Author Archives: Ward Meeker

Noted guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and his wife, Vanessa, are set to open the doors to their Psylodelic Gallery, at the Fur Peace Ranch Center for Art & Culture, in Meigs County, Ohio. The gallery’s first event will be the Psylodelic Sit-In, June 29, which will give area artists a chance to display work inspired by [...]

Levy’s new hemp and denim guitar straps are printed with colorful ’70s-stripe designs and finished with suede-leather backing.

Braxton Schuffert, the other guitarist with Hank Williams in the original lineup of the Driftin’ Cowboys in the late 1930s, has died at the age of 97. Schuffert was a musical mentor to Williams, and continued to perform until shortly before his death. His unique Gibson HG-24 guitar (with an internal rim and four f-holes [...]

Joe Satriani has slated U.S. tour dates in support of his latest album, Unstoppable Momentum. The tour will launch August 29 in San Diego before hitting Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Texas, New York, Boston, and Pennsylvania before winding up October 26 in Oakland.  Joining Satriani on the road are Mike Keneally on keyboards, along with [...]

Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member, and Kennedy Center Honoree George Glenn Jones died today at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He was hospitalized April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure. Born September 12, 1931, Jones is regarded among the most important and influential singers in American popular music history. [...]

Bob Brozman, a renowned guitarist who focused on the resonator and other instruments used to make Hawaiian, Indian, African, Japanese/Okinawan, Caribbean, and American roots blues, was found dead at his home in Santa Cruz, California, the evening of April 23. He was 59 years old. Brozman was born in New York. As a child, he [...]

Organizers of the Texas Thunder Music Festival have announced they will donate 100 percent of net proceeds from this year’s event to benefit schools and first-responder personnel in the town of West, Texas, site of an April 17 explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed 15 people (including five firefighters) and injured approximately 200 others. The event, [...]

Fargen Amplification’s Imagine series amplifier is the third model in its line of amps that pays homage to John Lennon. Hand-made in California, the amps’ circuit adds a Decade Switch to augments the previous versions’ ’60s and ’70s settings with a third for ’50 tones. It uses proprietary WGS Alnico JL-15 speaker, white components and [...]

The T-Rex Effects Alberta II Dual Overdrive lets the user set two drive tones while staying true to the sound, practicality, and size of the original. Channel 2 has a slightly more-open, punchy sound, for a little more pick-attack and push, but with the same voice as Channel 1. An added Fat switch for each [...]