loud in there, my cameras built-in mic got overloaded.
PRESS RELEASE
Credited throughout his career with creating super sounds in super
groups, the ultimate Clapton collaboration will take place July 28,
2007 when he gathers the past, present and future of guitar music onto
one stage for an incredible full day musical event. Announced today,
the second Crossroads Guitar Festival, scheduled for July 28, 2007 at
Toyota Park in Chicago, will be a cornerstone of this year's summer
music festival season. Profits from the Festival will benefit The
Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility
founded by Clapton for chemically dependent persons.
Since its inception, Clapton's vision for the Crossroads Guitar Festival has been to create an event where his friends and contemporaries can have fun and jam together for the benefit of a good cause. This year's Festival will feature a full day of musical performances with once-in-a-lifetime guitar collaborations. Known as pioneers in their field, the roster of artists spans old and new, from BB King to John Mayer (anticipated guest list below). The audience can expect unrivaled entertainment, brilliant guitar work, surprise guests and impromptu jams that are the hallmarks of these performers.
The first Crossroads Guitar Festival, in June 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, was an unprecedented collection of guitar icons from blues, rock and contemporary music. The sold-out show was chronicled in a 2-disc DVD that has since gone on to become one of the world's top-selling music DVD's, recently achieving the 8x platinum mark in the United States alone.
"The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me, to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage," said Clapton. "The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect."
Additional Festival artists and elements to be announced shortly.
Ticket Sales Information
Tickets for the Crossroads Guitar Festival will go on sale to the
public on Saturday, March 31 at 10am Central Time (11am EST) via www.ticketmaster.com
or Ticketmaster phone charge at 312-559-1950 or Ticketmaster retail
outlets. Both reserved and general admission tickets will be available
for this event. All tickets will be priced at $90 plus applicable
ticketing/service charges. The ticket price includes parking for the
day and the concert begins at NOON.
About Toyota Park
Conveniently located just 15 minutes southwest of Downtown Chicago (at 71st and Harlem in Bridgeview), Toyota Park (www.toyotapark.com) is Chicagoland's newest and most exciting outdoor concert facility.
Current Artist Listing (Confirmed)
Jeff Beck
Doyle Bramhall II
Eric Clapton
Robert Cray
Sheryl Crow
Vince Gill
Buddy Guy
BB King
Alison Krauss and Union Station
Sonny Landreth
Albert Lee
Los Lobos
John Mayer
John McLaughlin
Willie Nelson
Robert Randolph
Hubert Sumlin
Derek Trucks
Jimmie Vaughan
Steve Winwood
Found some great pics from last nights Allan Holdsworth concert at Ramshead Tavern in Annapolis, Maryland on the PhotoCamel Photography Forum. Check them out.
Guitar Jam Daily has a new audio interview with Michael Landau for their Jamcast interview series.
A CD and DVD of Mike Portnoy's all-star tribute to The Who, Amazing Journey, is finally available for purchase. This incredible band featured Paul Gilbert - guitar, Billy Sheehan - bass, Gary Cherone - vocals, and Portnoy - drums. AMAZING JOURNEY - ONE NIGHT IN NEW YORK CITY captures the bands May 31st 2006 show at BB King's in New York. You can purchase the DVD or CD version of this release through Mike Portnoy's website.
Someone posted a review of the first show of the current G3 tour (w/ Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and Paul Gilbert) on the Petrucci forum. There's some cool pics included as well. Here's the link to the post:
G3 - 3/14 Phoenix review and pics
I'm going to the show in Chicago next Saturday. Can't wait!
I got the inside scoop on guitarist Alex Machacek's new project. Alex will be recording an album with drummer Jeff Sipe (ARU, Jonas Hellborg, Project Z) and bassist Matt Garrison (John McLaughlin, Gary Husband, Dennis Chambers) in a few weeks. Look for the release sometime in August. This should be an incredible collaboration; all three of these guys are monster players.
Here's a clip of Frank Gambale with Joel Taylor and Ric Fierabacci from March 9, 2007 at The Baked Potato. Great stuff.
Found this on Truth in Shredding - Guitar Player has a short interview posted with Paul Gilbert.
All Out Guitar has a new interview up with Joe Satriani. It's a good read that covers his early musical development, G3, and much more.
The following release dates have been announced for the new Planet X album 'Quantum':
Germany, Austria, Switzerland: May 18th, 2007
Rest of Europe: May 21st, 2007
North America: May 22nd, 2007
Japan - TBA
Planet X is keyboardist Derek Sherinian's awesome prog-fusion band. This much-anticipated new album features a lineup of Brett Garsed & Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Rufus Philpot & Jimmy Johnson on bass, Virgil Donati on drums, and Sherinian on keys.
As you may have heard, the Copyright Royalty Board approved a new royalty rate structure on Friday that will likely put most Internet radio stations out of business. They basically rubber-stamped the proposal put forth by SoundExchange (the digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).The outrageous rates are so high, that even mid to large size stations would have an impossible time paying them. I'm not sure how long I will keep The Guitar Channel stream running in light of these new developments. There's no way I will even attempt to pay these new fees. And I certainly don't want to put myself in an actionable position by just coasting along and hoping no one notices. I think the days of The Guitar Channel stream are numbered folks. This website itself isn't going anywhere, but I may have to shut down the stream. I'll keep you updated. Meanwhile, here are some links with more info on the CRB ruling, and what you can do to make your voice heard.
Radio And Internet Newsletter
Broadcast Law Blog
Ars Technica
Save Our Internet Radio
Rich
According to violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's official website, Allan Holdsworth will play guitar on a few tracks of Ponty's forthcoming album, THE ACATAMA EXPERIENCE, to be released later this year. Holdsworth previously appeared on Ponty's Individual Choice and Enigmatic Ocean albums.
There is a Brett Garsed interview up on the new guitar blog 22nd Century Guitarist. It's a little hard to read right now, but there's a note at the bottom saying it will be reformatted and reposted.
Jimmy Herring: Lifeboat
Herring's first solo album is one of the best jazz releases of the year.
McCoy Tyner: Guitars
Latest album from the legendary jazz pianist, featuring John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Derek Trucks, and Bela Fleck. Also includes a making-of DVD.
Tadashi Goto: Innervisions
Heavy prog rock with guests Chris Poland, Brett Garsed, Ty Tabor, Tony Levin, and many others.
OHM: Circus of Sound
Great new album from Chris Poland's fusion power trio.
Cosmosquad: Acid Test
I've been revisiting this one since their DVD came out. Cool stuff.
Return to Forever: The Anthology
Great two-disc "best of" collection from this classic fusion band.
Greg Howe: Sound Proof
Howe's latest is fantastic. Great grooves and awesome jazzy shredding.
Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, Matthew Garrison: Improvision
Incredible writing and playing. A remarkable album.
