Open Blues Jams Give Aspiring Guitarists Chances to Perform

Bring Your Guitar and Be Ready to Play!

Music is made by many instruments working together. To make a band work, you need the rhythm of the drums, the low notes from a bass, the melodic guitar, maybe the blare of horns, or a sprinkling of keyboards, and a singer who can pull it all together.

You can practice your playing all day long, by yourself, and still enjoy the art of making music. But wouldn’t it be great if you could hear your music being played along with the supporting bass lines, or the chords of another guitar?

There are many opportunities for the amateur guitarist to perform. Many establishments offer open jam nights, where you can get up on stage and play a few songs. Your skill level should be at a point where you can comfortably perform with other musicians, and have an understanding of the chord structures and changes. Usually, open jams are based on blues music. Give a listen to some of the well-known blues musicians to get an idea of what you are going to play.

Here is small list of songs that could be played:

• The Thrill is Gone by B. B. King, Texas Floodby Larry Davis and Joseph Wade Scott (or Stevie Ray Vaughan)
• Green Onions by Booker T. & the M.G.s
• Born Under a Bad Sign by Albert King
• One Way Out - Allman Brothers Band
• Someday After Awhile - Freddie King
• Gimme Back My Wig - Hound Dog Taylor
• Champagne and Reefer - Muddy Waters
• Before You Accuse Me - Eric Clapton

A host band will start off the show. Throughout the night, the host will bring up musicians who wish to play. The host wants everyone to play or sing. Bring only your guitar and tuner, as amps are usually provided. If you have to bring an amp, keep it simple. No Marshall stacks here.

Blues jams are for people who want to enjoy performing and making good music. They are not for someone looking to show off by playing solos all night. The music should be entertaining for all, and as a guitarist, you need to work with the rest of the band to make that happen.

If you have no experience playing alongside other musicians and are shy about doing so, practice with backing tracks. There are plenty of them to choose from on the internet. Some are free, some require a small fee. Either way, pick some out, put them on the iPod, and practice away. If you have basic recording equipment, record your progress. I use Audacity, a free audio recording program that does multi tracking. I open up the backing track in Audacity, add a new track for the guitar, plug in and start recording.

This is a great way to practice, and with time, you will get a great song to play for family and friends. And over time, you will gain the confidence needed to take the stage. You may even form your own band and start to perform all the songs you practiced.

It is indeed a gift to be able to play music. It is even better when we can share it with others.

Roy Clark - Country Guitar Legend

When you hear the name Roy Clark, you probably think of the TV show Hee Haw.

However, if you look beyond that show, you will find that Roy can play just about anything with strings.

Roy is a legend in country music, a television personality and natural entertainer. His career has taken him from music to TV.

Roy was born in 1933 in Virginia, and grew up in Staten Island, New York. When he was 14 Roy began learning the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. He won two National Banjo Championships and world banjo/guitar flat-pick championships at age 15. At the young age of 17, he played his first show at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. Of course, the Grand Old Opry is the Carnegie Hall of country music. To perform there at age 17 was quite an achievement.

At the age of 20 in 1955, Roy became a regular on Jimmy Dean’s television show. Unfortunately, Roy was fired from this job, as Dean was very picky about his musicians being on time for the show. Jimmy Dean was famous for the hit song, Big John, and his Jimmy Dean sausages.

After being fired by the future sausage king, Roy headed to Las Vegas where he found work for a western swing bandleader by the name of Hank Penny. He also worked for Wanda Jackson during her rockabilly years.

Sausage king Dean asked Roy to appear with him on the Tonight Show in the early 1960s. This appearance exposed Roy to the TV largest audience in America, as Johnny Carson reigned supreme on late night TV.

By 1963, Roy had signed to Capitol Records, where his song Tips of My Fingersmade the top 10.

Through the Eyes of a Fool made it to #31 on the country charts in 1964 withWhen the Wind Blows in Chicago made it to #37 in 1965.

In 1968, Roy began his acting career on the Beverly Hillbillies, playing a business man named Roy and dressing in drag as Roy’s mother.

In 1969, Roy’s career really took off when he was hired, along with the great Buck Owens, to host a country version of Laugh-In called Hee Haw.

The show became a success, until 1971 when CBS dropped it because the over-the-top country humor did not fit the hip image they wanted. The show was moved into syndication, where it became a staple on our TV on Saturday nights around 6 p.m. As a young budding guitar player, I was always interested in great guitar playing and the guitars used on this show. Roy always made a solo appearance, playing, guitar, violin, banjo and mandolin.

Roy sometimes acted the backwoods country guy, appearing in the corny sketches. If you could look past all that, there was some fantastic music, with Roy a part of it all. The show ended in 1997 but it is still around, on DVDs and in syndication. Hee Hawwas only one part of Roy’s life. The success of the show helped him sell records, with the hits I Never Picked Cotton, Thank God and Greyhound, Come Live With Me, Somewhere Between Love and Tomorrow, Honeymoon Feelin’ and I Had It to Do All Over Again. Roy also guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show numerous times in the 1970s and made appearances on theOdd Couple, (playing the song Malaguena) and the Muppet Show.

By 1983, Roy opened the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson, Missouri. This venue was the first of its kind, as no other music star had their own theater to perform in. Branson became the country music capital of the Midwest in the years since.

In 1987, Clark was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry and in 2009, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Roy lives in Oklahoma with his wife, Barbara, where he still performs, flies his airplanes and rides his motorcycles.

A few of Roy’s awards are:

• Entertainer of the Year, Academy of Country Music
• Comedy Act of the Year, Academy of Country Music
• Picker of the Year, Playboy Magazine's Reader's Poll
• Best Country Guitarist, Guitar Magazine
• Grammy Award for "Alabama Jubilee"
• Earned an Honorary Doctorate Degree from University of Northern Alabama.

For guitar gear, Roy used Gibson and Gretsch guitars, and now endorses Heritage Guitars.

Roy Clark has influenced countless guitarists, and has enjoyed a stellar career that has lasted many decades.

Freddy King - Chicago Blues Guitarist

Freddy King is sometimes described as a bluesman, but he successfully blended many different styles of music and came up with his own distinctive sound. He was one of the first blues guitarists who broke through to a main stream audience. His instrumental hits, such asHideaway, influenced many a young guitar player, among them Eric Clapton. His many songs have been covered by Jeff Beck, Clapton, Peter Green, and ZZ Top.

Freddy King was born in 1934 in Gilmer, Texas. By 1940, he had already learned to play the guitar and by 1949, moved to Chicago.Once he arrived, he went to blues clubs where Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter performed. He often sat in with these bands and made friends with the musicians. His skills were growing, as the guitarists he met often taught him new techniques.

In 1956, he made his first record, signed to the El-Bee label in Chicago. The single, Country Boy/That’s Not What You Think was released. It was not a hit, and Freddy did not record again for at least 4 years.

Freddy signed to the King/Federal label in 1960 and recorded several singles, many of them having vocals on the A side, and an instrumental in the B side. A B side,Hideway, became a success on blues and rock radio reaching #5 on the R&B charts and #29 on the pop charts. He followed up with an instrumental album called Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away.

Freddy continued his success throughout the 1960s, with many releases. He did his first tour of Europe in 1969, and toured with Eric Clapton in 1974. Eric Clapton recorded a cover of Hideaway on the John Mayall Bluesbreakers “Beano” album in 1965. This album is often credited with inventing the sound of rock guitar, the classic combo of a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall Bluesbreaker amplifier.

Freddy used mostly Gibson ES-355 guitars for much of his career. He also used and ES-345, Les Pauls and a Firebird. He did not use a flat pick, using a steel finger pick on his right-hand forefinger and a plastic thumb pick on his thumb. He used Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Quad combo amplifier near the end of his career.

Freddy died of pancreatitis on December 18, 1976 at the age of 42

Gretchen Menn

I just discovered this great guitarist, Gretchen Menn, thanks to the folks at TheGearpage.net.

How many people in the world go from being a commercial pilot career to a career as a guitarist? There are a few who do the opposite - Steve Morse and Bruce Dickenson come to mind.

Gretchen gave up her short career as a pilot to pursue her dream of music. A graduate of Smith College with a degree in music, it says on her web site:

After a year in the jet, with the life of an airline pilot being more than a little incompatible with a career in music, Gretchen relinquished her position with the airlines, knowing that there was a pilot out there somewhere who would appreciate the opportunity. She decided to take a more direct approach to realizing her musical dreams.

And she has.

Her music spans jazz, funk, rock, progressive, and metal. In 2007, she formed Sticks and Stones, with guitarist Mickael Tremel and drummer Sam Adato. She has played in a Led Zeppelin tribute band, Zeperalla, and is currently at work on her first solo release.

Gretchen has been influenced by Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, and Frank Zappa, which shows in her music. I detect a number of Eric Johnson styles in her songs, and her sound is very much like Steve Morse. Not copying him, but adding a new twist to it.

Gretchen is the daughter of renowned music journalist and Guitar Player magazine editor, Don Menn.

3.2 Million Ink Dots

Wow! Incredible amount of pre-planning and patience needed to do this!

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

The Jezabels - Modern Rock from Australia

I love hearing a new band for the first time. I was wandering around YouTube in search of something new. It was with great pleasure that I found The Jezabels. 

The Jezabels began in Byron Bay, Australia, where singer Hayley Mary and keyboardist Heather Shannon worked together before moving to Sydney to study. The pair met up with drummer Nik Kaloper and guitarist Sam Lockwood and formed a band for their university's band competition in 2007.

The band was a hobby at first, but with some success behind them, they began treating The Jezabels more seriously. They started to write their own material and hone their playing skills.  The band's first release was the 2009 EP The Man is Dead, the first releases.  It received good reviews online and the band's profile was built upon when the single Hurt Me from their follow-up release She's So Hard began getting widespread airplay both locally and in the United States.

The Jezabels landed a support slot for duo Tegan & Sara. They tour took the band around the country as they headlined venues to positive reviews. The third EP, Dark Storm, found the band experimenting on both instrumentation and lyrical themes. The EP would top the Australian iTunes charts and also have a lengthy stay in the upper reaches of the ARIA alternative charts.

The band started an extensive tour of North America in 2010, with shows in the US and Canada, and sold out a series of Australian shows as well as appearing on the bill of numerous summer festivals. Early 2011 saw the band venture overseas with more shows added in the US as well as the UK, as well as start on the recording of their debut album, Prisioner.

The Jezabels remind of U2, with a few of their songs having a massive wall of sound, almost tailor made for an arena. Hayley Mary’s vocals are very similar to Tonya Donnelly and Shona Laing. The guitar work of Sam Lockwood is very much in the style of The Edge, but different enough to stand out as unique. The drumming on the song, Deep Wide Ocean, are fantastic. This is my favorite song so far off of the Prisoner CD. It is rare that I like most of the songs off a CD. Prisoner could be an exception as so far, I like every song.  

Duane Allman

40 years ago today Duane passed on.  Thanks for the music, Duane.