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An Audiophile’s Wonderland

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OMG, I just stumbled upon this site that is too good to be true! This site is called Your Mother Should Know Recordings is a much to go see and bookmark if you love your non-commercially recorded groups and their rare recordings.

You can listen to some unbelievable concerts from the greats like Grateful Dead with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix-Stevie Wonder, Les Paul Trio with Dickie Betts, Jethro Tull Carnegie Hall 1970 just to name a few. I dare you to NOT find something that you don’t like on it!

The best part of this site in my view is the “List of Music to Trade”. I know that they will be hearing from me in the very near distant future, now it’s your turn!

The only thing about this is that I hope that someone does not shut it down for some stupid reason or another.

So go and check this page out and accept the above challenge and get back to us on what you found!

keep on Jammin’




Michael Hedges

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This is a player who should be in everyones’ music collection. Michael Hedges is so innovative, crisp in the clarity of his unique style and most of all provides a very refreshing new experience. Just listening to the creative levels of his guitarmanship makes your mind wonder off towards a different level of consciousness. Just listen to the video and you will see what I am referring to.

Just off topic a bit but, I thought that I was the only one who was constantly tuning my guitar between songs. The beginning part is useful to a player who is attempting to play his style of playing, it certainly helped me out.

He refers to his style as “violet acoustic” which is a style that I might be considered to use frequently as well. Actually, aggressive acoustic is more appropriate. Michael Hedges has this gift to be able to dampen strings, which is called “Right hand string stopping” by classically trained guitarist. This is applied to the bass strings of the guitar by your thumb. Michael however, brought this to a new level of playing.

He insisted that you should dampen every individual note that is not worthy of hearing. Michael thought that letting a string ring out is like contaminating the chord structure of a song and not giving the listener the clarity of sound that you want them to hear, and I quote “It’s just, why let it ring by default of any thought? Be responsible! Don’t let things just go on because you started them.” This poses a huge problem for most guitarists. That is, it is very difficult to do this while flying around the fret board at warp speed.

The only way to achieve this level is to apply the old adage “slow down, I’m in a hurry”. Did ya ever hear of that one?

This means that you have to slow down so much that, when you play a piece fast at such slow speeds paying attention to every single minute detail, it allows you to play almost error free. I do this all the time when I practice and I may lose my marriage to my wife one day because of it. Her mind is so agile and crisp that she can do things flying around at MACH 5 and absorb things while executing it almost perfectly.

I have to give credit where credit is do so, thanx Brian @ RiffDreams for this great new guitar experience.

Keep on Jammin’

Fellow Brantford guy does well

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A great friend of the Power family’s son Jessie, is truly the apple of his father’s eye. In a recent article about Jesse from the Brantford Expositor this past Thursday, July 19, 2007, pretty much sums up the bright future ahead for this Brantford Musician. I really wish him the best of luck!

I fondly remember many stories about this man’s son and his guitar playing ability. I recall many stories about him doing the things that kids do over the years but never ever met the guy. He, along with his father, was a player whom I had always wanted to jam with but never had the time to do so. I hope that I can jam with him now that he is a star in the making, LOL!

I just checked out Jesse’s Myspace and LiveVideo and found it quite refreshing. He is just an honest guy doing a honest man’s gig in my home city of Brantford! I hope that this is not his Last Song!

Keep on Jammin’ Jesse

Who needs coffee to wake up in the morning

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Well kidz I woke up this morning, thank God for that, and was surfing and collecting e-mail at breakfast when a nice women started to rapidly knock on our front door. Looking at her she could have been easily mistaken for one of those Jehovah Witness people, but she had a look of concern in her eyes.

I got up off the couch and opened the door. She immediately started to talk about the next door neighbour’s hydro wire making strange buzzing sounds and the smell of burning wood in the air. She dragged me outside and I soon realized why she had that look in her eyes.

A branch the neighbour’s tree was hanging precariously on the upper tier of the hydro pole. We could smell burning wood in the air and see some leaves on the branch starting to smoke and then just suddenly went out. Wooo, that was close.

As the threat subsided I thanked her and she went on her merry way. I then went inside our home to explain to my wife what had just happened. We both agreed that I should take pictures to have just in case something happened later for insurance purposes. She said that she would also contact the City and the power (Hydro) company to inform them of the incident. So at this point I went back outside to see if everything was still ok.

Upon going outside to take a few pictures of the branch in question, another branch caught on fire. After the shock wore off, I had this vision in my mind of the whole damn tree catching on fire followed by our neighbour’s house soon after. Did I tell you that we are in a semi-detached home right beside said neighbour?

I then ran over to the neighbors to try and get them out of their home. After telling them to get out I walked back to the sidewalk and all of a sudden there was this HUGE BANG sound followed by little shards of cement and little burning leaves flying through the air. Who needs coffee to wake up in the morning when a BIG BANG can do the same at the fraction of the cost.

I wish someone had caught my body and facial expression at that moment on tape! I bet that I looked like one of those people in a wild west movie being told to dance while the local drunk at the saloon peppers the floor below their feet with bullets. I felt like I nearly jumped out of my skin. That would have been hilarious to see.

Next thing I know, half the neighbourhood was beside me asking me what happened and saying that their power is out. My wife was now on the cell phone, hanging out our front door while talking to 911 and the fire people. She then gave me the phone and I was talking to a woman. I told her quickly what had happened and she said that the fire fighters and police were on their way. Just as she said that, they were flying down the street and right in front of me. Boy, now that is service!

So all is well in our neck of the woods and now I can get back to my morning coffee.

Keep on Jammin’

1,800 Guitarists Set World Record Playing ‘Smoke on the Water’

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Now that would be a sight or should I say sound to hear! I hope that they were all in tune. I wonder how far they got in the song?

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Anyway, those crazy (and I mean that in a nice way) Germans just seem to love their hard rock and where the mullet seems to never have gone out of style.

They had 1802 guitarists, ranging from 6 to 80 years of age, play this tune simultaneously.

It happened on Saturday, June 25 2007, in the village of Leinfelden-Echterdingen in the German state of Baden-Württembergwonder. Makes one wonder what the previous record is. Well if you really want to know it was in June in Kansas City in the US, where 1,683 guitarists got down and riffed together.

The Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan was trying to take part in a live link-up from England, but was prevented from singing along by technical problems. Now that would have been cool to be there if they did get the glitch to work right.

If the record is not exceeded by September, the record will go into the Guinness Book of Records.

Keep on Jammin’

My new SONY HDR-SR5 Video Camera

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So we finally got ourselves a more then capable HD Video camera. Our SONY HDR-SR5 was bought this past Sunday. I have been going over the manual for some time now and I must admit it seems easy enough to use but to get the desired effect maybe another story.

hdr-sr5.jpg My first video attempt was just random shots here and there around the house. I also had the opportunity to video some fireworks down at our local park. It was Canada Day on Sunday so perfect timing! The focus was so fluid and the simple effects were just plain simple to execute! The touch screen was very user friendly not to mention very cool as well! It is set up in such a simple format that even my parents, I think, could figure it out. Sorry mom & dad!

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The HDR-SR5 has a CD for running the camera for idiots and another for the recording software as well as an in dept PDF manual that is very straight forward.

If you are looking for a HD Video camera I think you should check this one out! The only problem that I have with this so far is that we need a S-Video cable to plug it into our SAMSUNG HDTV. Otherwise full steam ahead.

Today I will install the software in my laptop and try out a few of the basic functions. I hope the software allows me to import the audio from an POD to the final video. If I am having problems the old boys at G-Force Media Productions in Toronto, can certainly help me out!

So wish me luck! Finally after all the hype about my starting to set up lessons on line it really will be coming soon to you my good readership!!!

Keep on Jammin’

Nice Finger picking on this guy

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Boy is this guy good. His name is Steven King and I will be watching out to see if he will be playing in Toronto any time soon! Also, check out the positioning of his middle pick up on his guitar, neat huh?

He may come across to some guitar players as the typical technically perfect musician with a lack of feel, but that’s ok, he’s really good at what he does. The best part comes at 1:02 of his performance.

This was the feeling that I got when listening to this type of player when I was 13 – 14 years old. I couldn’t get my thick head around the idea that this was great or, to a greater extent, cool music to play for audiences.

Then again, I was in a Kiss tribute band at the time, see earlier posts from this era of my career. Once again, my best and most influential guitar teacher was looking out for my development without me even realizing it.

He started teaching me little ditties to play that were both cool and technically satisfying for me to play at the time, and also some kids my age thought that it was good to listen to as well. Later on, I started to play “Suite Case” blues by Rik Emmett of Canadian Super Group Triump, from the Just a Game album. This direction of guitar playing has truly stood the test of time with me.

So take a little listen to this style of guitar picking. You might even try to decide if this is a style that you may want to add it to you own repertoire of techniques. Also go to youtube and input his name to find more of his work. You’ll envy this guitar guru!

Keep on Jammin’

Guitars made out of recycled material

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You’ve got to read this story!

This guy, Lenny Piroth-Robert, makes guitars out of discarded cigar boxes. Have you ever heard of such a thing? He uses the empty cigar boxes to make the body of the guitar. it takes him about 8 weeks to make a guitar and they are apparently selling like mad on the internet.

I’ve got to check this guy out! Oh, did I mention he’s Canadian? Yeah, he’s working out Montreal. Check out his site – Daddy Mojo Custom Cigar Box Guitars. You’ve got to see the guitars. I want one! Hey, they sell for $175 to $375, I think I can talk the wife into that.

Best Canadian band that you never heard

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Well this is a follow-up post from my last one.

Most music lovers in Ontario in the 80’s, were exposed to and grew up with some of the most extraordinary musical talents. But the ones that were

I bet that these guys would have done well for themselves in the European market. Bands of that era especially Saga, which had a huge cult following in Germany, shows that it can be done! Some of them tended to just peter off a bit in their later stages of the European introduction.

I just thought that I would introduce to you all, to an eye opening Canadian talent that changed my view of how to play in a uniquely Canadian way. Some of you I highly recommend you listen to this a couple of times, to really appreciate it. The guys are truly showing us here their advanced interpretations of just how to play their music to us here. Imagine the guys who influenced them!

I would just killed to play this song live with the old Pylis band. Our keyboardist Tony could play anything on those damn black boxes of his! The guy is just way too modest for this world (you got that Tony?).

So without further adieu … Ladies and Gentlemen … FM!!!

Oh, BTW, Nash is the guy in the bandages.

This little ditty is of them during their Gary Neuman period. There is a great hint of Roxy Music and Yes in there to tantalize your musical ear as well.

Keep on Jammin’

The Guitar Resource

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Just like every other guitar player on the planet, you realize that there is always someone out there that knows more then you do. You may spend your time, like I do, by searching, and then figuring out different styles to play that will help develop a unique sound that you can call your own. This does take a long time. Or, you can search the web for sites that can dramatically speed up this process.

Some great guitar sites even expose you to different ways to listen and understand overall musical structures. Well, I think that I have found one that does all the above and then some. The site is called The Guitar Resource. This is like one stop shopping for technique!

The Guitar Resource has an article called Circle of Fifths that will help with everything from finger exercises all the way to chords and chord progressions.

Not only does the Guitar Resource provide information on how to play, but it has a great selection called How to Read Tabs that compliment and makes the site that much more informative.

The videos that he makes about his topics are top shelf! He has the uncanny ability to make you feel relaxed and he doesn’t talk down to you. His posts also make you sit down and think about what and how to achieve all this without all that dry musical theory stuff. It gives you the very basics and lets you go from there. If you want more detailed info, then just ask him. It’s just that simple.

The tools provided at The Guitar Resource are simple and straight to the point. You don’t need all the bells and whistles to achieve your goal, and I think that he has that aspect all sowed up since he started in March 12th, 2007.

I also found a fabulous book in the portion of his site called Recommended. The book is called the “Practical Theory for Guitar”. Yes it certainly is a must have for any guitarist regardless of his/her level. I looked at some articles and found it simple and straight to the point, so I’m seriously thinking of buying it! I have to hand it to this fellow, he certainly got it right on this one too.

If you visit the guitar resource be sure to check out the tabs that you will find across the top of the site. He has a section called The Store. Within the store you will find a featured product as well as a selection of categories such as Guitars, Amps, Strings, concert shop, guitar instruction, parts and accessories and whole lot more.

All and all, as the name says, The Guitar Resource it is a great resource site to fit all aspects of your guitar playing needs.

Keep on Jammin’

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