Category: Newswire

Fresh off the release of his "career defining" (AMG) new album, <em>Tribal</em>, and his nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dr. John has confirmed a string of fall tour dates. Highlights include a Nov 13 performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland–a tribute honoring Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew–and a Dec 3 show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a New Orleans themed installment of the acclaimed "Red Hot" series. See belownitetripper.com for full dates.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd will live many a guitarist’s dream next Wednesday, November 10, when he appears on NBC’s "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." Playing live on TV may be nothing new for KWS, but this time will be special because he gets to play the famed Jimi Hendrix "Woodstock Strat."

Hendrix played the Strat at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, including on his famous rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Hendrix purchased the guitar in ’68 and played it at many concerts including the Newport Pop Festival and his final concert at the Isle of Fehmarn in September, 1970. The guitar was acquired by Experience Music Project (EMP) in 1992 and has been in the Seattle-based museum’s permanent collection since that time. EMP has consented to bring the guitar to New York, accompanied by two curators, in support of Experience Hendrix’s continuing efforts to bring the music of Jimi Hendrix to successive generations.

After the Fallon taping wraps, the Strat will be transported to the Beacon Theater, where Shepherd will play it as part of the Experience Hendrix Tour. The events will mark the first time in more more than 40 years that the guitar is played in front of a live audience.

"We are delighted that this tangible piece of my brother’s history will be front and center for audiences to enjoy on this occasion," said Janie Hendrix, CEO of Experience Hendrix. "Thanks to Paul Allen and EMP for their kind cooperation in helping realize this vision."

Shepherd was inspired by Hendrix and, over the course of his career has closed every performance with Jimi Hendrix’s "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)." His recently released <em>LIVE! In Chicago</em> debuted at #1 on <em>Billboard</em>’s Top Blues Album chart – his fifth straight number one album, equalling Eric Clapton’s total.

The current edition of the Experience Hendrix Tour features Steve Vai, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, Eric Johnson, Ernie Isley, Living Colour, Mato Nanji of Indigenous, Chris Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and The Slide Brothers (a/k/a Chuck and Darick Campbell of Sacred Steel) and Shepherd.

Guild Guitars’ new Standard Series includes six acoustic models, all with a with Sitka spruce top (with Red Spruce braces), satin-lacquer finished neck, slimmer neck profile, bone nut, saddle, and bridge pins, and a dual-action truss rod for easy adjustments.

The D-40 Standard and D-50 Standard are classic dreadnoughts with mahogany and rosewood back and sides, respectively. The F-30 Standard and F-30R Standard Orchestra have a smaller body size, 13/4" bone nut and full scale, making them ideal for everything from tuned-down fingerstyle pieces to folk-style strumming. The F-50 Standard has an arched/laminated maple back, while the 12-string F-212XL Standard has mahogany back and sides. Learn more at guildguitars.com.

Paul McCartney &amp; Wings’ Grammy-winning <em>Band on the Run</em> has been reissued in in 96-kHz/24-bit audio. The download includes nine bonus tracks, with a total of 35 minutes of music not found on the original album.

The remastered album is free of dynamic-range compression and peak limiting, and sounds dramatically cleaner and more transparent than any previous version. The instruments and vocals take on a remarkable three-dimensional, full-bodied presence, with more pronounced soundstage depth. You will also hear greater low-level detail, so it sounds like you are hearing the band in the studio. McCartney’s bass emerges with newfound rhythmic drive and clarity.

Some of the nine bonus tracks were sourced from "One Hand Clapping," a British television special with studio performances by McCartney &amp; Wings filmed at Abbey Road in 1974. Highlights include a stripped-down take of "Jet," "Country Dreamer," and "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" with an extended piano intro. The bonus tracks are all presented in 96-kHz/24-bit sound.

McCartney supervised all aspects of the reissue. The work was done at Abbey Road studios using the same team that remastered the complete Beatles’ catalog in 2009.

For more, visit concordmusicgroup.com.

The Steve Miller Band performed to a sold-out audience at the Fender Center on September 17, raising more than $500,000 for the "Campaign 800" campaign benefiting the Kids Rock Free music education program.

As part of the event, Miller performed his hit "Jungle Love" with several Kids Rock Free students. With ongoing budget cuts in arts programs leaving many schools across the country without music programs, the Kids Rock Free non-profit music education program aims to alleviate the void created by diminishing music education resources in schools.

Individuals and organizations interested in learning more on how they can participate and build a community program of their own are encouraged to visit kidsrockfree.com.

John Mellencamp’s No Better Than This Tour launched this weekend with two consecutive performance dates at Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, Indiana near the artist’s home base. The shows was preceded by a showing of It’s About You, a film by Kurt and Ian Markus that chronicles Mellencamp’s 2008 tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and the recording sessions in Savannah, Memphis and San Antonio that are the source of the critically lauded No Better Than This album, produced by T Bone Burnett. Since the tour launched this past Friday, several additional dates (second shows in San Francisco, Edmonton and Regina on the heels of the addition of second shows in Toronto and New York) have been added to the No Better Than This Tour itinerary. Scroll down complete listing of dates as of this writing.

Using various configurations ranging from solo acoustic to full-tilt electric band, Mellencamp and company tackled 26 songs over the course of two hours and fifteen minutes. Some of John’s best known songs have been "re-imagined" this time around and the show includes a significant number of songs from the current album as well as some older pieces of John’s repertoire, not heard performed in concert for some time. Something else to note: John plays guitar much more than on previous tours, a situation he made light of in a comment to the first night audience along the lines of "I’ve never played guitar in a show as much as this," joking that he’s long suspected the sound crew of lowering the volume on his guitar in the past.

Simple Amps’ new Student SE model produces 10 watts output with an EL34 or 6L6. A Bias knob allows the user to adjust the power section, and the amp can be switched to run in triode mode, cutting output power in half. It ships with a 12AX7 preamp tube and EL34 output tube, but can also use EL34, KT77, 6L6, 6V6, 5881, KT66 tubes in the power section and 12AX7, 12AY7, 12AT7, 7025, and others in the preamp. It’s available as a head and 1×10" combo. Learn more at simpleamps.com.

Fender will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of two of its most iconic instruments during the 2011 Winter NAMM Show in January by launching two instruments, the 60th Anniversary Telecaster and Precision Bass

Officially named the Telecaster in February 1951, the world’s first successful solidbody electric guitar turns 60. It revolutionized guitar playing, changed the sound of music and became a signature instrument for guitarists worldwide. The 60th Anniversary Telecaster packs more than half a century of classic sound and design into one collectible U.S.-made instrument.

When it was introduced in 1951, the Precision Bass guitar liberated musicians from the confines of the upright bass, quickly becoming the preferred standard. The Precision Bass has been booming ever since.

For more, go to fender.com.

Gibson today introduced its new Firebird X guitar at a press event hosted by chairman/CEO Henry Juszkiewicz at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe.

The guitar has an ash body, maple neck, Brazilian marblewood fretboard, and uses Gibson’s Robohead tuners, new FBX pickups, and Tune-O-Matic Robot bridge. The guitar uses Guitar Rig 4 and Ableton Live 8 software to interface with Windows or Mac computers.

It will be available on December 11. For more, go to http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Firebird/Gibson-USA/Firebird-X.aspx

Eastwood Guitars announces the opening of Eastwood Guitars U.K. Based in Liverpool, the facility will provide complete warehousing, distribution and set up of all Eastwood and Airline guitars for the UK market.

"The new UK based operation and website makes our products easier and less expensive for our UK fans," said Mike Robinson, President and founder of Eastwood Guitars. "Eliminating expensive North America shipping makes them more affordable and gets the guitars to our customers faster, without any unexpected import costs."

The company’s U.K. facility is managed by Carl Cook, whose prior long standing association with Eastwood guarantees that the expert knowledge and enthusiasm that Eastwood Guitars have become renown for is brought to the U.K. shores. This new U.K. operation is part of the overall international expansion plan of Eastwood Guitars and it will also support the many new distributors of Eastwood and Airline products across Europe.

For more, go to eastwoodguitars.co.uk.