Jaw dropping moments in music are to be savored, and today's was especially savory. Having returned from a business trip to find bassist Bryan Beller's new CD "Thanks In Advance" waiting for me in the mail stack, I adjourned to the computer to catch up on some email and give Bryan's disc a spin. I've been a fan of his playing with Mike Keneally for some time, and the samples of this new album on
Nothing like the shuffle feature pulling something out of the library that you haven't played in awhile that you really enjoy. That's what just happened...and here it is. Phil Lesh-bass, John Molo-drums, Rob Barraco-keys, Warren Haynes-guitar, vocals, Jimmy Herring-guitar. Enjoy!
Starting with an acoustic bluesy-gospel slide guitar atmosphere, Sky Church Hymn #9 quickly morphs into an intense shredfest where Sancious channels both Jimi Hendrix and John McLaughlin. Sancious is probably best known as a keyboard player, and this knockout guitar punch came as a surprise the first time I heard it.Sancious got his start with the E Street Band, leaving shortly after "Born to Run
It seems I'm running into more and more people who share my appreciation of Frank Zappa's guitar skills. Many know him for his 70s and 80s vocal oriented songs like "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Valley Girl", and his skills as a composer have been acknowledged, but Frank was also a *SICK* guitar player.This song "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution" is originally from a late 70s release call...
Umphrey's is so often lumped into the "jam band" category yet they are playing music and engaging in improvisation that progresses far beyond the usual jamspam. Take this track for instance..."Water" has time signatures and arrangements that sound far more like Yes or Gentle Giant than any modern day jam band. There are some stylistic similarities to some of Phish's more complex and arranged ...
The dual guitar assault team of Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss make Umphrey's McGee a guitar-lovers dream. Sharing lead guitar duties with complimentary styles and tones, the UM guitarists somehow manage to each retain virtuoso status without stepping on each others toes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this version of Uncle Wally....from the licks traded in the opening bars to the ...
Ozric Tentacles are one of those bands you either love or hate. An instrumental ensemble with a changing lineup over the last 25 years, the Ozrics were psychedelic warlords of prog/space jams. They have many albums worth checking out, but my favorite has always been Live Underslunky which caught them on tour in 1993. Get into the right mindset and fasten your seatbelt...
In Dan Hedges "Yes: The Authorised Biography", he references the unique sound of the Relayer album by questioning if it was the case that the band had "overdosed on Mahavishnu Orchestra albums". While the MO were certainly an influence on many bands of the time, and shared a bill with Yes on a few occasions, its impossible to say if there is a direct link. Regardless, "Sound Chaser" is the cl...
Really enjoying the recently reissued Steve Hillage catalog this morning. While many of my colleagues know Hillage for his work with System 7 and the Orb, they don't know much about his guitar-god status during the 1970s.Hillage rose to prominence as a member of Gong, recorded the SUPERB progressive classic "Space Shanty" with his band Khan (which also featured keyboardist Dave Stewart, later ...
