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Judas Priest guitarist’s final curtain call

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Judas Priest‘s K.K. Downing has finally made his final curtain call after 42 years with the band. He just wrote on his website that he decided to leave the band because of a breakdown in the working relationship between himself, the band and management.

Imagine playing in a band for 40 or more years, touring with and putting up with the same buddies and their little idiosyncrasies? I think that might just do it.

The thing that would bother me the most is performing the same old songs over and over again on tour. To this day I can’t for the life of me figure out how the Stones perform some of their standards after 49 years, 49 years! Some musicians might like to fall into the same old groove, playing a collection of their songs to death, but I certainly couldn’t.

Judas Priest plans on carrying on with their latest tour, Epitaph, even without one of it’s founding members. The band will insert another enthusiastic guitar player into the lineup. He is a 31 year old British born guitarist called Richie Faulkner.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K7CNzFhnCE

The one song that comes to mind when I hear the name Judas Priest is You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’. It’s really an anthem song and the bands’ most popular tune. When the song first came out the only guy I remember freaking out over it was my good old buddy Barber! He loved playing it on bass and the enthusiasm on his face when he played will be etched in my mind forever.

So Keep on Jammin’ K.K. Downing!




Kitty Rock guitarist

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For all those who like to Rock … we salute you! This one kitty band sure has a lot going for it. The look and attitude are there, all that’s missing is a few more. The only thing that this Rocker is probably addicted to is cat nip!

Rock and Roll Kitty

Don’t ya just love the mini Marshall Amp, the hairdo and that wild look in killer Kitty’s eyes!

Keep on Jammin’

Jimi Hendrix once played in Engelbert Humperdinck’s band

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Can you believe that Jimi Hendrix played in Engelbert Humperdinck’s band one night late in the 1960’s? Well that is what happened according to him.

So Jimi Hendrix was on tour opening up for Engelbert Humperdinck and Engelbert’s guitar player didn’t show up and he was wondering what he would do. Jimi came up to him and said Hey man don’t worry, I’ll play guitar for you. Engelbert replied You can’t do that, your a star! Jimi then told him, wait a minute, let me check out this place.
Jimi noticed a curtain near the doorway and said, I’ll stand behind that curtain.

englebert asked him You will and Jimi replied I sure will. So Jimi got the music in front of him started playing with the band. Mr Humperdinck says that Jimi sounded like 3 guitars playing all at once. It was the biggest thrill of his life but the only thing that he was so upset about was that it wasn’t recorded! Can you say collector’s item?!

He was on my favorite CBC show called The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. On the show George invites his guest to talk candid off stage about their craziest or most memorable moment that they had and share it on tape to be shown at a later date. This segment of the show is called Best Story Ever.

I wish that I could of found this video on Youtube and dropped it directly into this post but no such luck. So if you want to see the segment in it’s entirety, you have to do a little bit of leg work here folks! It’s time well wasted.

  1. Go to this link
  2. Cut and paste Engelbert Humperdinck best story ever into the site’s search engine
  3. Hit the red Search Video button to the right of it.

Keep on Jammin’

BTO founders being sued

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The driving force behind BTO (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, is now being sued by it’s remaining member’s. The former band mates, Robin Bachman and Blair Thornton, are suing the pair for using their own names.

After the group broke up in 1977, the lawsuit claims Randy Bachman and Turner signed away the rights to the BTO name to their two former bandmates and agreed not to use the Bachman-Turner Overdrive name without the consent of the other parties.

The lawsuit states that Randy Bachman and Turner signed two further deals in 1984 and 2002, saying they wouldn’t use the Bachman-Turner Overdrive name in connection to new recordings and live performances. CTV

The 1970’s Supergroup, made some great music back in the day. Randy and Fred were the brains behind the collection of musicians and I think that they should be able to use the name that they branded. I know the law is against them but when does common sense come into play in something like this? That’s all I have to say.

Here is my Top seven most loved BTO songs!

  1. Lookin’ Out for #1
  2. Not Fragile
  3. Let It Ride
  4. Takin’ Care of Business
  5. You Ain’t Seen nothing Yet
  6. Take it like a man
  7. Gimme Your Money Please

Keep on Jammin’ Randy and Fred!

Cat Stevens is finally back on the road after 30 years

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Cat Stevens is going back out on the road after 30 long years of obscurity! I wonder what kind of groups will be following him? Ah, I know that was a bad one! I just love the man’s songs.

Scottie, Myro is what we called him amongst other names, was the one who taught me some of his songs. They were simple to play but much more fun to listen to. I always thought that both of us would get a chance to see this legendary folk guitarist/song writer perform together. Myro if your reading this post, if I win the lottery we’re there brother!

Singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, known as Cat Stevens in the 1970s, takes the stage in Dublin on Sunday, the first performance of his first full tour since 1976.

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London, the folk legend disappeared from the music scene after he converted to Islam in 1977 at the height of his popularity.

He began making sporadic stage appearances in recent years. In 2006, he recorded a new album, An Other Cup, following it with Roadsinger this year.

Now 61, Islam is going back on the road with his Guess I’ll Take My Time tour.

He told the Irish Times that he hopes his old fans will turn out for these concerts.

“A lot of people might have thought — because of the way that my image per se had changed throughout the media — that my actual persona would change as well. But, in fact, you never really stop being yourself, you know,” he said.

Islam opens in Dublin’s O2 Arena on Nov. 15. Then he’s at Birmingham’s NIA the following Monday, Nov. 23, Liverpool’s Echo Arena on Dec. 5 and London’s Royal Albert Hall on Dec. 8.

No dates have been confirmed for appearances in Canada, the U.S. or other countries. CBC News

Keep on Jammin’ Yusuf Islam

Amazing what kids can do these days on guitar

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I found this video of this kid, (a Korean kid named Sungha Jung) playing acoustic guitar.

I know, we see video’s of kidz playing weird and wonderful things all the time but every once in a while there is one that sticks out. This kid is definitely a stand out!

I love how mature and developed his playing skills are here. He just has that touch! The sound quality is fabulous but the video is choppy. At first I thought it didn’t add up? You know … Milli Vanilli. Then after viewing the video a few times I realized this kid was the real McCoy!

Hats off to the little guy and hopefully we can all observe this progression into a fabulous guitar player!

Keep on Jammin’

Heartbeats by Jose Gonzolez

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While my wife and I were watching the TV series Bones on our PVR the other night, I picked up on this tune that really stuck in my mind. The guitarist name is Jose Gonzolez and his breathtaking song called Heartbeats, is a thing of wonder.

It is one of those songs they play during a show that is playing in the background, at a low volume. Most people don’t give it a second thought but, it lingers in ones mind long after the show is over. After the show ended my wife found it, the women is a god on finding anything on the web, and sent me a Youtube link to it!

Most of you may recognize this fabulous piece of music from the Sony Bravia (bouncy balls) TV commercial. The song itself is just so graceful and pure to my mind and ears.

This guitar picking technique is my favorite style, Drone Picking! It’s very fluid approach to playing. You can implement this mode of performing to just about any song! It can make a listener hypnotized at the drop of a hat. The art Drone will also highlight your guitar playing versatility.

Heart Beats is very simple but, yet it contains layers of complexity that just allows the listener to float away quite easily. It is a song that when I close my eyes, grants me ability to see the song in colour. This is a phrase that I picked up from my God son.

He is completely blind in one eye and is 80% in the other. One day at my parents home in Brantford, he was there so I brought him into the piano room and played some songs and progressions on it for him to listen to. After playing a certain phrasing, I asked him what he saw in his mind and he said he saw particular colours! Wow, that made me think about music in a completely different train of thought from that moment onwards.

This song really does it for me and I hope you get the same effect from it as I did. Just listen to this video and close your eyes … does this song give you the same sensation as it does for me?

Keep on Jammin’

Wilton Said from Nuance 2008

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Wilton Said is a band that makes you think about what is being said and played. Showing fascinating musical and lyrical form, Wilton Said is unlike any other act that I have ever seen, honestly. He calls his form of music Art Rock, and that maybe the best way to envision the true essence of this great Toronto act.

He was the 3rd act of the night and wow, I just sat back and stopped writing down notes. He is really something to watch on stage. It’s not what you can see and hear, it is everything else that he is projecting to the audience. It’s really freaky … in a VERY GOOD way that is.

Here is a bit of his bio from the Nuance nights program

Wilton Said…

Toronto indie artist Wilton Said… likes to write lyrical topics which explore the places others may find uncomfortable. This can range from the homicidal school shootings in “No Other Way” off of 1999’s release “World up my Ass”, the ode to the oversexed pearl necklace stalker in “All for You” off of 2001’s release “Broken”, through to the public washroom romp in “What I’ve Seen” off of 2004’s ” The Butterfly Plague”. His last release titled “The View” (2006) takes a look at topics that we can all relate to but don’t necessarily want to. The struggle to find an identity so we may fit in as heard in “Pretty”. The lust for control and domination to soothe our own weaknesses in “A Family Affair”.

The struggles with addictions and deceit brought to light in “Merry go Round”. “The Empty Sky” with it’s theme of coming to terms with hopeless situations.

Musically, WILTON SAID…’s style can be referenced back to his experiences of classic art rock
artists such as Kate Bush, Queen, Peter Gabriel, Supertramp, and (older) Genesis.
Other inspired contributions range from A Perfect Circle with their release “13 Steps”, David Bowies release “Heathen” and Radiohead’s “O.K. Computer”.

All have added inspiration to the rich eclectic texture of his music and to his strong baritone vocals.
While Wilton’s past studio and live experiences has had an assortment of musicians backing him up, his
current and most stable line up consists of the textural stylings of Guitarist Chris Reid, the groove and grounded Bass playing of Frank Heisler, and the subtle yet intricate Drumming of Richard Rizzo.

WILTON SAID…, who holds a Degree in Musical Composition from York University, has been performing in the G.T.A. promoting his various CD’s through live shows and interviews. For more information
regarding future shows and events, please visit the website listed below.

http://www.wiltonsaid.com

So there you go! Now, go out and check out this intriguing Toronto artist.

Keep on Jammin’ Wilton Said

Canada’s own Ken Greer

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Ken Greer has to be the best Canadian guitarist/slide guitarist/keyboardist that has ever flown (for way too long in my eyes) under the radar that I know of! He certainly has to be the most underrated Canadian guitarist that I have ever heard. And I have my brother in-law to thank for this.

He has it all, he plays it all and he understands it ways we can only dream about. Ken Greer has that special something that we all strive for in our own playing approach. Seeing him play with Tom Cochrane was like seeing a wall of sound hit you right in the face. It was like going to a nice old church with an organ that has 75 foot pipes with all the stops out. We experienced what it must of been like for people when they were first exposed to Phil Spector’s revolutionary wall of sound.

They guy plays his slide like it is a freight train rolling through you head one moment, then he tickles the plastic ivory like my buddy Tony F. from my old Pylis days! He then will pick up his axe and then blast off with some back up rhythm guitar playing that makes you just shake your head … that’s what I did throughout his show with Tom Cochrane at the 2008 Canadian Open.

I’ve been trying with no real luck in finding some of his stuff on-line to show you so if you have anything on this guy then PLEASE send me a link! I just want to give you a little taste of what it was that we experienced that faithful night.

Keep on Jammin’

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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