Hello Fellow Guitarists!

Back off the road from great gigs all over the world, I am checking in with the greatest guitar hang ANYWHERE - ArtistWorks!!

Hope all of you are doing well and guitaring to your heart's content.

I recently finished a tour of Asia with Fourplay where we debuted music from the 25th Anniversary CD "Silver". We had many great shows, of which one highlight was The Tokyo Jazz Festival, where we were joined by original member Lee Ritenour, and my immediate predecessor in the band Larry Carlton. What a thrill to sheare the stage with these two masters!

Here's a pic of us at the rehearsal:

I also want to share info about upcoming gigs and activities, so here is my latest newsletter with a link to all the shows.

I hope to see some of you if we come to your area, and of course looking forward to your VE's!

Seeya 'round campus!

CL

I just finished reading the new memoir from Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. In the spaces between all the recklessness and drug-induced tragedy, the book reveals her love of rock music and great guitar playing. She credits the original Pretenders guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott with bringing her songs to life with melody, and ends the book with one of the saddest lines that I've ever read (about her memory of him, after his passing.) 

Chrissie doesn't see herself as a virtuoso guitarist, and she spent a lot of time in the early punk scene, hanging out in London with members of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and Motorhead (more of a heavy metal band, but certainly with some punk attitude.) But in the end, she always affirms that musicians need to be able to play. I like this quote from the book (talking about "hot-shot" type guitar players.)

"They aren't paying attention to ordinary stuff... politics, religion, or society... they don't bother with opinions as those things don't concern them. Playing guitar concerns them. Life begins and ends with the guitar. That's the kind of guy you want in your band."

I was drawn to the sound of guitars and blues long before I knew anything about either one. My earliest musical memory is of “Heartbreak Hotel” blasting out of the dashboard of my parents’ Hudson Hornet; I must have heard hours of music from that same radio, but that’s the only bit that stuck.

A few years later, guitar instrumentals by artists like the Ventures, Link Wray, and Booker T & the MGs made my hair stand up. As rock & roll morphed into rock, the guitar-based sounds of the Kinks and Stones, then Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, and Beck overshadowed everything else. Guitar rang loud and clear, but even after I started playing I didn’t fully appreciate the blues connection.

My heroes raved about guys named Johnson and King, but what little “real” blues I actually heard sounded kind of old and scratchy - I appreciated it more than I was inspired by it. That all changed a few years later when - now driving my own car - I heard Albert King’s “The Sky is Crying” and had to pull over. I got it.