Popular Music

[Gintaras]

That is wonderful, barton.  Any YouTube links?

[barton]

I've suggested they get something up there -- they do a bang-up job on the Bob Wills classic, Steel Guitar Rag.  But they are busy, so I'd probably have to get a camcorder and do it myself.   The band has a MySpace page, which is pretty undeveloped.  Arthur (my son) might have been able to help, but there is some lack of respect between him and Ian, who founded the group -- Ian apparently tried to inject himself into some sibling dispute (which really was NONE of his business) and Arthur has since kept his distance from the group, not that he ever paid that much attention to Emma's gigs.  

[knoxharrington]

Are you all British?? (Arthur, Emma, Ian...)   :-)

That's pretty boast-able, Bart.  I looked at the MySpace page -- it is sketchy, and someone defined their sound as "French Pop" -- seemed to be a joke, given they list influences like Bob Wills, Leadbelly, CCR, Chuck Berry, The Band, Eddie Cochrane, etc.  

I can offer no alternative to "Sons" that removes possible sexism but also falls so trippingly on the tongue.

[Gintaras]

Suns of the Soil

[barton]

lol

I'll pass that along. 

[kidcarter8]

So, who stole who's name:

http://www.amazon.com/Calvin-Johnson-Sons-Soil/dp/B000NQR7WA

Great news about your daughter, Barton.   Does she sound like this Bowersox from Idol?  Maybe she will be discovered (re-discovered) sans idiot band.

[barton]

Thanks, Carter.  Re Does she sound like this Bowersox from Idol?  Don't know, not familiar with them.  I've heard it almost impossible these days to concoct an original band name, unless you just go straight for something bizzaro/convoluted.  Like The Mud Flat Weimaraner Floggers and the Nitrogen-Filled Jug Band, that sort of thing.

The band isn't too "idiot" really -- the lap-steel player is solid, and one of the male vocalists sounds a bit like the guy who sings "Amy" (Pure Prairie League, iirc....), and the synergy is improving, slowly.

   

[knoxharrington]

"Amie" is the PPL song, btw.  Don't know if that makes the slightest difference, except that spelling means "girlfriend" in French.

Lap-steel is so much harder than it looks.  You get someone who can make it sound right, you hang onto him.  The intonation, and proper string damping, is not for amateurs.  I think a lot of listeners assume that anything you play with an open-chord tuning must not be that hard. 

[barton]

All steel, be it bottleneck slide, or solid steel on the lap, is so much harder than it looks.  I've tried a brass bottleneck on a dobro and it sounded like a drunk trying to play inside an oil drum.  My son has had some good results, having considerably more skill, using a bottleneck on the pinky so he can still fret and then throw in some single string slides and vibratos, on a Les Paul type electric. 

He could probably master steel guitar, but he and his sister have always operated on some weird principle of opposites, musically, so he pointedly manifests no interest in roots, bluegrass, western swing, or whatever.   And I can spark no interest in rock classics that employ slide, e.g. Derek & Dominoes, "Layla."   He is a Beatles fan, however, so maybe there's a George Harrison loophole there somewhere.  IIRC, Harrison does some nice slide guitar on Handle With Care.

 

[knoxharrington]

I think slide guitar was really robbed by Duane Allman's death, in 1971.  Still, we got him on the Fillmore East, and Eat A Peach albums, plus his stint with DatDs.  And his generally getting slide guitar into the rock toolkit.  The anecdote of Allman getting into slide is a great one -- he was sick, Greg brought him a bottle of coricidin, Duane takes a few then dumps out the bottle, soaks off the label, and tries it as a slide on his Les Paul.  I hope your son will eventually give Allman a chance, esp. if he plays the same type guitar. 

I'd forgotten about Harrison trying some slide with the traveling wilburys.  George seemed to do a good job with everything he tried, and he was always experimenting.  I want to say we lost him too early, too, but then I think of Allman going at 24 and....Harrison was an old codger, by comparison.

[bosox18d]

Harrison played slide guitar well before that.There are a few songs on All Things Must Pass including Behind that Locked Door and his song So Sad which he did on another solo album but the version he did on the Alvin Lee/Myron LeFevre album from 73? is far better.He's listed as Harri Georgeson on that album.

[bosox18d]

Well the album is On the Road to Freedom by Alvin Lee/Mylon LeFevre and it is from 1973.I see that George is listed as George Harrison on the reissue but in 73 it was Harri Georgeson.I knew who it was the first time I heard the song because of the slide guitar.

[knoxharrington]

I knew he had done slide well before his wilbury stint -- thanks for mentioning those, will have a listen.  One of those musical techniques with an interesting lineage -- from Africa, over to Hawaii, over to the mainland and Western swing, then to blues, then to rock, etc.     

[bosox18d]

There's a guy who played with David Lindley and I want to say Todd R. but it may have been Loudon Wainwright 3rd also who played Slack Key guitar and put out a great album in the late 80's or early 90's that was incredible but I can't find the CD or recall if he was a session player for those mentioned above.It's all vauge but it was a really good album.

[barton]

I didn't learn until recently that "Slack-Key" was another word for open-tuning.   Usually to an open G, which is the only one I've tried at home, with a bottleneck.  I guess if you're quick with the tuning pegs, you can switch to sevenths and minors and so on, as you go.  I looked up the Hawaiian tradition and it looks like they have at least 50 open tunings -- wow.

Rundgren pretty versatile, wouldn't surprise me.