Here’s a "timely" occurrence ;-) :
I returned home from my drive into Portland yesterday with a couple of LP’s containing music made by some of the names mentioned above:
- Robben Ford: The Inside Story (Elektra Records), produced by Steve Cropper. Near Mint condition, $4. On the front cover Robben is shown holding an ES335.
- Mary Kay Place: Tonight! At The Capri Lounge, Loretta Haggers (Columbia Records), produced by Brian Ahern (Emmylou Harris’ producer of course). Also in near Mint condition, $5. Loretta Haggers was the character Mary Kay played on the great early/mid-70’s late night sitcom parody show, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (in which also appeared Martin Mull, whose own albums are worth hearing. Much funnier than Zappa, and musically more to my taste).
On this album MKP is provided instrumental and vocal accompaniment from the following, all names familiar to most participants in this thread: Glen D. Hardin, Albert Lee, Hank Devito, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Emory Gordy, John Ware, Byron Berline, Herb Pedersen, Mickey Raphael, Skip Conover, Dolly Parton, and Anne Murray. Wow!
I vaguely remember this album, but have never heard it. I was recently reminded of it in a Vinyl Finds review posted by one of my favorite YouTube Vinyl Community members who uses the handle "Another Fat Bearded Man Talking About Records" ;-) . His name is Hedley (how British is that? ;-), and is located in the UK. Great guy, great taste in music. Check him out!
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@jpwarren58: Tony Rice was Art Dudley’s favorite acoustic guitarist. I’ve been finding some of Tony’s Rounder Records LP’s lately in local shops, including his s/t debut on the label (cat. no. 0085), The Tony Rice Unit (0150), the Unit’s Backwaters album (0167), and an album with his brothers (0256). Playing upright bass on all but the last is Todd Phillips, who in 1971 was playing a Fender P Bass in the same band as I around the San Jose area.
Todd was a member of Psychograss, and has a number of his own albums. I heard his 18th Century German upright bass up close ten years ago, when we played together for an afternoon. I now know what it should sound like when reproduced by a hi-fi system ;-) . Todd left the band to concentrate on studying mandolin with David Grisman up in Marin County. David told him there were plenty of good mandolin players, but a dearth of upright bassists, and advised him to get one. Todd took David’s advice, and ended up playing bass in David’s band! Last I heard he was on the road with Joan Baez, whom I am just now belatedly getting into. Her version of Dylan’s "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Low Lands" brings me to tears.
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@stuartk: Yep, love Gurf Morlix. I saw Lucinda and her original L.A. band (including not just Gurf, but also drummer Donald Lindley and bassist John Ciambotti, a great trio) play around town after her Rough Trade album came out in 1988, once at a pizza parlour to an audience of about a half-dozen! I met Lucinda at Club Lingerie, introduced to me by the manager of her then-husband’s band The Long Ryders (he was their drummer), whom I knew. She was very sweet, shy. I later saw her behind the counter at local indi record store Moby Disc (in Sherman Oaks, where I lived), staring off into space in between ringing up sales on the register. Writing lyrics, no doubt. ;-)
A lesser known Tele player is well known in the Midwest---D. Clinton Thompson, of the great Springfield Missouri band The Skeletons (aka The Morells). Big fans of the band include Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, and Elvis Costello. Thompson was also at times a member of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and played guitar in Steve Forbert’s road band. Great player. The Skeletons’ drummer was Bobby Lloyd Hicks, later in Dave Alvin’s band The Guilty Men. A fine drummer who unfortunately was, like Levon Helm, a 2-pack-a-day man, and died of Cancer a few years back.
In the late-80’s Foster & Lloyd put out two really good albums, and when I saw them at The Roxy Theater on Sunset they had a really good Tele player in their band. I don’t know who it was, but I’d love to find out.
Speaking of the Northwest: A coupla years ago I recorded one track in the same Portland studio in which Bill Frisell has done a lot of his albums, a studio better than almost all the ones I have been in in L.A. I brought my own snare drum and cymbals to the session, but the owner/engineer had a set of DW’s that were very well tuned, and some nice Zildjians; all sounded great on tape. He knew the secret to getting a great ride cymbal sound (the very percussive "click" you hear on great Jazz recordings): lots of compression on the overhead mics!
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@tomcy6: Rodney’s The Houston Kid is as good an album as I have ever heard, in my Top 10 of all time. He wrote an accompanying book, Chinaberry Sidewalks, which is well worth reading. He served as Emmylou’s band leader/harmony singer for a while, a role now played by another fave of mine, Buddy Miller.
Buddy is a great guitarist, singer, producer, and picker of material. Buddy’s wife and musical collaborator Julie is just wonderful, an Angel sent from Heaven. Buddy and Julie have done a couple of albums together, and he has of course also produced her solo work. I also have the albums she did when she was a Contemporary Christian artist (one album produced by Buddy), the world she and Buddy came to the secure world from.
I really need to see Emmylou and Buddy live together, but though they have appeared at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco (my old friends who still live in San Jose/Cupertino attend those shows), they don’t come up to the Northwest, where I now reside.
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@stuartk: For me, the Telecaster starts with James Burton. He made a huge impression on the very young me, smiling as he stood behind Ricky Nelson on The Ozzie & Harriet TV show. His solo on Ricky's "Young World" is a favorite of mine, and George Harrison's solo on "Nowhere Man" sounds like it was modeled on the YW solo.
Steve Cropper was the second Tele player for me, his playing on "Green Onions" as good as it gets (good songwriter, too). I had that song as the ring tone on my cell phone for years. It always got a great reception from those who heard it playing on my phone in public. ;-)
As for Brad Paisley: As talented as he is, I have to admit I have mixed feelings about his playing. I take very seriously the notion of the musician's priorities as being in service to first the song, second the singer, third the ensemble, and lastly his instrument. I'm not sure Brad sees things that way.
It's interesting how the guitar a guy has in his hands affects his playing. For years Dave Edmunds was an ES335 player (he has two dot-neck 58's!), and when he switched to a Tele it just wasn't the same. I witnessed that with Bill Pitcock IV (Dwight Twilley's guitarist) too.
I lived in San Jose when Robben Ford moved south (from very northern California) with his brothers, stopping in town for a coupla years and playing around the Bay Area. The bassist in my senior year High School band joined The Charles Ford Band (named after the boys father) for a while, so I saw Robben live a lot. All the San Jose guitarists had to re-evaluate their playing after seeing Robben live ;-) . He worked with Charlie Musslehite for a while, playing a 335 back then. Next thing I knew he had moved to L.A. and was playing with Joni Mitchell, then Miles Davis. All it takes is talent.
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@stuatk: The Hellecasters! I have their Escape From Hollywood album (the CD booklet includes this line: "Dedicated to the memory of Danny Gatton 1945-1994"), and saw them live in the 90's. Three masters of the Telecaster, on stage together. Jorgensen was also a member of a favorite group on mine, The Desert Rose Band (with Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen, themselves mighty fine musicians, singers, and songwriters).
I've been a fan of Bill Kirchen since hearing him on Commander Cody's debut album. Saw them live at Winterland (or was it The Fillmore?), a great band. The West Virginia Creeper was on pedal steel that night, though he ended up getting booted out of the band (I played a gig with him in the mid-70's. He had a drinking problem).
David Lindley's first few albums are amazing, and live he is even better. Surprisingly loud, too. He plays with much more sustain than most Tele players, as does Cooder. It's the Blues thing.
My mates and I were really into Taj Mahal's debut, where we first heard Jesse Ed Davis. I'm currently on the search for Davis' debut album on LP. I was unaware until recently of how involved he was with the George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton crowd. Davis played on a favorite Dylan song of mine "Watching The River Flow", and Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes". Guitarists with that kind of talent and taste are rather rare. Too many guitarists are imo show-offs, sacrificing musicality at the alter of technique..Drummers, too. Real glad to see there are others of my stripe here!
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@tablejockey: You are so right about Redd Volkaert (for those who don't know, Redd took Roy Nichols' place in Merle Haggard's band after Roy's passing, and won a Grammy in the 2000's for best instrumental performance). A bassist partner of mine and I drove to Austin in 2008 to look for a house to buy (we were going to hire ourselves out as a rhythm section to all the singer/songwriters in that town), and after checking into the motel went to a bar on 6th Street for a beer. There were a coupla amps and a drumset on the bar's small low stage, but no band playing. Turns out they were on break, and when they returned and the guitarist stepped on up who did we see? None other than Redd! A world-class guitarist, playing at a local bar when he wasn't on the road with Merle. That's a real musician.
Another Telecaster great is (or rather was) Danny Gatton, whom Vince Gill nicknamed "The Humbler". OMG what a player! Another is a guy who was a bandmate with Danny when they both lived in Virginia, Evan Johns (who did three albums for Rykodisc, and a bunch on smaller labels) I did an album with Evan in the late-90's in Atlanta (entitled Moontan), and during recording Evan told me Danny was the best musician he ever worked with. Danny never came West, so I never saw/heard him live. Evan's dead now too.
And how about Kenny Vaughan? He's been playing in Marty Stuart's band The Fabulous Superlatives for years now, but I first saw him live when he was in Lucinda Williams' road band. I saw/heard Al Anderson playing in NRBQ a coupla times, another favorite Tele player of mine. He left the band to concentrate on songwriting, lives in Nashville now.
When it comes to the Strat, we have to start with Richard Thompson (after Ry Cooder, of course ;-) !
But back to watches. I was in the band of a singer/songwriter who insisted no one wear a watch on stage. He wanted he and his band to look as far removed from everyday normal life as possible. Hey, the songwriter gets to write the rules ;-) .
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I became aware of the name Eric Clapton when in 1966 I saw and heard the new Elektra Records sampler album entitled What’s Shakin’ (billed as Eric Clapton And The Powerhouse), which also contained the guitar playing of Mike Bloomfield (as a member of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band). Eric and Mike therefore became the first two white Blues guitarists I heard. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had already heard the playing of both: Eric on the debut Yardbirds album (uncredited. Only Jeff Beck’s name appears on the album’s cover), Mike on a coupla Bob Dylan’s.
Then came the debut by Cream, an album which changed everything. I can’t over-emphasize how influential that album was to Rock ’n’ Roll musicians. Passe’ was the concept of the 3-minute Pop song, replaced by improvisation and extended soloing and jamming. That album led me to discover the first John Mayall album (did Eric join Mayall’s band before or after his appearance on What’s Shakin’?), then onward back to Albert, Freddie, and B.B. King.
@whart is exactly correct in characterizing Clapton as having "psychedelicizing" Blues guitar playing, for better or worse (Atlantic Record’s President Ahmet Ertugan dismissed the Disraeli Gears album as "psychedelic horsesh*t" ;-) . But that phase of Eric’s musical path came to a screeching halt (as I have noted more than a few times here. Sorry ;-) when Eric heard Music from Big Pink. Out with long, extended musical ramblings, in with a more humble, subtle approach to music.
After making a pilgrimage to West Saugerties (the location of the Big Pink house, home to three of The Band’s five members, and in which they and Dylan recorded The Basement Tapes) and waiting he has said for The Band to ask him to join (the waiting proved to be in vain ;-) , he followed the musical path which eventually led him to J.J. Cale, who became his new role model and template for music making.
Eric has lived quite a life, and made an enormous contribution to Pop, Blues, and even Country music. Thank you Eric.
As for Albert (NOT Alvin ;-) Lee: members of the Albert Lee fan club include Emmylou Harris (Albert was in her Hot Band for a number of years), The Everly Brothers (Albert was the lead guitarist in their road band for decades), Dave Edmunds (you do know about Edmunds, rght? Keith Richards wishes he could play guitar like Dave), Vince Gill (though known primarily as as singer, Vince is an excellent guitarist), Brad Paisley, obviously, Richard Thompson, and every Telecaster player in the world. And myself. In my life I’ve seen and heard a LOT of guitarists live (including Clapton, Hendrix, Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, Ry Cooder, Dave Edmunds, Al Anderson (NRBQ), Robbie Robertson, many others), and Albert remains one of my very favorites.
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@crustycoot: Actually, the guitar Ry uses primarily for his slide playing is a heavily-mofified Strat, not Tele. He refers to it as the Coodercaster ;-) . At the suggestion of David Lindley he replaced one of the stock pickups with a pickup out of an old pedal steel guitar. Awesome tone, but of course it always comes back to the player, his touch, and his musical sensibilities and taste.
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@jrpnde: Gordon Lightfoot's Bobby McGee is my favorite version of that song. Good recording, too.
In 1973 I was visiting the newly-opened Audio Arts in Livermore California on the very day Bill Johnson was delivering and installing his complete ARC system (Thorens TD-125 table, ARC's pro-type arm which never made it into production, Decca Blue cartridge, SP-3 pre-amp, Magneplanar Tympani T-I loudspeakers bi-amped with D51 and D75 amps. The sound blew my young mind. Later in the year that system was in my house ;-) in the shop's listening room. AA proprietor Walter Davies played that very track, and Johnson remarked on the good sq of the recording. I bought a copy of the album (If You Could Read My Mind), when I got back to San Jose, and still have it.
Ry Cooder is a guitarist's guitarist. Good taste is (heh) timeless.
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@tablejockey: In the 90's I had a '66 Deluxe Reverb, but the reissues are great too. In December of 2007 I played a 3-night gig with a singer (L.A.-based Jonny Kaplan) who is a really good rhythm guitarist, and his Les Paul Jr. into a new DR sounded fantastic. For that gig I played one of my 1950's WFL black diamond pearl kits with a 24" kick.
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The Deluxe Reverb (blackface, of course ;-), my favorite amp. Dwight Twilley’s long-time guitarist Bill Pitcock IV (now RIP) used a pair of them with an MXR digital delay between the two, with an ES335 plugged in. Awesome live sound!
When I recorded with Evan Johns in Atlanta, his Deluxe was up in British Vancouver, so he plugged his Tele into the studio’s black face Super Reverb, and cranked it to 10. Loudest thing I’ve ever heard! One Fender I really dislike is the Twin Reverb---too metallic/brash for my taste, though Mike Bloomfield made his sound pretty damned good (with a Les Paul).
The best live guitar sound I’ve heard was that of Ry Cooder. He had a pile of a half-dozen old combo amps: Fender, Gretsch, Ampeg, etc. And his playing? The best I’ve ever heard. This is related to the topic of the post because when Ry played his little solo in John Hiatt's "Lipstick Sunset", it felt like time stopped. The single greatest musical experience of my life.
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I've never understood or related to the fetish for expensive watches. UK reviewer Ken Kessler is a collector, occasionally dropping a watch reference into a review. There in no time, man, only the eternal present. Unless you have to be at a record store when it opens. ;-)
Now old guitars and drums, there's something worth spending big money on. Neil Young owns Hank Williams' Martin acoustic, Marty Stuart Clarence White's B-Bender Telecaster. I own one of Jim Gordon's (Derek & The Dominos, etc.) Camco drumsets. None of his cymbals, unfortunately. He played the best I've ever heard. The worst? Ginger Baker's. Real trash can lids.
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