the blues guitar player’s guide
Autumn
Special
DISR A ELI GE A RS I n s i d e C r e a m ' s B l u e s - Roc k M a s t e r wo r k
50
th
Anniversary
SPECIAL
Digital Edition
Jack Bruce on writing W h i t e Roo m & Mo r e To d d R u n d g r e n on Clapton's ' Foo l ' SG
Jimi Hendrix: His Last Sessions
Classic Interview with Jeff Beck
Master the Style of t-Bone Walker
Jimmy Page On Jimi, Zeppelin & Guitars
Walter Trout on surviving the blues
Contents
cover feature
Strange Crew
46
The inside story of how Clapton, Bruce and Baker recorded Cream’s iconic Disraeli Gears album
4
BLUES
Contents Autumn 2017
Regulars 06............. In The Making Sister Rosetta Tharpe 10............. 12-Bar News Blues events and happenings 12 . ........... Wishlist Contemporary gear with history 14 . ........... Spotlight Recommended acts on tour 16 . ........... Icon We celebrate the life of Jimmy Reed 18 . ........... Confessional Aynsley Lister tells all 100........... Reviews New blues album releases rated 114 . ......... Songs Of My Life Kenny Wayne Shepherd
FEATURES
72
20............. The Magpie Salure 26............. John Mayall 36............. Jimi Hendrix 46............. Cream 58............. T-Bone Walker 96............. Walter Trout
CLASSIC INTERVIEWS 68............. Eric Bibb 72............. Jeff Beck 78............. Jimmy Page 84............. Gary Moore 90............. Joe Bonamassa
Gear 32............. Historic Hardware 1938 Kalamazoo KG-14 104........... Classic Gear Les Paul Standard 108 . ......... Five To Try Rotary Pedals
84
Learn to play 24............. Blues masterclass T-Bone Waller 110 . ......... Basics The origins of blues-rock 112 . ......... The Turnaround Robert Johnson For all the tutorial files for Learn to Play, head to www.filesilo.co.uk/blues-autumn-2017
the blues guitar player’s guide PRESENTS
AUTUMN
AUTUMN 2017
SPECIAL
DISR A ELI GE A RS
INSIDE CREAM'S BLUES-ROCK MASTERWORK
50 CREAM: 50 YEARS OF DISRAELI GEARS
SPECIAL
INTERVIEWED: JACK BRUCE ON WRITING WHITE ROOM & MORE TODD RUNDGREN ON CLAPTON'S ' F O O L' S G
JOHN MAYALL £7.99
PRINTED IN THE UK
AUTUMN 2017
T-BONE WALKER
32
th
ANNIVERSARY
JIMI HENDRIX: HIS LAST SESSIONS
CLASSIC INTERVIEW WITH JEFF BECK
T-BONE WALKER: MASTER THE STYLE OF
JIMMY PAGE ON JIMI, ZEPPELIN & GUITARS
GTP20.cover.indd 1
WALTER TROUT ON SURVIVING THE BLUES 11/07/2017 14:41
BLUES
5
interview
The Magpie Salute
GIMME BACK MY BULLETS
And so the band was born. Rich was keen to acknowledge the past and in its own weird little ways, the world told him The Magpie Salute were the words he was looking for. “The magpies are in the crow [Corvidae] family,” he says. “There’s a superstition there – the whole story about how people greet the magpie with, ‘Good morning, captain!’, which is also a Crowes song.” Now they had the moniker sorted, it was time to get this band up and running. The Magpie Salute got together to whizz through 100 songs in three days in preparation for their four-night residency at the Gramercy Theatre in New York. It was a mammoth task, though, ultimately, was an experience that filled them with hope. “After dipping our toes in the water, we decided to give it a go properly,” says Rich, “and the only way to do that was to book a string of shows. We learned all those songs because we wanted different setlists each night and all four sold out. I’m excited about 2018 because my goal is to hit the studio around February and record a whole double album of originals. I want to take the next step and create completely on our own. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.” “Rich and I have a relationship that was supposed to be,” adds Marc. “We really did not know what we were doing but it worked so well. In the fire of the ’90s [the band’s internal battles], it felt like we were ducking and cowering. This band is the product of that intense musical life together. Now I’m 51, we’re older and wiser. I had to clean out some of my character defects to get on with people, because music is about relationships. I’ve worked hard to get where I am now. I fought for my life… our music shows! It made us start thinking about new possibilities. A new life for an old family.”
LISTEN AND LEARN
Rich Robinson and Marc Ford are not schooled players in the formal sense. While many use scales and patterns to build their vocabulary, The Magpie Salute pair (along with additional guitarist Nico Bereciartua) rely almost exclusively on the ear. “Seriously, I don’t even know anything about the technical terms out there,” laughs Rich. “You said I use a lot of double stops, but I don’t know anything about them. I just write what sounds good to me – there’s no way to categorise or explain it.” One thing the guitarist is confident to explain is the world of open tunings and how that forced him to forsake banking on the usual patterns – because, of course, they would often make little sense once an instrument has been retuned. Without that safety net, it came down to just feeling the right notes before memorising them…
22
blues
Rich during the Magpie Salute’s four-show stand in London, playing one of his two El Dorado models by Teye Guitars of Austin, Texas
· “It made us start thinking about new possibilities. A new life for an old family” ·
“I love exploring open tunings,” continues Rich. “Because I use them about 90 per cent of the time, a lot of it is trial and error. As I started soloing more over the years, I’ve built my own language and learned the difference in playing in open G versus open E versus this open C chord; they’re all the opposite of each other. I’ve had to learn what works and what doesn’t. “Altogether I use around 15 different ones, sometimes it might be open G with a capo or open E with a capo elsewhere. Or you might have dropped D or open C – where I basically tune to just a C chord and drop the low E down to a C, so you get two octaves on the bottom. There’s another one that is all Ds and one A – I’ll tune the top two exactly the same, the middle two the same an octave down, then one low A and a low D. I’ve also used open D7 tunings, which sounded really cool.” “I know my 1/4/5s and my seventh chords, but very little beyond that,” nods Marc. “It’s like a street language, I know how it all goes but I can’t explain it. The only thing I ever did was figure out how to play good songs and write ones just like them! I’d watch others doing it and mimic it in my own way. Then I built the platform where I bring the content. Be brave, man. You gotta be honest with music... people can tell.”
Marc Ford recently developed a signature model with Asher guitars but got this Electro Sonic model from them afterwards
feature
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blues
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
feature
Jimi at his soundcheck photocall at the Royal Albert Hall in February 1969
Showman amps from Fender in 1968, after recording Burning Of The Midnight Lamp with one in 1967. These were used alongside his more customary Marshall Super Lead heads. “I would say, based upon what I remember him doing in 1968 – in the ’68 period, Showmans would be there,” Eddie recalls. “Showmans would show up. But it was mostly Marshall. Because he had his roadies, his gear was in town, so he would just say to the roadie, ‘Bring my gear up,’ or if it was an emergency, middle-of-the-night thing, he’d just use whatever was in the studio – he could do that, too, and still get a sound that was superb. Give him any amp and he’d sound like that.” We ask if Jimi liked to have a lot of volume in the room to get the amp’s power valves working, or if he went for a subtler approach? “Actually, if you looked at the amps, the volume was normally pretty much on 10, but he would control the sensitivity from the guitar,” Kramer recalls. “The volume was there: that’s how he would have such control: like on Little Wing, where the amp would be cranked for the solo, but backed off [on the guitar] for the other parts. But I always had to be prepared for anything, because the level would jump from minus-20 to plus-three.”
© Shutterstock
People, Hell & Gibsons
Most of the guitar work on People, Hell & Angels sounds Strat-based, but it’s well known that Hendrix also used Gibsons, such as the 1968 SG Custom he used on The Dick Cavett Show on 9 September 1969, right after Woodstock, and, of course, a Flying V, the first of which he took delivery
of in 1967. Did any of these instruments make it onto the new album? “Tough question. You’re probably right in suggesting it was 80 or 90 per cent Strat. He rarely used Gibsons; it was 90 per centplus Strats, and as I said, I wasn’t there for the recording of a lot of the basic tracks.” Jimi’s relationship with Gibsons, with their thicker tone and shorter, less springy 628mm (24.75-inch) scale length is still slightly ambiguous, so we ask Eddie if Jimi ever made any remarks to him about what he liked about Fenders vs Gibsons as tools? “He never said anything – although his favourite Gibson was a Flying V,” Eddie says. “I’ve got pictures of him backstage at Madison Square Garden, where the Strat’s in the case and the Flying V is in his hand – but he’s using it for rehearsal, because it was an easy guitar to play blues on, and that’s when he would use it with a little [Fender] Champ amp.” We ask what the most challenging aspect of recording Hendrix’s guitar sound and setup during the sessions covered by the new album. “It wasn’t tricky. Where we got tricky was towards the end, certainly at Electric Lady Studios in 1970. We were really trying to push the envelope by using two amplifiers: a split Y-cord from the guitar into two Uni-Vibes, getting this wonderful stereo effect. Jimi’s parts were never hard to record – but people made more of it than others in terms of difficulty.” Another aspect of Hendrix’s music that People, Hell & Angels shows off is the amazing call-and-response interplay between Jimi’s vocal and guitar lines on tracks such as Hear My Train A Comin’.
Miles Different How the contrast between Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles shaped the sound of Jimi’s lateera guitar style
“Buddy Miles was like a machine,” Eddie Kramer explains. “His foot was strictly pounding, and the backbeat was predictable. I think that was good for Jimi, because it allowed him to put a different feel on the tracks. “That fatback – the steadiness of the rhythm – means the feel is completely different to Mitch and, actually, Mitch said a funny thing about Buddy. He said: ‘He’s like a bloody cement mixer, isn’t he?’… Whereas, Mitch plays a fill-in and you think, ‘S**t, he’ll never land on the one,’ but he does.” Despite that contrast, Eddie says the period in which Hendrix relied on both drummers for different reasons led to a healthy exchange of ideas. “Right after Band Of Gypsys is disbanded [in January 1970], Jimi puts Mitch back in the band, and it’s the ‘New Experience’. But it has gone through these crossroads of influences. The interesting thing for me is what Mitch is doing in February, March and April of 1970: he’s sounding more like Buddy Miles, or has at least been influenced by him to a large degree, because he has to.”
blues
43
themasterclass T-Bone’s style is the bedrock of modern blues guitar playing
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Guit 3Guit 42 342 - DIAGS FOR FOR - DIAGS T-BONE WALKER T-BONE WALKER Your author, Denny Ilett
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T-Bone Style File
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Five examples of T-Bone’s playing for you to learn and use! Watch the full video on the FileSilo! To accompany Denny’s piece on T-Bone Walker, we asked him to show you five ways to nail the great man’s style. You can find the video lesson examples on this issue’s FileSilo at www.filesilo.co.uk/blues-autumn-2017, so grab your guitar and add these ideas to your blues repertoire…
Like T-Bone, Denny Ilett started young. The son of a renowned trumpet soloist, Denny began arranging horns at 14. Shortly after, he discovered 1 and o a lifelong love o1began the4guitar affair. Denny’s Callin’ The Children Home album has been praised by critics and fans alike for its articulate and impassioned take on jazz-blues. He tours regularly with New Orleans ambassador of music Lillian Boutte, Gypsy Swing outfit Moscow Drug Club and funk/jazz combo Porkchop. Denny willGuit be teaching Guit 4 2 course at this 3 4the 23blues year’s IGF Summer School.
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65
Gary Moore
classic interview
Classic Interview
Gary Moore When we spoke to Gary Moore back in 1989, he was arguably the finest exponent of blues-rock guitar around – and for many, he’s still the holder of that crown. Here we revisit that vintage interview with Gary, published shortly after he had completed one of his best-loved works, After The War Words Neville Marten
T
he new album, ‘After The War’, sounds much heavier than ‘Wild Frontier’…
“Yeah, it’s definitely a more heavy rock album than the last one. Whereas ‘Wild Frontier’ was based more around songs, this one’s much more of a guitar record. It’s all real drums, as opposed to machines, and it’s got more of the feel of a band playing together – which was purely intentional because of the type of songs we came up with. ‘Wild Frontier’ was much more of a production thing and it needed a lot more detail. This one was put together in such a way that it was better for performing on stage and for people to play together, and because they were much more high energy songs I felt the need to use real drums to give them that edge and aggression.”
Were the songs done in a ‘live’ situation in the studio?
“A couple of them were, yeah. ‘Led Clones’ was put down as a live rhythm track, and ‘This Thing Called Love’ is pretty much all live. All the soloing from beginning to end was like a couple of takes or something, and the version of ‘The Messiah Will Come Again’ was all live as well. We did that in the first take and tried to get it better all day, and we just couldn’t.”
There is a lot of harking back on the album, lyrically and musically. Are you in a reflective mood at the moment?
“Yes, it was kind of a reflective album in a way. It goes back to before I started playing, when I was a kid growing up in Belfast. ‘Living On Dreams’ deals with that – when I was about 11 and listening to a lot of blues stuff. So I tried to get that across… like hanging around in dark alleyways, smoking Woodbines and drinking cheap wine. It’s not all totally factual but none of it is actually contrived either, because it does name places. “There is a line in there which says: ‘the Alleycats on a Saturday night’, and the Alleycats was the name of this group I used to go and watch, Saturday nights at the Maritime Club. That was a place where, when you came out, you were lucky if you got home in one piece, because all these guys were hanging around outside, beating everyone up and taking the bus fare off them. Then you had to walk past the same guys again, who’d got the bus home with your money, and they’d beat you up again; it was a terrible place. The Alleycats had this English guitarist called Mick Cox and he played just like Jeff Beck, and I thought: ‘This guy’s brilliant!’ They were doing all the Yardbirds stuff and Chicago blues stuff so I just put those little riffs in there. The song ‘Blood Of Emeralds’ deals with when I
moved from Dublin to Belfast – I was 16 and I’d just left school and joined Skid Row… there’s a little reference to Phil in there as well.” Was it strange for you, being from north and living in the south?
“It was, and the first thing I noticed was how guilty everybody felt if they ever did anything – because of the Church and everything. I remember the first night I moved to Dublin… Brush, the drummer from Skid Row, was showing me this flat where I was going to be staying. We sat down and I was thinking: ‘Great! This is my new flat, I’ve got away from home’ – which is why I joined the band in the first place – and we were sitting around talking and they said: ‘Well, what are you into?’ and I said: ‘Oh, I like drugs and things like that’ – I hadn’t even taken any drugs but I thought it’d sound really cool! So I said that and they both said: ‘Oh no! Really?’ And I said: ‘Why? Don’t you like drugs?’ and they said: ‘No, we’re not into that, we’re into football and stuff like that.” (laughs) So I’d said the totally wrong thing… “I think they were on their guard from that moment onwards! But then of course I met Phil, and he was more on my wavelength; we had a lot of fun together in those days. We shared a flat and then after he’d left Skid Row we lived together in this
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thebasics Get down with the fundamentals of blues guitar playing
The origins of bluesrock
Brit blues legend Peter Green has inspired generations of guitarists
The ’60s brought us Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Marshall stack and fuzz distortion. Read on and learn the styles of the early legends
I
n the ’60s a new breed of young bands discovered the blues styles of the generation before and busied themselves reinventing and revitalising it with loud guitars and attitude aplenty. The hub of this activity was centred in London, though, of course, it spread beyond the boundaries of the UK to the US, where the movement became known as the ‘British Invasion’. The far-reaching impact of
Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and more can be heard in each subsequent generation of aspiring blues based guitarists. Clapton and Green’s solos were often minor pentatonic and blues scale based, but their individuality lies in ‘phrasing’ – a gift for melodic invention delivered with their own instantly recognisable lyrical styles. You can find the tutorial files at www.filesilo.co.uk/ blues-autumn-2017.
Sound Advice For a typical late ’60s tone keep your amp’s gain light with just a hint of break up. Back then, without the benefit of preamp gain controls, players like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix would max out the volume and EQ on their amps so that a combination of power amp and speaker distortion was achieved – and at truly awe inspiring volume levels. Modelling amp users can of course emulate this without causing an undue breach of the peace. Use fuzz distortion for dirtier solo sounds and dial in spring reverb for ambience.
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The blues scale This versatile scale will help you play more than just blues The minor pentatonic scale (turn to p26 for more info) is arguably the most common scale in rock and blues. One simple change turns this essential run of notes into the blues scale, as shown here. Despite the blues moniker – with its edgy, dissonant
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sound – the blues scale is used extensively in rock, metal, folk, country and more. We’ve shown the D blues scales here.
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TGR291.coverfeature_1960s.fig01.musx File Date: 12:40 15/02/2017
1960s thebasics Cover Feature
Page 1 of 1 Notes:
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File Date: 12:40 15/02/2017 Cover by Feature Taking a John Lee Hooker-style open position riff and mixing in a bit of E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D) gives us this bluesy pop-rock vibe exemplified the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and many others. Go easy on any vibrato and keep those bluesy quarter-tone bends subtle – it’s more of a feel thing than an actual Page 1 of 1 Contributor: Chris Bird pitch to bend to.
Notes:
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Greeny blues Blues meets ballad with lyrical phrasing
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1960s 3 File Date: 12:40 15/02/2017 Cover Feature Adding and Fleetwood Pagea1little of 1more gain and a lot more reverb, this solo phrase calls to mind some of Peter Green’s revered work with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Contributor: Chris Bird Mac. Tone and phrasing give this line its impact – the rake into the high D note in bar 2 is a prime example of how Green could make one note really sing. Notes: Engraved by DigitalMusicArt.Com
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With a dirtier amp tone here, this Cream-era Clapton-style line shows how he and many other players would seamlessly combine riff and solo lines in the blues-rock style. Take care on the slide in bar 2 – it’ll help with the position shift, but you’ll need to be accurate.
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