Debra Devi Talks About DEVI and The Language of The Blues
Rock musician Debra Devi is a force to be reckoned with and one who is building a solid reputation with her group, DEVI, and it’s highly regarded album, Get Free.
Rock musician Debra Devi is a force to be reckoned with and one who is building a solid reputation with her group, DEVI, and it’s highly regarded album, Get Free.
Peppino D’Agostino has to be one of the most remarkable solo acoustic guitar players on the scene today. He has been working hard to make a name for himself since the 1980’s when he decided to embark on a career as a guitarist, composer and arranger, and moved to San Francisco from his native Italy.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 40 years since the formation of the Scorpions, back when Rudolf and his brother Michael drove their rickety red VW bus from one small pub to another, from one back yard to another in their home state of Lower-Saxony to rock out. Fast forward to 2010 when the band announced to the world that it would be retiring…but not before releasing a new CD, Sting in the Tail and undertake a Farewell World Tour that will take them 3 years and circle the globe….a few times.
Someone has to represent the new guard of young blues guitarists, and since 1995, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been carrying the flag with a reckless abandon. All five of his studio albums have topped the Billboard Blues chart, the most recent being 2011’s How I Go, which was the first to feature Kenny himself on vocals along with his usual vocalist Noah Hunt.
Tom Wheeler’s been coming to NAMM since the early 1970s, he’s been the editor of the best known guitar magazine in the world, has written a series of outstanding books about guitars, including his most recent, The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop, and has built a professional reputation as a highly respected and bonafide guitar historian.
It’s London, May 28, 2007 and I’m with a rock icon, drummer Simon Kirke, the backseat driver of two legendary hard rock bands, Free and Bad Company. People know Simon as “the drummer”, but hand the softly spoken Englishman a guitar and he’ll pull out the stops. He is also an accomplished singer and songwriter equally adept at piano and on guitar. Before he helped found the group Free, he could be heard pounding his U.K made Hayman drum kit with an actor’s son and child prodigy blues guitarist, Paul Kossoff in a group named Black Cat Bones.
Here’s a fond look back with Terry Lickona, producer of “Austin City Limits,” in an interview right after the first ACL Festival came to a close
Saturday, September 28, 2002 and Sunday, September 29, 2002 marked a historic milestone event and a dream come true for PBS’s televised live music showcase, “Austin City Limits,” with the inception and staging of the inaugural Austin City Limits Music Festival. The first ACL Music Festival was a major success and watershed music event. Since the Festival’s first kickoff year in 2002, it has progressed from its beginnings into a landmark annual event. It is recognized and acclaimed by music artists, music fans, and music industry mavens as one of the most anticipated, significant, and influential yearly music festivals.
Some musicians develop a plan while on the road to success, one that involves taking chances and making changes. Amid this strategy there’s a burning desire to perform and the ambition to hone a craft to its perfection with respect to both tone and technique. Instrumental musicians especially, know that they have to possess something diverse, a sound that differentiates them from the rest, one that sustains interest and curiosity. Without a vocalist, the lead instrument must have a voice of its own, one that speaks to the listener with a personality, resplendent with passion and emotion.
In January 2007, Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel was handed a Golden Guitar award for “Best Instrumental Performance” at the Country Music Awards of Australia for “Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag” a track off his latest album, The Mystery, released in 2006.
