Lukas Nelson – Passion and Blues Guitar
As Ottawa Bluesfest continued this past weekend I had the chance to catch Lukas Nelson, the son of country superstar Willie Nelson. Definitely shades of the old man, soul filled voice, story telling writing, a love of music and his audience were shouting “chip off the old block”…then the band picked up tempo and turned […]
Funky Blues Shuffle On My Strat
Here’s a funky little blues guitar shuffle in E I put together earlier today…this is my Stratocaster played through an older Fender “The Twin” amp with a Blue Daddy Goudie FX box boosting the gain and tone notch. I played this with my fingers so I could gets some simultaneous base line walking with fills […]
Johnny Sansone with MonkeyJunk Review
It’s Christmas time here in Ottawa again! What? Christmas in July? Christmas time for Blues Junkies like me – it’s Ottawa Bluesfest time again…and even though the Festival gets bigger and more diverse each year, there are still some great blues moments I’ll be taking in. One of those happened on Thursday evening when hometown […]
Jimmie Vaughan’s Guitar Setup
Came across this video sharing the details of Jimmie Vaughan’s guitar setup…if you are a fan of Jimmie you know that he is a minimalist (that’s what they called Steve Jobs by the way…so nothing wrong with that!) I’m a huge fan of Jimmie Vaughan’s simple, clear, biting tone – but find at times he […]
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Texas Shuffle
I have to admit – a great Texas Shuffle a la Stevie Ray Vaughan or Freddie King before him just gets my blood pumping. I have a son that is just now learning guitar, and though today’s generation is into all of this Electronic Dance Music stuff, I have to admit he even taps his […]
Play What You Want To Hear
Wow man, I was so impressed by this Jimmie Vaughan interview, mainly because he goes through the thought process of how he (and how other great blues guitar players like BB, Freddie King, Eric Clapton and Gatemouth Brown) developed their own style. It’s one thing to learn the guitar, another to be able to play […]
Tyler Bryant – The Next Blues Guitar Prodigy?
He’s been paying his dues, which these days has as much to do with hitting the social networks as it does hitting the clubs. Texas blues guitar player Tyler Bryant, by all accounts, is the real deal impressing live audiences and YouTube nation…a double whammy marketing effort building his brand before his first album is […]
Congratulations MonkeyJunk!
Ottawa blues trio MonkeyJunk took away the top Canadian Blues Award at this weekend’s Juno Awards…nice icing on what has been a very busy and positive year. From day 1 – when Matt Sobb, Tony D and Steve Marriner came together for an open blues jam at Irene’s Pub – the chemistry has been strong. […]
Carlos Santana Books “Living Library of Music”
At first I have to admit to thinking Carlos Santana, guitar God of the psychadelic 70’s, sold out accepting a 2-year Gig at (of all places) Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. After all, isn’t this where old stars go to live out the twilight years of their career – Celine Dion, Bobby Vinton, Tim Allen […]
Sweet Home Obama – I Mean Chicago!
Obama kicking back with some of the BIG GUNS of the blues including BB King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, and Jeff Beck as they film a special Tribute To The Blues related to black history month – should be televised Feb 27th on PBS, I’ll be watching for that. I think its great when a […]