My Favorite Rock Star Quote

When it comes to classic rock, it's hard to beat AC/DC.  My favorite band?  Well, not exactly.  But I love their energy (pun intended), the fun they seem to be having on stage, and the sound and style of their…

Read more

You've Been A Bad Monkey

One of the best things about being a guitar player is having access to effects pedals. They're interesting, colorful, they open up lots of new sounds, and if you know how to turn the knobs just right, they can really…

Read more

Believe It Or Whatever

Strange but true! OK, not so strange actually, but I thought it was sorta weird: Early on Saturday afternoon, I was flipping through TV channels, and stumbled upon a golf tournament. I'm not a golfer (probably because I'm no good…

Read more

Beck and Bacharach

Wow, two legends gone in one month.

Jeff Beck, one of my favorite guitar players, passed away in mid-January. He was one of those people that I assumed would be around forever; probably because he pushed the envelope, and was…

Read more

New Year, New Me

Been seeing a lot of articles about "music royalty" lately.  There's Elvis, King of Rock and Roll.  Aretha Franklin, Queen of R&B.  James Brown, Godfather of Soul.  Many people with titles like those definitely deserve them.

But now I see…

Read more

What's Better Than Bad Santa? Refried Santa!

Happy Holidays!  We've had quite a month here; let's just leave it at that. Due to several events out of my control (and a fair amount of exhaustion), I decided to find an easy way out of having to think…

Read more

TBGPYNH

Unless you're a guitar nut, like me, these 3 guys are most likely not household names.  But they are some of my guitar heroes, and they deserve way more attention than they get.  Click these YouTube links and give them…

Read more

Guitarioke (pronounced gih-tar-ee-oh-kee)

When I started out in 2014, I quickly found out that a lot of my preconceptions about performing were wrong.  One of them was my fear of using backing tracks.

More than once, I had heard other musicians use words…

Read more

Shama Lama Ding Dong

As I'm pretty sure I've said before, writing music doesn't come easily for me.  It's why, after all this time, I've done only one album.  You'd think though, that at least the lyrics shouldn't be too much trouble, considering some…

Read more

More Musical Mashups From The 4th Dimension

A while back, I posted about some highly unlikely collaborations that actually happened (Zappa and Osmond on Nightline, the Martha Stewart / Snoop Dog connection, Pat Boone's "metal and leather" phase, etc).  I jokingly suggested that there is an upcoming…

Read more

Bass-ic Humor

 

In 2015, I tried adjusting the neck relief on my Squier Precision Bass but I forgot to loosen the strings first.  SNAP went the truss rod.

I ordered a replacement neck from Warmoth, a vendor of bolt-on…

Read more

Parody By The Pint

I couldn't resist making fun of this one. The world's most overplayed cover song; Sweet Caroline.  from cruise ships to poolside bars to Boston Red Sox games to Over-55 retirement communities everywhere.  How many times have I played it?  Thankfully…

Read more