Newsletter Vol. 2 # 117 – March 27, 2005
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Email of the Week
- Hot Off The Press (Releases)
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Reviews
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
Owing to popular demand, there will be a Guitar Noise Neil Young Song Seminar this spring. Late spring, actually, because we’ll have it on Saturday, June 4. We’ll include some of the songs from last year’s seminar for those of you first-timers, but also expand our Neil Young catalogue.
In case you’ve never been to a Guitar Noise Seminar and you’d like to know what it’s like, allow me to give you a typical schedule:
9:00 – 9:30
People start arriving. I have coffee, tea, juice and various breakfast things ready for anyone who might be interested. We informally introduce ourselves, admire each other’s guitars, enjoy the view, claim a chair, guitar stand and music stand and make sure we’re in tune.
9:30 – 9:45
A bit of a formal introduction, plus we pass out the day’s materials – usually song sheets, notepaper, a tutorial CD and anything else that we might happen to need for that day’s topic.
9:45 – (approximately) noon
We start in on learning about the subject of the day. At a typical song seminar, we’ll cover five to six of the easier songs in our itinerary. These usually progress in difficulty, but are planned out to “build” on one another. That is, the technique or theory that we’ve learned in one song will often be expanded upon in the next.
Noon – 1:00
We break for lunch. I’ve got a big table, so we can all sit around and talk about whatever we’d like. Sometimes we discuss the lessons and sometimes we get into all sorts of discussions.
1:00 – (approximately) 4:30
We get back to studying. At a typical song seminar, we’ll start going into songs that require a little more work. Because we’ve been playing a lot by this point, there are often little breaks, which people can use to rest their hands or to get some individual attention on anything that seems particularly hard.
4:30 –
At this point, people can pack up and leave or stick around and discuss things or just jam a little.
I hope this gives you a good picture of the schedule of a typical Guitar Noise Seminar. If you don’t already know, these are held at my home in South Egremont, Massachusetts, which is in the southwestern corner of the state. I’m a little over an hour from either Albany, NY or Hartford, CT and about two-and-a-half hours from New York City. Seminars cost $100 per person and this includes lunch as well as tutorial materials.
If you’ve any questions, or if you’d like to sign up for this latest Neil Young Seminar (or any of our other ones, for that matter), feel free to write me at [email protected] and be sure to use “Seminar” in the subject line.
And speaking of subjects, let’s take a look at what’s new this week here at Guitar Noise:
New Articles And Lessons
This week I decided to spend my time getting caught up with A-J and all the reviews he’s done the past few months. So scroll on down to the “Reviews” section for the complete list of what’s new.
Email Of The Week
This could qualify as a press release, but I’d like to give it some special attention, as it’s a pretty important subject for a lot of people:
NEW WEBSITE HELPS MUSICIANS TRACK DOWN STOLEN GUITARS!
WWW.STOLENGUITARREGISTRY.COM
TUCSON, AZ, 3/20/05 Web programmer Bryan Hance has just launched a free website to help victims of guitar theft recover their stolen instruments:
www.stolengutiarregistry.com
The theft of personal property is a terrible setback for anyone – but for guitarists, the loss of an instrument is a particularly devastating blow. Most guitarists develop an intense bond with their guitars, viewing the instruments as an irreplaceable part of their unique sound. Unfortunately, thousands of professional and amateur guitarists lose instruments to theft every year.
“When you look at the number of guitars being stolen every year, it is just amazing,” says Hance. “They are too easy to steal, too easy to resell, and until now there was no easy way to run a quick check to see if a guitar is stolen.”
Hance predicts www.stolenguitarregistry.com will help re-unite many distraught guitarists with their stolen instruments. Here is how it works: guitar theft victims enter information about their stolen guitars into a database, including guitar model, make, year, color, description, serial number, and can also include photos of the guitar and offer a reward for the instruments’ recovery – free of charge.
Music-store employees, guitar resellers, pawn shop owners, private buyers, online auction shoppers, and even law enforcement can run a guitar’s serial number to find out if it has been reported stolen. www.stolenguitarregistry.com also automatically emails guitar owners if someone runs a search on their stolen guitar’s serial number.
Hance says his site aims to connect ‘the two sides’ of the stolen guitar problem:
“On one side you’ve got an amazingly vigilant guitar community – many of whom are victims of theft themselves – who are constantly on the lookout for each other’s stolen gear. On the other side are guitar resellers, most of which are honest, but who lack an easy way to check a guitar’s serial number. All you have to do is connect the two sides, which is what www.stolenguitarregistry.com is all about, and you’re going to start recovering people’s guitars.”
Hot Off The Press (Releases)
The Travis Allison Band will be performing with The Marshall Tucker Band coming up in April. The Travis Allison Band is a four-piece band based in Charleston, SC that fuses rock, folk, blues, soul and country to forge their signature sound. Three part vocal harmonies and varied instrumentation make TAB live shows truly special to watch!
The band has performed with renowned greats such as Sister Hazel, Uncle Cracker, Aaron Tippin, Delbert McClinton, Little Feat, and is now slated to perform with Marshall Tucker for a second time. The group has released five albums of original material on their own label, Bridging Music: No Parade (2004), Color (2001), Live Bootleg (2000), Old Habits (1999), and Some Other Time (1995) which contains two songs, “Some Years Ago” and “Who Are You” that won Overall Grand Prize and Second Place in the Virginia Organization of Composers & Lyricists (VOCAL) national songwriting contest. TAB has also performed in some of the most prestigious rooms in the United States such as NYC’s Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and Lion’s Den.
Travis, from Greenville, SC has a voice performance degree from the University of Richmond and plays piano/organ, acoustic guitar and harmonica. Patrick Norris and KB Reidenbach (both from the SC coast) switch between acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin and bass. Drummer John Picard from Anderson, SC has played with several national acts in his career and brings his amazing control of rhythm to The TAB.
The Washington Post says, “The songs benefit from the sheer quality of writing, whether the tale is impassioned, introspective or inspiring.”
James Currie of On Tap Magazine had this to say about TAB: “Now it seems the Travis Allison Band will be the next rockers to break out nationally. As strong as the music is, however, it’s the message behind the music that make TAB something more. Ultimately, TAB offers a rare combination of get-on-your-feet-and-dance fun and keep this one in the changer depth.”
John Harper of The Virginia Pilot said, “TAB has been cranking out it’s own melodic and sophisticated brand of rock ‘n’ roll and has a way of touching heart and head equally. Allison is no imitator and his supporting players add a depth rarely heard in acoustic rock circles… rooted in strong melodies and intelligent, telling lyrics.”
Creative Loafing Magazine called TAB’s performance, “A great live show…Allison has achieved a very professional pop/rock sound…energetic and well-executed, both instrumentally and vocally, as he deftly switches between guitar and piano while blending seamlessly with the other musicians who comprise his band.”
Sunday Songwriters Group
Year Three, Week 21
It’s all in the imagery
For the past few weeks we’ve been concentrating on the imagery aspect of our song writing.
This week we’re continuing with the imagery theme and our song should contain imagery from traveling – life is a rollercoaster etc.
Good Writing
Bob
Reviews
Happy The Man – The Muse Awakens
CD Review by A-J Charron
Progressive Rockers Happy The Man got back together to create a new album. With its sleek production, this CD takes the listener through various landscapes
The Tangent – The World We Drive Through
CD Review by A-J Charron
Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings is one of the most prolific songwriters out there. Here with his band The Tangent (with two others of the Flower Kings on board), he brings us five new pieces.
White Willow – Storm Season
CD Review by A-J Charron
A very interesting album from another great Scandinavian band, this is a blend of good old Classic Genesis and heavy metal. The disc grows on you after several listens and the beautiful voice of Sylvia Erichsen is certainly worth listening to!
Proto-Kaw – Before Became After
CD Review by A-J Charron
The debut disc by one of the earlier line-ups of Kansas! Confused? Don’t be! Just listed to this fantastic album.
Ron Jackson – The Dream I Had
CD Review by A-J Charron
A beautiful album of instrumental jazz music that you’ll want to list to over and over again.
Steve Hackett & The Underworld Orchestra – Metamorpheus
CD Review by A-J Charron
Fifteen tracks of hauntingly beautiful music, courtesy of Steve Hackett on classical guitar and a full orchestra. This album is a must for everyone who enjoys great music.
Billy Idol – Devil’s Playground
CD Review by A-J Charron
A new Billy Idol album? The production is sleek and incredibly well done and with guitarist Steve Stephens and former Dream Theatre keyboardist Derek Sherinian backing you up, you can’t go wrong.
Thoughts & Feedback
I keep thinking that I’m forgetting to mention something…
Well, there’s always next week. That is, if I happen to remember!
Seriously, sometimes there seems to be so much going on that it’s hard to keep track of everything. I know, for instance, that I’m way behind on answering emails and that there’s still a lot of project work going on that needs to be done.
And, of course, just like everyone else, there’s the day-to-day business of life. Family, friends, work, school, appointments, lessons, activities and social gatherings – it all seems to pile up, doesn’t it?
So when, with all of this other stuff going on, does one manage to fit in a little time for practicing (or simply playing) the guitar?
Like as not, we have to make the time for that. People tend to do so according to their personalities – some get up early, some stay up late, some play instead of watching television (or while watching!) and others “sneak” in the time whenever an opportunity presents itself.
I’m a firm believer in doing one’s best to play (or practice) for at least a half hour every day. Why? For an incredibly selfish reason: it makes me feel good and that makes me a better person to deal with! You hear all the time from studies and talk shows and such about how important it is to make a little time for something purely personal, about how good it is for you. And what could be more personal than spending some time with your guitar or musical instrument of choice?
I’d love to hear from those of you who have managed to come up with a “system,” if you will, that works for you because I’d like to share these ideas with others who truly seem to find it difficult to find or make time to play. So make a little more time this week and drop me a line at [email protected] and let’s help some folks find the time in their lives that could be spent playing!
I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David