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Canada’s Streetheart

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I never knew this, but the band Streetheart was Canadian band! Hum, something else for us to be proud of!

These guys were the first big rock concert that I saw at Ivor Wynne Stadium (originally Civic Stadium) in Hamilton! This was when Under my thumb was huge back when I was younger!

The band had so many hits over the years that they just seemed to be one of those bands that stood the test of time.

They weren’t always in your face, but were there politely sitting in the background, waiting for their turn.

Songs that stick out in my mind were Action, Hollywood, Here comes the night and Snow White.

Anyone else heard of these guys? I’m not sure if they were just big in Canada, but remained mainly obscure in the rest of the world.

Keep on Jammin’




Is the Guitar Solo dead

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Is the guitar solo really dead? Good question.

Once a intricate portion of any rock song, it seems to have skipped a musical generation of today’s Top 40 scene. To some listeners, if you play one you are dating yourself. The bands today, if you can call some of them that, seem to think that they take up too much precious air time. What the hell are they thinking/smoking?

Depending on your musical upbringing, you might now be praying for a musical messiah! Remember when Disco was at the height of musical fashion and you were of the Rock & Roll ilk? Everyone wanted to dig disco an early grave. Maybe we should entertain this train of thought for some todays bands?

Today’s musical style seems to be influenced by the alternative and the grunge scene of the 90’s. They seemed to have got the ball rolling on the decline of the guitar solo. They concentrated more on the means and lyrics of their songs. Let’s not even venture off into the dance or hip hop scene for the time being!

As for the general listening public of today, the intricate aspects of this lost art is well … lost! Should we also blame the bands themselves? Do they think it’s too hard to come up with new ideas to share with us OR is it the music industry stunting it’s grow? Why isn’t anyone out there using this tried and tested rock and roll tool? Ok, just maybe the hair bands of the 80’s went way over the top (or just plain showing off!) on this one, but lets try and rethink this one a bit shall we?

I think that the guitar solo’s of the 90’s and even todays’ bands, are not as singable as the fore fathers of the guitar solo intended them (knowingly or not) to be. Everyone in the world can hum along to the guitar solo in Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven and that ilk. So why can’t they do this now?

The public now seems more fixated on that little plastic guitar thingy called Guitar Hero. I honestly thought at first, this was a good thing, but the jury is still out on that one. They have these blistering solo’s in their play list from past guitar greats such as Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix on this toy. I for one am waiting for the next wave of guitar greats to be added to the collection! What’s your take on this one?

LONG LIVE THE GUITAR SOLO!!!

For the love of God, Keep on Jammin’

Illness puts Yes tour on hold or does it

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The super group YES, had to cancel their latest tour, due to asthma attacks that will sideline the bands lead vocalist Ian Anderson.

His physician told him that he just has to rest for six months after suffering an asthma attack. Respiratory problems are nothing to take lightly! I’ve seen what toll it can take on people personally … I work in a hospital … remember that SARs thing, I do?

Anyway, because of his health issue, Ian Anderson is “deeply disappointed” but realizes one’s health must take priority!

“You can’t ever really replace Jon Anderson, because he’s been such a force in the music business,” Squire said. “We look upon his replacement as more of an understudy.”

So how does one replace this little iconic powerhouse of a vocalist … you simple go and search on Youtube like everyone else does. Da, Da, enter Benoit David.

His band is called CLOSE TO THE EDGE as well as the symphonic rock band Mystery, is from Montreal Canada!

Chris Squire, the bands bass player and only other founding member of YES, and YES is back on tour again! Chris found this guy on Youtube with his YES tribute band playing Close to the Edge and just like that, YES is back on the road!

Chris admits that it’s impossible to replace the diminutive singer, but they can have an under study.

So decide for yourself, worthy or not worthy?

I sure as hell wouldn’t want to fill those shoes … no matter what his size is.

Keep on Jammin’

Richard Wright of Pink Floyd has died

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A founding member of Pink Floyd has lost his battle with cancer. We have just lost more then a fabulous musician, but the idea of a way of thinking how we listen to music! The man was the keyboardist of Pink Floyd, imagine their music without keyboards.

Let’s pray that he does go to the great gig in the sky.

And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it,

Keep on Jammin’ Richard, where ever you are


Paradise Skies Max Webster

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This was, in my mind, Canada’s greatest Rock and Roll band of all time!

I think they had more in the tank then they let on.

This is a really weird video from a show called UK Gold. This was when the band was touring support of the Million Vacations album. So, for all you Max fans out there, Enjoy!

Keep on Jammin’ Max and the Maxa Machine!

Journey Concert in Toronto

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This super group of the from late 1978 to the present, played in Toronto last night at the Molson Amphitheater. This also happens to be the band’s new lead singer’s, Arnel Pineda’s, birthday. I bet he put on a fabulous show this night!

I have been a fan of Journey for some time now. I remember figuring out how to play Don’t Stop Believing on the piano when I was attending St. John’s High School in Brantford and I played it all the time. The vocalist Steve Perry range was unforgettable and some of the guitar work was just so in your face.

I only regret that I did not get the opportunity to have played any of their songs with Pylis. Now that was tragic indeed. Anyway your want it, would have been the best fit in mind!

The former lead singer Jeff Scott Soto is replaced by Arnel Pineda. Arnel is from Quezon City in the Philippines. While looking for a replacement for Jeff, Guitarist Neal Schon, located Arnel on youtube singing many tunes with his band The Zoo. He got a hold of him through youtube and the rest is history.

This show also had Heart and Cheap Trick on the billing. This would of been one hell of a show to see, I wish that we could have been there for this one!

Keep on Jammin’

Aja from Steely Dan

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The name of the song/album from Steely Dan titled Aja, is from a Korean women.

I’m not sure if I told you all before but some of my earliest exposure to Jazz guitar influences was from this fabulous band, Steely Dan and I owe a lot to this band in terms of my playing style. This is a little bit of music trivia that I found out while viewing youtube searching for Jackie Blue from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

First of all, my wife and I were watching this new show called Swingtown (go tot he bottom right for music samples). It’s about these couples from the 70’s, who were swingers, in the Chicago area. The music for this series is top notch, in our eyes! So while viewing the show, this song from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (viewed by some to be a country version of Steely Dan) entitled Jackie Blue was playing. This song, like most of the songs on this show, just blew me right back to the 70’s during my childhood.

I remember this song as a comforting song, regardless of it’s content. During this part of the show, I picked up my acoustic and tried figuring it out. I was leaning towards a unplugged version of it and I soon nailed it very promptly.

Never perfectly happy in how I play songs, always looking for multiple ways to it, I looked in youtube to see if there was someone else who plays it in an unplugged style with no luck. Then in the Related Video section I found a video called Steely Dan – “Aja” The Making Of:

It was an interview with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen talking about their album Aja. As a kid, I was always interested in who that was on the front cover of it, this is when I found out who it finally was!

aja.jpg

Donald Fagen said that a high school friends older brother brother had went off to Korea and married this women, and her name was Aja. The couple later on moved back to the US. Donald Fagen thought that it was a very romantic image with a feeling of tranquility that comes with the name. Now after writing this particular song, he put her name to it, neat eh? AND she is the one on the front cover!

Another musical mystery solved!

Keep on Jammin’ everybody

Busker Festival Toronto 2008

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This past weekend was the Buskers Festival 2008 event in the big city! It is held in the St. Lawrence Market District of Toronto, and it always looks like a blast to see.

We’ve seen all the news station reports on TV and I wish that I had time to go and check it out.

There are all these way out there buskers, doing their thing, that kinda makes ya wonder, “how in the hell did they get an idea like that to pull off in public”? If I was a busker, then I’d probably be broke if that was my main form of income!

They’ve been doing this event for years and it always seems to have the best weather to hold an event like this year in and year out! Buster fest has everything for everyone of all ages!

Check out the site for more info. and hilarious videos!

So if you can, get of there and see all the funky and unique buskers out there during this annual event. If you do see it, tell us about it. It may even make me make some time to check them out! If not this year, then there is always the next one.

Keep on Jammin’ (or Busking if your not musically inclined!)

Max Webster coming off the moon

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Just in case you have not heard of these guys, here is a little ditty and my old band Pylis played way back in the day.

It has everything you want in a tune to play live! It’s fun, difficult to play and most of all IT’S A CANADIAN BAND!!!!!

Enjoy!

Keep on Jammin’
Max Webster R.I.P.

Tom Cochrane at the Canadian Open

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Tom Cochrane and Red Rider were out of this world at the 2008 Canadian Open. They rekindled my love and deep appreciation for this band not only for their song writing ability but the level of musicianship to boot!

My wife’s brother called us a while ago and asked us if we wanted free tickets to the 2008 Canadian Open in Oakville (God bless this man). At first we were a little bit luke warm on the idea of watching a golf tournament, with the weather that we’ve been having here in southern Ontario this summer, until we found out that Tom Cochrane was playing a free show at the Canadian Open!

This guy is hands down my wife’s favorite band of all time. So with these tickets my wife had just received the best free tickets/concert that she ever could have asked for this year!

We arrived there right at the end of play that Saturday night to find out that nobody was around the stage at all! To say that this was our lucky day would be an understatement. The show had a general seating arrangement so we brought along our two seater foldable lawn chair just in case we could use it. With this in tow, we RAN to the front of the stage. I still couldn’t believe my eyes, nobody was there except the security guys! The beer tent was even around 50 feet behind us, mind you they were quite pricey but at that point who cared.

We were about 20 feet away from Tom Cochrane at worst and 15 feet at best throughout the show. He just rocked from the get go and just kept getting better as the set progressed.

Tom started out by singing Victory Day, then followed up with Big League, then Sinking like a Sunset. After that he did a song dedicated to his daughter Cody which I believe was called Northern Star, after that they did a slowed down version of Good Times, followed by Human Race, White Hot and Life is a Highway. They came back for an Encore and did Lunatic Fringe and ended with Boy inside the man.

The part of the show that I just couldn’t keep my mind off was the guitarist/slide/keyboardist named Ken Greer. The only thing that I will say about this guy was OMG, this guy is one !@#$%^& hell of a GREAT MUSICIAN! More to follow on this guy.

Tom Cochrane and Red Rider(Ken Greer), keep on Jammin’ for the love of GOD!

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