Month: July 2010

Sheptone’s new P90H pickups for electric guitar. Each pair is handmade by Jeff Shepherd and designed to allow guitar players with humbucker equipped guitars to achieve the highly sought after tone of the original P90 pickups. The new Sheptone P90H will be a direct replacement for most humbucker models and is available with black covers, black/gold/nickel/chrome open-faced covers and gold or nickel poles.

The standard Sheptone P90H pickup is made of vintage construction using rough-cast, degaussed Alnico 5 magnets and uses scatter wound #42 plain Enamel wire for better harmonics and overtones. A standard set will deliver 8.6k in the bridge pickup and 8.1k in the bridge pickup.To learn more, go to sheptone.com.

A new collection of exclusive, highly personal photographs of music’s most enduring personages <em>People You’d Like To Know</em>, will be released October 1 by Omnibus Press. Beautifully captured in never-before-seen black and white photos, People You’d Like to Know offers an intimate glance into the working lives of legendary artists from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s including Bob Dylan, David Bowie, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Frank Zappa, Blondie, New York Dolls, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Sonny Terry &amp; Brownie McGhee, Taj Mahal and Steve Winwood, among many others.

In celebration of the release of <em>People You’d Like To Know</em>, there will be a book launch event at Morrison Hotel in New York City on October 28, where prints from the book will be on display.

Photographer Herb Wise travelled extensively over three decades, attending dozens of music festivals across the country, where he developed palpable camaraderie among musicians. Wise, who learned his craft from friend David Gahr, the revered photographer of American folk music performers, was president of Oak Publications working on books about folk musicians. In order to aid his regular need for musicians’ photos he began travelling with Gahr, who showed him how to shoot and what to look for in a portrait.

In vivid portraits and powerful performance shots, Wise seized moments with some of the best-known artists in the folk, pop, rock, jazz and blues worlds. He manages to capture distinctly personal images of these artists, many of whom were in the very beginnings of their storied careers-a youthful New York Dolls in rare individual portraits and a warmly casual Jackson Browne strumming a guitar backstage as a guest of Joni Mitchell’s at Mariposa ’72. Wise even took captivating shots of lesser-known regional artists like Ann Arbor’s Shaky Jake Woods, whose eccentric style is encapsulated in a close-up photo of his ring-laden fingers and snapshot-covered guitar.

Wise says, "You’d like many of these people. They are good friends, even to know them through a brief glance along the way." This collection transmits that feeling of camaraderie while letting us share Wise’s brief glances into the early working lives of some great musicians of our time.

ZT Amplifiers will provide amplifier systems for the Solid Sound Festival, August 13-15 in North Adams, Massachusetts. The festival is created, curated and headlined by Wilco and will feature performances by all Wilco member’s side projects (The Nels Cline Singers, Autumn Defense, On Fillmore, Pronto), a solo set by Jeff Tweedy with special guests, a performance by soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples and many more plus live comedy, film, art and interactive exhibits. MASS MoCA, the largest contemporary art museum in America, is located in North Adams, Massachusetts and hosts the three-day event.

"Wilco guitarists Nels Cline and Jeff Tweedy have been fans of the ZT Lunchbox amp since it was first introduced in early 2009. Nels requested a large number of Lunchbox amps and the extension Lunchbox Cabs to construct sound systems for this year’s festival," said Michael Kirschmann, ZT’s VP Product Management &amp; Artist Relations. "He’s been a big supporter, and we’re very happy to be a part of
this."

Premiering at the Solid Sound Festival will be Wilco guitarist Nels Cline’s Solid Sound Stompbox Station, an interactive guitar pedal exhibit. "The ZT amps will be in the center of as many as five circles of effects pedals (one Lunchbox amp and one extension Lunchbox Cab in each circle) for amplification;
pedals which the participant/concertgoer can manipulate and which basically play each other," explained Nels Cline. Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche will also use Lunchbox amps in his interactive drum head exhibit, with Lunchbox amps to be housed inside various percussion instruments. Learn more at ztamplifiers.com.

December 31, 1999 ushered in a new century and millennium and called for something truly magical – and that night’s Gov’t Mule show at Atlanta’s historic Roxy Theatre delivered it. What made this New Years Eve show so extraordinary? For starters, Little Milton, one of Warren Haynes’ most important influences, joins Gov’t Mule for six songs including "I Can’t Quit You Baby" and "It Hurts Me Too." <em>Mulennium</em> also marks the 10th anniversary of Allen Woody’s death and is the first official release featuring the original Gov’t Mule trio issued since his passing.

<em>Mulennium</em> features Gov’t Mule’s original lineup – Warren Haynes on guitar, Matt Abts on drums and the late Allen Woody on bass and contains many Mule covers played for the first time including The Black Crowes’ "Sometimes Salvation" and King Crimson’s "21st Century Schizoid Man." Blues legend Little Milton and The Black Crowes’ Audley Freed join Mule for a spirited second set that blazes into the wee hours of the new millennium.

"Friends seen and unseen, I find myself, again, trying to conjure up what to say about a show-in this case a memorable, dare I even say magical show. New Year’s shows, as everyone in Muleland knows, are very special to us. The show was never intended to be an official release but we knew it should be recorded and, thanks to our friend Doug Oade, it was. Finally after all this time we have re-mixed it and are happy to share it with you." – Warren Haynes

The collection was remixed and mastered from the original master tapes. <em>Mulennium</em> is out August 3 via Evil Teen.

Tracks are:

Disc 1:
1. Bad Little Doggie
2. Lay Your Burden Down
3. Blind Man In The Dark
4. Life Before Insanity
5. Larger Than Life
6. Towering Fool
7. Countdown Jam
8. 21st Century Schizoid Man
9. We’re Not Gonna Take It
10. Dazed And Confused

Disc 2:
1. When The Blues Comes Knockin’*
2. My Dog And Me
3. Lump On Your Stump *
4. I Can’t Quit You Baby *
5. It Hurts Me Too *
6. Blues Is Alright *
7. Is It My Body? **
8. Power Of Soul **

Disc 3:
1. Helter Skelter **
2. Sometimes Salvation **
3. 30 Days In The Hole ***
4. End Of The Line **
5. Out Of The Rain ****
6. I Shall Be Released *****
7. Simple Man ******
8. Crowd

*with Little Milton
**with Audley Freed
***with Audley Freed &amp; Robert Kearns
****with Audley Freed, Johnny Mosier &amp; Mark Van Allen
*****with Barry Richman, Robert Kearns, Johnny Mosier &amp; Mark Van Allen
****** with Audley Freed &amp; Mark Van Allen

Learn more at mule.net.

Armor Gold Cables is now offering Premium USA Handmade Instrument cables with Right Angle ends in 10 and 20 foot lengths.

These cables offer the same components and design as the company’s award-winning instrument cables, with a polymer outer mesh, G&amp;H Show Saver Plugs, and double-layer heat shrink. We use medium-low capacitance wire for great tone. Yes, different cables do sound different… super-low capacitance (below 30 pf) can sound too trebly and harsh, while higher capacitance (over 40 pf) cables can sound dull and lifeless. We hit the sweet spot at 33 pf for that elusive combination of warmth with clarity. Learn more at armorgoldcables.com.

Alfred Music Publishing is publishing <em>The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acoustic Guitar Hits, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Guitar Hits</em>, and <em>The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Hits for Ukulele</em>.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide series will have music makers strumming and fingerpicking to their favorite songs in no time! Written in full music notation and TAB, these one-of-a-kind arrangements sound just like the album versions and are easy to play. Each song begins with a lesson that teaches style and technique-offering important tips to help you play the song perfectly! In addition, the books begin with a short refresher course on the basics of music theory to bring musicians of any level up to speed.

Using Alfred’s exclusive Tone ‘N’ Tempo software on the included CDs, these fun and educational books provide customized learning by allowing the user to easily loop sections for practice, slow tracks down or speed them up without changing the pitch, switch back and forth between the full-performance and play-along tracks, and even change keys! Three versions of each song are included on the CD: full performance with vocals, full performance without vocals, and full performance without guitar/ukulele for play-along.

<em>The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acoustic Guitar Hits</em> offers 25 simple, authentic arrangements of the hugely popular acoustic hits of our time. Featuring legendary artists such as Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Harry Chapin, Plain White Ts, Green Day, Van Morrison, The Allman Brothers, and Fleetwood Mac, this book will have you strumming and fingerpicking your favorite songs immediately! Titles: Babe I’m Gonna Leave You * Cat’s in the Cradle * Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) * Hey There Delilah * How Can You Mend a Broken Heart * Margaritaville * Moondance * Never Going Back Again* Take It Easy * and many more.

<em>The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Guitar Hits</em> presents 25 of the greatest rock hits ever, featuring rock ‘n’ roll legends such as Creed, Santana, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Nickelback, The Allman Brothers, Cream, and Derek &amp; the Dominos. Through authentic arrangements that are accessible even to beginners, this book will have you playing those world-famous, classic guitar parts in no time! Titles: Bad to the Bone * Boulevard of Broken Dreams * Creep * Hotel California * How You Remind Me * Immigrant Song * Paralyzer * Smooth * Soul Man * Sunshine of Your Love * and many more.

<em>The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Hits for Ukulele</em> is the ultimate guide to learning your favorite rock hits on the ukulele, the instrument craze sweeping the country! Featuring Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo’ole’s famous rendition of "Over the Rainbow," this book includes 25 simple, but authentic arrangements of rock hits by hugely popular artists such as Pink Floyd, Green Day, Radio Head, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Journey, Cream, and more. Titles: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) * Bad to the Bone * Do You Want to Know a Secret * Don’t Stop Belevin’ *Gimme Some Lovin’ * If You Could Read My Mind * Stairway to Heaven * Sunshine of Your Love* Wild Night * and many more.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s <em>All for the Hall</em> fundraiser will return to Los Angeles for a second consecutive year. The event, which will take place on Thursday, September 23, at Club Nokia, will again follow a "guitar pull" format featuring performances by Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson, superstar Taylor Swift, and a very special fourth chair that must remain anonymous.

The evening offers a unique opportunity to see these acclaimed singer-songwriters interact with one another as they take turns swapping songs, stories and personal recollections. The "guitar pull" is a Nashville specialty; it originated in the homes of Nashville songwriters who gathered to try out new compositions for their peers. Nashville’s most storied guitar pulls were hosted by Johnny and June Carter Cash. The hallmarks of a great guitar pull are spontaneity and camaraderie.

The Museum launched <em>All for the Hall</em>, its first-ever non-bricks-and-mortar fundraising campaign, in 2005. The campaign addresses the Museum’s need for long-term financial security and will provide a safety net for the institution and its work. This is the fourth year the Museum has taken its "annual giving" event on the road, hosting previous <em>All for the Hall</em> events in New York in 2007 and 2008 and in Los Angeles in 2009.

"This year especially, the event will provide much needed support as Nashville works to recover from the devastating impact of a once-every-500-years flood," said Director Kyle Young. "While our exhibits and collections are all on upper floors and never in danger, flood waters did reach ‘five feet high and rising’ in our ground-floor Ford Theater."

Last year’s event, also held at Club Nokia, featured performances by Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam and Melissa Etheridge; special guests included Chris Isaak, who also acted as host, Kara DioGuardi and Michael McDonald.

"Our <em>All for the Hall</em> Los Angeles debut gave us an opportunity to focus on West Coast country music history and remind our guests that these artists and executives and their songs are a part of the story we both preserve and teach at the Museum," said Young. "By design, guitar-pull content is unplanned and unrehearsed. It was very exciting to see West Coast country spontaneously become the theme of the 2009 performances, which included musical salutes to Gram Parsons, Buck Owens and Cindy Walker, among others," he said. "We are grateful for our warm welcome last year and look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones in September."

Describing last year’s event, Ann Powers of the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> wrote, "Any visitor to the [Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum] realizes that music also can take the form of a joke, a nursery rhyme, a prayer, a come-on or a campfire tale…Harris, Yoakam, Melissa Etheridge and Vince Gill touched upon all those forms, showing the flexibility of ‘country’ as they did so…" (10/2/09).

Guests at the 2009 event included legendary producer (and former Elvis Presley and Emmylou Harris pianist) Tony Brown; recording artist and songwriter Sarah Buxton; <em>Desperate Housewives</em> actor James Denton; eclectic singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones; renowned western tailor Manuel; actress-writer-director Marianna Palka; actress Mary Kay Place, star of television’s <em>Big Love</em>; and film-theater-television actor Jason Ritter, son of the late actor John Ritter and grandson of Country Music Hall of Fame member Tex Ritter.

For more, visit countrymusichalloffame.org.

Frontier Records, the independent Los Angeles-based record label founded in 1980, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with their 100th release, YES L.A., scheduled for later this year. Owned and operated by Lisa Fancher, Frontier is instrumental in releasing classic punk, alternative country, paisley underground, goth and pop records that are considered classic ‘must-haves’ to critics and serious music collectors alike.

Among the first to tap into the Los Angeles punk scene, Frontier Records’ initial success was releasing the classic Circle Jerks record Group Sex. This was later followed by Orange County’s Adolescents’ debut known as the Blue Album TSOL’s Dance with Me and Christian Death’s Only Theatre of Pain. However, it was the eponymous debut LP from Suicidal Tendencies that spawned the unexpected MTV smash "Institutionalized" that put Frontier on the map. If you caught the Don Johnson vehicle Miami Vice episode featuring Suicidal, you’d know the mainstream finally caught up with the underground.

In light of these early successes in punk rock, it is easy to overlook the fact that Frontier has also released well-known records from bands from a variety of genres: The Long Ryders, Thin White Rope, The Three O’Clock, Young Fresh Fellows, American Music Club and Heatmiser, Elliott Smith’s first band. All of these groups and more released full-length-albums on Frontier Records that were as important to the labels evolution as any punk rock angst the label is best known for.

Perhaps most importantly, a woman starting her own independent record label in an overwhelmingly male dominated music industry in 1980 was key in shattering the notion that ‘chicks can’t rock’. Simply put, women didn’t start their own record labels then, especially in the testosterone-drenched L.A. punk rock scene. For founder Lisa Fancher to have survived as an indie label for thirty solid years on, having seen her fair share of record distributors go belly up and put her label in financial jeopardy, makes its survival almost as impressive as its inception.

"When I founded Frontier Records in 1980, I had no idea what running a record label entailed, I just wanted to turn other people onto the local bands I loved," said Frontier Records founder Lisa Fancher. "It’s pretty cool to have outlasted so many independent – and major – labels thirty years later but what really still makes me want to continue is to continue to release great music that still needs to be heard. Especially now!"

Having begun her music career as a teenage clerk at the Bomp Records store on Magnolia Blvd in North Hollywood- concurrently fan club president for L.A.’s The Dickies and publisher of Biff!Bang!Pow! fanzine- Lisa learned the ropes on how to jumpstart an indie label from the best possible mentors a person could have, Greg and Suzy Shaw at Bomp Records. While her first success came from releasing soon-to-be classic punk titles by new bands, Fancher gradually delved into the world of reissuing out-of-print catalog as well, including Born Innocent from Redd Kross, two legendary slabs of punk vinyl from The Weirdos: Weird World Vol. 1 &amp; 2, Dangerhouse Vols 1 &amp; 2 featuring crucial 45s by X, The Avengers, Weirdos, Black Randy, et al.), the Adolescents’ Complete Demos 1980 – 1996 and The Middle Class’ compilation Out of Vogue.

In late 2010, Frontier will re-release the digitally remastered Christian Death classic Only Theater of Pain with Rozz Williams’ original artwork as well as Dangerhouse’s Yes L.A. compilation and other nuggets soon to be announced. Additionally, Frontier has always been a vinyl-oriented label, which considers the limited edition colored vinyl LP their calling card – so expect more colored wax reissues in the coming months. Visit frontierrecords.com.

Big Lou Guitars’ Wide Nut guitar has an extra wide fretboard with .315" (8mm) string spacing, and a 1 7/8"-wide nut to accommodate bigger hands and fingers. A slotted groove in the pickguard is designed to improve picking accuracy and provide a point of reference for the player’s picking hand. The guitar has a basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, floating vibrato, one humbucking pickup, two single-coil pickups, a five-way selector switch, and foil shielding on all electrical components. Learn more at biglouguitar.com.

Lynch Mob is getting ready to embark on a summer tour in support of their current release "Smoke and Mirrors" on Frontiers Records. The band line-up for this tour consists of George Lynch (shred master), Oni Logan (vox), Michael Devin (bassologist) and Brian Tichy (time-keeper).

After seventeen long years singer Oni Logan and guitar wizard George Lynch found their way back together and again show their amazing abilities in some killer new Hard Rock songs." I would say this new record "Smoke and Mirrors", is the record we should have put out as a follow up to "Wicked Sensation"…better late than never I guess…", says Lynch presenting the new record.

For more, visit www.georgelynch.com.