Guitars, tips and great music discussions
A little bit of Glenn Gould trivia for all of those interested.
(1) Glenn Gould’s mother played the organ at St. Andrew’s Church, 73 Simcoe Street, Toronto. Central Presbyterian church in Toronto
(2) His childhood home was32 Southwood Dr
(3) His summer home in Uptergrove Ont., near lake Simcoe/Orillia.
(4) Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Canada in the Eastern part, section 38, plot 1050 row 1088
(5) His apartment was at 110 St. Clair ave W.
Keep on Jammin’
I first heard of this band by my buddy Tony when we were standing next to the speakers at the Saga concert that I was at recently.
He had told me that his son that has his own band, loves this type of Rock. He quickly described it as a hybrid of RUSH, Saga, Yes and Heavy thrashing metal. These guys I had to check out!
I first headed off to what in the world is that obscure site called … oh ya, youtube and listened to a few of Dream Theater’s tunes.
This is the one song that really caught my eye. It was everything that Tony had told me about all wrapped up into one song.
The keyboardist sounded like a young Rick Wakeman near the beginning and the bass player sounded a bit like Chris Squire. The guitarist had that Alex Lifeson sound that he had on A Farewell to Kings album one minute then a hint of Permanent Waves the next! The vocalist at first sounded a bit like Jethro Tall then Michael Sadler from Saga.
Todays music in my mind, sometimes lack the feel of musical diversity. There is so much influence out there that bands just don’t tap into. Remember, there is no such thing as a completely new style that has never been heard of before. We may use multiple approaches/styles to create these new sounds but we all use outside influences to create our own individual stamp of music.
I now think that it’s time to let Rick be exposed to this style and see if he can incorporate some of this into his unique approach!
Don’t miss any posts from this site subscribe now!
Keep on Jammin’
You just have to love Indie music! Since the turn of the millennium Indie bands have been using the Internet to promote their music and they’ve been quite successful. Their success of course is directly related to consumers use of the internet as a medium for listening to new music, gathering current information about bands and of course buying the music produced by these bands.
Another great thing about the success of Indie music on the internet is that these bands don’t have to bow down to the rules of the big labels. They can stay true to their music. Some of these brave souls just like to create music to be appreciated and listened to while someone else takes the spot light, no biggie for them.
I recently visited the indie music blog. It’s official name is Indie Update. On this site you’ll find honest articles and opinions about up and coming Indie bands.
One of the write ups – The onerepublic review – talks about how this indie band has had great success on MySpace and how Myspace is offering Indie bands a great new way to gain exposure. I believe that each of the Indie band articles on this blog have a link to each bands MySpace page where you can listen to samples of the bands music and learn more about the band members.
I was captivated by the Indie Music history series. In this series of post you can read how Indie music came about and how it’s evolved from the 1960’s to the present day. The author has really done their research for these Indie Music History posts. I’m sure you’ll be fascinated when you read them.
If you enjoy Indie Music I think you’ll want to bookmark or subscribe to the Indie Music blogs rss feed so that you can keep up with the latest Indie bands on the scene.
Mark Goffeney is definitely in the running for my vote for the most unique guitarists to have come around in quite some time.
I saw this somewhere and when I saw it I knew that I had to post about it.
I mean have you ever tried this feat, no pun intended!
It is hard but this guy makes it look just plain old easy? Check out his site and enjoy the show!
Mark also has a great myspace account.
Keep on Jammin’ indeed!
Has anyone out there heard of this guitar maker? I found out about these guys through a patient that I was taking back to their room after a procedure. The patient was a bass player and said that it was the pride of the collection. So curious about it I went and googled it.
To my amazement the makers were none other them Leo Fender – Maker of all pre-CBS Fender as well as Music Man instruments – and George Fullerton.
Leo Fender, we all know who he is but, the other guy, not so much. George Fullerton is the co-creater of the Fender Stratocaster. Not a bad thing to have as a lasting legacy of a man now is it!
G & L was the result of Leo having to sell his company in 1965 due to health problems that he was having in the early 60’s. It was started up in 1980 at the same location that had housed his Clarence Leo Fender Research (CLF) facility.
Some of the musicians who use these beauty’s are personal favorites of mine. For example:
Carl Perkins, Canada’s own Gord Sinclair (The Tragically Hip), Peter Frampton and Bob Mayo (Peter Frampton Band), Neal Schon (Journey), Davey Johnstone (Elton John band), Gary Hewitt (Gary Allan Band) and all the guitarists from Aerosmith and INXS. Just to name a few.
If you happen to come across this post and own one of these beauty’s PLEASE write a comment here about your experiences about your axe. We’d really like to hear from you, please?
Keep on Jammin’
I was made aware of the Saga concert on the morning of the show.
Tony, God bless that guy, called me on Saturday morning and asked if we were going to see them that night. I had told him that I knew nothing of the show and hung up to get some tickets on-line.
My wife was not feeling up to going to the show so I naturally decided to contact my keyboardist friend Rick to drag him along.
The tickets were $20.00 Can. the seating was in general admission. We were one the first one’s there so we decided to stand beside the stage. We waited for a long time until Tony,the old keyboardist from Pylis and his beautiful wife Laurie to meet us there.
Last time we saw Saga live was around 2 years ago at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Toronto. That night we stood on the right side of the stage were Ian Crichton the guitarist traditionally played. Tony wanted us to be on Ian’s side of the stage so I could be amazed by his wizardry. At this point I was recovering from a heart problem and I thought that it was really nice of my old buddy to be thinking in this way!
This time I thought we should be on the keyboardist Jim Gilmour’s side because of Tony’s nice gesture the last time we saw the boys in the band.
We were around 15 feet, yes 15 feet away from him and it was wonderful vantage point to see the band from. Tony couldn’t have been happier.
Here is the set that they played that night!
Trust
That’s as far as I’ll go
Wind him up
Your not alone
The one
The Perfectionist
Conversations
Scratching the surface He did this solo and it was dedicated to a married couple that he knew.
The Flyer
The Perfectionist
The Runaway
See them smile
Compromise
Careful where you step
Don’t be late
Don’t be late is my favorite Saga of all time! It really was the best song that I have ever played then and now!!!
Encore
Humble stance
On the Loose
The end of a Rocking Roll/Progressive Rock era ladies and gentlemen.
Keep on Rockin’ Saga!
Earlier this morning my old friend and keyboard player from Pylis gave me an unexpected call. He informed me that Saga was playing tonight at a great venue called Jeff Healey’s Roadhouse in downtown Toronto. He said that he got some tickets for him and his wife and wanted to know if we were interested in going. I asked my wife and she was not feeling up to it due to her illness
I’ve never been there but it has been house to many a great band. It holds up to 600 guests and it has been up and running for many years now.
Get back to you soon!
Keep on Jammin’
I had tried in vain to locate exactly which house the Legendary Canadian guitarist, Dominic Troiano, lived in ever since my neighbour’s son had told me. I kept asking him if he could remember and he kept saying that he’ll someday soon he’ll go around there to try and jog his memory. I’m still waiting on that one Johnny.
A fellow employee in the hospital that I work with was a great friend to my neighbour’s son John. He too also said that he remembers his brother Dominic trying to play guitar. He had told me that they hung around Domenic’s brother and played cards with him for when they were young. I had met him at work one day after John had told me about our previous neighbour and asked him the same question. He had gave me the same response that John gave me.
I, being the very introverted person that I am, talked to everyone in the area that looked liked they lived here for ages. With the same question that I had for John and his buddy in hand, I obtained the same answer over and over again.
Now 5 years later, I stumbled upon the answer on line by chance. My jaw dropped, I grabbed my wife’s Canon camera and got in the car. In case your wondering I took the car because I didn’t want to be seen taking a picture of someone’s in secret. The owners may have thought that I was casing the joint!
Now I’m finally in front of the ex-home of Mr. Troiano. Like a kid at Christmas, I get out of the car and just stare at it. I just can’t believe that I’m there.
He lived at the house on the right hand side of the picture. This is the type of home that is quite common in our area. It’s a semi-detached white house with brown trim. Small front yard with a small parking pad but just knowing that he lived and grew up here made it fell bigger then what it was.
In the front yard there was a middle aged man with his little dog talking to a neighbour. The man looked like a jazz musician and approachable. So what the heck, I might as well get out of the car and talk to the guy.
It turns out that he really is a jazz musician and very well aware of the history of the home. He told me that he has even approached the Troiano family through e-mail to see if they wanted to re-visit their own home! Now that’s a real gentleman.
He said that the home has not been renovated that much and that the feel of the home was almost the same as when he got it. He also told me that he bought it from the Troiano’s. The molding floor and ceiling was original and so was the front door.
After talking for a while, I asked him if I could take some pic’s for this post and he said yes. The thing that got my attention the most was the door. Imagining Dominic going up to that door and opening it sent goose bumps all over me, wow!
So now I know a little bit more about the history of our great neighbourhood and can share it with you all.
Mr Dominic Troiano R.I.P.
Keep on Jammin’
The one thing that I see in the evolution of the acoustic guitar today is its link with the past from Canada’s own, Glenn Gould.
He used a unique approach while playing in his later years, around 1983, when he took away part of the piano body to let the sound come out of the instrument in a unorthodox way.
First of all, the guy was way ahead of his time. What he did was to remove the wooden cover section that is used to cover the piano keys. He removed this part entirely. He would also close the piano lid on his concert piano, allowing the sound to be sent through the missing cover section of the piano.
This allowed him to hear the subtle tones while playing his music.
This was best shown in his 1980’s work of the gloomy nature of life. The slowness of some of his canon’s reflect the need for this type of sound exposure that the musician needs to fully understand what the audience hears, but as a very unique approach.
Second of all, the guy went to places that no one probably ever thought of venturing. I wonder if the person who thought of the guitar side ports ever watched Glenn Gould Hereafter? If he did, I bet this is where he may have got the idea, but then again I could be dead wrong.
I have been toying around with the idea of putting in a new state of the art pick up system in my Larrivee. The system is called the LR Baggs iMIX. It captures a lot of the character in my guitar with an active response to it. That means that the pickups pick up the aggressive or passive playing of the strings on the guitar.
Now in order to place it in there, I must have it installed inside the body above the sound hole, closest to my face. That’s fine with me. The next question is what in the world do I do with the hole that the factory installed system sat in? It would look mighty funny just viewing a rectangular opening right there in my face. Do I just leave it there or what should I do with it? Here is my best option, I think.
I have always wanted both of my acoustic guitars to have pick ups so I can have a back-up on stage. So why not put my old pick up from the Larrivee into my old Aspen acoustic guitar. Perfect, I think? Unfortunately if I do this I will have this opening on the side of the body near my chest where the old system was. It would look so odd and out of place that I would be reluctant to let anyone look at my guitar. So while talking about my problem with the guitar tech at the 12th fret, he gave me this fabulous idea of the side port!
They could change the look of the old hole and create a fancy looking design in it’s place!
This will allow a small portion of the sound to come up directly to me acting like another sound hole or a monitor if you will. This will not effect the tonal qualities of my baby I have been told. The tech had one in this part of the workshop that he made and let me try it out. Not only did it look very cool and original, but it was nice to have some sound coming from a part of the guitar that I have never heard it coming from in the past.
Now all I have to do is convince my wife about this one, wish me and my Larrivee luck will you all?
Keep on Jammin’
I was just reading an interesting article in our Maclean’s Magazine today called “Jim’s Fireman“. It was in the Aug. 13th/07 edition.
It talks about the fire chief who arrived at 17 rue Beautreillis in the Marais district of Paris on July 3rd, 1971, who pronounced “Mr. James Morrison Dead”. Now that’s just not your average statement.
The article lightly talks about the call that was dispatched to him, what happened after it and how it still effects his life to this day.
So go check it out and tell me what you think of it. It’s not earth shattering, but it brings a different slant on what happened that day to the “Lizardman”.
Keep on Jammin’