Author Archives: Eric C. Shoaf

“Analog Mike” Piera was one of the first to recognize the power of the internet to disseminate information and as a tool for commerce. Peira’s background as a software engineer with a degree in computer science made him ideally suited to explore the possibilities of the new medium. His original website, on the earliest version [...]

Rory Gallagher’s mention brings a certain vision: denim jeans and a flannel shirt. An old Strat with very little finish left. High-spirited yet authentic blues and rock. Consummate musicianship. A CD box set also brings a certain vision: packaging the music parts into a greater whole. Both are represented clearly in this new offering. Gallagher, [...]

Chet Atkins has a deserved reputation as a great guitar player and all-around nice guy. So it’s a pleasure to see a book that is part biography and part history of his personal guitars. Atkins was no guitar collector. He owned a number of nice instruments over the years, but they were his tools of [...]

Bill Dixon has done what many of us have done. He bought, traded, and sold guitars. And he has done well. He made a profit that he plowed back into his collection. He built up a nice collection of instruments and had a lot of fun doing it. The one thing Dixon did that most [...]

Experience Hendrix has settled into a regular schedule of new Jimi releases. This latest is taken from a live performance in May, 1970, and shows Hendrix in good form with a now well-indoctrinated Billy Cox on bass, and a newly returned Mitch Mitchell on drums. Previewing several of the in-progress songs slated for a new [...]

Mountain had just one real hit – the two-and-a-half-minute blast of “Mississippi Queen” can still be heard on classic rock radio. And while it has a 12-bar structure, it isn’t a blues song. In fact, a look at the Mountain catalog shows no real blues songs, but rather music that is quite sophisticated – a [...]

Got to hand it to the folks at Experience Hendrix, who keep coming up with good Hendrix music and packaging it in fine releases. This new work, on its Dagger Records subsidiary label, is a typical audience recording that has been tweaked by the master hands of Eddie Kramer. There’s still evidence of its origin, [...]

Martin guitars are revered, collected, and played by performers, singers, songwriters and by legions of avid collectors and enthusiasts. If there has been a hallmark for Martin guitars over the years, it is that the guitars were plainly adorned. No expense was spared on achieving the best sound, but no extra expense was deemed necessary [...]