The concept of playing for free or for spare change is one for the ages. And the decisions for performing for little to no compensation is one to not take lightly, and should consider one’s level of talent, name recognition, commerciality, as well as the venue or circumstances that offer “real estate” to perform your original songs, cover songs or, most likely a mix of the two.
Today’s guitar review is of the Limited Edition G5622T-140 Electromatic®, a mid-range guitar that should be a welcome addition to any guitar player’s gathering of stage ready guitars. The guitar draws design features, functional electronic and hardware components, and inspiration from such masterful Gretsch guitars as those cool Country Gentleman and White Falcon instruments, that we’ve seen in the hands of George Harrison, Gene Vincent, Brian Setzer, Michael Nesmith, Neil Young and many more legendary play
Matchbox Twenty have quietly woven their songs into the very fabric of American popular culture. The band has sold over 40 million records worldwide, dominated charts, garnered multiple GRAMMY Award nominations, and played to millions of fans in arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums across continents. Earning hits in each of the last three decades
When Wes Montgomery, the most influential jazz guitarist of the 1960’s, introduced a new audience to his playing with the seminal jazz-pop album A Day In The Life, he received fanfare and criticism. Entering the golden age of AM radio with jazz versions of counter-culture favorites, the commercially savvy album presented jazz to a generation reared on transistor technology.
Tim O’Brien talks about his song, “Cup of Sugar” – The songs started with ‘Bear.‘ It was December of 2021, and the news was all about Russia and would Putin invade Ukraine. I had just read a book on the history of dancing bears. White Nationalism was a prominent topic, the flip side being Black Lives Matter. Trump had lost the election but was ramping up his spoiled brat act. I could imagine the gripes Putin, Trump and the White Nationalists had, even if I didn’t agree.
Two-time folk Grammy nominee Eliza Gilkyson is sharing the first single, the “brightly ethereal” (Folk Alley) “Safety Zone”, from her new album, Home, set for released June 23 on her own imprint, Realiza Records. Premiering today, the song came about after a bad accident Eliza suffered at last year’s Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. A member of the Austin Music Hall of Fame, and an inductee into the Austin Songwriter Hall of Fame, she has won countless Folk Alliance and Austin Music awards, including 2014’s Songwriter of the Year.
Rocker – producer – award winning songwriter, Stacy Hogan, has been in the music entertainment business since he was a kid, at 12 banging away on the eighty-eights and getting out and about on tour with an adult country band. His new single, “Congratulations, You’re In A Cult” is a frenetic, blistering assault on demagogues and cults.
Now and then, a phenomenal guitar picker such as Marcus King emerges. Just as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Healey, whose meteoric rise to fame during the eighties and early nineties influenced a multitude of guitar-playing hopefuls, King also will leave his indelible mark.
The Gruene OG-30 is very similar to an orchestra style Martin with a sound that matches and craftsmanship that’s on par. The Gruene has more bling in the form of natural abalone snowflakes, up and down the fretboard and two that accentuate the bridge. The Gruene name up top at the headstock is also real abalone, no fake stuff here…
Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya is a man on a mission to introduce the traditional and contemporary music of India to the Western World. As an ambassador of Indian music, Debashish has performed and recorded with such legendary artists of sound, such as guitarist extraordinaire, John McLaughlin, the masterful slide guitarist, Jerry Douglas, England’s guitar virtuoso, Martin Simpson, eclectic slide guitar mix-master, Derek Trucks, and African kora aficionado, Ballake Sissoko.
