music

The nice folks over at Universal Music Group asked me to post this info about the Jeff Beck tour.  I do not work for UMG and have not been compensated in any way.
If, however, Mr. Beck could be convinced to autograph my #1 Strat and shake hands, that would be wonderful.
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Firstly, there is a new [...]

I had the privilege of seeing Jeff Beck last night in the Philly venue called the Electric Factory.  This is the second incarnation of the Electric Factory in Philly, as far as I know.  I have no idea what the original looked like but this one is pretty much a dump.  It’s a warehouse that [...]

I have tickets to see El Becko in two nights.  It’s been a few years since I saw him last in person.  With blessings to the internet, there’s a bit of video to be had.  If you get a chance, pick his Live at Ronnie Scott’s DVD - it will do good things for your [...]

I just got in from a band audition.  I don’t do this often; in fact, this is my third audition in many many years.  I have been playing the guitar for something like thirty years (God I’m old) and auditioning for almost that long.
I was a very good student when I started playing.  This was [...]

I don’t think I caught on to the fact that today was an unqualified disaster til I was most of the way through it.  In spite of the miserable weather (Precipitation Wednesdays), things didn’t look all that horrible.  I should have known, though… things were going along too well.  When I say well, I mean [...]

I know I’m going to get absolutely creamed over this but I suspect I’m a masochist behind my back.  The thing is that I’m not a Springsteen fan.  The way I understand it, this puts me in a relatively small group, along with married couples who don’t want kids and left-handed accordian players.
My lack of [...]

Yes, I went to visit Guitar Center again.
When GC’s first started to show up, there was a strong curiosity plus a strong backlash proclaiming SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORE.
Now that I look around, there are three chains and very few local music stores.  We now have great selection combined with lowest-common-denominator service.  It’s not a [...]

I just learned that a local legend of a music store is closing [Medley Music].
The store has been around way longer than I’ve been visiting music stores (a significant period of time).  I have known one of the sales guys for almost as long as I’ve been playing.  I even hired him to help on [...]

Twice a year we are treated to the Philly Guitar Show.  Today was the fall show.  Unfortunately our usual Bizarre Weather<tm> kicked in to make it more like the Frozen Tundra edition.  Yes, technically winter doesn’t happen for a month but you can’t tell Philly weather anything.
Off we went, at some terrible hour of the [...]

I was listening to Higher Ground today on the way home from work.  One of the many things that overly impresses me about Stevie Wonder is his keyboard stacking abilities.
If you listen to Higher Ground or Superstition, you’re hearing multiple keyboard tracks.  They’re all playing something different.  We hear the amalgam of the tracks but [...]