Wherein I provide three versions of a song to see how it can be (sometimes radically) reinterpreted …. Even though I wrote a series about Ray Charles at the end of last year, I’d somehow gotten it into my head that Willie Nelson wrote this … Continue reading One Song/Three Versions – Hard Times
Wherein we visit the original tune and a couple of covers to see how other bands mash it up … “Did Blues King Robert Johnson Sell His Soul To The Devil To Become The Worldβs Greatest Musician?” screams the headline on a blog. Did he? … Continue reading One Song – Three Versions – Stop Breakin’ Down
Recently, when Ginger Baker died, I re-blogged my post about Cream. Now that I have four years of posts, it made me realize it might be a good idea to periodically re-blog stuff that I dd when I had, like, one follower. So from October … Continue reading My Favorite Rock Songs (1) – Top Ten
This is only the second or third time in four years of blogging that I’ve reposted an older blog. But having just learned that Ginger Baker died at 80 years old, I felt compelled to say something. Jack and Ginger are now gone and so … Continue reading Cream – Blues, Ancient and Modern
Yes, yes, children. It is time for that most anticipated and yet largely unloved thing – the “favorite guitarist” list. Now before you dive in and say, “How the fuck could you leave Alex Lifeson (or Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell, Yngvie Malmsteen, etc.) off … Continue reading My Top Twenty Guitarists of All Time (plus one)
A couple of years ago, I did a post about my favorite Christmas songs. So feel free to travel back to that one here. But it occurred to me that it was time to introduce – plus or minus a few classics – some new … Continue reading A Music Enthusiast Selection of Christmas Tunes
I may be part of a dying breed of people who even care about guitar solos. But I love ’em. I play guitar but I loved solos long before I knew which end of the thing to hold. In fact it was the desire to … Continue reading What I Listen For In a Guitar Solo
My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity. —-Eric Clapton Retreating to England, Eric Clapton went back to his house, the (I think) appropriately named … Continue reading Eric Clapton (3) – Journeyman
My theory was that making records, first and foremost, was always going to be a commercial enterprise and therefore not pure. It was a ridiculously pompous attitude, considering that all the music I was learning from was on records. … As exciting as it was … Continue reading Eric Clapton (2) – Slowhand
“I went off in a lot of different directions all at once it seems, but I find I have floated back to straight blues playing. I’ve returned to what I like doing as an individual, and that is playing exploratory blues. You get really hung … Continue reading Eric Clapton (1) – Troubador
