This Historic Day In Music: Guy Clark

Posted on November 6, 2010 by sixstrstories

In September, 1995, author Joyce Maynard published her new novel, Where Love Goes, with something extra: a CD. The hardcover first edition of the book came with a 19-track mix CD of Maynard’s favorite songs from the albums and artists she’d listened to and been inspired by as she wrote the book.

Seeing as my wife was a big fan of Joyce Maynard, I purchased a copy as a Christmas present for her. In January, I made a cassette tape copy of the CD, editing out the two or three songs that were too “Country” for my wife’s tastes, and that collection got pretty regular airplay around the house and in the car right on through the whole rest of the year.

One song in particular became a favorite of mine: “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis.”

The song was by Guy Clark.

In October, 1997, Acoustic Guitar magazine had a feature article about Guy Clark that included a rave review of his newest CD: Keepers – A Live Recording. Writer John Herndon starts the article by saying: “Guy Clark is one of the very few songwriters for whom the term poet should be reserved.” He ends the article like this: “For Guy Clark, the simple folk song is an art form every bit as moving and significant as any of the great works of Western civilization.”  

Keepers was the very next CD I purchased. It was, and is, an album full of wondrous songs.

On March 28, 2003, my friend, Jim, and I went into Boston for a concert at the Orpheum Theatre. It was billed as “An Evening with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Guy Clark and Joe Ely.” It consisted of over two hours of the four singer/songwriter/guitarists sitting in a row of chairs across the stage, taking turns singing songs and spinning stories. Spellbinding, to say the least. But all throughout the show, Lyle, John and Joe paid their respects to the man who sat at the right hand end of the row: Guy Clark.

One of the songs Guy Clark played that night was called “Stuff That Works” and I was so taken buy it, that the next day I was on the computer, searching out what CD of his it was on. Before too long Dublin Blues (1995) was spinning in my player, amazing my ears and I was adding “Stuff That Works” to my performing repertoire.

Over the following years, my Guy Clark CD collection continued to grow: Cold Dog Soup (1999); The Dark (2002); The Essential Guy Clark (1997); and on up to his latest: Somedays The Song Writes You (2009). From album to album, track to track, Guy’s songs are never less than great and some are absolutely devastating.

In August, 2009, my wife and I saw Guy Clark, with his dear friend, singer/songwriter/guitarist Verlon Thompson, at that summer’s version of the Newport (RI) Folk Festival.

At first on that Sunday afternoon, it seemed that Guy was not having the best of days. He had great difficulty climbing the short staircase up to the stage and as he stood, awaiting his introduction, he appeared to be in pain. At one point during the show, he even ackowledged his discomfort saying that he was dealing with “an old songwriting injury.”

But for nearly an hour he played his guitar and sang his songs. His words and music and stories filled the tent and long, warm, loving applause rolled up to embrace and support him song after gorgeous song. Among his last numbers, he did “Stuff That Works” and “Dublin Blues.” If, then and there, it had been my time to go, I would have died a very happy man.

At the beginning of that set, Guy Clark spoke the best lines I heard from a performer all weekend. He looked across the packed Fort Stage area and said: “We have come here today to sing you some songs we’ve written. Some we know. We don’t use a set list. We just kind of wing this and, ah, we have no agenda, we have no clue, but we have no fear.” 

If you’ve never heard any of the songs of Guy Clark, I recommend the CD Dublin Blues as the best place to start with Cold Dog Soup and Keepers as very close seconds.   

Guy Clark was born today, November 6, in the year 1941 in Monihans, Texas.

Happy Birthday, Guy. Thank you for everything. Take care and all the best.

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This Historic Day In Music: “Guitar Blues”/”Guitar Rag” – Take 1

Posted on November 2, 2010 by sixstrstories

On November 2, 1923, African-American Blues guitarist Sylvester Weaver sat in front of the large horn/”microphone” of the acoustic recording machine in the New York City studios of OKeh Records. He played and recorded two original instrumental guitar pieces that day: “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag.” The resulting 78-rpm record stands as the first recordings of solo acoustic Blues guitar music.

Two weeks earlier, on October 23, 1923, in the same studio and also for OKeh Records, Sylvester Weaver was the guitarist on the session that produced the first record by a Classic Blues singer where the only accompaniment was an acoustic guitar. The singer was Sara Martin and the songs were “Longing For Daddy Blues” and “I’ve Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind.”

The success of these initial recordings led to Sylvester Weaver cutting 25 more sides with Sara Martin, making 24 more solo recordings and recording several duets with guitarist and occassional-singer Walter Beasley. In 1927, Weaver’s recording career ended and he returned to his home town of Louisville, Kentucky.

Sylvester Weaver, born on July 25, 1987, passed away, in Louisville, on April 4, 1960.

That’s pretty much all that is known about Sylvester Weaver.

But it is enough.

When I listen to “Guitar Blues,” all I need to know is: this record is the beginning.

When I listen and the first notes start creeping up through the dense fog of scratches, pops and surface noise from the original 78-rpm record, I find myself turning an ear towards the speaker or closing my eyes, putting my hands over the headphones and leaning forward, straining to catch every glimpse of the music. Listening to this music feels like stepping into the frame of a faded, sepia-toned photograph. Old recordings such as this are the sounds of ghosts.

I’ve seen re-enactments of what it was like making records in the days before electric microphones and long before tape recorders. In these films, there is a Jazz band or small orchestra being recorded and the musicians are positioned in careful proximity to the sound-capturing horn, softest instruments in front, loudest further back, so that the resulting record has a full and balanced sound.

I can thus picture Sylvester Weaver, the lone guitarist, sitting right up close to that horn and playing loud, pulling the notes from his instrument and pushing them up towards and, hopefully, down into the gaping mouth. I imagine that it took several test recordings and “takes,” this being the first time for recording this kind of music, before everyone was satisfied that a releaseable “best” of each piece had been made.

The actual 78-rpm records were made of shellac: thick, brittle, easily broken and record companies reserved the highest quality record-making material for their serious, Classical music releases. It’s a wonder that any copies of “Guitar Blues” or similar music from the 1920’s survived into the digital era.

But thanks to a small, passionate (yes: obsessed) group of record collectors who started back in the 1940s building and sharing collections of these fragile gems, we can still hear this music. They saved these recordings from certain extinction and allowed the music they contained to be preserved for future generations of enlightened listeners.

Like you.

Check it out.

“Guitar Blues” by Sylvester Weaver

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By Request

Posted on October 31, 2010 by sixstrstories

In his comment to my post of last Sunday, Jim G. requested “a little slide guitar.”

So, my friend, and friends: here you go.

“Tool Box” by Eric Sinclair

I’ve been playing slide guitar for quite awhile now. When I started, I would go out, in nice weather, and sit on our small back porch after dinner to practice. As I’ve improved, I find it to be a wonderfully expressive way to breathe life into even the most common melody. I started out with “Amazing Grace” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Then I learned “Sitting On Top Of The World,” based on an arrangement by Folk singer Jim Ringer. “Tool Box” is my first successful original slide guitar instrumental.

For playing slide, I use my high-action, mahogany body, 1970’s Harmony acoustic (my first guitar). It is strung with medium gauge strings, including an even heavier 1st string, and tuned to an open-D tuning. I pick with bare fingers and use either a thick glass or heavy, tapered brass slide worn on my left hand pinky finger.

When my daughter first heard this piece, she asked what it was called. I told her it was called “Tool Box.” When she asked why, I answered: “Because it has a lot of hammer-ons in it.”

Much eye-rolling ensued.

I hope you enjoy it.

Posted in EFS Music | Tagged | 3 Comments

Sunday Morning

Posted on October 24, 2010 by sixstrstories

It’s been some time since I did a post with music. So, seeing as I know of no historic event in music that took place on this day, here is a bit of music for your listening pleasure.

Click on the link below.

“Sunday Morning” by Eric Sinclair

This is a fingerpicked, acoustic guitar instrumental that first came to life on a Sunday morning back around 2002. I originally played it on a 12-string guitar, but my love/hate relationship with that instrument soon had me hearing it and playing it better on the 6-string. If you’ve heard me play live anytime since then, you probably heard this piece. The recording  was done on my home analog equipment in 2007.

So, whether it is Sunday morning while you are reading this and listening to the track or not, I hope you enjoy this musical interlude here on sixstr stories.

Posted in EFS Music | Tagged | 3 Comments

This Historic Day In Music: ????

Posted on October 20, 2010 by sixstrstories

The singer/guitarist who became known as the Queen and/or First Lady of Rockabilly was born this day, October 20, 1937, in Maud, Oklahoma.

What is her name?

Posted in This Historic Day In Music | 1 Comment

This Historic Day In Music: Chuck Berry

Posted on October 18, 2010 by sixstrstories

Chuck Berry is Rock & Roll.

The music he created, starting with “Maybellene” in May of 1955, established the ground rules, raised the bar and set the stage for all that was to follow.

He was the first musician to combine the essential elements of Blues and Country music and come up with something that went beyond Rockabilly. As Cub Koda writes in The All Music Guide To Rock: “Of all the early breakthrough Rock & Roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry.”

In his 1987 book, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, Chuck describes his music this way: ” The nature and backbone of my beat is boogie and the muscle of my music is melodies that are simple. Call it what you may… it’s still boogie so far as I’m connected with it.”

Another reason that Chuck Berry is seen as one of the founding fathers of Rock & Roll is because he is also one of its greatest guitarists.

When asked how he created his landmark guitar style, Chuck told interviewer Neil Strauss in 2010: “I just feel I got my inspiration, education and all from the others that came before me and I added my… I don’t even know if I added anything. I played what they played, and it sounded different, I guess.” (From “American Visionary,” Rolling Stone Magazine, Sept. 2, 2010.)

In a March 1988 Guitar Player Magazine interview, “Chuck Berry: The Story,” Chuck gave  author Tom Wheeler a list of those influential artists who “came before”: Carl Hogan, guitarist with Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five; Blues guitarists T-Bone Walker, Elmore James and Muddy Waters; and the Jazz musicians tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet and guitarist Charlie Christian.

Founding father, stylistic alchemist, iconic guitarist – but wait: there’s more! Chuck Berry is Rock & Roll’s greatest songwrtiter.

In the early years of his career, Chuck Berry was a thirty-something, African-American high school dropout writing for an audience of white teenagers and yet he produced hit record after hit record of what Tom Wheeler called: “classic two-and-a-half-minute novellas of churning hormones and rock fever.”  Wheeler goes on to describe Chuck Berry, the songwriter, as: “a percussionist of sorts who used syllables instead of drumsticks, he fashioned his lyrics into a sly, jivey poetry that percollated with its own gimme-five lingo.”

In the Rolling Stone piece, Neil Strauss tells of Chuck Berry “discussing the hours he spends working on getting each syllable, word and phrase of a song right” and how he “agonizes over the way his lyrics fit together, their ability to stand on their own, as literature seperate from the music.”

Indeed.

To name a few:

“As I was motivatin’ over the hill, I saw Maybellene in a Coupe deVille.” (“Maybellene” 1955)

“Well I’m a write a little letter, go’n mail it to my local DJ. Yeah it’s a jumpin’ little record I want my jockey to play.” (“Roll Over Beethoven” 1956)

“Way down in Lou’sianna, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens.” (“Johnny B. Goode” 1957)

As you read those lines, didn’t you feel the rhythm, find yourself falling directly into the cadence of the words? Now: go back. Read them out loud.

Well?

To paraphrase Albert King: “Did you feel it?”

The influence of the guitar playing, recordings and songwriting of Chuck Berry is immeasurable. Every electric guitar player at some time or another plays a Chuck Berry guitar lick. Every Rock band has at least tried to play a Chuck Berry song. The Rolling Stones included Chuck’s “Carol” on their first album and the Beatles recorded their versions of two Chuck Berry songs: “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Rock And Roll Music.”

Would Bob Dylan have written: “Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine”  (“Subterranean Homesick Blues” 1965) if there had been no “Maybellene”? Would John Lennon have written “Here come old flat top, he come groovin’ up slowly” (“Come Together” 1969) if Chuck had not written “Here come up flat top, he was movin’ up with me”? (“You Can’t Catch Me” 1955)

Cub Koda says: “Quite simply, without Chuck Berry, there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad of others.”

Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry, on October 18, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Happy Birthday, Chuck. Thank you for everything.

Posted in This Historic Day In Music | 1 Comment

Highly Recommended

Posted on October 13, 2010 by sixstrstories

I have used this phrase often in my posts, in reference to an artist or a song or a book.

But this is the first time, dear readers, that I have used it in reference to your comments.

My most recent post, On This Day In Music History: John Lennon, elicited some fabulous comments, each containing at least a choice of favorite song/s or album. Some share thoughtful explanations and heartfelt memories about how the music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney influenced their lives, past and present.

Please: scroll down to the end of the John Lennon post and click on “9 comments.” (This is the most I’ve ever gotten on a single post!) They will appear in the order that I received them and I encourage you to take a few minutes and read them all. They are all worth you time.

Many, many thanks to all who have visited this blog in the past months and especially to all of you who have sent a comment.

Most appreciated.

Highly recommended.

P.S.: I’m still waiting/hoping to hear from “tps” – the only person I know who actually saw the Beatles perform live.

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On This Day In Music History: John Lennon

Posted on October 9, 2010 by sixstrstories

The room where I teach is high ceilinged, so there is plenty of room for the large, framed picture of the Beatles that hangs on the wall over the blackboard.

The picture is actually a print of a black & white photograph taken by Rowland Scherman. It captures the Beatles on-stage and mid-song (my guess is: “All My Loving”) at the Washington Colliseum in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, February 11, 1964. In the picture, John Lennon stands on the right, playing his black Rickenbacker.

On an adjacent wall, there is a larger, also-framed, full-color poster that features the cover images from all 12 British-release Beatles albums. (This poster was produced in 1987 by Apple Corps, LTD.)

Given these two art works and the fact that I use several Beatles songs in my teaching, my guitar students are pretty quick to get the idea that I like the Beatles. So, inevitably, I am asked what my favorite Beatles’ song is.

For a good number of years, my answer was not a song, but an album (bands put out albums in those days, I point out), and I would name Rubber Soul. But lately, given some careful analysis of my listening habits and my performance repertoire (both solo and with the band, Merseyside, back in the early ’90’s), I’m going with the album A Hard Day’s Night.

This was the first album I bought on CD, the one I most often grab to play in the car or at home when I need guaranteed sing-along tunes. It is the album that contains the most Beatles songs that I’ve learned how to play.

It also contains a high percentage of “John” songs.

As you know, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were a songwriting team and all songs that they published as members of the Beatles bore the authorship line: Lennon & McCartney. But that doesn’t mean that they each paticipated equally in the creation of every song.

Early on, they wrote, as John put it: “nose to nose.” But as their career progressed, they would write individually and bring what they had to the other for comments and contributions. It was this inevitable auditioning of each writer’s songs to the other that made each of them want to have the best possible song or song idea ready when they made their “presentation” to their respective and respected bandmate.

I have a book: Beatlesongs (1989) by William J. Dowlding. The first part of its subtitle tells what it’s about: “Firsthand quotes, little-known facts and details about the production of each song/album, including: where song ideas came from; who contributed how much to each song… and much more.”

The author gives extensive details on each Beatles song and actually rates each song on a percentage system under “authorship,” giving full to partial song writing credit to John and/or Paul. For instance: “Eight Days A Week” is listed as: McCartney (.7) and Lennon (.3). “In My Life” is Lennon (.65) and McCartney (.35).

The album A Hard Day’s Night has 13 songs. Mr. Dowlding gives 10 of them completely (1.00) to John. Only one, “Things We Said Today” is given completely to Paul.

I cannot imagine my life or our world without the music of the Beatles. There would have been no Beatles without John Lennon, or to be fair, without Paul McCartney.

But today is the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon.

He was born John Winston Lennon on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, England. He was the first and only child of Julia Stanley Lennon and Freddy Lennon. He was raised by his mother’s sister, Mimi, who bought him his first guitar when he was 16 years old.

He met Paul McCartney on July 6, 1957. (See my post from July 6, 2010.)

As I’ve done in past posts, I invite you to share your favorite Lennon & McCartney song or Beatles album (or memory or thought). Is you favorite a “John” song? Do you have a favorite song or album from John’s  post-Beatle solo work? All you have to do is click on “Leave a comment” below and send it off.

 John Lennon died on December 8, 1980 in New York City.

Posted in On This Day In Music History | Tagged | 11 Comments

On This Day In Music History: ???

Posted on October 6, 2010 by sixstrstories

Greetings, Readers. It’s quiz time again!

What Rock trio featuring an American singer/guitarist, a British drummer and a British guitarist-turned-bass-guitarist/singer was formed on this day, October 6, in 1966, in London, England?

Click on “leave a comment” below to post your answer.

Have fun!

Bonus question: what was the name of their first album?

Posted in On This Day In Music History | 2 Comments

Better Late Than Not At All

Posted on October 3, 2010 by sixstrstories

As attentive and long-time readers of this blog will know, I’ve been reading a book: Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (2008) by Ted Gioia. I’ve referenced it in several posts, starting with Blues, Women & Guitar back on June 24.

Well, I’m still reading it.

Yes, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that here it is October 3rd, and I have yet to finish this book. Not exactly high praise. But please do believe me when I say that it is an excellent book, very well written, full of fascinating detail and absorbing stories. It’s just not a book like, let’s say, one of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels (and I’ve read them all) that never failed to draw me in on page one and not let me put it down for too long until I’d read every word. Delta Blues is not a detective/mystery book, but it is very easy to keep within reach and dip into when time allows.

So, the other day I read the chapter entitled “Smokestack Lightnin'” about Howlin’ Wolf. I learned that he was born Chester Arthur Burnett on June 10, 1910 in White Station, Mississippi. I learned that he didn’t cut his first recordings until he was 40 years old and he did them for Sam Phillips at his Memphis Recording Service studios in Memphis, TN. I learned about his move to Chicago and his work for Chess Records. I learned much, much more in those 35 pages.

Most of all, I learned that, up till then, I’d really known very little about Howlin’ Wolf.

I had known that he was a legendary and influential Blues singer with a very gravelly voice befitting his name. I had known that he did the song “Spoonful,” covered in the 1960’s by Cream, and I had known he did a fine version of “Sitting On Top Of The World,” the 1930 Mississippi Sheiks song that has been covered by a startlingly wide variety of artists.

That was about it. Even more sadly, beyond those two songs, I didn’t know his music.

I set about to rectify the situation.

I went immediately to my standard reference source for Blues recordings: The All Music Guide to The Blues. In the entry for Howlin’ Wolf on pg.258, Cub Koda writes: “In the history of the Blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin’ Wolf. No one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of their wits.”

In the reviews of 25 Howlin’ Wolf albums, the one called His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) got the nod as the best single-disc collection available. But a visit to Amazon revealed that Chess had updated that 1997 CD in 2007 with: Howlin’ Wolf: The Definitive Collection and all the reviewers there gave this disc 5-stars. This was the one I wanted.

After dinner Saturday night, I headed off to Portsmouth, NH and soon arrived at my favorite music store on the planet: Bullmoose Records. I walked directly to the large, well-stocked Blues section, found the Howlin’ Wolf CDs and… they didn’t have it. I checked again: nope. They had five CDs but not the one I was looking for. Bummer.

I had no choice. I was on a mission. Bullmoose had let me down. Next stop: Best Buy.

And there it was. In their paltry, pathetic Blues section, right there in the front of one of the racks, like it was waiting for me, sat one copy of Howlin’ Wolf: The Definitive Collection.   $12.99 on the credit card later and we were going home. Mission accomplished.

This is an incredible CD. It contains 20 songs starting with “Moanin’ At Midnight” from 1951, ending with “Killing Floor” from 1964 and includes “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Back Door Man,” “Spoonful” and “I Ain’t Superstitious.” (Wasn’t that one on 1968’s Truth, the first album by Jeff Beck? Wasn’t “Back Door Man” covered by the Doors on their first album in 1967?) 

The track listings give writing credits to Chester Burnett for eight songs and to Blues songwriting giant Willie Dixon for ten. Band members include pianist Otis Spann, guitarists Willie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers and Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon on bass and Sam Lay on drums. (Hey – that’s the drummer who played in the band behind Bob Dylan when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 1965.)

(Sidetrack: As I wrote that last sentence the 2010 season of the Boston Red Sox came to an unfortunately early end with an 8-4 victory over the playoff-bound New York Yankees.)

The music is not easy to describe. Yes, there is that voice that Mark Humphrey describes in the CD’s liner notes as: “like shattered glass being dragged over hot asphalt.” Yes, some of these songs are not based on the standard 12-bar Blues progression; they are instead musically built around a single, repeated guitar riff, harmonically going for three minutes on one chord. But track after track, this music sets the mood, lays down a groove, puts feet to tapping and hips to swinging, and when it fades out after those three minute are up, leaves you wanting more.

This is, simply, exceptionally good music. And, returning to Mr. Humphrey, it is the Blues: “as disturbing and joyful and real as any ever recorded.”

So, here I am: a brand new Howlin’ Wolf fan, spreading the news. Check it out. Highly Recommended.

Better late than not at all.

Posted in Random Topics | Tagged | 3 Comments