Blog Archive from 2012.
December 2012 Flowers are Red... or are they?
November: The Ramones were a punk rock band from New York City. I love The Ramones! Who wouldn't want to dance to upbeat songs like "Let's Dance" or "Rockaway Beach?"
September Early Jonny Cash. During my trip down to Nashville this summer, I got to hear alot of great rockabilly guitarists. Rockabilly was one of the earliest styles of rock n' roll music.
August Shonen Knife is a band from Osaka, Japan. Thank you for coming to Cleveland this month and performing at the Beachland Ballroom!
July Chuck Berry is one of the pioneers of rock n' roll music. He also invented the duck walk.
June The Jimi Hendrix Experience is essential listening material for any rock 'n roll fan. His amazing drummer, Mitch Mitchell, was jazz influenced. The sound of this ground-breaking 3-piece band was an amazing fusion of rock 'n roll with r & b, funk, blues and jazz. Besides being an amazing guitarist, Jimi Hendrix was an excellent songwriter. Influenced by Bob Dylan's songs, Jimi worked hard to push himself to new heights in songwriting, expanding the definition of what a rock song could sound like.
May Take 5. The name of this song hints at its time signature; 5/4. Which means you can count 1,2,3,4,5 for the whole song. The drum solo goes from about 1:45-2:25.
April Can you hear (and see) Doc Watson play a melody on the higher strings, while playing an alternating bass line
with his thumb on the lower strings? In this country-style of guitar playing, the guitarist provides his own accompaniment; it sounds
like two guitarists are playing at the same time.
March The Doors are one of my all-time favorite bands. The Doors had no bass player; most of their bass lines were played by the keyboardist's left hand. A session musician named Jerry Scheff played this fantastic bass line in the studio. Do you hear how he shifts between a boogie pattern and another pattern? By the way, the guy in this video has alot of really great bass covers on youtube, check them out!
February Did you know that Bernard Purdie is the most recorded drummer in history? He has played on
over 5000 albums. In this video, he explains the purdie shuffle; a beat that he's famous for creating. I love
his attitude and the way he makes this difficult beat look easy. Variations
of the purdie shuffle can be heard in other songs, for example "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin.
January 2011 James Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited
bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. This video
highlights some of his bass lines in different songs.
December Fats Domino (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B
and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. I love Fats!
November This month, I had the pleasure of seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings perform at the Beachland in Cleveland.
Her band is fantastic and Sharon is definitely one of the best performers I've ever had the privelege to see... and dance to!
October Mississippi John Hurt, born in 1893 was a self taught musician. An example of excellent, melodic fingerstyle playing and one of my favorite musicians.
September 2010 Wow! Check this out; this guy is beatboxing through a tuba.