Okay, the Fender Mustang experiment didn’t work. At all. Jenny needed a good short-scale bass and loved the look and feel of her new Mustang at rehearsal. But you never know how a piece of musical equipment will perform until you gig with it. First thing we noticed is no headroom due to weak PJ […]
Mustang Jenny!
My daughter Jenny has been playing my bass guitar for some time. Before we put our family band back together she gigged with some local rockers with the Squier Precision bass I had bought her as a Christmas gift. But she found her Squire didn’t compare to my 1982 Vantage VP820B bass. I bought my […]
Stevie Ray Vaughan Paid His Dues
My treadmill time is actually a guilty pleasure – I record every music concert, documentary, and interview show on TV and watch them while racking up the miles, sans commercials. I really enjoy learning the history of famous musicians, and the surprising backstories. AXIS TV recently featured a long documentary about the life and musical […]
The Best Christmas Gig Ever
By today’s standards, we didn’t have much. In fact we were dirt poor, but we really didn’t know it. Everybody else in the neighborhood was, too. Back in the early sixties my sister and I were grubby little kids who pretty much had the run of the city, day and night, and nobody worried about […]
CBD to Face Lions
from the Davidson Dispatch, 10/26/17: Getting ready for the Lions District 31-I fall convention Reminding all Lions that the District 31-I’s fall convention will be at Camp Dogwood Nov. 3-5. Don’t forget to bring auction items for Saturday morning and crafts, gifts, and Lions-themed items for the boutique. All proceeds go to Brighter Visions. […]
I Miss Tom Petty Already
Tom Petty was the guy all of us young, guitar wanna-me musicians admired. A rebel. A writer. A guy who did it his way, and his way was magical and irresistible. Genuine. Straight. Unfiltered. Has there ever been a bad Tom Petty song? He never mailed it in. And that goes not only for the […]
My Peavey T60
“Hey Tom, this is Steam Music in Missoula. I have a guitar here you might be interested in.” It was September 22, 1978. “Peavey is doing a test market on a new guitar they just came out with. It’s pretty cool. You should come over and check it out.” The next Saturday I was on […]
Coolest Band Name EVER
If you have perused this site, you know how our family band, Caution! Blind Driver got its name. Our drummer, Jeff, is totally blind. And he is the driver of our music. When Jeff was a little, he took great glee in sitting on my lap and steering our old pickup truck down the gravel […]
What a Difference A Chord Makes!
Here’s an interesting note – or should I say “chord” – for songwriters. Scott Frieman shows how Paul McCartney wrote Penny Lane with a really odd chord progression, using a B minor out of nowhere for the turn. If you are a songwriter, or a musician, or a Beatles fan, proceed to the short and […]
Can You Write A Song in Ten Minutes?
A guitarist friend, Kevin Scruggs, pointed me to a Facebook video featuring Ben Folds at the Kennedy Performing Center for the Arts. Folds was asked to write a song in ten minutes, from scratch, given the following tools: one line selected from that evening’s printed program, the key of A minor, and the National Symphony […]