Epiphone SG

I can't help myself, I always like looking at guitars. If there's nothing else to read at lunch, I'll grab the Musician's Friend catalog that I already know by heart. I sometimes browse eBay auctions just to see what various instruments are going for - and while I know I *need* nothing, I'm always on the lookout for what seems like a good bargain.

Two weeks ago, I was looking at SG's, and noted that there were some Epiphones going pretty cheaply on eBay. The SG is a classic guitar, and I'd often thought that I'd like to play one, just to fool around with. I saw one up for auction for $150 (plus shipping), put in a bid at that price, and won - my bid was the only one.

It arrived a few days later, and is a gorgeous instrument. It needed a little cleaning and a new set of strings, but that was easily done.  Now I have a sweet looking and playing guitar, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Others in the house *could* be more pleased.  Elder Daughter, on hearing that I'd won an eBay auction, said, "Just as long as it's not another guitar." Well, sorry about that, sweetie.... Younger Daughter couldn't see why guitars are being purchased when there are still daughters without iPhones. There's general female agreement that I should be banned from eBay.

I'm comfortable that no one in the house is going without any necessities. And I think I could have worse vices. Until I find one, I'll be happy with my SG (and its friends. :-))

"Here Comes the Sun"

I heard the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" recently, and it struck me as such a classic song that I should know how to play it. I did a quick YouTube search, and Marty Schwartz from guitarjamz.com came to the rescue yet again.

I can't recommend Marty highly enough. He has one YouTube channel for lessons and theory, and another channel for song tutorials. He's a great teacher, and I've learned a ton from him.

"Here Comes the Sun" turns out not to be that complicated. It's played with a capo at the 7th fret (though that's only necessary to play in the same key as the recorded version.) The chords are simple: D, G, A7, E7. The strumming is the trickiest part - at least if you want to do it as George Harrison did.

Marty explains it clearly and in detail, and I have the basics pretty much down cold. It's a fun song to play, and I'm not completely smooth with it yet - but that's just a matter of repetition.

Here's Marty's lesson:

August Acoustic Jam

The August acoustic jam meetup was yesterday. The previous meetup was in early June - no July session was scheduled due to hot weather (we meet in a non-air conditioned Quaker meetinghouse), and the August session was scheduled for the end of the month for the same reason.

It was a full house of 15 people, plus a lengthy waiting list. Word must be spreading that it's a good time with good people. The songs we played, as best I can remember, are below.

A good number of folks had been at the folk fest last weekend, and we chatted about our experiences there. In honor of the folk fest, I brought Little Feat's "Willin'", which was well-received. The other "topical" song was Don's selection of "Mr. Spaceman", in honor of Neil Armstrong's passing the day before.

• Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan)
• Forever and Ever, Amen (Randy Travis)
• Mr. Spaceman (The Byrds)
• Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
• Que Sera Sera (Doris Day?)
• Birds (Neil Young)
• Hey Soul Sister (Train)
• You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Bachman Turner Overdrive)
• Country Roads (John Denver)
• Under the Boardwalk (The Drifters)
• Willin' (Little Feat)
• Southern Cross (CSN)
• Beans Taste Fine (Shel Silverstein)
• Soulshine (Allman Brothers Band)
• Lay Down Your Weary Tune (Bob Dylan)
• House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)
• I'll Follow the Sun (The Beatles)
• Harvest Moon (Neil Young)

Little Feat at the Folk Fest

After a number of years of thinking about it, I finally got to the Philadelphia Folk Fest last weekend. It's a Thursday-Sunday event, and I was able to get there for the day Saturday. I'll write more about the whole folk fest experience, but for now I'll just write about Little Feat's set.

I've been a big Feat fan since I discovered them in the post-college years. Their live CD "Waiting for Columbus" is a classic, and widely considered one of the best live albums ever. I remember one weekend road trip when I put it on and turned it up, and the usual banter in the car stopped and we just listened - they put down an understated funky groove that's unique.

For many people, Little Feat died with founder Lowell George in the late 70's - and I have to say that I'd only thought of them and put them on very occasionally until just recently. But they came back on my radar when I saw a blog post of someone who saw them live recently and raved about it. Then when I saw they were headlining the folk fest, I decided I needed to see them.

I had a great time at the fest and saw a ton of good music, and Little Feat blew me away from the first note. They opened with "Spanish Moon", my favorite song from "Waiting for Columbus." They're a six-piece band: two front-men who play guitar (Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett (in the Lowell George spot)), keyboards, bass, drums, and percussion.

They mixed in new songs with the old songs - and the new songs didn't make the show lose momentum. The classics were certainly recognizable, but they were updated - they weren't note-for-note reproductions of the mid-70's arrangements.

Three of the classics provided departure points for some extended jamming - Dixie Chicken, Willin', and Fat Man in the Bathtub. Extended jamming often strikes me as boring and self-indulgent - but their jams were *treats*. They wove lead lines in and out, and the result was mesmerizing. I didn't want it to end.

Fred Tackett especially impressed me. Depending on the song, he might be playing lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, or mandolin - and he stood out on them all. Oh, he also played a slow trumpet introduction to "Dixie Chicken" that brought down the house.

"Fat Man in the Bathtub" ended their 70-minute set, and the crowd *screamed* for more. But the night was tightly scheduled, and there was one more performer, and more wasn't possible.

What makes some jamming mesmerizing while other jamming is tedious? I can't explain it - but I know it when I hear it, and Little Feat has the goods. They're not flashy, but they're tight as hell and they have a sound and a groove all their own. It was a pleasure and a treat to see them, and I will see them again at the next possible opportunity.

"Going to California"

When Led Zeppelin released some of their live performances a few years ago, the nicest surprise for me was hearing their acoustic set. That's not something I'd ever heard (as it wasn't on the live album "The Song Remains the Same"), and it blew me away.

The live version of "Going to California" was especially beautiful, with Jimmy Page's acoustic guitar and John Paul Jones' mandolin weaving together. The DVD gives some hint of how the finger-picking is done, but didn't give me enough to play it myself.

Yet again, YouTube comes to the rescue, with a very clear lesson on how to play it. It's in "double drop-D" tuning, where both E-strings are tuned down to D. After watching this lesson twice, I can fumble my way through the song. I need a lot of repetition on the right hand, to burn in the finger-picking pattern, but it's fun and sounds great.

I was playing it last night while watching the Olympics when Sarah came in from work, grabbed a snack, and sat down next to me. She recognized what I was playing right away, which pleased me a lot.

Here's Zeppelin playing it in 1975.

Camping with Guitar

I recently wrote about my travel guitar, and now I've had a chance to actually travel with it. Last week was my annual boys' hiking/camping trip, this year to the High Peaks region of New York State's Adirondacks. Five of us crammed our food, gear, and beer into a rental minivan and hit the highway, headed for four days and four nights at the Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake.

Now that the trip is over, I have to say that the guitar met every hope I had for it, and was exactly what I envisioned it to be. It was always handy - I would grab it during post-hike afternoon downtime, or around the campfire at night. It wasn't my intention to play "for" anyone - I didn't want to annoy the guys with it, and thought I would probably take it and go down to the lake and find a quiet spot by myself to play. To my surprise, the guys wanted to hear songs, and tried to sing along. The problem was I didn't have lyrics. Next time I'll make a point to bring my binder of songs from the acoustic jam - at this point I have a sizable collection of printed tabs (chords and lyrics.)

I continue to be very pleased with the guitar itself. I can't recommend the Washburn WMJ 10S Mini Jumbo highly enough. It sounds good, feels good, and looks good - and at a budget price.

My baby's first outing was a complete success. I will be taking her with me everywhere it's possible to bring her. And for the next camping trip, maybe some other guys will also bring a guitar, and we can really have some fun!

"No Quarter" and DADGAD Tuning

I saw a YouTube guitar lesson over the weekend on the Page/Plant acoustic version of "No Quarter". I love the Zeppelin version of this song, especially the live version with John Paul Jones' extended keyboard solo, but this is an interesting rearrangement for acoustic guitar.

It's in DADGAD tuning, which I only know from "Kashmir". The guitar lesson is here, and I re-tuned and easily followed along. I've kept my Seagull tuned in DADGAD ever since, and have been playing both "No Quarter" and "Kashmir" a lot (probably to Darling Wife's distraction.)

I want to find some more songs to play in this tuning - though just noodling around is fun in itself. It produces an exotic sound, which I'm not sure how to describe - Middle Eastern? Arabic? Indian? I just know that I like it - a lot.

Here's the Page/Plant version of "No Quarter":