Month: March 2010

  • Anthony Gomes – Live

    At 38, blues rocker Anthony Gomes makes music like a man in his prime, getting the best from himself while being neither too tired nor jaded to truly enjoy his life’s work. He’s a solid, exciting guitarist whose nakedly visible musical roots form a rock solid foundation. Gomes doesn’t just build upon that foundation, he makes a launching pad of it and boy, does he soar.

    Jimmy Page, the under-sung Rory Gallagher and other British bluesman clearly have fingers in. But so do root sources like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, of course, (“When The Right Woman does You Wrong”) and even “Ball Of Confusion”-era Temptations in “War On War.” Choice dollops of Stevie Wonder and The Doors enhance “Bluebird” thanks to keyboardist Todd Hamrick, and “Right Woman” owes much to Boz Scaggs’ version of the Fenton Robinson classic “Somebody Loan Me A Dime.” But why give that gift horse the fisheye?

    Building on the Experience/Double Trouble model, Hamrick, drummer Denis Palatin – if he isn’t giving you what you want, you’re asking too much – and bassist Biscuit Miller stick to Gomes’ trail like a gang of bloodhounds. Live is so successfully, so delightfully infectious that when Gomes and the new Soul Cowboys burst into a thumping, blistering take on Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” out of “Bluebird” it seems the logical, indisputably right thing to do. In some ways, Gomes and band deliver what some of the big cojone, beer-fueled festival acts of the past, from Grand Funk Railroad to Whitesnake (“Falling”) and even (dare it be said aloud?) Wet Willie, promised – mitigated, of course, by actual talent.

    In service of this criminally enjoyable set Gomes mainly uses three mid-’60s Stratocasters and late-’90s Teles. A couple of custom Gigliotti guitars augment other well-employed pieces. Such choices testify to his love and mastery of classic tone and feel. If a young Gomes took heat for sneaking into dad’s record collection, it was worth any hidin’ he got for it.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s Jun. ’08 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale

    Cale & Clapton

    Photo: David McClister, courtesy Reprise Records.

    Blowin’ Down the Road With Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale by Dan Forte

    It’s fitting that The Road To Escondido, the long-awaited collaboration between Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale – a concept that seems, on the surface, to be so obvious, at least to fans – took decades to materialize

    Cale, in particular, never seems to be in a hurry. Since his debut album, Naturally, in 1971, he has released – at a suitably laid-back pace – 13 studio albums (often recorded at his home; in some cases literally on his back porch) and one live album.

    Clapton, on the other hand, in roughly the same span of time has released 16 studio albums, six live albums (including the Grammy-winning MTV session, Unplugged), and a collaborative effort with B.B. King, Ridin’ With The King. That’s in addition to the stints with the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends that preceded his self-titled solo debut, and the releases by Derek And The Dominos that followed it (one live, the other the classic Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs) – not to mention virtually nonstop touring (something Cale does rarely).

    But despite only appearing onstage together twice (at shows 27 years apart), in a way they’ve been collaborating continuously since early 1970. That’s when, at the suggestion of producer Delaney Bramlett, Clapton covered “After Midnight,” an obscure single Cale had recorded for Liberty Records, and the pair’s lives became forever intertwined. A symbiotic relationship began, albeit long-distance.

    Cale became as big an influence on Clapton’s songs (whether penned by J.J. or Eric himself) and overall sound as the blues masters had been on his guitar playing (which often veers into snaky, Cale-tinged licks). The man who virtually created the blueprint for the Guitar Hero, a huge influence on countless guitarists from unknowns to stars, is also part chameleon, capable of getting inside any number of other guitarists’ styles – including Cale’s.

    And the Top 20 success of both the Eric Clapton album and the single of “After Midnight” provided Cale with enough income to launch a solo career and keep cranking out songs. Clapton subsequently cut “Cocaine” and “I’ll Make Love To You Anytime,” and other Cale tunes (like “Call Me The Breeze,” “Magnolia,” “Cajun Moon,” and his own hit single, “Crazy Mama”) were recorded by artists ranging from Chet Atkins to Deep Purple, from Waylon Jennings to one of Cale’s guitar heroes, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.

    Meanwhile, Clapton continued to assimilate and home in on the J.J. approach, with albums like 461 Ocean Boulevard and Slowhand (with the hit “Lay Down Sally,” penned by Clapton with bandmates Marcy Levy and George Terry) sounding like veritable homages to Cale.

    In 1981, after Clapton released Another Ticket, featuring his original “I Can’t Stand It,” Cale laughed, “Yeah, I don’t get any reward for that – but that’s okay. See, he’s getting to a point where he can write that way. …You finally get to a point where you can write the whole thing in any style you want to do it in. So he finally figured out how to write all that. Which might be bad for me. But it’s not in the song; it’s in the feel. And once you’ve figured that out – well, he’s figured that out, so he doesn’t need to use my words anymore.” (Clapton later covered Cale’s “Travelin’ Light,” on Reptile.)

    Although they’re obviously kindred spirits and, as Clapton says here, share the same philosophy, the two couldn’t have taken more different paths and led more different lives.

    John Cale, who just turned 68, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. By his teens, he and his guitar were playing country gigs before making the transition to early rock and roll. Along with other Tulsa musicians, including Leon Russell and Clapton’s future bassist, the late Carl Radle, Cale moved to Los Angeles in the mid 1960s. When he was booked to play off nights during Johnny Rivers’ long-running stint at the Whiskey A Go-Go, the club owner suggested he change his name to J.J. Cale, because there was already a John Cale, in the Velvet Underground. To this day, friends call him John or Cale, and he sometimes refers to “this J.J. Cale deal” as if it were a different person.

    While Cale struggled as a session guitarist, engineer, and sometimes producer – or all three, as on an album by a nonexistent psychedelic band called the Leathercoated Minds – Eric Clapton was rising to heights no mere “guitar player” had ever scaled. The art-college student from the wrong side of the tracks first made his mark with the Yardbirds. He joined the band at age 18, and by the time he left a year and a half later his playing had reached a level of maturity well beyond his 19 years, soon revolutionizing blues and rock guitar.

    After a month of intense woodshedding, he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, where his massive tone, aggressive phrasing, and unheard of sustain on the instrument earned him a cult following eclipsing his bandleader. During the 15 months he was in the band, “Clapton Is God” graffiti began showing up at overpasses and tube stations.

    Within days of his last gig with Mayall, he played his first gig with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, under the name Cream. Although it boasted fine songwriting and singing, the trio of virtuoso soloists was the band’s main attraction – much like that of a modern jazz combo, perhaps for the first time in rock history.

    By the time Cream played its farewell gig in November of ’68, Eric Clapton had come to epitomize what every guitarslinger aspired to be: arguably the most famous guitarist in the world – at the ripe old age of 23.

    But every accolade seemed to be counterbalanced by tragedy – all of which was played out in the fishbowl of success. Ironically, although he was wary of fame and fortune and the intrusion that comes with being a public figure, he invariably laid himself bare, expressing even the most personal and tragic events in song. His affair and breakup with his friend George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, inspired “Layla.” The song succeeded in winning her back (eventually resulting in his first marriage years later), but not before he became addicted to heroin.

    Guitar-playing friends Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman died young, and he later lost his close friend from The Band, Richard Manuel, and his longtime bassist, Carl Radle. And in August on 1990, after Clapton topped a bill that included fellow blues greats Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble (with Buddy Guy and Jimmie Vaughan sitting in), the helicopter carrying Stevie Ray crashed, killing the guitarist, the chopper pilot, and Eric’s booking agent, bodyguard, and assistant tour manager.

    The following March, his son, Conor, fell from a New York apartment window and died at age four and a half. In his honor, Clapton wrote the Grammy-winning “Tears In Heaven” – its gut-string fingerpicking and soft melody in sharp contrast to the blazing blues of years before.

    Likewise, the pride and joy of The Road to Escondido‘s (Reprise) “Three Little Girls” is a far cry from the desperation of “Layla” – mirroring happier times for the 61-year-old husband and father of three young daughters. And having long since kicked drugs and alcohol, he founded the Crossroads Centre rehab on the Caribbean island of Antigua, in 1998 – largely underwritten by auctioning off guitars from his personal collection, in 1999 and again in 2004, coinciding with the Crossroads Guitar Festival, a two-day event held in Dallas.

    If you want a barometer for Clapton’s enduring popularity, you need look no farther than the two most prized guitars that were auctioned that year. For a battered mongrel Fender Stratocaster (the famous “Blackie”) and E.C.’s red ’64 Gibson ES-335, Guitar Center paid nearly two million dollars – $959,500 for Blackie, $847,500 for the 335 (both since replicated in limited-edition reissues by Guitar Center in conjunction with Gibson and Fender).

    Along the way, Clapton joined Bruce and Baker for a 2005 reunion of Cream at Royal Albert Hall, the site of the magnificent Concert For George, which Eric directed in memory of “the quiet Beatle.”

    While Clapton’s every move was being scrutinized by both music and non-music press, J.J. Cale was opting for a comfortable life as a songwriter, even though he viewed himself as John Cale, guitar player. For years he referred to his albums as song demos, in which he experimented with various studio tricks and gadgets and tried his best to bury his vocals in often purposely murky mixes.

    But all the while he was carving out a niche as a singer and songwriter as distinctive as his guitar playing – and as influential, infiltrating not just Clapton but Dire Straits and others. The laid-back mix of blues, country, jazz, and rock that came to be known as “the Tulsa sound” was largely forged by Cale. And Clapton filled his band with Tulsa boys, getting a steady diet of “Cale stories” years before he met the man – or, as he points out here, even saw a picture of him (oddly similar to Clapton’s biggest hero, Robert Johnson).

    And the self-described “senior citizen” suddenly seemed more active than ever – releasing a live CD in 2001, playing the Crossroads Fest (with a certain Englishman on second guitar), and making his best album since Naturally and even submitting to on-camera interviews for an on-the-road DVD (both titled To Tulsa And Back).

    In one of the interview segments in the DVD, Clapton talks about asking Cale to produce his next CD, wanting to capture that Cale sound and vibe. That project evolved into a duo album, co-produced by the pair.

    With Cale writing 11 of the CD’s 14 cuts, and Cale’s Oklahoma “cronies” acting as the initial studio band, it’s not surprising that The Road To Escondido (on Reprise) sounds a lot more like a Cale record than a Clapton album – or more like the albums Clapton was making 25 to 30 years ago. Cale details, “Two of the songs were outtakes that didn’t make it onto earlier albums. I took the songs and rearranged them – said, ‘I think I’ll slow this one down,’ or, ‘Maybe I’ll use the words and the chord changes.’ ‘Who Am I Telling You’ was a boogie, and I turned it into a ballad. Seven songs I wrote for this CD, and ‘Don’t Cry Sister’ and ‘Any Way The Wind Blows’ I already did on older albums, but Eric wanted to do them. I sent him about nine of my songs and ten by other writers, and he didn’t record anything but my songs.”

    The album eases into a mid-tempo groove on the opening “Danger,” showcasing the late Billy Preston on organ. “Billy played organ on almost all the cuts,” John says, “and Walt Richmond played acoustic piano on almost everything.” Clapton takes the first and third solos, with Cale in between. Even though Cale has influenced Clapton greatly, it’s still easy to spot who’s playing guitar – their styles are plenty distinctive. (On “Any Way The Wind Blows,” it’s the reverse – with Cale’s two turns bookending Clapton, before both go at it as the song fades.)

    Cale employed three drummers – Jimmy Karstein, James Cruce, and David Teegarden – but, as he points out, “only one drummer would be playing a kit; the other two would be on percussion.”

    Another Tulsa vet, Gary Gilmore, played bass, but, John explains, “He works as a semi driver, and he could only get two weeks off, so he had to leave to go back to his regular job. So Willie Weeks came in and played bass for one day, and Steve Jordan played drums just that one day, too. They’re both in Eric’s band, and Nathan East, who used to be in his band, was there one day, too. Later, Pino Paladino and (drummer) Abraham Laboriel, Jr., were overdubbed.”

    “Missing Person” features a distorted solo by Eric, a slide solo by Derek Trucks, and some harmonized riffs by Cale. Trucks also supplied slide on “It’s Easy,” “When The War Is Over,” and “Who Am I Telling You?” For the bluegrassy speedster “Dead End Road,” there was only one man for the job: Clapton’s second guitarist in the ’80s, Albert Lee.

    The only non-original is Brownie McGhee’s “Sporting Life Blues,” which features Taj Mahal on harmonica and Clapton playing an old guitar but a new acquisition – a 1929 Gibson L-5 that Cale gifted him during the sessions.

    Acoustic rhythm was provided by Mrs. Cale, better known as Christine Lakeland, with Doyle Bramhall contributing rhythms and counter-melodies throughout, and John Mayer trading solos with Clapton on “Hard To Thrill,” which they co-wrote.

    “Don’t Cry Sister” has all of Cale’s trademark licks, including harmonized, overdubbed, multiple guitar lines – all supplied by Clapton, who uncannily dupes every nuance from J.J.’s original version of the song, on the 5 album. Conversely, Cale, who mixed the CD, added some effects to Clapton’s already-wah’ed licks on “Ride The River.”

    Before leaving for Japan, Clapton used his short break from the road to sit down for two days’ worth of interviews, and managed to get Cale to join him. Most of the time was devoted to TV and mainstream press, but the two guitarists generously set aside time for Vintage Guitar. They seemed relieved to not have to answer, “What’s the real meaning of the song ‘Cocaine’?” one more time, and talk music instead.

    An interview with either is a rare opportunity; having both legends in the same room together was a once-in-a-lifetime master class.

    Vintage Guitar: Why did it take so long for this to happen?
    Cale: Eric came up with this idea, and it was time to do it. I think any other time before now, you know… making music is a creative process.

    Clapton: It was so simple, it’s amazing.

    Cale: It never dawned on me. People think that Eric and I are old cronies from way back, which we haven’t been. We’re kind of musical brothers – a long-distance kind of a thing. I don’t know how that would have happened any sooner; I guess I could have. It’s almost like asking, “Why weren’t you born in 1920? Why were you born in 1938?” I didn’t have anything to do with it. Eric came up with this idea, and I thought about it. I thought we’d probably play some gigs together.

    Clapton: I wish we had sooner – for sure. I would hear those albums, in the ’70s and ’80s, and think, “Why didn’t he ask me to play on that?” [laughs] All these people he’s got. I’d think, “Maybe I’m too famous.” Because all the people who would be on John’s albums have been great players, but who are these people? Bill Boatman. Who’s Bill Boatman? All these great names; you’re just amazed.

    And I certainly had to grow up, and I had lots of other fish to fry, too. But I would look at those records, and I would have loved to have played on “Magnolia” and those songs. So I just had to bide my time.

    Do you think that because you just sort of organically let it happen when it was time, the age you guys are and this stage of your life, it made it a better record because of that?
    Cale: I don’t think it made it any better… it’s what we did. Like I said, it just happened. We’re old enough to know as things happen in life, they just happen.

    Clapton: I think it happened also because I didn’t want it not to. I mean, he might have asked me – who knows? But I asked him because I don’t want either one of us to drop off the planet without having this happen.

    You might not have tomorrow…
    Clapton: Yeah.

    Cale: Billy Preston was on this. I did an interview today, and the guy knew I mixed the album, so he said, “The song ‘Danger,’ did you mix Billy Preston up because he died?” I said, “No, I spent several months mixing that, and I mixed that song before he died.”

    Clapton: He thought it was like in tribute to him?

    Cale: When I played it for Eric the first time, he said, “Oh, I didn’t realize Billy played so well on that one.”

    Clapton: Yeah! It became actually the tone of the track.

    Cale: So I mixed him up when I heard what he was playing. But he asked me did I mix the damn thing up because Billy had died. I went, “No, man.”

    Clapton: Silly thing to say. He’s lucky you didn’t bite his head off.

    When you got up and played the whole set with John at Crossroads, that was the second time you’d ever played together live. When was the previous time?
    Clapton: Way back – in the ’70s, when we first met, and John came to play in London. I went to see him, and I can’t remember… I was with someone. Would I have been with Carl Dean (Radle)?

    Cale: You might have been, because we came over to the studio after the gig.

    Clapton: Olympic. Around Slowhand (recorded in May ’77). And Carl was in that band I had then, with Jamie (Oldaker).

    Cale: He was way in the background; I didn’t even know he was back there. People told me, “Eric Clapton’s sitting in with you back there.” During his shy period.

    Clapton: I thought it was the mode – that we had to work around him.

    Cale: Eric was sitting back there, and some of the English people were mad at him because he didn’t stand up.

    Clapton: That was the first time we met, and then a couple of times after that. Not many times.

    The nice thing about the Crossroads set was that you just became part of the band. It wasn’t, “And now for the encore…”
    Cale: Yeah, he’s great at that.

    Clapton: Just try to get on the merry-go-round and figure out what they’re doing. What else could you do? I don’t remember how we decided it. Did we talk about that and then do it?

    Cale: It was just, “Come on out and play.” I said, “I’m probably gonna do ‘After Midnight’ and ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Call Me The Breeze,’ and I don’t know what key I’m gonna do them in. Just follow it.” In the DVD thing (To Tulsa And Back), he said the song was half over before he figured out I was doing “After Midnight.” I change it up every night. I’m sure you do that, too.

    Clapton: With my outfit, I keep everything pretty much the same except what you play in the solos.

    Cale: I don’t. I change it. Sometimes I do it slow, sometimes fast. I’ve done “After Midnight” as a waltz before. I just get bored of listening to the same old thing. But I didn’t call out the key or nothing; I just started playing. I used to have the drummer count things off, but I had just gone out solo, so, even after I added some band guys, I just kept doing the solo deal, and they would join in. When I start off, it can be any song.

    On that DVD, you’re talking about Cale, and you say, “If you played his music for a black person, they’d identify with it.” But the same thing could be said for your music.
    Clapton: Yeah, hopefully. I don’t remember saying that, but I’m sure I did. I guess the point of it was that his thing seems to come from so many different influences. And I thank God that I got to know these guys, because I would hear stories about John – especially from Carl, because he was deep into all that. I went and stayed with Carl in his place out in Claremore, just outside of Tulsa, and we’d go into Tulsa almost every night and look at what was going on, and I was stunned by the amount of music that took place there, the amount of activity. I kind of got to see how this stuff came about.

    Because there’s a lot of mythology – “Shootout On The Plantation” by Leon Russell and all this stuff. Leon sings about it, and Taj, and Jimmy Markham – all these famous people, who are only famous in this kind of network. People like (drummer) Chuck Blackwell. I find it incredibly appealing. So what I may have been trying to say was that that seemed to be a melting pot. I went to see the Gap Band play there, and it was not like a black club; it was just Tulsa people. It wasn’t about black or white or anything. I hadn’t been exposed to a lot of country where I came from. I got it all then; got a taste for it then.

    Cale: Austin’s kind of that way. There’s a music scene there in and of itself. Tulsa was like that. I thought every place was like that. I thought if you lived in Cleveland, there was a Cleveland sound – and there probably is. It just didn’t resonate into another thing. I mean, look at Memphis; there’s a history there. The Tulsa people didn’t really make it into the big time. Some, like Bob Wills, did. Then Leon, David Gates. Eric’s a leader with a sideman philosophy, so all those people he liked, like Carl Radle, were sidemen.

    Clapton: Yeah.

    Cale: It’s easy to fit in when there’s no leader. That’s kind of what Tulsa is like; there’s not a leader. Somebody’s got to call the tunes, and somebody’s got to warble it out, but there’s no, “I’m the boss, and you’ve got to play it this way.” I think Eric was looking for that, because he’s even that way now – not being the guy way out front. I like being the guy out front, but I want some other people out front, too. Because you can really separate yourself mentally from the sidemen – you’re so out front, and there’s no way you can get around that. Tulsa was the kind of place you could slide in, and, “You want to be the leader? You be the leader tonight, you be the leader tomorrow night.” [Clapton laughs.] That was the Tulsa sound, to me. It was an attitude more than it was in music. There’s good music everywhere.

    On the Tulsa DVD, you talk about playing more economically with Cale than you do in your own band. But then a year after Crossroads was the Cream reunion, where you had a lot on your shoulders – more so than even in your own band. Was that much of a hurdle?
    Clapton: It’s very naked playing in a trio, but, then again, that might be a false assumption. It’s kind of like saying, “Well, there’s got to be something going on all the time.” There’s a level of anxiety in that. But maybe there doesn’t have to be. There are people who can put that kind of thing together and leave air. I just have that anxiety thing, where there’s got to be something going on. If there’s a space, fill it. It’s not right, but I’m compelled to do that.

    But it worked with Cream, then and now.
    Clapton: Well, it does work – and, if I don’t do it, Jack will do it, or Ginger. The first thing we did in England was good, because we worked on it. We spent time and gave it respect, and we spent a month rehearsing the songs and getting ourselves back up to speed. Then when we went to America, we made some arrogant assumptions that we didn’t need to do that again, and I think it suffered. It kind of got back to where it used to be; there was a bit on infighting and stuff. We went for the money, is what happened. We got a big salary for coming to America, and I think that bent everyone out of shape to some extent. That’s my take on it anyway.

    The first time it was like a homecoming. It was a very emotional, genuine experience; it wasn’t for the money, and we all really got a lot out of it. Then someone started waving the dollar bills, and, “Ooh, yeah.” I could have said no, but I knew, for instance, Ginger has been struggling, you know, and he’s always been in trouble with the tax man and different things. He really needed that, so it was great to do it, in the end. He benefited greatly from that. And it was all right. But playing in a trio is hard work. If I were going to do it again, I’d learn how to play in a way that wasn’t so manic. There must be better ways to do the trio thing.

    It’s funny, though, because there are people who base the way they play guitar, or took up guitar, because of that.
    Clapton: I know, I know. Well, a lot of people reckon that Led Zeppelin came out of that. I mean, I was never a fan of Led Zeppelin, but the void that Cream left was like, “Oh, we need a super-group, heavy band.” And apparently they didn’t even know one another. It was a masterminded thing.

    Did you use any guitars out of the ordinary for this CD?
    Clapton: John gave me a guitar. He had some guitars in the garage, and we started going through the cases, and I saw this one…

    Cale: …a 1929 Gibson L-5 with a DeArmond pickup.

    Clapton: And it’s fantastic! I used it on the album, because it had the sound. Just a little bit distorted.

    Cale: He played that on “Sporting Life.” I originally bought it from Norm Harris. I’ve had it a long time, and I don’t ever play it. Eric came to my house without a guitar, and it was all funky. I said, “I’ve never cleaned it.”

    Clapton: I started playing it, and I thought, “That’s funny; the paint’s coming off.” And it was dirt [laughs]!

    Cale: There was some grease on it. It was not me. When I bought it, it was like that. It was in the original case, and when you open it, here’s this smell. Only something from the ’20s has that smell. And you let it sit out for 10 days and put it back in there – when you open it up again, it still has that. You could smell the guitar.

    Clapton: That came home with me. He let me have that.

    Cale: He played a Stratocaster on a lot of the CD, his signature model Martin on a couple of things, like “Three Little Girls.” And I don’t know if we used it or not, but you played a 335 on one thing.

    Clapton: Most of it, I played Strat and an L-5. (Ed. Note: Eric’s longtime guitar tech, Lee Dickson, reports that he mainly used his Fender Eric Clapton Signature Model Strats. Lee adds, “He also used a blond ’50s L-5 with alnicos. The 335 that was auctioned was a ’64; the one he’s playing at the moment is a dot-neck 1960. It’s one of the best 335s I’ve ever seen or played; it’s incredible.” In the studio, Clapton played through a ’57 reissue Twin with two 12s, “and we hired in a Champ and a Deluxe.” Dickson details: “Onstage, during this tour, he’s using the ’57 Twins, a Leslie, and he stopped using the Cry-Baby wah after the beginning of the tour.” Cale played a white Danelectro Convertible through a Fender Blues Junior as his main rig, and, he explains, “All the overdubs I did were mainly with my Casio Strat copy. The Dan-o has been modified; it has a piezo in it, and I play it in stereo – but for the record I just played it mono.”)

    After auctioning all those guitars, are you down to the bare essentials?
    Clapton: In the auction there was an L-5, and I’ve got L-5s. I often have two of each. So I’ve still got some nice guitars that I can play. Not as many as I had.

    Cale: One of the best things you’ve ever done in your whole career is that DVD – and the festival itself. I’m talking about guitar players – and there are a lot of them in the world. What you did with that is you got all these wonderful guitar players and put all that together. You’re the only person on the planet who could have pulled that off.

    I was there, and that was probably the best thing he’s ever done. And not only that, he played with everybody.
    Clapton: You can’t make any money from doing events like that; the overheads are phenomenal. But the auction made $5 million, which goes straight into the rehab and sits there and gets drawn out when someone comes in who hasn’t got the money. So it will get used really well. What we’ll probably have to do is another mini auction, but I’m running out. Now I’m going to have to start to sell the stuff that I don’t want to sell.

    But you could still buy more guitars.
    Clapton: Well, I did. Right after that auction, when I sold the red ES-335, I went and bought a sunburst one. It’s a great guitar. I mean, the Fenders are fine, because the brand-new Fenders they make are fine; I love them. But I played this 335 the other night, and it’s so loud. I’d forgotten how loud they were.

    Cale: Christine ordered one of your signature Stratocasters. What it’s got is the tone-tweaker deal.

    Clapton: Fattens it out.

    Cale: Runs up the midrange (25 db).

    You’re an identifiable stylist, but sometimes you’ve been a bit of a chameleon.
    Clapton: Yeah.

    But, even when you are a chameleon, you’re still identifiable as Eric Clapton.
    Clapton: I like to think so, yeah.

    On the other hand, John, you’re more like, say, Lonnie Mack. Obviously, there was a lot of history that people didn’t know about, but the first record you ever made, it was as though your style sprang up full-blown, completely realized, and never really changed.
    Cale: Yeah, I don’t know how to do it any other way. I tried. My critics go, “Well, everything you do sounds the same,” and I think, “Well, I need to invent something different from what I do.” So I tried, and it always sounded like crap. So I just keep doing the same thing.

    But it’s not all the same. You put yourself in different environments, but whatever you do to your guitar sound or style, the approach is still J.J. Cale. And sometimes Eric plays like J.J. Cale.
    Cale: Mainly on the songs I wrote.

    You can spot who’s who on the CD…
    Clapton: I think it’s fairly easy. I think we deliberately played our way. But I think maybe in the early years there was an over-riding mood to most of his records, but later things are really different.

    Cale: Yeah, I don’t think I play like I used to. In fact, I’ve tried, and said, “I wish I could sound like that again.” But I can’t.

    Clapton: For myself, if I can’t play the blues in something, I won’t go there. I’ll give you an example: I was approached to do a song on this Tony Bennett thing (Duets: An American Classic), and I said I’d love to. And they said, “Well, here’s what we suggest.” It was “Fly Me To the Moon” and “Just A Gigolo.” I can’t do t

  • Fender Mustang Bass

    1967 Fender Mustang Bass

    Ca. 1967 Fender Mustang Bass, serial number 219057. VG archive. Instrument courtesy of Rockahaulix.

    Fender’s short-scale Mustang Bass, introduced in 1966, was a transitional instrument in many ways. The company had started developing instruments for the student market in the mid ’50s, when its single-pickup Musicmaster and two-pickup 3/4-size Duo-Sonic models were introduced, both with 221/2″ scales until ’65, when they adopted a 24″ scale (and a “II” designation). An upgrade student model, the two-pickup/24″-scale Mustang came along in ’64 sporting an offset waist and vibrato tailpiece. Following the Mustang’s lead, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were given an offset-waist silhouette around the same time.

    Fender didn’t market a short-scale four-string bass until after it had been sold to CBS in ’65, but the Mustang Bass quickly became popular among students.

    Comfort was the intent behind the Mustang Bass, and its 30″ scale, light weight, offset waist, and body contours teamed made it easy to play whether sitting or standing. Its headstock has a classic Fender four-on-a-side silhouette, its tuning keys have a rounded/egg-shaped profile (later, Schaller cloverleaf-shaped keys), and its bolt-on neck is made of maple with a 19-fret rosewood fretboard with pearloid dot markers. The truss can be adjusted at the body end, though doing so requires removing the neck.

    Another indication that the Mustang Bass was a student/budget instrument is its body silhouette. With its stubby cutaway horns and shallower cutaways, it looked more like a six-string cousin than a downsized Precision or Jazz.

    Like the Precision, the Mustang had a single split-coil pickup. But where the Precision’s pickup housings were rectangular, the Mustang’s were oval-shaped. The configuration of the Volume and Tone controls gave a nod to the Jazz, being on a chrome plate instead of the pickguard. Its strings loaded through the rear of the body, and the large bridge plate had individual (and intonatable) string saddles, as well as foam mutes. A finger rest was initially found on the treble side of the pickguard.

    The Mustang Bass body was first made of alder, but other woods were later used, particularly on natural-finished examples. It was first offered in colors listed simply as Red, White, or Blue; Red and Blue had white pearloid pickguards, while White had tortoiseshell.

    Beginning in ’69, Mustangs were offered in “Competition” versions with new colors and a contrasting racing stripe across the corner of the lower bass bout. By 1970, Fender’s color chart listed custom options as well as Competition Red, Competition Burgundy, and Competition Orange. Curiously, Competition Burgundy looked more like the Lake Placid Blue.

    The ’72 catalog lists finish options including Sunburst, White, Competition Burgundy, Competition Red. By ’73, Fender price lists include only four options – Sunburst, Olympic White, Competition Burgundy, and Competition Red. Some Competition versions had matching headstocks.

    Later years saw the Mustang Bass given poplar or ash bodies dressed in sunburst, natural, walnut, black, and Wine Red. Most were given black pickguards, though sunburst and some white examples had white. In the late ’70s you could get a Mustang finished in Antigua. The model was discontinued in 1981.

    Despite its short scale, the Mustang has a potent sound, and has been used by many notable players. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman used one during the band’s 1969 tour, as documented by the movie Gimme Shelter. The Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth used one, as did Brits Trevor Bolder of David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars, Alan Lancaster of Status Quo, and Denny Laine with Paul McCartney & Wings.

    The Mustang was part of the learning experience for many aspiring bassists who came of age in the 1960s and ’70s. A Leo Fender design, it has a unique place in Fender’s lineup and the company’s overall history.

    Special thanks to Walter Carter and Richard Smith.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s June 2008 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

    1966 Fender Mustang Bass Test

  • Ernie Ball Rosewood Axis Super Sport, Steve Morse SM-Y2D

    Axis

    Ernie Ball/Music Man Rosewood Axis Super Sport.

    There’s something ridiculously sexy about a rosewood neck. No, not a rosewood fretboard – we’re talking a rosewood neck.

    Ernie Ball/Music Man’s Rosewood Axis Super Sport is a distant permutation of the original Eddie Van Halen signature solidbody from the early 1990s. But the Rosewood Axis features an abundance of that glorious wood – a rosewood neck, separate rosewood fingerboard, and a 1?4″ rosewood top on a basswood body. Wow!

    The Rosewood features a 251/2″ neck scale, 22 medium frets, Schaller tuners, one volume, and one tone control, two custom DiMarzio humbuckers, five-way selector, and hardtail or tremolo bridge (it’s also available as a non-trem with MM90 single-coil pickups). The neck’s finish is the kicker – Music Man’s gunstock oil and wax-blend neck finish makes for a very sultry-feeling neck. You immediately know it’s not maple or mahogany. Rosewood has something that’s quite different, but hard to put into words. You just have to try it.

    Like all Music Man guitars, the Rosewood Axis plays fast and lean. The action is amazingly low and the 10″ neck radius is fast, making for a supple fretting surface. The “dive-only” tremolo works very well and the placement of the volume knob provides easy access for swells. The guitar weighs 7.7 pounds, so after a night of heavy jamming, it won’t wreck your neck, either.

    Tonally, the guitar is clearly meant to be a rockin’ machine, and a rocker it is. The dual DiMarzio humbuckers are more than potent enough for any heavy licks you throw at it, but distinct enough for your rhythm work or subtler blues playing. I particularly like the second notch on the five-way pickup selector, which splits the bridge humbucker. It has a warm, nasally sound that brings to mind that vintage Peter Green vibe.

    The only issues one would have with the Rosewood Axis relate to the vintage-style tremolo; either you like “dive-only” trems or you don’t. I don’t care for them, but other players think they increase resonance and create a more direct connection between the bridge and body, which in turn improves tone. (Fortunately, you can get the guitar with a Floyd-Rose trem, if that’s your preference.)

    Finally, while this isn’t a cheap axe, its price isn’t bad either; all-rosewood necks are rare enough and this guitar sells for a price that won’t make you choke, especially in an era when high-end guitars command outrageous prices.

    SM-YD

    Steve Morse SM-Y2D signature model

    Back in the celebrity arena, Music Man and Steve Morse are marking the 20-year anniversary of the Steve Morse signature guitar. The new Steve Morse SM-Y2D signature model is like a lot of Music Man guitars in that it’s a high-performance machine meant for serious technical playing.

    The axe has a poplar body with maple top in flame or quilt, cream binding, clear pickguard, and a solid black finish on back. For pickups it uses two DiMarzio humbuckers (neck and bridge) and a new custom-wound DiMarzio single-coil in the middle position. A five-way lever controls various pickup selection options. The neck has a 12″ radius and 22 high-pro frets, though a slimmer neck profile will be standard issue, re-creating the neck of Morse’s number one stage guitar from ’85. Buyers also have a choice between a hardtail TonePros T3BT-C bridge or a Floyd Rose tremolo. Again, this guitar is all about performance.

    Like the bearer of its signature, this SM-Y2D is a guitar for those interested in excelling at technique. Its neck setup is fast and sleek, ready for any high-speed licks you throw at it. And the volume knob is strategically located for easy swells – another Morse hallmark.

    Sound-wise, the DiMarzio pickups deliver all the rockin’ goods. The interestingly placed single-coil pickup – flush against the bridge ‘bucker – serves up some Fender-like nuances when combined with the humbuckers – a dash of Strat when combined with the neck pickup and a touch of Tele with the bridge. It sounds great through a tube amp and, overall, is a very impressive guitar.

    Of these two guitars, I gravitated to the Rosewood Axis, if only for the seductiveness of its rosewood neck. But true to form, both feature excellent construction, tone, and playability. They both display vintage roots, then add the element of high-octane performance, which you can see in most Ernie Ball/Music Man guitars. They’re for the guitarist who likes a traditional vibe mixed with hi-tech refinements. The best of both worlds, perhaps?


    Rosewood Axis Super Sport
    Price $1,775 to $1,945

    Steve Morse Y2D
    Price $2,095 (standard bridge) and $2,245 (tremolo).

    Contact Ernie Ball/Music Man, 151 Suburban Rosad, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401; phone (800) 543-2255; www.ernieball.com.


    This article originally appeared in VG‘s Sep. ’06 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Glen Campbell – Meet Glen Campbell

    Glen Campbell has been absent from the pop/rock world for a long time. His late-’60s records like “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” and “Gentle on my Mind” showed him to be a singer and guitarist who understood songs and how to get the most out of them.

    Here, producer Julian Raymond gets to the heart of songs that would seem an unlikely match. Works by Tom Petty, the Foo Fighters, U2, Green Day, the Replacements, and others get first-class treatment, some with production values mirroring his late-’60s work. Petty’s “Walls” has a beautiful chorus of acoustic guitars, gorgeous string segment, and a twangy Campbell solo to augment his nice vocal. Same goes for an unlikely cover of “Times Like These” by the Foo Fighters, which gets an unexpectedly perfect reworking. That sort of arrangement also fits “All I Want is You,” the U2 classic that Campbell makes his own.

    Campbell’s vocal lends depth to songs like Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” that was missing in the original. If you’re looking for unlikely tunes that work well, consider Campbell covering Paul Westerberg’s “Sadly Beautiful”? Or Lou Reed’s “Jesus”? Both work wonderfully.

    A tip of the cap for arrangements and production – the sound is gorgeous and Campbell’s vocals really shine, cut dry and mixed right out front.
    It’s nice to hear a guy whose resumé includes classic records by the Beach Boys, Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Elvis, and hundreds more, and who made some of the best pop records of the ’60s sounds so at home.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s Dec. ’08 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Heaven and Hell

    Heaven and Hell

    Heaven and Hell – Vinny Appice, Dio, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi. Photo courtesy Rogers and Cowen.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    In 1979, Black Sabbath was at a crossroads after the departure of original frontman Ozzy Osbourne. Returning with former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio as its frontman, Sabbath took on a groundbreaking new sound and direction. This lineup recorded five albums.

    In recognition of this lineup, on April 3 Rhino Records is releasing Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, an anthology of the music created during this chapter. To further mark the occasion, the members reunited to write and record three new songs – “The Devil Cried,” “Shadow Of The Wind,” and “Ear In The Wall.” Cooler yet, the group will embark on a world tour.

    However, to avoid confusion with the current Sabbath lineup (which includes Osbourne and original drummer Bill Ward), this incarnation with Dio and drummer Vinny Appice is touring under the moniker Heaven and Hell.

    Vintage Guitar had the opportunity to speak with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ronnie James Dio to learn how this reunion emerged and what it’s like to be working together again 14 years later.

    Vintage Guitar: How did the idea to record and tour arise?
    Iommi: Geezer and I were talking during the last Ozzfest, saying how it would be nice to do a tour with Dio. It was just chat, [and] when Ronnie came to play Birmingham, I went to see him. We got on great and that was the seed. When Rhino had the idea of putting this album out, we thought it would be nice to put new tracks on it. Ronnie and I got together and wrote three songs, and it flowed like it always had. Things snowballed, and we thought it would be great to do a tour. We hadn’t played with Vinny in a long time and it was great to see what could happen.
    Dio: For me, it was nice that somebody finally owned up to the fact that I had a large place in their career. It feels good to be acknowledged. Tony and I were able to get back together, songwriting, and that stirred up some remembrances – and perhaps Geezer and Tony missed playing those songs. It was a good chunk of their career and a real successful one with great songs that we all really liked.

    I didn’t jump on it right away, but I thought about it and thought this may be a good time to do it, but as long as we treat it as a project and not as “this is going to be our careers again” because a) that won’t happen and wouldn’t have happened, and b) it’s not what I want to happen because I still have a band that I really believe in, love to play with and like to be the leader of -Dio. I don’t plan to let that go. So this is a nice way to approach it if we don’t think about it as the be-all/end-all of all of our lives.

    How did you go about recording the guitar and bass?
    Iommi: I did my parts in my studio and used all the usual stuff there that I’ve been using for years. Pretty much all of my standard gear.
    Butler: It was done on Pro Tools and I recorded my parts in Tony’s studio. For my parts, I used an Ampeg B-15 combo amp to get a bit of a live sound and Line 6 Bass Pod XT Pro with a Lakland Bob Glaub Signature model bass.

    Are the new songs in the same sort of vein as the music you initially created together?
    Butler: Listening to the old stuff and comparing it to Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, it’s a lot more raw. It’s more straight forward and there are no keyboards on it or anything like that. It’s just straight-ahead heavy rock.

     

    What is most inspiring about collaborating with Ronnie?
    Iommi: He’s got great ideas. As soon as we start and I’m playing something, he’ll say whether he likes it. Then I’ll play another bit and then he’ll say something like “Why don’t we change that ending?” So it works where we can share ideas. That’s the inspiring part of it. Instead of just somebody sitting there looking at you and waiting for you to come up with everything, it’s great because we bounce ideas off each other.
    Butler: He’s got a really great voice. He’s still one of those people who can amaze you with his vocal range and ideas. I’ve worked with quite a few singers now and Ronnie’s just got this incredible ability and vocal range, and he’s really quick coming up with vocal lines, lyrics and ideas. It’s hard to find people like that.

    Do you hope to record or tour with Heaven and Hell in the future?
    Butler: We’re just taking it one thing at a time. It’s just going to be really nice to go out and play the Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules stuff again. I’m looking forward to that.
    Iommi: There’s nothing planned at the moment, but it certainly could happen. It was great to write together again; we exchange ideas quickly and at the end of the day we come out with something that we really like.
    Dio: I think treating this as a project and knowing that it’s going to finish at the end of the year means that not only can we get on with the rest of our lives, but we have to get on with our lives. We all owe albums to our record labels. But after that, there’s always a chance of us getting together.

    What are you looking forward to most on this tour?
    Butler: Getting out and playing stuff I haven’t played for 14 years. And going to places we haven’t been to for ages, like Canada and South America.
    Iommi: Doing a row of shows. On Ozzfest, we’d do one show, then have a day off, then another show, and a day off.
    Dio: Playing live! That’s what I love to do – performing and letting people hear how good you are, and giving them their soul satisfaction’s worth. That’s what I’m most looking forward to. Writing was easy. I thought it was going to be difficult, but it wasn’t. So touring should be 10 times easier because it’s the joy of performing your work.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s May 2007 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

    Heaven and Hell – The Mob Rules

  • 76 Watts the Hard Way

    Amps

    For many electric guitarists, the sound coming out of an amp is just not happening until power-tube saturation enters the tonal spectrum, with the richness and warmth you just don’t get with pedals and preamp overdrive circuits. And there’s only one way to get the big bottles rockin’ – turn up the volume!

    Doing this with a 100-watt stack in a small space like a living room or a home studio can lead to interesting opportunities. The first being the chance to finance the college education of an audiologist’s child. Another is pulling into the driveway and being greeted by one’s neighbors doing their best imitation of the torchlit, pitchfork-wielding welcoming committee at the end of Frankenstein.

    As the word “tinnitus” became common in the vocabulary of rock musicians and the supply of vintage Fender Champs dwindled, a number of well-known boutique amplifier builders saw a need (and opportunity) arise. Their response was to supply some of the greatest-sounding and best-built low-wattage amps ever made.
    With these factors in mind, we thought it might be interesting to give a test listen using a handful of low-watt practice/recording amps built by some of our most familiar builder names. Here, along with a bit of background on each builder, is what we found.

    The Builders

    BAD CAT

    Bad Cat Amps: James Heidrich got into guitar building when he took his daughter to the local chain music store and was shocked at the prices. A do-it-yourself sort of guy, he built his own guitar and then built some more and started selling them. Shortly after, he started buying, selling, and repairing amps. During that period, a Matchless amp entered the shop, and James was impressed with its sound. When Matchless went out of business, James acquired the technical info and vendor list from Rick Perotta, then looked up amp guru Mark Sampson and made a deal to design a circuit. Bad Cat Amps was born.

    CARR Mercury

    Carr Amplification: Steve Carr is an experienced guitarist who always had an interest in gear, along with a degree in aerospace engineering. He started hanging around an audio repair shop and mentioned to the proprietor that he wanted to be an apprentice. The owner told Steve, “Just go out and build an amp.”

    “That’s how I learned how to do it,” Steve says. He then tracked down a schematic for a Fender Champ, and put one together. In 1998, he introduced his first model, the Slant 6V, built two for a dealer in North Carolina, and he hasn’t stopped since.

    EMERYS

    Emery Sound: Curt Emery started playing guitar when he was 13 and went on to get a degree in electrical engineering. He started building low-wattage amps for one reason – all the amps he was playing were way too big! Curt saw building a smaller amp as a simple necessity for his own recording. After repairing amps for years, Curt started building amps for other people in 1997.

    REEVES

    Reeves Amplification: Bill Jansen had a background in consumer hi-fi electronics when he got hooked up with some people in England who supplied him with vintage Marshall amps. In 2002, he started importing amps from England based on Dan Reeves’ classic ’60s HiWatt designs.

    SIMMONS

    Simmons Amp Repair: Skip Simmons joined a band when he was 20 and soon discovered he was the only guy who had any inclination or aptitude for fixing the old tube amps they were using. He started repairing amps and built his first Retropolitan in the early ’90s because, “Someone pestered me for two years to do it.” Spurred by that and his firm belief that a 100-watt amp with a stompbox in a living room just doesn’t sound that good. “Everyone needs a tweed Princeton!” he says.

    TOPHAT

    TopHat Amplification: As a youngster, Brian Gerhard built kit amps by Dyna Kits and got into amp building in 1994 as a sideline. Three years later, he took on a partner, which allowed him to make 100 of what would become the Club series. With a strong aversion for high-gain and modded amps, Brian’s impetus was to continue a classic design. “When things are good, like with a small-block Chevy, there’s no reason for it to go away. These amps have proved their worth every year.”

    TORRES

    Torres Engineering: A working musician in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dan Torres just happened to look at his Mesa Boogie and blackface Fender amps one day in 1981, and suddenly panicked. He realized that if they died, he’d lose his sound because there just weren’t many qualified amp repair people. He picked up some old books on amp design at a used bookstore. “I read them starting at 8 p.m., and by five the next morning, I knew how amps worked.” He started building low-wattage recording amps because of strong demand from area players.

    VICTORIA

    Victoria Amp Company: Mark Baier one day started wondering how a computer worked. He went to the library and got a bunch of books on electronics, starting with works pre-1960. His theory was that if he learned how tubes worked, he’d figure out how transistors worked. He never did figure out how a computer worked and, at the same time, put his guitar playing on hold and his tweed amps in storage. Years later, the need to play re-emerged at a time when very few were making decent tube amps. He then bought a Fender Bassman reissue, “But the difference between that and my original Bassman was night and day.” So he dug out some of his old tweed amps and tried to copy them. “By the time I was done, I could’ve purchased five vintage Bassman amps,” he laughs. He took the amp to a guitar show, and received enough response to justify making more.

    Visuals
    Without a doubt, you’re reading this because you care first and foremost about true tube amp tones, sounds, and “feel.” But amplifiers are also about the aesthetic. Whether your tastes are hardcore vintage or retro funky, today’s boutique amp builders have something guaranteed to tickle thy fancy. Our thoughts on the “look” of our troupe goes like this:

    Bad Cat Mini Cat: “I’m not here to play no retro game!” Thoroughly modern, individualistic, and an imitator of nothing. Controls are on the front and can be read without having worked as a typesetter at a metropolitan newspaper. A variety of coverings make it easy to complement everything from home furnishings to idiosyncratic stage attire.

    Carr Mercury: The round speaker port says “retro” while the control panel, with its myriad of overdrive and wattage selections, shouts “modern choices.” Looks as good as it sounds.

    Emery Sound Superbaby and Microbaby: Frank Lloyd Wright built amplifiers?! Who knew? The artful blending of wood, metal, and (plexi)glass would have pleased the world’s greatest architect – greatly.

    Reeves Custom 6: “I’m a Brit and I’m here to talk to you about that tea party in Boston.” Very purposeful-looking, with English accents to the workmanship. Would fit well in Pete Townsend’s home studio.

    Simmons Retropolitan: Like a ’40s radio equipped to handle the rigors of being sent to the front lines in WWII. Hand-buffed steel plates in front of the speaker say, “I’m the man!” Available in almost any covering, the two amps we tested couldn’t have been more different; the first was tightly wrapped in brand new upholstery that looks like it was intended for 1950s automobiles. The second was sprayed with pickup truck bed liner, ending all complaints about fragility – trying to scratch it with a quarter only resulted in wearing down the grooves on the edge of the coin! The liner material is quite thin in reality, adheres closely to the wood, and seemed to enhance (rather than detract) from the tone.

    Top Hat Portly Cadet: Elegant and sophisticated with its cream tolex and black corner protectors. Would look at home in Donald Trump’s living room.

    Torres Boogie Mite: Sturdy, industrial metal. Heathkit meets Terminator. Also, if you’re allergic to chicken (head knobs), this is the only one here without ’em.

    Torres Champ: Unlacquered tweed. Should look great (meaning decades old) in short order. Compact with clean lines, just like the original.

    Victoria 5112: Beautifully lacquered tweed. ‘Nuff said.

    Victoria Regal: Cream tolex in a big box says “amplifier” the way Rolex says “wristwatch.”

    Sonics
    These amps share a number of characteristics. They are all extraordinarily quiet, a result of top-flight components assembled carefully by people with experience. They also all sound very full and round, even the smallest among them. They are all extremely responsive to touch and guitar volume control adjustments.

    Our test guitars were a Gibson ’57 Goldtop reissue, and an ’89 Fender ’62 Stratocaster reissue with two Van Zandt Blues and a Lindy Fralin bridge pickup built like, and sounding like, a Tele bridge unit. Strings were D’Addario XL .010-.046 sets, cables were George L’s .225 black-covers, and picks were Dunlop Gator Grip .96s. Using either guitar revealed no quirks among any of the amps. The humbuckers characteristically pushed the amps to more overdrive sooner; the single-coils provided a traditionally cleaner sound with more treble and bass. The most notable overall result was that, no matter which guitar was mated with which amp, the combination sounded terrific.

    Bad Cat Mini Cat

    Bad Cat Mini Cat.

    Bad Cat Mini Cat

    Bad Cat Mini Cat
    Size (W x H x D) 14×14.5×6.75
    Weight (lbs.) 15.0
    Power Tube EL84
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 5
    Speaker Size (inches) 10
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 8
    Speaker Manufacturer Jensen
    Cabinet 13-Ply Birch
    Inputs 1
    Line Out Yes
    Headphone Jack Yes
    Price $869
    badcatamps.com (951) 808-8651

    Any range of distortion at any volume. Bass and treble controls, though passive, are quite effective (note that the bass knob needs to be turned counterclockwise for more low-end. 10″ speaker offers increased bass and presence over similarly-sized amps that characteristically have 8″ cones.

    Carr Mercury

    Carr Mercury

    Carr Mercury

    Carr Mercury
    Size (W x H x D) 20.75×17.75×10
    Weight (lbs.) 40.0
    Power Tube EL34
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7(x2), 12AT7
    Output 1/10, 1/2, 2, 8
    Speaker Size (inches) 12
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 8
    Speaker Manufacturer Eminence
    Cabinet Dovetailed Pine
    Inputs 1
    Line Out No
    Headphone Jack No
    Price $1950
    carramps.com (919) 545-0747

    With four power settings and three distortion choices, its versatility is unsurpassed. The two lower power settings offer instant Boogie-like singing tone, while the upper two provide a more edge-based distortion for classic blues and rock. One of the cleaner amps on the 8-watt setting for jazz buffs. If you like Coco Montoya and his lyrical solos, this is the one for you. Gorgeous tones, no matter where the knobs are set.

    Emery Sound Superbaby

    Emery Sound Superbaby

    Emery Sound Superbaby
    Size 13x6x5
    Weight 6.5
    Power Tube Various
    Preamp Tube Various
    Rectifier Tube Various
    Output 6-12
    Inputs 1
    Line Out No
    Headphones No
    Price $699
    emerysound.com (510) 236-5113

    Audio Disneyland. Able to accept an amazing variety of tubes, this one will turn you into a valve connoisseur in short order as you try new bottles and discover that no two tubes sound alike. A tube-lover’s best alternative to a solidstate modeling amp. Want British tone? Drop in an EL84 or EL34. American sound? 6V6 or 6L6. And unlike the modeling amps, this is the real deal: point-to-point and glowing filaments. Unmatched tone and quite affordable compared to buying different amps just to get different power tubes.

    Emery Sound Microbaby

    Emery Sound Microbaby

    Emery Sound Microbaby
    Size 13x6x5
    Weight 5.0
    Power Tube Various
    Preamp Tube Various
    Rectifier Tube Various
    Output 1-2
    Inputs 1
    Line Out No
    Headphones No
    Price $699
    emerysound.com (510) 236-5113

    Lower output than the Superbaby. More sustain at lower volume.

    Reeves Custom 6

    Reeves Custom 6

    Reeves Custom 6

    Reeves Custom 6
    Size (W x H x D) 24×20.75×9
    Weight (lbs.) 41.6
    Power Tube EL84
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 6
    Speaker Size (inches) 12
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 16
    Speaker Manufacturer Eminence
    Cabinet 13-Ply Birch
    Inputs 2
    Line Out Yes
    Headphone Jack Yes
    Price $1350
    reevesamps.com (513) 451-1071

    Unadulterated HiWatt/EL84 sound, because that’s all it’s got. Crisp crunch and Brian May sustain. Big box means big presence, and the 16-ohm speaker sounds simply awesome.

    Simmons Retropolitan

    Simmons Retropolitan

    Simmons Retropolitan

    Simmons Retropolitan
    Size (W x H x D) 15x16x8.5
    Weight (lbs.) 29.6
    Power Tube 6L6
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 7
    Speaker Size (inches) 10
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 8
    Speaker Manufacturer Eminence
    Cabinet Customer Choice
    Inputs 1
    Line Out Yes
    Headphone Jack No
    Price $795
    skipsimmonsamps.com (707) 678-5705

    The best tweed Princeton you’ve ever heard. Skip is the Indiana Jones of the amp-building world, gleaning treasured Black Beauty filter caps from the most unlikely sources. Many of his components don’t sound like the originals – they are the originals. At full distortion, the bottom feeds off itself in seemingly everlasting, euphonious-yet-brutal sustain while the high-end, though distorted, remains articulate. It’s like encountering Sasquatch and finding that not only is he a half-man, half-ape who haunts the woods of the Great Northwest, but that his favorite pastimes are quoting Shakespeare and discussing the play of light and shadow in the drawings of Monet.

    TopHat Portly Cadet

    TopHat Portly Cadet

    TopHat Portly Cadet

    TopHat Portly Cadet
    Size (W x H x D) 15×13.5×7.25
    Weight (lbs.) 19.0
    Power Tube 6V6
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 5
    Speaker Size (inches) 8
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 4
    Speaker Manufacturer TopHat
    Cabinet Baltic Birch
    Inputs 1
    Line Out No
    Headphone Jack No
    Price $799
    tophatamps.com (714) 447-6700

    Two extra switches provide a world of tonal possibilities. The bright switch can get a single-coil equipped guitar into Telecaster heaven and brighten up a dark-sounding guitar with humbuckers. With the Bright switch off, single-coils sound extremely round and warm. The boost switch increases sustain at lower volume settings and sounds best on with single coils. Equal parts Marshall and Fender in tone, it’s like a Champ with more tonal choices. The 8″ speaker sounds much larger.

    Torres Boogie Mite

    Torres Boogie Mite

    Torres Boogie Mite
    Size 12x8x8
    Weight 8.4
    Power Tube 6005 x 2
    Preamp Tube 12AX7 x 2
    Rectifier Tube 5Y3
    Output 3.5
    Inputs 2 (High and Low)
    Line Out Yes
    Headphones Optional
    Price $595
    torresengineering.com (650) 571-6887

    Carlos Santana in a little gray box. The only two-channel amp in our test group, the Boogie Mite offers instant singing sustain from the first channel with a surprisingly clean second channel for those jazz buffs among you. The edge in channel two is equal to the sustain in the first channel in terms of tonal character. Lots of cool features make this a very versatile choice.

    Torres Tweed Champ

    Torres Tweed Champ

    Torres Tweed Champ

    Torres Tweed Champ
    Size (W x H x D) 15×13.5×7.25
    Weight (lbs.) 18.8
    Power Tube 6V6
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 5
    Speaker Size (inches) 8
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 4, 8 or 16
    Speaker Manufacturer Jensen
    Cabinet Lockjoint Pine
    Inputs 2
    Line Out Optional
    Headphone Jack Optional
    Price $895
    torresengineering.com (650) 571-6887

    It’s a Champ. A really, really good Champ. Its tone, drive, size and vibe are exactly what you’d expect… and desire. If you’ve been flogging yourself because you can’t find or afford a ’50s tweed unit, give it a rest and call Dan. It’s doubtful you’ll be disappointed. And don’t even start with that “cache of ragged tweed” line.

    Victoria 5112

    Victoria 5112

    Victoria 5112

    Victoria 5112
    Size (W x H x D) 20x16x10.5
    Weight (lbs.) 23.0
    Power Tube 6V6
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 5
    Speaker Size (inches) 12
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 8
    Speaker Manufacturer Jensen
    Cabinet Clear Pine
    Inputs 2
    Line Out No
    Headphone Jack No
    Price $1095
    victoriaamp.com (630) 820-6400

    A Champ + a big cabinet + a big speaker = the essential Fender tone, with more bass and more presence. For Fender tone freaks, this one is positively bewitching. Its concept, design, and execution are so brilliant yet straightforward that it begs the question, “Why in blazes didn’t someone think of this before?”

    Victoria Regal

    Victoria Regal

    Victoria Regal

    Victoria Regal
    Size (W x H x D) 22x21x10.5
    Weight (lbs.) 44.2
    Power Tube 6L6
    Preamp Tube(s) 12AX7
    Output 15
    Speaker Size (inches) 15
    Speaker Rating (ohms) 8
    Speaker Manufacturer Eminence
    Cabinet Clear Pine
    Inputs 2
    Line Out No
    Headphone Jack No
    Price $2395
    victoriaamp.com (630) 820-6400

    The 15″ speaker and huge cab make this amp sound big two rooms away. Not loud, just really biiiiiiig. Its long-spring reverb is so lush it’ll have you surfing in Minnesota in January. The only amp among these to offer tremolo (tube-driven at that). With both the speed and intensity knobs dimed, the hardwood floor beneath it was pulsating perceptibly with nothing plugged into either input. Its rich tone and more-money-than-Howard-Hughes visuals kicks this amp right out of the category of love and into full-on triple-X audio lust.

    Really Cool Stuff
    Bad Cat Mini Cat: The interaction between the Volume and Master controls offers an extraordinarily wide range of clean and distorted tones. Available in a wide variety of coverings. Leather cowboy handle.

    Carr Mercury: In addition to having the most switches, it has a two-way On switch that changes its polarity. If you’ve ever gotten a 110-volt kiss from a Shure, this is really, really important.

    Emery Sound: A Mad Scientist complement of tubes makes it extremely convenient to get started in the world of tube tone. Curt also offers an unbelievably beautiful solid mahogany 1×10″ cab with a Weber Blue Pup that was used for testing the heads.
    Reeves Custom 6: Has 4-ohm and 8-ohm speaker outs in addition to the 16-ohm for the speaker you get with the amp, making it easy to use extension cabs of your choice.

    Simmons Retropolitan: The phrase “open to suggestion” reigns supreme. If there’s a covering, speaker, handle, wood or internal tweak you desire, just ask. Also, of the two Retropolitans supplied, one had a boost cut for you clean freaks.

    TopHat Portly Cadet: Also comes in a variety of coverings and grill cloths.

    Torres Boogie Mite: Boosts on the Volume, Mid, and Bass knobs. Line out with volume. Headphone jack with volume. Speaker on/off switch. Also available as a kit.

    Torres Tweed Champ: Can be wired eight ways: with choke, without choke; with tone knob, without tone knob, etc. Want a Supro? You got it! Also comes as a kit and Dan says anyone who has replaced a pickup or a tone pot can put it together in less than a weekend.

    Victoria 5112: Lacquered tweed. Ooooooh.

    Victoria Regal: The most expensive amp in our test, and worth every penny. For the classic blues, rock, country or jazz player, it has everything you need, nothing you don’t. A nice matching piece for a classic Bentley.

    Vs. Vintage
    Few things on Earth are as beautiful to a vintage guitar enthusiast as a vintage amp. I love my ’64 Fender Vibro Champ. Unfortunately, I’m at least the 11th person to love it. A quick look inside by a knowledgeable professional will reveal that very few components outside of the cabinet, chassis, and tube sockets actually sat on Fender’s shipping dock. Nothing lasts forever, and that is particularly true of not only vacuum tubes, but filter caps, solder joints, and all kinds of other things inside vintage amps.

    Buying a vintage amp and expecting it to work and have all the components be original is analogous to purchasing a ’57 Chevy and expecting it to arrive with original tires. What’s more likely is that the vintage amp is a variety of parts of various qualities installed by a variety of technicians of various talents on a variety of occasions.

    The amps featured here have new or NOS components installed (recently) by someone who has an excellent reputation as an amp builder. While it’s certainly true that the older amps have a vibe and arguably a tone that is unmatched, the amps in this survey all sound great, they’re available and they come with warranties.

    The Envelopes Please
    Most Traditionally Traditional: Torres Champ

    Most Traditional But with the Two Most Desirable Mods: Top Hat Portly Cadet

    Most Portable: Bad Cat Mini Cat (15 pounds and it has a 10″ speaker)

    Most Versatile-Sounding at the Flick of a Switch: Carr Mercury

    Most Versatile-Sounding at an Organic Level: Emery Sound Superbaby and Microbaby

    Most Likely to Make Boogie Tone Freaks Swoon in Ecstasy: Torres Boogie Mite

    Most Likely to Make Fender Tone Freaks Swoon in Ecstasy: Victoria 5112

    Most Likely to Make British Tone Freaks Swoon in Ecstasy: Reeves Custom 6

    Most Clean-Sounding: (Tie) Torres Boogie Mite channel two and Carr Mercury on 8-watt setting

    Most Range of Distortion at Greatest Variety of Volume Settings: Bad Cat Mini Cat

    Most Rare, Most Rare Tone, Most Rare Parts: Simmons Retropolitan

    Most Likely to Make a Person Say, “My Gawd, I Can’t Believe How Big That Thing 1.) Looks 2.) Sounds and/or 3.) Makes the Floor Go Up and Down: Victoria Regal
    And the Winner Is…
    Why looky here, it’s you. Because never before has such a variety of well-made, great-sounding amps of this type been available. Ever.

    The fact of the matter is that most musicians, even those who work on a daily basis, do most of their practicing, studying, composing, and recording at lower-than-stage volume. That said, the amp that you want may or may not be here. The amp that you need probably is.


    This article originally appeared in VG‘s July 2005 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Gibson Mark 53

    Gibson Mark 53

    1978 Gibson Mark 53. Photo: Michael Wright.

    Part of the fallout from the guitar boom of the 1960s was an increased academic interest in guitars that manifested itself in the 1970s.

    This ranged from Ph.D. theses in musicology – yielding our best biographies of classical players such as Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani – to the involvement of scientists trying to improve the guitar based on principles of physics. The latter efforts were actually initiated in collaboration between Dr. Michael Kasha, a physics professor at Florida State University since 1951, and luthier Richard Schneider, an apprentice of Mexican luthier Juan Pimentel, that began in the mid-1960s. This collaboration eventually added a third partner from Kalamazoo, Michigan – Gibson Guitars – and yielded the Gibson Mark series of acoustics, including the beautiful 1978 Gibson Mark 53.

    Michael Kasha became interested in improving the classical guitar circa 1965. Encouraged by the classical guitar establishment, including Andres Segovia, Sophocles Papas, Mario Abril, and Vladimir Bobri (the famous editor of Guitar Review), he began to measure the sound response of great classical guitars, with the help of one E.E. Watson. Convinced he could improve the response and volume of the guitar by applying scientific principles, he began working with luthiers José Fernandez and the young Richard Schneider.

    By 1971, Kasha was publishing many of his conclusions, which were basically three-fold; 1) Kasha loaded weight in or near the headstock to increase the transmission of string vibration down through the neck. This was counterbalanced with a weight in the tailblock. 2) The soundboard received a radical revision to the bracing system. Systems varied for classical and steel-stringed models, but basically it involved two transverse bars under the bridge and above the soundhole, then a sort of hybrid X and fan system, X on the upper bout, fanned on the lower, with braces getting thinner as they moved from bass to treble sides. A few brace detours occurred along the way. 3) Finally, Kasha came up with an “impedance-matching bridge” that was basically wide on the bass side and tapered on the treble.

    Other improvements were also attempted, including making the back more resonant, etc. These were hardly the first attempts at such improvements! Ever since guitars graduated from ladder bracing, and certainly since the time of Torres, luthiers have been trying to figure out how to get the most from the soundboard. Makers had been working on resonating backs at least since the 1920s. But this effort was probably one of the earliest to apply scientific equipment and principles to the task. While this whole process involved physical analyses of woods and movement patterns of various frequencies and so forth, the actual process was also heavy on trial and error. Art directed by science.

    Around ’72, Kasha and Schneider worked together on Kasha’s classical guitar ideas and signed an agreement to sell them through the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company, owners and builders of Gretsch and Baldwin/Burns guitars. That arrangement lasted only about a year, and in ’73 the pair entered an agreement with Gibson to develop a line of scientifically designed acoustic guitars, with Norlin picking up the development tab. The result was the much-heralded introduction of the Gibson Mark acoustics in ’75.

    The Gibson Mark line consisted of five steel-stringed models. All were jumbo-bodied, with more rounded shoulders and lower bout than a typical square-shouldered Gibson dreadnought. They could be had in either natural or a sunburst with dark upper bout and a fairly thin band of stain around the lower. All sported 251/2″ scales and had a plastic ring around the soundhole. The top of the line was the Mark 99 in spruce and rosewood with an ebony fretboard, gold hardware, and bow-tie inlays ($2,199). These were basically custom-made by Schneider. The Mark 81 was the top production model, differing only in large pearl block inlays ($999). The Mark 72, a plainer rosewood model with less binding, chrome hardware, rosewood fingerboard, and dots ($749). The Mark 53 was maple-bodied with rosewood ‘board and dots ($649). The Mark 35 had a mahogany body with rosewood ‘board and dots ($569). Cases were an extra $109. Two 12-strings were briefly offered, the Mark 45-12, probably made of maple (two made in ’79), and the Mark 35-12 (12 made in ’77). Another model offered only in ’75 was the Kasha B, probably a classical (21 made).

    The Mark 53 is a fine guitar. It’s got the big, tight, booming sound you’d expect from a well-made jumbo, bright and crisp as you’d want from a maple guitar. The workmanship is excellent, with five-ply binding on top, a nice, flamey back, and a maple neck. It sets up great for playing.

    All that said, does the science that created it make it special? Maybe it’s because once you get into the realm of manufacturing guitars, any edge derived from the science gets rationalized out. Maybe it’s because science only takes you so far when it comes to the art of building guitars. In either case, however good this guitar sounds and plays, it’s not really remarkably better than any other really well-made guitar. And Gibson Marks didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, though sales picked up toward the end.

    The Mark guitars were only offered for four years, until 1979. Only one custom Mark 99 was ever produced and sold. Of the Mark 81s, 431 were produced. The second most popular was the Mark 72 clocking in at 1,229 units. The maple Mark 53 saw 1,424 produced. The most popular was the mahogany Mark 35, with 5,226 made.

    Whether or not Gibson Marks would have ultimately become a successful mainstay of the Gibson lineup, by the late ’70s, Gibson was in turmoil and transition, including moving production from Kalamazoo to Nashville. And its parent company, Norlin, was showing definite signs of wanting to get out of the guitar business. So, Gibson pulled the plug on the Mark. Michael Kasha and Richard Schneider continued working together on well-respected, essentially custom-made guitars over the subsequent years. Richard Schneider passed away in 1997, and today, Gibson Mark series guitars are the primary evidence left from that hopeful time when dreamers thought science could trump – or at least, enhance – art. The jury is still out on that, but Gibson Marks are eminently worth seeking out.


    This article originally appeared in VG‘s Dec. ’06 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • SX SST-57 Guitar and SJB-57 Bass

    SX SST-57

    SX SST-57 guitar.

    Once upon a time, cheap guitars were just that – inferior imported planks bought as Christmas gifts then replaced as fast as one could afford.

    But with the acceptance of quality Chinese manufacturing over the last decade or so, another small revolution has taken place, one that asks, “What if you could get a decent, playable axe for a lousy hundred bucks?” The folks at Rondo Music have been answering this question with a web-based mailorder business that offers dozens of guitars and basses for amazingly low prices. Can they be any good? Let’s find out.

    The SX SST-57 guitar is based on a ’50s Fender Strat. It’s available in vintage-inspired colors and its 21-fret maple neck has an aged tint to it, as well. Cosmetically, it’s clean and requires very little setup out of the box.

    The guitar is available with the standard Strat configuration (three single-coil pickups, Volume knob, two Tone knobs) and an optional vibrato. The 25.5″-scale neck has a fat C shape that’s comfortable for rhythm work and solos. Feel-wise, the neck is fast enough for any shredder to display their chops, but also just right for busting out Hendrix or Gilmour licks.

    Through a Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb reissue the SST-57 produced sparkling clean tones, with a commendable amount of twang. The middle-pickup positions allowed for good, funky licks, as well. Turning up the amp’s volume, the guitar started to growl, all but forcing the player to whip out the intros to “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star” and other Fender-fueled metal classics.

    As one would expect for $100, however, the hardware is cheap. The pickup selector is a little flakey, and the tuners, quite frankly, suck. One would be well-served to replace them immediately (the nut and saddles on guitars at this price point usually are potential sources of tuning issues, too). The Volume and Tone knobs clicked and popped from time to time, suggesting inferior wiring or soldering.

    SJB-57 bass

    SJB-57 bass.

    That said, the SST-57 is still a very good value at about $100. Even if you just dropped in a new set of tuners and checked the soldering, you’d still have a decent backup axe for peanuts.

    The SX SJB-57 is a clone of the Fender Jazz Bass. And, at $120, it’s a pretty good one. Unlike the SST-57, the SJB has tuners that hold pitch, along with a double-cutaway solid-alder body with a 20-fret maple neck and fingerboard, 34″ scale, and a pair of J-style pickups. Controls include two Volume knobs and one Tone. It’s finished in black with chrome hardware and a three-ply white pickguard. The nut width is 19/16″.

    Out of the box, the strings on our SJB buzzed a bit, but a quick tweak of the truss rod resolved the issue. Electronics are okay for the money, but you may want to check the solder joints and tighten the nut rings around the potentiometers. Still, the tuners did their job admirably, and that’s half the battle.

    Through a Langevin studio preamp (with a fair amount of compression) and Event monitors, the axe sounded big and badass – there ain’t nuthin’ like a nicely compressed electric bass with new strings.
    All told, a J-style bass for $120 is a screaming deal, whether it’s the SJB-57 as a long-scale starter bass or as a basic four-string for guitarists, especially those with project studios.

    So, for about $100, here are two guitars that provide obvious bang for the buck. They’re perfectly workable and offer more evidence of how affordable Chinese manufacturing has reshaped the guitar industry.


    SX SST-57/ SJB-57 bass
    Price $99.99/ $119.95
    Contact Rondo Music, 427 Washington Ave., Claremont, NH 03743, www.rondomusic.net.


    This article originally appeared in VG‘s October 2007 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Emmylou Harris – All I Intended To Be

    In a career spanning 30-plus years, Harris’ constants have been her high standard of quality (in her material, in her bandmates, in herself) and her unpredictability. That she has managed to remain popular while refusing to stay in one place is the stamp of a true artist.

    Only Harris could go back to her roots and maintain this level of integrity. This is neither a concession or a retread.

    After iconoclastic, outside-the-box albums like Wrecking Ball, Red Dirt Girl, and Stumble Into Grace – with producers Daniel Lanois (Dylan, U2, the Neville Brothers) and Malcolm Burn (Shawn Colvin, Patti Smith, Peter Gabriel) – Harris enlisted Brian Ahern, who produced her debut, Pieces Of Sky, in 1975. Also onboard are engineer Donivan Cowart (who dates back to Emmy’s third album, Luxury Liner) and alumni from the Hot Band and various incarnations, including pianist Glen D Hardin, bassist Emory Gordy, guitarists Richard Bennett and John Starling, and Steve Fishell, who splits steel guitar duties with Greg Leisz. Spy Boy guitarist/producer Buddy Miller’s duties are confined to background harmonies – along with Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, the McGarrigle Sisters (Kate and Anna), and Seldom Scene’s Mike Auldridge (who, needless to say, doubles on Dobro).

    Harris contributes more originals than usual – her six contributions (with two collaborations with the McGarrigles, including “How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower,” for June Carter Cash) holding their own alongside material from Tracy Chapman, Merle Haggard, Patty Griffin, and Billy Joe Shaver. There’s a spare, acoustic atmosphere to the cuts, even when Fabulous Superlative Kenny Vaughn adds electric guitar, along with Harry Stinson’s drums and Glen Worf’s bass. There’s nary an uptempo song in the set, so taste is the order of the day, not chops, and all concerned deliver in spades.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s Oct. ’08 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.