By: Matt Warnock
There is something to be said for capturing music live, in the moment, with all the excitement of the band caught in the thrill of the song and the crowd cheering them on to new heights of inspiration. Blues guitarist Todd Wolfe is no stranger to the stage, and he recently brought that experience to a new live CD and DVD, aptly titled The Todd Wolfe Band Live. The album is a blues tour de force that features Wolfe’s powerhouse trio at the peak of their inspiration and technical facility.
Guitar International caught up with Blues guitarist Todd Wolfe to talk about his new album, covering Eric Clapton and Zinky Amplifiers.
Todd Wolfe Photo: Vojtech Brtnicky
Matt Warnock: I’m going to start with a question about the album. I’m just curious, what was the inspiration behind releasing a live album at this point in your career? I mean was the band really clicking, were the songs really happening?
Todd Wolfe: Yeah, something basically along those lines. The lineup always changes through the years. Sometimes we’re a four-piece band, sometimes a five-piece. The bass player, Suavek, has been with me for about three years, and we got a new drummer in the band a couple of years ago, Roger Voss, just because of the economy and also traveling lighter as a trio.
We started doing these trio gigs and at first I wasn’t that into it, but then I noticed something started clicking. It was more becoming like a band, and definitely each guy had his own identity. That was what happened with the last album.
It was in the summertime and I said, “You know, I don’t know how long this will last.” You never know when the lineup’s gonna change and how it’s gonna go, and I felt that over the last year and half or so it just started really gelling as a trio. So that’s why we got in to film it.
I knew Jim Russo, and he said, “I can bring a couple of cameras in. It’s not gonna be a huge production or anything,” and I said “That’s fine.” I knew about McCoole’s Arts Place, it was a venue where you could pretty much do your own thing. It’s a blank canvas. They have theater shows there, they have music, comedy and things like that. It’s a small room about 140 people or something like that, and I thought, “This’ll be great. We’ll make our own little setting.”
Todd Wolfe Band live
I was actually the one who did the set design. It was sort of like make-believe. I was like, “Do you have any props?” and they’re like “Oh yeah! In this room.” There were couches and rugs and curtains and everything, so I had a go of it.
It comes off as more of an unplugged situation, there are couches around and things like that. Sort of a relaxed thing. It’s not this major lighting type of full production thing. I thought it was kind of nice there was a homeyness to it. It was mostly our friends that showed up, it wasn’t a huge show. And Jim was there with a couple cameras and he let them roll, so we just figured if we’re doing this we should at least release a live CD.
My choice was to make it more of just our original songs on the CD as opposed to the DVD which had some covers as well. So that’s how we ended up with the DVD and the CD comin’ out a little bit later on. It’s capturing a moment in time for me with these guys right now. It definitely has to do with the trio clicking.
Matt: How did you choose the material to record? There are 3 covers on the DVDs and none on the album. When it came to choose which songs to record, is this your current set or did you reach back into your catalog and pull some old tunes out?
Todd Wolfe: It had been stuff that we had started playing in more recent times. Some of them we’ve been playing for a while and some of them just started clicking. So it wasn’t anything new that night. It was basically what we have been doing the past year and half as a trio.
We weren’t sure how the lighting was working out, and that’s why the DVD is sort of interesting because Jim and his crew saw some footage that we had played Labor Day weekend. We played the Isle of Fehmarn Festival. It was the 40th anniversary of the first one which was the last thing Jimi Hendrix ever played at. So of course that had the big production, all hi-def cameras and the lighting and smoke and everything else.
They saw some of that and said let’s put some of this on. I wasn’t that thrilled about the performance, but it’s another night on the road for us so let’s include a few from that.
Click to Buy Todd Wolfe Band Live from Amazon
Matt: There are two covers on the DVD. And one is an Eric Clapton tune “Gotta Get Better In a Little While,” and it seems like a more rare Clapton tune. It’s not in the top five or anything when people think of Clapton’s catalog. I was wondering why you chose that Clapton song to cover? What about it stood out as compared to say “Layla” or “Wonderful Tonight”?
Todd Wolfe: Well “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight” just wouldn’t work for me. “Wonderful Tonight” is beautiful and I played it at a couple of friends’ weddings but it’s just the kind of thing that there are even different periods where I just don’t want to hear it. There’s been that brief window where I thought it was great.
You know, I’m a big Clapton fan and “Layla” is a bitch to play with a trio, to fill all that sound ’cause I mean the original has three guitars going through it. It’s a tougher one to do live. If you had keyboards and maybe another guitar… It’s an amazing song, but I’ve always found it hard to play that riff and sing it, especially with just a trio.
Some years ago there was a version of it that was sort of unfinished in the second Derek and the Dominoes sessions that never got finished. As a matter of fact, “Gotta Get Better In a Little While,” the studio version that was gonna be on the second Derek and the Dominoes album, didn’t even have the chorus singing on it. It was a little bit different than the live version. So when we did it originally, we were doing it a little bit more like a “Keep On Growing” meets that song.
There were songs from that, from the way Derek and the Dominoes played things live that have stuck with me, and I’ve always liked “Gotta Get Better In a Little While,” and its good because it works well for a trio. You don’t have to have keyboards there and second guitar there. It’s kind of a funkier thing of Eric’s. I just always found it fun to play and we always got a great reaction. If I don’t say who the song is by they go “That’s a great song, is it yours?” and of course I have to say, “No, it’s Clapton’s.”
Matt: I’m just curious, do you feel any more pressure from doing a live recording than you would a normal gig because the cameras are one, the recorders are on, and if you have an off-night you can’t use the material. Did you ever worry about that when you’re on stage?
Todd Wolfe: Yeah, yeah. There’s definitely a little bit more pressure with that, especially with cameras, ’cause I’ve done shows before where we knew there were cameras going but not with the thought of using if for a DVD. So there was a little bit more thought about that. Sometimes when we’re recording live it’s just to see what we come up with that night so there’s a little bit less pressure.
You think a little bit differently when those cameras are rolling, when the red light’s going. Same way in the studio too, you know? I find the studio really a much tougher type of labor because you’re there and the red light’s on. You’re trying to make it happen, and you gotta feed off of yourself. You know you want it, it’s something that gotta last forever, that people can always come back and listen to. If it’s just a live gig you’re in the moment and you might go for things a little more, play a little bit wilder, not be so conscientious about what you’re doing. That’s why I enjoy the live setting a little bit more.
Matt: Correct me if I’m wrong but the guitar that you’re holding on the cover, it looks like a cross between a Mustang and a Jaguar. What guitar is that?
Todd Wolfe: That’s a Tele custom, a reissue. Basically in ’72, Fender added a few models which now they’ve reissued. They took the ’69 Thinline Tele and they added humbuckers to it instead of Tele pickups. They added a Fender Deluxe which looks similar to the one I’m using but it has two humbuckers on it and with a bigger Strat-style headstock. And then the one I’m using is the Tele Custom, which is the second style of Tele Custom.
They originally had one in the late ’50s that had the binding on it, but still was a regular Tele. I don’t know if they had this in mind for Kieth Richards, but I guess Kieth used a Tele with a humbucker in the neck position. So they came up with this design, which basically has a Tele pickup in the bridge position and a Fender humbucker in the neck position. This one is not only a reissue, but it’s a Bill Nash.
The reason I went with Bill Nash instead of the custom shop was price. The custom shop for Fender and Gibson have become almost cost prohibitive. You know, I’m a working musician. I’m not up there with any hits on the charts or anything like that, so it would be probably double if I had Fender do one of those out of the custom shop.
Now Fender did reissue those, and in the neck position is a reissued Fender humbucker that I had Seymore Duncan rewind. And the back pickup that I put on there is the Seymore Duncan Quarter Pound bridge pickup. I just like the Duncan Quarter Pounders. They make a great bridge pickup for a Tele or a Stratocaster.
It’s kind of nice with the humbucker in there, although I will say that the reissue Fender humbuckers, they’re an interesting pickup, but they don’t sound like the one’s in the ’70s. The ones from the ’70s are purely unique. They don’t sound like a regular humbucker. They’re a bit chimeyer. They have their own sound, so at some point I’m gonna have to look for and old Fender humbucker from the ’70s.
The one that’s on there now with the rewinding by Duncan, it sounds really good but it just doesn’t have that unique sound that the ones from the ’70s had. I talked to somebody from Fender about it and they said that they took the ’70s and tried to duplicate it. Maybe they just got the wrong one. It wasn’t special enough.
Todd Wolfe
I also have a bicentennial Firebird that I used for that show, a 1976. It’s basically a Firebird III. It’s got the stoptail piece in it which is a little bit more comfortable for me. It doesn’t look as cool as the bar type of bridge, but it works for me.
I’m basically Gibson and Fender, I switch back and forth. Like recently, since October, I’ve used a Les Paul that I haven’t used in years. It was something I bought in high school. I took it out to jam one night and I have two sons and they’re very into music. My younger one’s a drummer and his favorite band is The Band of Gypsys and Led Zeppelin, he’s very rock minded. I said, “Hey I took this Les Paul out and used it in a jam last night. I thought it was kind of fun, and a different kind of sound.” For a second I even thought of bringing it to Europe with me, and he proceeded to tell me why I needed to take that guitar back out, play it, and bring it to Europe. So I took his advice and that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s a lot heavier, [Laughing] but lately I’ve been using that.
But it’s always been Fenders and Gibsons for me. It’s tough to go to another guitar. I’ve always loved the sound of Rickenbackers and Gretsch’s. You know, I was a Beatles fan and Byrds fan. I’ve always loved those sounds, but they don’t feel right in my hands. Maybe I’m just not the right guy for that kind of guitar. With all the guitars that have come around, you know, somebody’s version of a Fender or Gibson, there are some really nice ones, and maybe there are some perfected ones, but I don’t think that Fenders and Gibsons really need to be perfected.
Matt: You use Zinky amps which are a little bit different than Marshalls and Fenders. They’re a little more out of the way than those amps that everybody uses. I’m wondering, what drew you to those amps in the first place and why do you continue to use them?
Todd Wolfe: Well I met Zinky back when I was with Sheryl Crowe, and we talked amps for a little bit. At that time I don’t think he had those Blue Velvet amps, but he had designed the Vibro King for Fender, which I’ve always liked. He also designed the Prosonic and the Tonemaster. The Prosonic I really liked too. It was really not a Fender-sounding amp.
I always need a little more English amps like the blues breaker combo, and I’ve always loved the AC30, it’s one of my favorite sounding amps. There are a lot of great-sounding amps out there. Anyway, one day I get a call that there is a Zinky 1×12 combo in a store nearby. It was a 25-watter and I tried it and loved it, but I knew it wasn’t enough wattage for me.
So I started looking into them and ordered up that 50 watt head. I think the wattage is rated a bit high, it doesn’t really come off to me like a 50 watter. It sounds a little more like a 35 or 40-watter, but I like the tone, I like the tone of it. It sort of gives it a little bit of that Marshall sound but something else different.
And I use it through different bottoms. I think that night I was using it through a 1×12” and a 15” out of an old Univox. I use it through various combinations. I switch around the cabinets depending on the space, but I think he did a great job with the amp. I think he kind of made it bulletproof.
I think he’s very practical in the way he makes an amp. He says “Look, I choose a solid state rectifier because for the traveling musician, heating up the amp and really using the amp night after night, the solid state rectifier holds up more. There are less problems, and you don’t get that sag.” I agree with that.
I mean I use old Traynor bass amps from the ’60s and ’70s, and they always put solid state rectifiers in there. And for me, I like to play dirty so to have the solid state rectifier in there, it kinda tightens it up so you don’t lose a lot by playing the amp dirty. Basically, I like to get an amp set where I don’t have to use an overdrive, where it has it’s own overdrive and I can just use the volume on my guitar. With the Zinky amp I can do that. It gives me enough room where if I bring the volume down, it’ll clean it up a bit, and when I crank the volume on the guitar it’ll give me enough overdrive.
I’ll tell you this 50 watt Blue Velvet, it took over 2 years of constant using, I mean I was basically using that for almost every gig and we do over 200 gigs a year with the jams and our regular shows. Finally a power tube went on that thing. I never even had to replace a preamp tube on it. None of them have become microphonic and everything’s working on it. The reverb works on it, and the amp is working. He definitely made a damn good amp.
Todd Wolfe (12 years ago)
Thanks Matt and thanks Guitar International!