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Don Kirshners Rock concert

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Don Kirshners’ Rock concert brought us the best that Rock & Roll had to offer. It was the best and most viewed music show on television during my youth … and we thank you for it Don, wherever you are these days. This music variety show premiered on September 29, 1973 and sadly ended on January 1, 1981.

I can vividly remember staying home and watching this show countless nights, seeing musical giants strutting the stage! My mind would wander, imagining myself performing with these greats. I thought about how in the hell, what did these guys do to make the guitar sound like that? Did they sell their souls to the devil for unearthly musical powers?

At the time, Don Kirshners Rock concert was a land that I wanted to go to and be part of some how, some way. I now realize that this show helped me to become hooked on guitar playing.

The shows that really were embedded in my mind were Black Sabbath, Frank MarinoPoco, Brownsville Station , Kool and the Gang (as a young guitar player, these guys were out of sight man!), and John Klemmer (I distinctly remember this being my first exposure to jazz guitar playing).

Here is just a PARTIAL list of the musical who’s who of Rock, that played on the show, as well as helped forge my R & R experience for years to come!

Bad Company, Badfinger, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Black Sabbath, Brownsville Station, Joan Baez, Pat Benatar, Black Oak Arkansas, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Blue Öyster Cult, David Bowie, The Byrds, Harry Chapin, Cheap Trick, Jim Croce, Devo (one of my favorites!), The Doobie Brothers, Eagles
Earth, Wind & Fire, Edgar Winter Group, Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, Golden Earring, The Guess Who, The Hollies, James Gang (the guy who lived down the street played in this band, Domenic Triano), Billy Joel, Johnny Winter, Kansas, B.B. King, Kiss, Mahogany Rush, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Frank Marino, Don McLean, Ted Nugent, New York Dolls, Billy Preston, Prince & The Revolution, Ramones (the ultimate wedding band, imagine the version of the bird dance!), Lou Rawls
The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, Rush (my home town band from Toronto), Santana, Seals and Crofts, Sly & the Family Stone, The Stampeders, (love these guys!), Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, UFO, Uriah Heep, War, Weather Report, and T.Rex. Holly shit batman, what a partial list that was!

I ask people at work if they remember anything about this show and most of the time I get these blank stares looking back at me. Is it just me, or was this show one of the greatest shows to watch as a kid?

God bless Don Kirshner, where ever you are!

Keep on Jammin’ Don




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’

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!

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!

Amos Lee live rocks

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First of all, Amos Lee is a guy who is a bit of an acquired taste, but when you get him, you really get him!

Second, I know I must apologize to my regular readers for not writing on this blog for ages, but it’s the summer time here folks!

The tickets we got for free and the added bonus were the seats. They were 1st balcony, 1st row center right above the sound board. It has been a while since we’ve both been out together and it couldn’t of been better.

His sound was that of many influences. Folk, Jazz, Dixie Land and Jazz were right there front from the start. The band that was with him complimented him perfectly. They seemed like they all were high school buddies, that just happened to stumble upon this thing called playing in a band and was enjoying every minute of it.

The drummer was simple but yet very tight. He also caught my wife’s musical eyes in that he plays the drums the other way from what she normally sees in other bands. The bass player reminded me of Billy Wyman in his stage presence. Great bassist, but seemed very, very relaxed on stage.

Now the keyboardist with Amos Lee was another story. He was the most colorful on stage. His sound was big and bouncy! His stage demeanor had the essence of Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band. He was just a grooving to everything and he knew when to fade in and out perfectly! Now for the man of the hour, Amos!

amos-lee.jpg

The style he plays is quite simple, most of the time, but he shows how to pull out all the stops at the drop of a hat. His voice took some time getting use to, but in the end he made quite the impression on all of us! The song that stood out in my eyes was Sweet Pea. When I was first deciding which free show to go to, it was this song that drew me towards seeing him. The way he plays this one live is just plain and simply amazing! To see what I mean, I highly recommend going out and seeing this guy live … I know you’ll won’t be disappointed.

Keep on Jammin’

John Mayer is coming to Toronto

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John Mayer will be playing July 7, 2008 at the Molson Amphitheatre.

jm1.jpg I’ve been so busy doing everything but blogging and playing that I almost missed this show that I would kill to go and see! I love seeing bands live anywhere, but when looking at ticket prices it really makes ya wonder if it’s really worth it.

Now if I had to choose a guitar player(s) I’d like to be stranded on a desert island with, with a 20 year supply of strings and picks, this guy or Bruce Cockburn would be the winners hands down. Just watching John play, or for that matter even listening to anything he does just makes my mind wonder around aimlessly. Oh all those wild chord inversions!!!

jm2.jpgHas anyone else looked at ticket prices and thought the same thing?

The prices are just out of this world! Who can afford them, I can’t even begin to justify the cost. Is it just me or is the way artists make their money on CD sales?

John, I love ya brother, but are you really worth it? Well … maybe.

Keep on Jammin’

P.S. If someone wants to learn how to play a couple of his tunes, and you have a extra ticket with my name on it, I’ll give you 10 free guitar lessons!

Hope I’m like this in my Golden Years

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Have you ever thought of what it will be like in your Golden Years, well ya better start now!

You can see another humorous video over at my other guitar related blog Guitar Licks and Tips.

Keep on Jammin’

Guitar World has a fantastic selection of guitar tabs

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In all honesty, good readership, when I first started to pick up my axe again after a huge break, I didn’t even think about using the internet to look up how to play tunes. Yes, what a rookie move. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until I started searching online that I began to use tabs at all!

I used to read music all the time no matter which instrument I was playing. So over the years I eventually drifted away from this method of playing and used my memory for most tunes. After a while there were far too many little parts that I had forgotten and it made me quit disappointed in my playing ability! Nowadays, I don’t know what I’d do without guitar tabs. They certainly make it easier to learn a new song!

Although I’ve only used a couple of sites in the past, this site, Guitar World, really stands out to me. Browsing through the site I soon realized that if I was either a beginner, or advanced player of most common instruments, this would be a website to seriously bookmark.

This is a fabulous site to use if you’re looking for some great tunes to add to your repertoire no matter what instrument you play!

I’m a huge Beatles nut from way back in the day so I decided to see what they had. I actually found some refreshing new ways to approach some old standbys that made a lot of sense in my mind. The Guitar World’s Beatles guitar tabs section is very impressive to say the least! The videos in this section were nice, and simple to understand, just the way I like them!

They had so many unique interpretations of how to play certain tunes that I just had to stop and think about where in the song could I squeeze them in. Besides, there is nothing better than having the ability to change up and improve songs when you’re playing live. Always remember that when playing live in front of other musicians, they will take apart everything you do on or off stage. If you add different approaches to a song, you make it that much more appealing to those in the know and they WILL be impressed!

Their nirvana guitar tabs category is a must check out area as well! The tabs here have that subtle differences that you’re looking for in order to keep the crowd attentive and wanting to hear more from ya.

This is a must site to see, I’ll guarantee you!

Keep on Jammin’

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