I recall picking up Toto’s first album and fell in love with it right away. Everything from the arrangements/progressions to the vocals were the kind of style that I would have really enjoyed playing. Too bad back then there wasn’t any musicians living in my home town who wanted to venture off in this musical direction, their loss. In my defense, I remember playing in my first band Deuce that played Toto’s Hold the Line at St. Bernard School way back in 1979?

I vividly recall playing the opening song called Duece, and Brian M singing the words “Get up and get the Hell on out of here!” The kicker is he was looking directly at this nun in the first row, that was way too funny! Way to go Ginchy!

My nephew and I were in a car traveling to my cousin’s house 2 years ago to do some landscaping and gardening, see I’m good at something else too as I said in my last e-mail. He pulled out this new Toto album called Toto’s Greatest Hits Silver Box set. The kid is the Data of the movie trivia and facts world. The guy is just amazing at what he knows about movies, it borderlines on scary actually. Check out his site, he’s working on it just to give you a head up.

The band had put just about the the whole first album on it! I was floored when we put in the stereo. The songs on this CD instantly brought back all those childhood memories, thanx again JC!

Now a days while taking the pooch out for a walk along the Danforth, I listen to this collection on the old iPOD. Over the past couple of hours the one song that gets me going the most called Endless. It’s originally on the Isolation album if anyone if interested. Everything about this one is outstanding, listen for yourself!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE63SN46AeA

Love ya Live!

It seems that the Feds believe the wood obtained from India is illegal because Indian law states that wood exported from it’s country must be completely finished before being exported for another countries use. So I guess the wood being exported to Gibson factories was raw wood product or at least that’s what the Feds must think.

Gibson CEO said last week that they will continue their fight against the US Government’s raid, for the second time one in 2 years, in similar charges. The first time the wood in question was imported from Madagascar.

After the raid, the US agents obtained the illegal wood from India and sent all the workers home. What a way to get out of the shop.

While the Justice agents are still contemplating the charges against Gibson Guitars, Gibson is in the process of suing them to retrieve it’s product back so that the plants can resume production.

“Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of any wrong doing,” Chief Executive Officer Henry Juszkiewicz said in a statement. “We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence.”

Juszkiewicz has stated the company, has and will work in close concert with groups like the Rainforest Alliance to help certify that the wood Gibson uses in it’s highly prized guitar come from ensure its wood imports are from sustainable authorities.

In an affidavit, agent John Rayfield of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said U.S. Customs agents in June detained a shipment of sawn ebony logs from India.

The paperwork accompanying the shipment identified it fraudulently as Indian ebony fingerboards for guitars and it did not say it was going to Gibson, the affidavit said.

In July, agents observed Indian ebony and rosewood delivered to a storage facility for Gibson, according to the affidavit, which asked permission to seize Gibson’s business computers.

Gibson plants also were raided in 2009, when agents confiscated ebony imported from Madagascar.

If your a big lover of Gibson guitars and own one then this long video is something that you might find interesting. Enjoy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5No0Sk9NIo

Anyways, have you heard of these guys before? In all honesty, I still run into some people of my age who have not.

The biggest thing that grabs my attention about the band is their distinctive sound. Not only vocally, way before Lindsey Buckingham showed up in 1975, but it’s after he joined the band when he brought with him his fantastic open tuning guitar style/sound and his unique vocals that drew me in.

I could always figure out anything that was thrown at me but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the Fleetwood Mac songs. I knew deep down inside that I was way off base here.

Open tuning was something I hadn’t heard of at the time so I had to struggle to reproduce a tune, nice try but … The greatest example of this struggle was a song called Never Going Back Again. I played this one in the first position G and D then migrating up the neck to around the 9th to 12th fret area. Some day I just have to start doing some tunes to show you what I mean.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHoxoXw6byM

Keep on Jammin’

The pre-auction estimates was much lower then the final total (21.5 m).

An instrument that was sold and caught my eye was Eric’s 1948 Gibson L-5P guitar! The final price was $82,000, it more then surpassed the $20,000 pre-auction estimate. Another big ticket guitar was a souped up signature Fender Stratocaster that brought them a nice $51,000.

The charity is definitely a worth while cause and that I am sure the money will be put to good use. Good on you Mr Eric Clapton!

Keep on Jammin’

During the sales pitch by an Apple rep in the store we were in, she brought to our attention (mine actually because my wife, as usual, was light years ahead of me in understanding what wondrous things this product can bring to us) to the options that come with it.

Then it came to me that this thing appears to look and act just like the iPad. Right after this thought, she said that some of the Apps on the iPad Touch can also be used on the iPod. The rep concluded that the look of an App itself, on either one, might differ a little bit, who really cares if it works on both.

A while ago I talked about this appealing guitar app called the Amplitube that is used on an iPad. I considered this one as an excellent idea for someone like myself. So now I’m wondering if I could get the Amplitube on the the iPod Touch? I’ll get back to ya on what I find later on.

Does anyone out there have one and like to advise me on what Guitar Apps is worth looking into that actually work?

Keep on Jammin’

I guess this would be a great idea for beginners but it does sound a little bit gimmicky to me. If you were a drummer, would you buy a drum kit that has lights in the middle of your drum skin, telling you which one to hit? I guess it’s a start.

I cannot say through personal experience if this guitar is worth it, for someone like myself, but it might be ideal for a beginner.

I found this silly/cheesy video that gets to the point in a humorous way. I found tons of other ones that would bore you to sleep or a guy in the video’s who’s voice would make you close your browser window faster then a speeding bullet, so I picked this one.

The guy below doing the critiquing is definitely not the type of guitarist that I would aspire to become but he cuts right to the meat and potatoes part of the question!

Obviously if you want more info about this guitar, just search their site or Youtube where of coarse you’ll find 5 billion video’s about it. I should know, I just spent roughly 1 hour doing so!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oJLbJCPhsU

Pros about the Fretlight.

I will say that if you are just starting out playing the guitar and you might wish to find unique ways of speeding up the learning curve, then this might be an idea worth looking into. The software looks promising. Up to now, Fretlight has a limited number of songs in their program to show you, that will expand I imagine, as the company grows. Some of the options are interesting.

You can slow the speed of the song down when your learning from the software. In the beginning, your not as agile with your fingers as you think are. You need to slow down and take each part or phrasing of a song apart bit by bit until you master it. It’s better to sound like shit at home then in front of people! It’s great that they have a looping section here. This allows you to practice over and over again a part of the song until you have it down perfectly, this option I really like.

Cons about the Fretlight

This is JUST A PRACTICE GUITAR. The quality of the guitar is ok if that is what you want. For around $300 bucks, what do you think you’ll for that. I went to more then a couple of guitar forums and that seems to be the consensus.

If you have had any exposure to the Fretlight Guitar, then I’d love to hear your point of view of this instrument.

Keep on Jammin’

I wish that I could find a profile shot of this guitar. When I look at the volume control buttons in the bottom left of the guitar, it seems like they are counter sunk into the body. Does it look like that to you? If you look closely at the bottom right of the guitar near the rhythm pick up, it’s furthest pick up to the right, there is a coat of arms there. Is it me or does the writing look like it’s written in Arabic? Anyway, this thing looks awesome! The person that would suit this one perfectly would be my dear old friend Eddie! I hope you enjoyed it.

Keep on Jammin’

The best review I’ve read so far about this beautiful instrument is very detailed. The reviewer makes it extremely difficult for the reader NOT to run out and pick this baby up ASAP. If there is anyone out there that has more dollars then sense, then please send me a comment and I’ll forward you my home address so you can send one to me! Thanx in advance to my new best friend, where ever you are.

Just to clear some things out of the way, the OM in OMJM is a technique that guitar makers use to make an acoustic guitar more responsive. The OM guitar is a far more dynamic instrument by design that produces better bass and treble tonality simultaneously, in contrast with alternative guitar making techniques. I’m referring to dreadnoughts or classical type of guitars.

The manufacturers of the OM style acoustic guitars, are Taylor & Martin (they’re the ones who started this style in the first place). A ton of guitarists out there consider Martin, the hands down winner of the two.

I love Martin guitars. Before I even bought my Larrivee L-03, I had Martin acoustic guitars on my mind. Martin guitar had the name, the longevity of the product and let’s not forget about who actually plays them, that appealed to me at that time. When it came down to crunch time on which one I’d get, it was an easy choice.

I basically bought the L-03 to play one song on it. That song was On the Road by Max Webster and I was going to play with an old band that I was in way back in the day called Pylis.

The best sounding Martin that John Mayer used before Martin made the OMJM was his Martin OM-28v. The sound that he gets with this is just unreal and it appears to be super responsive as well.

So my nephew Patrick told be the other day that he and his new OMJM are heading up here soon for a little visit and I can’t wait. I’m more then sure I ‘ll tell you all about the visit after he leaves.

Keep on Jammin’

I ran into this situation a couple of minutes ago. I was watching a neat little video from a drummer name Gavin Harrison. It was a video from a concert that he performed titled Sound of Muzak, in which he and his huge drum kit are the only things on the stage. I must admit that I have never seen a video like this, so I had to watch it in it’s entirety.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzFfNk4xGTE

The video is not about a drummer performing inhuman drum solo over and over again, in what seems like eternity!

It shows us a guy who has perfect command of his drumming technique. Gavin’s style shows us that every one of his movements (rolls) are extremely fluid, flowing seamlessly from one drum to another. His drum kit in huge and the sound is just amazing! Now here is where I run into that old saying!

A old buddy of mine, Domenic, has shown us time and time again that he too exhibits these same musical skills as Gavin, but Domenic does so on a much smaller drum kit. He makes his modest gear sound like he is playing on a much larger one. Not that I’m bashing Gavin Harrison, not at all! It’s just that I think, most non musicians out there believe that you must have a lot of drums to produce a sound big. Now listen to by buddy to see what I am getting at.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgXnYew2YRE

So my question to you is does a bigger drum kit mean that you are a better drummer?

Keep on Jammin’

When checking out Facebook to see what was up, I realized that a buddy of mine (Wilton Said) had some sort of new web site, actually it’s his newsletter, that I was unaware of so I visited it. The newsletter had been around for a while, man am I ever behind on the old computer, so I just had to search for some neat ideas from this great keyboardists!

The site is nice and sleek. Simple to navigate and of coarse full of great tunes from the band! Right now I’m listening over and over to a song that I believe, sums up the idea of the band. It’s called The Empty Sky part 1. Every time I hear it, this one song brings me back to the first time I saw Wilton and his band at the Nuance festival for the first time two years ago.

I came across this fantastic interview of Wilton on Bill’s Prog Blog that I enjoyed reading. It talks about Wilton’s humble beginnings, what he and his band are up to now and what’s to come in the future. If you’ve never heard of this band before or your just into music that will make you think, then your search is over! Enjoy everyone and your welcome!

Keep on Jammin’ Wilton Said