Month: February 2010

Photos courtesy Vinny Roth.

Vinny Roth’s new record, 2 Stratz are Better Than 1, is a collection of his favorite styles. “It’s kind of a resume of what I do,” he said. “I figured it never hurts when somebody might find it and it say, ‘We’re looking for a road-ready guitar vet.’”

Roth had the good fortune of recording the album at a friend’s studio during down time, which meant it cost him nothing to make. Despite that, he says, “It turned out even better than I expected. You know how it is when you go in and you’re pulling out your hair and wondering if it’s gonna be what you want. This was like, ‘Wow! I hit a home run.’ I’m very proud of it.”

Roth’s eclectic mix of funk, rock, and R&B showcases a player whose interest started when he was born in Queens, New York. “I started with piano, and you’re supposed to hate it, which I did. Then I remember watching an old Elvis movie when he played guitar and walked off with Ann Margaret. I thought ‘Man, that’s rock and roll!’ So I got a guitar and started taking lessons.”

Those lessons lasted from the age of nine until he was 18. By then, his family had moved to Virginia and he went to college to study music. “I got a music degree. Everyone else I know has a computer degree and is making money. But, hey, at least I love my job!”

Despite the college education, Roth says he has actually learned the most from just jamming with other players, and is a big fan of live music in general. “Still, to this day, the people I’m lucky enough to jam with, I learn from. My first real teacher was a hippie guy named Rick, and he always told me to jam, improvise, and listen to the Allman Brothers!” (laughs)

That love of live music translated to many of his favorite players while he was learning, and he still expresses an affinity for Cream-era Clapton and the Hendrix Band of Gypsies material. “I went through phases like the funk thing where I listened a lot to the Meters, who I still listen to. It was weird, when everybody was doing the shred-metal stuff, it just never did anything for me, because a lot of it to me just sounded like Porky Pig reciting the Gettysburg Address, you know? I mean I respect those guys, but I just went into more funky areas. I’d go into the local music store and a guy would be ripping 32nd notes or whatever and I’d just pick up a clean Strat and go ‘chink, chink, chink’ and that said more to me than 15 million notes. I also went a little to the fusion side with the Return to Forever stuff, especially the Bill Connors material.”

These days, the old stuff still gets a lot of play on his stereos, but he also likes New York’s Soulive, who specialize in jazzy funk. Like many other players, he also enjoys what John Mayer is doing. “I think he really does some brilliant stuff on guitar and writing-wise, and it’s really not fair that he can sing that well, too.”

Roth’s main guitars, as the title of the disc says, are Fender Strats. “My main one, which I’ve named Dolly May, is a mid-’80s American Standard. It’s all stock and has the most beautiful clean/out-of-phase sound. It’s what I call a Wednesday guitar – they built it on Wednesday when they weren’t in a Monday mood or in a hurry to get out of the factory on a Friday afternoon. My other one’s a mid-’90s Strat Plus with a Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge and two Fender Texas Specials. I use it for a lot of soloing, just for the humbucker and the thickness of the sound.” Two other guitars make an appearance on the disc – a Gibson ES-335 for slide parts and a Jay Turser Resolectric. “It’s a solidbody resonator with a Firebird pickup. It gives a really nice, warm dobro sound.”

Most of the sounds on the record come out of a Fender Cyber-Twin. “It had some nice presets we doctored a little. I also used a Traynor Yorkville amp that kind of reminds me of my old Fender Twin, but it’s a lot lighter and more reliable. It has Celestion 80 speakers and its clean tone is just beautiful.”

Asked about effects, Roth confesses to being a self-described “dinosaur.” His pedals are an Ibanez TS-808, MXR Distortion 3, a Boss Chorus, a Boss Digital Delay, and a Crybaby wah.

Roth has taught guitar for more than 20 years, and today teaches about 40 students. More and more today, his younger students are being inspired by what he and other members of his generation initially see as an odd source. “I like the Guitar Hero video game a lot because so many kids are getting turned on to some good old guitar music through it. They’ll come in for their lesson and say, ‘Have you heard this tune by a band called Kansas?’ And yes, they do figure out after a while it’s a lot tougher to play a real guitar, but the game has brought the guitar and guitar music to the attention of a lot of kids.”

As he prepares to become more active gigging musician, Roth will scale back his teaching efforts. Thus the CD, which he hopes to release as sort of personal ad for himself. “I’m hoping someone might hear the disc and will want me to play guitar for them,” he said.

In his interview in the October ’06 issue of VG, David Lindley talked about what grabbed his attention prior to rock and roll. “There was cowboy music,” he said. “I loved western music, like Sons Of The Pioneers. Not bluegrass, not hillbilly music; it was Gene Autry, Doye O’Dell, Iron Eyes Cody and Tim McCoy. I loved it. Because all kids, when you’re seven or eight, want to be a cowboy.”

Particularly for the generation that grew up before kids had rock and roll, a music they could finally call their own, it was the singing cowboys in movie theaters and on TV who made the guitar an iconic image. It was the singing cowboys (ironically, eclipsed by the guitar-toting rock stars they helped inspired) who made the guitar cool, an object of desire.

Singing Cowboys, published by Gibbs Smith, is a lavishly illustrated, engrossing look at those bygone stars. And who better to write such a tomb than Douglas B. Green, better known as “Ranger Doug” of the Riders In The Sky, the Grammy-winning group that has been keeping that tradition alive for 30 years and as many albums. Green’s resume also includes a gig as editor of The Journal Of Country Music and a stint with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys.

The 144-page book, which measures 10″x10″, includes a 30-minute CD, featuring nine songs by stars featured in the book and one by a pioneer who isn’t – Patsy Montana, yodeling “I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” Each of its succinct 56 chapters is devoted to a different singer or band, laid out alphabetically for easy glancing.

There are superstars like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, and the Sons Of The Pioneers, alongside lesser-known actors like James Newill, who played a singing mountie. There are also singing cowgirls like Jane Frazee, would-be Latin cowboy Warner Baxter (as the Cisco Kid), and black singing cowboy Herb Jeffries, who along with starring in films like “Bronze Buckaroo” and “Harlem Rides The Range,” toured and recorded as vocalist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

And then there are the guitars! “One of the things I loved about putting together the pictures for this book was drooling over the incredible guitars,” says Green. “So many of the singing cowboys played outstanding, historic, and beautiful guitars – Ray Whitley’s J-200 and Gene Autry’s 12-fret D-45 chief among them. Tex Ritter had several wonderful Martins and, I think, three J-200s; Roy Rogers had a bunch of fine guitars [including the Martin 00-21 that he’s strumming on the cover and the Super 400 he’s pictured with inside]; Gene Autry had a world class collection; and check out Tex Fletcher’s left handed 00-45! Many of the cowboys who came through Chicago – Autry and Rex Allen, particularly, and also Patsy Montana – played Prairie State/Larson/Mauer guitars, often festooned in pearl.”

Speaking of Patsy, why isn’t there a chapter on her?

Photos courtesy Gibbs Smith.

“My criteria,” Green explains, “were that the actors featured had to have either starred in at least one film – been the headline act – or have appeared in so many as musical support as to make them indispensable to the story. So Patsy Montana wasn’t covered because, even though she had a great career in western music, she only appeared in one western. Yet Penny Singleton, never known as a western star, did fully headline one musical western picture, so she made the cut. To include everyone who sang in a western film would have made the book too heavy to hold and gone far beyond the scope of my extensive but, let’s face it, limited knowledge.”

Actually being able to play the guitars they were holding was not a requirement – for the author or the movie studios. “I’m pretty sure the parlor guitars shown were studio props. Several of the singing cowboys were classically or Broadway trained singers and not musicians in the folk sense. Smith Ballew played banjo in big bands and presumably could play a guitar, but I doubt if Fred Scott or Dick Foran could play a chord. They probably mimed whatever prop guitar the studio handed them.”

Ray Whitley, on the other hand, co-designed Gibson’s J-200. Green notes, “Gibson seemed to give superstars like Gene Autry, Jimmy Wakely, and others considerable latitude in customizing existing models, like Autry’s prewar J-200 with unusual binding – I presume to give the impression of a rope. Beautiful guitar!”

You’ll probably finish reading the book in one sitting, but will undoubtedly pick it up again and again to gaze at the pictures. The art direction has a lush feel to it. Green says, “As a guitar player myself, I can tell you that many of the photos were chosen because they gave such beautiful views of some of the rarest and most beautiful guitars in acoustic music history. These guys brought the guitar to mainstream America during the Depression, made it popular and cool, and had the money and the taste to help the builders make some incredible, gorgeous instruments.”

And one singing cowboy that shouldn’t be overlooked: Ranger Doug himself, shown strumming a beautiful late-’40s Stromberg DeLux on the dust cover.

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Photo: Nick Suttle.

It’s no surprise John Scofield’s latest release, Piety Street, takes him down a different path than his contemporaries might follow.

After all, this is a guitarist who has spent most of the last two decades exploring different routes of music, whether straight-ahead jazz, chamber music, organic funky jazz, jam music, or old-fashioned rock and roll.

Piety Street takes on another form of music, but with a twist. “I wanted to make a blues guitar record, really. But, I didn’t want to make just another blues record because it’s been done so much and so well, you know? I was thinking about what kind of material would work on the record, and I’ve always been a fan of old-style gospel music. I thought, ‘Why not take a bunch of that and record it.’”

Scofield had long wanted to record in New Orleans, and spent time there before assembling the band for this record – Jon Cleary (keys), George Porter Jr. (bass), and Ricky Fataar (drums). In another non-traditional step, most songs have vocals from John Boutt. Scofield doesn’t see his exploration of genres as extraordinary.

“I’m not sure if my playing is different on each album, but I find places where my style works in the music,” he said. So, what fuels his drive to try different styles?

“I’ve been lucky. Even when I was primarily a side man, I was playing in different groups. And as long as it’s something you feel like you can be a part of, honestly, it’s good to mix it up because you never have time to get sick of anything.”

On the sessions for Piety Street, Scofield employed the same guitar he has been most associated with for the past two decades. “I play the same old electric guitar I’ve always played – my Ibanez AS-200. I’ve had it since 1982, when it was given to me by the company. I did use a Strat on two of the songs. I bought a Custom Shop Relic, which are made really well. I really like it.”

With the record being made in New Orleans, Scofield’s amp choice was affected by the hurricane season. “I wasn’t going to bring my amps from New York, so I asked Vox to hook me up with a couple of their AC30s, which are what I use on tour. Unfortunately, in September, when we were recording, Hurricane Gustav hit the area, and all shipping was delayed, so they didn’t get there and I had to hustle up some amps. George Porter knew some guys and we ended up with an older AC30 that was pretty good, and a Matchless DC30 with two 12″ speakers. The amps sounded good and I like the guitar sound on the record, so sometimes I guess you just have to compromise.” On tour, Scofield brings his own Voxes, otherwise they’re supplied by the concert promoters.

Talk to any guitar player and they’re likely to lament the fact they didn’t keep the guitars that started them down the path of playing, but Scofield’s story ends happier than most of those tales.

“A few years ago, I was contacted by a guy who had my high-school guitar – a ’66 Tele that I bought new at Manny’s on 48th Street in New York. I sold it in ’68 to buy a Les Paul. The guy I sold it to gave it to another guy in Connecticut, who kept it all those years before moving to Texas. He came to a show I was doing in Austin a few years ago, and I played it. It was in good shape – had the same case and everything. I remembered the dents I put in that case. He asked if I wanted to buy it, but wanted a lot of money. I told him I’d just buy a new Tele, and I did, from Fender’s Custom Shop. Well, last year, the guy got back to me and made another offer. I couldn’t refuse, because it’s got such sentimental value. So I bought my first guitar – I own it again! I had it set up, and it sounds killer!”

Scofield is prepping a tour to support the new disc, but already has another project recorded that takes him down another path. He recorded with Holland’s Metropole Orchestra, conducted by Vince Mendoza. “He wrote a bunch of arrangements of my tunes, and we added two of his. It turned out really cool, so that should be coming out in the next year or so.”

Not surprisingly for a musician who is continually searching for new avenues of music, the guitarists he listens to cover a pretty wide spectrum. “There’s a guy in Australia I like a lot, named James Muller. There’s Peter Bernstein, who’s a real good jazz player; Kurt Rosenwinkel, Lionel Loueke, and Derek Trucks, who’s really brought slide guitar to its pinnacle. Really, there’s a bunch of guys out there.”

And while the jazz giant says he’s not sure where the next project he records might come from, he admits it could very well take him down a path that doesn’t fit the mold. “I guess one thing just informs the other,” he said. “You learn how to play in a different way that you can bring to another style of music.”