Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "Forget How It Used To Be," a new song by Philadelphia-based Toy Soldiers.
The track is from the band's new album, The Maybe Boys, which will be released September 10. The album, which was produced by Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog, Man Man), will be distributed by The Orchard.
Consisting of Ron Gallo (lead vocals/guitar/harmonica), Bill McCloskey (bass/vocals), Luke Leidy (keys/vocals), Matt Kelly (guitar) and Dominic Billett (drums/vocals), Toy Soldiers have been earning a reputation for their raw live shows. Gallo doesn’t let getting whacked in the head and bleeding profusely stop their performance.
“For me, getting on a stage is really surrendering to whatever plans the wild beast of the show and the people in the room have in store," he says. "It's like throwing yourself in a raging sea of variables or hopping on a moving train.
"Even if you get whacked in the face with a guitar and are bleeding all over or your amplifier explodes or your having a bad day, it's your responsibility to the audience and the show that overrides anything that may try to stop it and so it must go on.”
For more about Toy Solders, visit OhNoToySoldiers.com and their Facebook page. Check out the album's complete track listing and the band's current tour dates below the Soundcloud player!
The Maybe Boys Track Listing
01. Tell the Teller
02. Been Here All My Days
03. Heart in a Mousetrap
04. Forget How it Used to Be
05. This Old Town
06. Red Dress
07. I’m Your Woman
08. Away We Go
09. Maybe
10. Weeping Willow
11. Laughing Pain
12. Tomorrow to Today
Toy Soldiers Tour Dates:
Sep 09 Lancaster, PA @ The Fridge
Sep 11 New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall - NYC Album Release Party
Sep 12 Somerville, MA @ The Precinct - Boston Album Release Party
Sep 13 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's - Philly Album Release Party
Sep 14 Pawtucket, RI @ DUDESMASH 2 (presented by Deer Tick & WBRU)
Sep 19 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
Sep 20 Ypsilanti, MI @ Woodruff's
Sep 21 Chicago, IL @ Oaktoberfest (2:30)
Sep 21 Chicago, IL @ Tonic Room (8:00)
Sep 24 St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House (w/Truth & Salvage Co.)
Sep 26 Cincinnati, OH @ Midpoint Music Festival
Sep 28 Pottstown, PA @ Sly Fox Can Jam
Oct 03 Carrboro, NC @ The Station
Oct 04 Charlotte, NC @ The Visulite (w/Sons of Bill)
Oct 08 Athens, GA @ Green Room
Oct 09 Nashville, TN @ Stone Fox
Oct 10 Blacksburg, VA @ Sycamore Deli
Oct 12 Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Oct 17 New York, NY @ CMJ (venue TBA)
Oct 23 Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground w/ Joe Fletcher
Oct 24 New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine w/ Joe Fletcher
Oct 25 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall
Oct 26 York, PA @ Strand-Capitol Theatre
Nov 03 Fairfax, VA @ Only About The Music - Artists for Autism
Nov 08 Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
Nov 09 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
FROM THE GW ARCHIVE: Originally published in Guitar World, 30th Anniversary 2010 issue.
One forged the template for heavy metal. The other advanced it with virtuoso shredding. Together, they shaped the guitar universe as we know it today. Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen mark Guitar World’s 30th anniversary with a colossal conversation about their careers, friendship and the past three decades of our favorite instrument.
Rock guitar over the past 30 years would not be the same without Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen.
From details like playing techniques and equipment designs to the wide variety of hard rock and metal musical styles that sprouted from the seeds sown by Black Sabbath and Van Halen, their influence remains omnipresent to this day.
While the music industry has changed significantly since Guitar World magazine made its debut in 1980, Iommi and Van Halen have never wavered in popularity, even as trends and tastes continue to shift and diversify.
“We’ve started trends, but that was not what we had in mind,” says Eddie Van Halen, sitting across from Iommi in a Hollywood photo studio where we’ve met to discuss the past 30 years of guitar. “When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.”
“A lot of music has become a formula,” adds Iommi, who is, as always, impeccably dressed in black from head to toe. “When we started out there was no formula. You play music because you love it and you want to create something.”
What Iommi and Van Halen created stretches well beyond their own personal contributions and activities. With Black Sabbath, Iommi helped create the template for heavy metal, from its dark, violent sound to its gothic, occult-inspired imagery. Songs like “Symptom of the Universe,” with its dissonant intervals, driving eighth-note low E riffing and frantic, over-the-top solo, became the blueprint for almost every thrash song that has emerged since Metallica and Slayer first co-opted those elements for themselves.
Iommi’s habits of tuning down three half steps to C# (which he started doing when Sabbath recorded Master of Reality in 1971) and using generous amounts of gain to drive his amp into heavy distortion have become essential staples of metal music. Even the most extreme subgenres of death and black metal can all trace their roots back to Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi.
Van Halen’s influence on rock guitar is also universal. In addition to introducing various equipment innovations that he designed, inspired or helped perfect—like the custom, hot-rodded “super Strat” guitar, modern high-gain amplifier and Floyd Rose tremolo—he also helped bring highly skilled, technical guitar playing into the public spotlight. When Ozzy Osbourne enlisted Randy Rhoads, or when Billy Idol teamed up with Steve Stevens, and even when David Lee Roth hired Steve Vai to join his post–Van Halen solo band, these singers realized that having a hot-shot, Van Halen–style guitarist in their bands was a huge competitive advantage.
Eddie’s innovative use of tapping, harmonics and volume swells has been discussed at length, but more importantly he paved the way for players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani to explore sounds that existed well beyond the fretboard and conventional playing techniques. In one fell swoop, Van Halen made it cool to incorporate flashy guitar in pop music (think Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” or even Ed’s own playing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”) while he also inspired the shred guitar phenomenon, where experimental sounds and exotic scales became regular, accepted elements of the rock guitarist’s vernacular.
Driving around Hollywood today and comparing it with the Hollywood of 30 years ago, it’s easy to be pessimistic about the sorry state of today’s music industry. Glamorous office buildings that once housed record label offices now belong to film industry companies or the Church of Scientology or lie vacant. The Tower Records store that once graced Sunset Boulevard is long gone (there’s now a discount clothing store on that lot), and Hollywood billboards no longer tout new album releases. In fact, the only musician-oriented billboards on the Strip are ads for the L.A. Dodgers baseball team that feature members of Poison and Mötley Crüe.
For that matter, the only signs that the music industry ever existed in Hollywood are Guitar Center’s Rock Walk and the handful of clubs that are still holding out, like the Whisky a Go Go, Roxy Theater and Key Club, which these days are more likely to feature sound-alike tribute bands than up-and-coming talent.
While the challenges for guitar players who want to enjoy a long, prosperous career in the music industry may be more daunting than ever, Iommi and Van Halen still inspire hope the same way they did 30 years ago. Iommi tours regularly, and this year he released the acclaimed Heaven and Hell album The Devil You Know. Van Halen completed one of the decade’s biggest tours in 2008, and his EVH brand guitars and amplifiers provide players with some of the finest tools of the trade available today. If Iommi and Van Halen continue to infl uence players over the next decade the same way they have over the past 30 years, the future for the guitar and guitar players looks very bright indeed.
GUITAR WORLD: Both of you have had significant influence on guitarists over the past 30 years. Pretty much every metal band that has formed since the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the Eighties can trace its roots back to Black Sabbath.
TONY IOMMI It’s weird when all of these players from successful bands come up to you and go, “Without you I wouldn’t have done what I do.” I’m sure Ed feels the same way about all the Joe Satrianis and Steve Vais who were influenced by him.
In addition to the shred phenomenon, it seems like every rock band in the Eighties that came to Hollywood was trying to follow in Van Halen’s footsteps.
EDDIE VAN HALEN All those hair bands that played the Hollywood clubs missed the most important part. They didn’t play weddings, bar mitzvahs, polkas and all that other shit way before the club days. My brother Alex and I used to do that. We would play at the La Mirada Country Club. My dad would play at the Continental Club every Sunday night, and we would sit in with him. He’d play at a place called the Alpine Haus off of San Fernando Road in the Valley, and we’d wear the lederhosen. Those polka songs are so weird. They’re all I-IV-V, but they’re like some odd country song. Alex and I actually played on the boat while we were coming to America. [Van Halen’s family emigrated from the Netherlands.] We played piano, and we were like the kid freak show on the boat. Music saved our family. My father, mother, brother and I came here with only 50 dollars and a piano. We lived in one room and played gigs on weekends.
Even in the early days of Black Sabbath, the band played some unglamorous gigs at working men’s clubs or in remote towns in northern Scotland.
IOMMI We used to play working men’s clubs and get thrown out quite often. They used to tell us to turn it down or we wouldn’t get paid. Well, since they weren’t paying us to begin with we’d turn it up even louder!
VAN HALEN When we used to play clubs we learned just enough Top 40 songs to get hired. At the gig you had to play five 45-minute sets, but most pop songs are three or four minutes long, so that’s a lot of tunes to learn! We figured we could play our own stuff and no one would care as long as the beat was there. One day we were playing at this club in Covina called Posh. We ran out of Top 40 tunes so we started playing our own music. The owner of the club walks up to us while we were playing a song and goes, “Stop! I hired you to play Top 40. What is this shit?” He told us to get the fuck out of there, and he wouldn’t let us take our equipment. We had to come back the next week to pick up our equipment. It was always that way. It was either “the guitarist is too loud” or “plays too psychedelic.” They always complained about me.
IOMMI We went through the same thing. In the early days we couldn’t get gigs in England, so we went to Europe. We were playing at this place in Zurich, Switzerland, and we had to play five 45-minute sets every day for three weeks, but on the weekend we played seven 45-minute sets. We didn’t have enough songs, so we’d go, “Drum solo!” Then the next set we’d do a guitar solo and then a bass solo, and that’s how we’d get through the night. They caught on to us, and during Bill Ward’s next drum solo someone walked up to us and went in broken English, “Shut the fucking hell up!” It was the owner’s daughter.
VAN HALEN That’s how jamming started.
IOMMI That’s how we came up with “War Pigs.” We just jammed and made stuff up. But it was good learning ground. You played a lot because you had to. And you had to learn how to make your own sound. You couldn’t just buy a box or pedal that does it, like kids can do today.
VAN HALEN It’s funny but no matter how hard I tried to sound like the records—and I really tried—I always ended up sounding like me. We used to play “It’s Your Thing” by the Isley Brothers, but everyone thought it was a Black Sabbath song because I was playing it through a Marshall. It was Black Sabbath funk! We would play “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band—all that stuff. The stuff that was closest to my heart was Black Sabbath. But it was a blessing. If you play and play and play, after a while you discover the essence of yourself.
You both started out as aspiring drummers.
VAN HALEN [to Iommi] You did too?
IOMMI That’s what I wanted to become originally. My parents wouldn’t let me get a set of drums because they were too loud.
VAN HALEN And then you got an electric guitar and became even louder.
You both have really well-developed rhythm styles. Do you think your interest in drums had anything to do with that?
VAN HALEN I think it’s just inherently built in. When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove. Obviously you have to have rhythm. If you have rhythm, then you can play anything you need. If you have rhythm and you love music, then play and play and play until you get to where you want to get. If you can pay the rent, great. If you can’t, then you’d better be having fun. Playing guitar is the only thing I ever knew how to do.
IOMMI I first played accordion. That was my first actual instrument. My father played accordion, and so did many of my relatives. Nobody played guitar back then. People in my family either played drums or accordion, and I went from accordion to guitar.
VAN HALEN I had to learn to play piano because that was the respectable instrument to play.
You both have mentioned Clapton as an early influence.
IOMMI Probably because of the whole blues thing. I really liked his playing with John Mayall, which influenced a lot of players back then.
VAN HALEN With me it was all about the live Cream stuff. I don’t mean to downplay anything Clapton did, but for me it was also about Cream’s rhythm section. Listen to “I’m So Glad” on Goodbye and adjust the balance to the right—Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were playing jazz through Marshalls. To me that is where Clapton’s style came from. Clapton was the only guy doing that kind of extended soloing back then.
IOMMI That’s right. Later on it was Hendrix and everybody else, but Clapton in those days appealed to a lot of people from his work with John Mayall through Cream.
Ed, I understand that in the very early days of Van Halen you originally wanted to call the band Rat Salad.
VAN HALEN Yeah, that’s right. We played just about every Black Sabbath song. I used to sing lead on every Black Sabbath song we did—things like “Into the Void,” “Paranoid,” and “Lord of This World.” When we toured with Black Sabbath in 1978, they scared the shit out of us. I’ll tell you a funny story that I’ll never forget. I walked up to Tony and began to ask him, “Second song on side two of Master of Reality…” Tony looked at me and went, “What the fuck, mate?” By that time Black Sabbath had several records out, but we had only one album out so I knew where every track on our first record was. A few years later somebody asked me a question in the same way, and I was going, Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. The first thing that popped in my head was that incident with Tony! At first I thought it was odd that he couldn’t remember what was on his records, and then it happened to me.
Black Sabbath and Van Halen toured together for eight months in 1978. What effect did you have on each other?
VAN HALEN To me, Tony is the master of riffs. That’s what I loved. I’m not knocking Ozzy or his singing, but listen to “Into the Void.” That riff is some badass shit. It was beyond surf music and jazz. It was beyond anything else I had ever heard. It was so fuckin’ heavy. I put it right up there with [sings the four-note intro to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony]. Listen to the main riff, where he chugs on the low E string. It hits you like a brick wall.
Tony, what did you think of Van Halen?
IOMMI From the very first minute I heard them I knew straight away that they were something special. The way that Ed plays is very different. He came up with a style that’s been imitated a million times. And they had great songs. Often after the shows we would get together in my room and chat about guitars. We’d ramble on for about 10 hours before we’d go to bed.
VAN HALEN Or not. [laughs]
IOMMI That’s right! [laughs] I really enjoyed that tour. Brian May is the only other guitar player I’ve ever associated with, and we’ve never been on tour together.
VAN HALEN I was just telling Matt [Bruck] this morning that out of all the people I’ve ever met—all the celebrities and rock and roll stars—I fuckin’ love this guy. He’s the sweetest, most humble, down to earth, normal guy. He has no attitude, and look at what this guy has done! I could name a handful of people who I still respect but no longer look up to. After I met them I was like, Fuck you! You’re no better than I am as a person. So many people are a bunch of pompous fuckin’ pricks. What makes them think their shit doesn’t stink? Tony is still like a brother even after all these years.
Heaven and Hell was the first record you released after touring with Van Halen and after Ozzy left Black Sabbath. Your playing on that record progressed significantly from what you did on Never Say Die! What inspired that shift?
IOMMI The whole thing was different because we had a different singer and we developed a different sound. It was a different approach, really.
VAN HALEN It’s just the chemistry.
IOMMI Yeah. Ronnie [James Dio, singer] was someone we could sit down and work with. He brought new life to the band. When we did Never Say Die!, which we probably shouldn’t have called the album since we broke up after it came out, it was really tough. Ozzy left after we wrote the first song, and then about three days before we were due to record the album he wanted to come back.
Working with a different singer influenced me to approach my playing in a different way. Ozzy didn’t participate that much toward the end and wasn’t coming up with any ideas, but when Ronnie came along he provided a lot of input.
VAN HALEN It’s similar to when [Sammy] Hagar joined the band. It’s just the element that a different person brings to the band. It’s just like my son being the band’s bassist now. He approaches everything differently, and the rhythm section is now like this huge wall behind me. I’d want to play with him regardless of whether he was my son or not. It’s not to knock anyone. It’s just when you change elements of a band, the chemistry also changes. One little change can shift the whole dynamic. It’s not that it’s getting any better or worse. A lot of people ask me which Van Halen singer was better. You can’t compare them. It’s like asking which guitarist is better. Nobody is better than anybody. Every player is their own person.
IOMMI I get asked that question about singers all the time, and I can’t really answer it either. I really have worked with some amazing musicians and singers.
VAN HALEN Music is not the Olympics. It’s not a sport; it’s a form of expression. There is no such thing as bad music. There may be music that you personally don’t like, but if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it and shut the fuck up! Don’t listen to it and complain about it. There’s lots of music that I don’t care for, but you can’t say it’s bad. That’s subjective. That would happen if we put out something new now also. When we released Van Halen II, the critics and some fans went, “Hey! It’s different than the first one.” Well, yeah! It’s a different record. If it sounded like the first one then fans and critics would complain that it sounded the same. What the fuck?
IOMMI You can’t ever win no matter what you do.
VAN HALEN You just do what you do. If anyone has a better way, show me how to please everyone all the time! For some reason people love to complain about everything. The internet has made it easy for people to do that. Shut the fuck up and get a life, or show me how good you can do it.
People think they know what I should do. A lot of fans are complaining that Van Halen should put out a new record now. Everybody is going, “Eddie should do this. Eddie should do that.” I’ve got all kinds of music that I could put out if I wanted to, but they don’t take into consideration the other members of the band. Maybe the singer doesn’t want to do that. I play classical piano. I play a little bit of cello. I write all kinds of different music that certain singers or certain musicians don’t want anything to do with. So what do I do? When people see Van Halen or Black Sabbath, it conjures up a certain image in their minds. If there’s just one albino pubic hair outside of that image, they won’t accept it. And if we do put something out, the first thing people are going to say is that it isn’t as good as the classics. Okay. Put it in your closet for 20 years and then it will be classic.
People forget that we put three new songs—“It’s About Time,” “Learning to See” and “Up for Breakfast”—on Best of Both Worlds in 2004. The reviews didn’t even mention those songs. When we played the new songs live, people would just stand there. Nobody said anything about them. Why go to all the trouble, spend all of that time in the studio and spend tons of your own money—there aren’t even any record labels anymore to put our shit out—to record a new album when people are only going to complain about it or ignore it or somebody is going to download it from the internet for free? We might not record something new. There’s an element of satisfaction and joy to creating something new, but not when it comes solely at your own expense and when people are just going to shoot it down, no matter what you do.
IOMMI Early on with Sabbath I recorded a couple of instrumentals on Master of Reality. For Sabotage I wrote this song called “Supertzar” and I wanted to have a choir on it. I got a choir in the studio, and even my own band members were wondering what I was doing. People from the record company came to visit, and when they saw the choir and this harp player they thought they were in the wrong studio. At the time it wasn’t the normal thing to put this heavy guitar with choir and harp on an album, although it did finally make it there. I was just experimenting and trying something new. I feel that as long as you write it, it’s you.
It’s weird how fans want bands to keep putting out new albums but when they play live fans only want to hear the old songs.
IOMMI Even that doesn’t stop the criticism and complaints. Whenever we do a show people are always saying that we didn’t play enough songs. Nobody understands that you only have a limited time. There are curfews and union rules that you have to obey.
VAN HALEN Or you’ve got a guy with a decibel meter telling you how loud you can play.
IOMMI And then people complain that the band wasn’t loud enough. What can you do? You can try to fight these things but you can’t refuse to go on. I wish that people had a better understanding of what is going on.
VAN HALEN People only see the end result. When you walk onstage, they don’t take into consideration the years of practice, the attitudes and egos of other people that you have to deal with, the songwriting, the recording, the record producer, the crew, designing the stage. All they see is the show.
IOMMI And then they complain that you didn’t play a certain song.
It’s interesting how you both made your initial impact and found success by coming up with something that was very original. Then, after thousands of imitators copied you, you had moved onto something else, but fans didn’t want you to change. It seems like the more successful you become, the harder it is to do what made you successful.
IOMMI That’s why I just do what I like.
VAN HALEN I’m just glad to be able to play. I recently had hand surgery and arthritis treatment. I found out that Tony was having the same problems I was, so I turned him on to my doctor. It’s funny how there are so many parallels between Tony and me.
IOMMI I was already booked for surgery in London with this specialist. Then Eddie told me about this guy in Dusseldorf, Germany, who he went to for the same problem, so now I’m going to see him instead.
VAN HALEN My hand hurt so much I couldn’t even play. On the last half of the last tour, I was in pain. Tony is in pain now, and people are giving him shit about not wanting to tour. This is what we do for a living. It’s not only our livelihood and our income, it’s the only thing I know how to do. You don’t know how I felt not being able to stretch my hand to play because of that pain. And then I had to go under the knife! I was scared shitless that it wasn’t going to work.
IOMMI I know that as soon as I go in, all of these things are going to come out on the internet and in the press.
VAN HALEN It’s nice to have some avenue to explain this to people.
Why wouldn’t you want to get a problem fixed? You want to be able to play. Everyone should understand that. Les Paul suffered and struggled with arthritis for years. It’s too bad he didn’t find out about your doctor.
VAN HALEN I knew Les very well. I’m glad that my son and I got to hang out with Les when we were on tour in New Jersey. He lived a long life, and he always did what he wanted to do.
Like Les Paul, you both like to modify your guitars. Tony, you changed pickups on your guitars very early on, when it wasn’t common practice to do that. The only guitarists I can think of who did that before you were Les Paul and Eddie Cochran.
IOMMI It’s weird how we’ve both done a lot of the same things. I bought a guitar company because I couldn’t get anybody to make the guitar that I wanted. Back in those days Gibson didn’t want to know me, so I started a company and had a guy build me guitars with 24 frets and everything else that I wanted. Guitar companies told me that it couldn’t be done.
VAN HALEN Personal need is where it all comes from.
IOMMI You’ve got to do it for yourself.
VAN HALEN And then people want one. You try to give people what they want, but if the company that makes it is substandard, the people blame you. It ain’t my fault the thing broke off! Mine broke too! Don’t blame me because my name is on it. I just invented it for myself. Do you think people blame Henry Ford for a bad Mustang?
IOMMI Companies always cut corners to try to keep costs down. It’s expensive to make things right.
I was just looking at your guitars and I noticed that Tony uses the same type of fluted knobs as Eddie has on his guitar, only larger.
IOMMI It’s so ironic.
VAN HALEN And the back of his guitar’s neck is stripped, just like mine. I never liked having any kind of paint or lacquer on the neck. Tony took all of his off—the same thing!
You both also like to tune the guitar lower than standard pitch.
VAN HALEN I just use whatever tuning the guitar seems to be in when I pick it up. On tour we tune down for the singer, and us, so we’ll be able to sing background vocals five nights a week without blowing our pipes out. And some songs just don’t sound right in standard tuning. It would be like Tony taking “Into the Void” and tuning it up. And some stuff doesn’t sound right tuned down. But it’s out of necessity. For a while I had my E string tuned down to Db, so when I wanted to use a “drop D” tuning on songs like “Unchained” my low E string was tuned all the way down to B.
IOMMI In the early days when we did Master of Reality, I tuned down because playing at standard pitch used to hurt.
VAN HALEN It amazes me that you do that. Tony still makes his fingertips himself [at 17, Iommi lost the tips of his right hand middle and ring fingers in a metal shop accident]. I just saw them. It’s amazing. It just goes to show what the true essence of a real player is. He wants to play, and he did whatever the fuck he had to in order to do that.
IOMMI No one has ever come up with a better idea than mine. Again, people don’t realize all that I have to go through just to get on that stage every night. I have to change the leather because it wears out, and I have to use light strings, which take a while to break in.
VAN HALEN I have a really hard time holding onto picks. I’ve even tried gluing sandpaper to them, but sometimes that doesn’t even work. It’s all about these tools that we need to do our jobs. Tony needs his thimbles, and I need Krazy Glue and sandpaper so I can hold onto a pick.
What were some of the most significant events for you over the past 30 years.
IOMMI The band broke up and got back together again.
Both of your bands did!
VAN HALEN Some things have changed, but with me it’s always been a family thing. It still is. My son joined the band. Contrary to people’s beliefs, I didn’t get rid of anyone to get him in the band. We needed a bass player, and when I asked if he wanted to play bass, he said sure. It’s always been my brother and me and whoever else.
IOMMI People have asked me over the years, “Why did you get rid of so and so?” They don’t understand that sometimes people don’t want to stay, or they don’t want to work hard and you have to replace them. You may not be happy about it, but it’s like a factory: just because a worker leaves, you don’t close the whole factory down.
VAN HALEN You don’t stop making music just because one of the guys doesn’t want to play with you any more.
IOMMI There are so many different aspects to it. Sometimes they don’t want to carry on and want to do their own thing so you replace them.
And sometimes you don’t know when hell is going to freeze over and you’ll work with someone again.
VAN HALEN Who ever thought we’d be back again with Roth? He went off and did his own thing. He just got tired of what we were doing. We did our thing, and now we’re back together.
IOMMI Black Sabbath got back together with Ozzy. Even when Heaven and Hell got together with Ronnie James Dio a few years ago, we didn’t think we were going to record a new album, but things worked out so well that we did it.
You’ve both worked with singers who developed these larger-than-life personalities.
IOMMI Yeah, but we became the arseholes.
VAN HALEN The bottom line for me is I’m just happy to be here with my friend Tony. I’ve had a hip replacement, I’ve beaten cancer, I had my hand operation, and I stopped drinking. Something inside of me just went, “I’m done.” People always ask me if I’m in a program. AA didn’t do anything for me. Rehab didn’t work. Nothing worked. It’s a strange thing. If you don’t want to quit, you won’t. I can’t tell you what happened. It just did. I don’t need to drink. I’m not jonesing for one. I don’t even think about it any more. It’s like God gave me one big bottle and I drank it all, so now it’s gone. I’m done. I’m just happy to be alive and to still be able to play. I’d say for both of us that not a hell of a lot keeps us down.
IOMMI We’ve done an awful lot.
VAN HALEN We’ve made a lot of mistakes.
IOMMI And you learn from them.
VAN HALEN We’ve come up with a lot of cool stuff, and we’re far from done. We’re certainly not the assholes that people think we are.
IOMMI We just try to be ourselves. That’s why we’ve been friends for so long.
Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde has teamed up with Death Wish Coffee Company ("The World’s Strongest Coffee") to create Valhalla Java coffee.
From a press release:
"Move over, 5 Hour Energy — and watch out, Rockstar. Zakk Wylde’s Valhalla Java is waking up the world in a big way.
"The fair trade, organic, all-natural dark roast coffee is ultra-caffeinated and proven to keep drinkers awake without the addition of any potentially harmful additives present in many energy drinks. This masterful artisan roast promises to make sleepiness a thing of the past."
For more information (and to order) Valhalla Java, head HERE.
And be sure to check out the new commercial below! Also, be sure to check out the packing (front and back) in the photo gallery below the video.
The origin of heavy metal is a very fuzzy thing, but most historians and fans can agree that Black Sabbath’s eponymous 1970 debut was the first true heavy metal album.
Its thunderous drums, sinister riffs and downright evil lyrics left little to be debated. But what we wanted to know was this: What was the heaviest song before Black Sabbath?
We ranked the the following songs based on a variety of factors: distortion/fuzz, playing speed, "darkness," volume, shock value and, most importantly, the song had to have been released before mid-February 1970, when Black Sabbath was unleashed unto the universe.
And sure, it would've been easy to list all the songs on the first two Led Zeppelin albums and call it a day, but we wanted to go deeper than that. We dug deep to find some hidden gems from the era of peace and love.
NOTE: We will be presenting these songs in installments. Check out the first list of 10 below; we'll post the next 10 songs later this week! Until then, enjoy!
50. The Troggs, "Wild Thing" (1966)
This bit of caveman rock, written by Chip Taylor (actor Jon Voight’s brother), is the only song on this list to feature an ocarina solo.
49. The Yardbirds, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” (1966)
Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page teamed up on this elaborate, psychodramatic masterpiece to contribute slashing rhythm parts, zig-zagging lead lines and a witty imitation of a police car’s siren.
48. The Who, "My Generation" (1965)
Studio version not heavy enough for you? There’s always the explosive — literally — Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour version from 1967. Pete Townshend’s ears are still smarting from it.
47. Coven, "Pact With Lucifer" (1969)
Jinx Dawson was Doro before there was a Doro. Coven makes the list for their occult themes and evil-sounding song titles like “Pact With Lucifer,” “Choke, Thirst, Die” and “Dignitaries of Hell,” but ultimately the music just wasn’t that heavy.
46. The Guess Who, “American Woman” (1970)
After luring in listeners with a sweet acoustic blues intro, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman & Co. hit the stompboxes and showed the world what Led Zeppelin would’ve sounded like if they were Canadian. This one came out in January 1970 — mere weeks before Black Sabbath would redefine heavy.
45. Pink Floyd, "Interstellar Overdrive" (1967)
The song that launched a thousand space-rock bands.
44. The Count Five, "Psychotic Reaction" (1966)
The Count Five’s only hit single was this blatantly Yardbirds-inspired gem from 1966. The band, who were all between the ages of 17 and 19, split up a year later to pursue college degrees. Remember, kids, there’s nothing heavier than an education!
43. The Wailers, “Out of Our Tree” (1966) A fun, fuzzed-out offering from the Tacoma-based Wailers, one of the first American garage rock bands.
42. Sam Gopal, "Season of the Witch" (1969)
Sam Gopal was the first percussionist to bring tabla drums back from India and incorporate them into rock music. However, his 1969 album, Escalator, was a landmark in rock music for another reason: It featured, on vocals and guitar, a young Ian Kilmister. You may know him better as “Lemmy.”
41. Cream, "Sunshine of Your Love" (1967)
This song was written by Cream bassist Jack Bruce in a burst of inspiration after watching a Jimi Hendrix concert. Hendrix would cover the song a year later, adding some burning guitar licks in place of the lyrics.
Newsted, featuring Jason Newsted and Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, released their debut album — <em>Heavy Metal Music</em> — August 6. <strong>Now Newsted and <em>Guitar World</em> are giving you the chance to win the new album — and a posted signed by the band!</strong> The grand prize winner gets a copy of <em>Heavy Metal Music</em> on vinyl and a signed poster.
Newsted, featuring Jason Newsted and Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, released their debut album — Heavy Metal Music— August 6.
Now Newsted and Guitar World are giving you the chance to win the new album — and a poster signed by the band!
The grand-prize winner gets a copy of Heavy Metal Music on vinyl and a signed poster.
Two runners-up will win the CD and a poster (unsigned).
Matching and exceeding their teaser EP, Metal (which bowed at No. 1 on the iTunes metal chart), Newsted’s debut full-length assault, Heavy Metal Music, is short on pretense and long on crushing riffs. Be it the throwback Sabbathian strut of “Ampossible,” the breakneck gallop of “Long Time Dead” or the full-speed-ahead charge of “Above All,” the 11-song behemoth cements the quartet’s place as one of metal’s hungriest outfits.
Heavy Metal Music is the product of Jason’s long hours learning and performing with rock’s greats — Warren Haynes, Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield, Andreas Kisser — yet never losing sight of his old-school sensibilities.
“I could’ve pulled superstars together, but it wouldn’t be the same belief,” he stresses. “These guys support me. We hang out before we jam, we hang out after we jam. We have dinners, we have drinks, we vibe like brothers.”
I often get asked about what gear I use in the studio. I have addressed this topic in my column in the past. However, a new guitar has been added to the bunch, Combined with my somewhat-new Line 6 Pod HD500 multi-effects processor, it has made my studio life happier than ever! I'm talking about the Line 6 JTV-89 modeling guitar combined with the HD500.
I bought the HD500 last year, and I've mentioned how pleased I am with it. Overjoyed is more like it. It has become a part of my right arm, an extension of me. I learn more about it every day.
Well, a few months ago, I got the JTV-89 guitar. I thought it might have been a stupid move. I needed another guitar like I needed ... well, another guitar! I have so many, and I feel guilty when I don't play them as it is! And this one came with a warning: I was warned to give it a few months. I wasn't sure why at the time, but OK.
The guitar is beautifully made. It's designed by James Tyler. Blood Red. Fast, modern-feel neck. I changed the strings to 9's and off I went. It played like a dream. How did it sound? Excellent but confusing at first. The models certainly were varied and incredible.
But the hard part was wrapping my mind around the fact that I was hearing a Strat or Tele or Les Paul or a bunch of others, and seeing and feeling this other guitar in my hands! And it certainly took a while to get used to dialing through all the variations! Getting used to the strengths and weaknesses of one guitar is a process unto itself, but getting used to 28, or 29 if you count the guitar, damn!
I will skip ahead. I had days of frustration. I had days of joy. But when I started combining it with the HD-500 and found some favorites and where they were on the guitar, there was no turning back! I was hooked. I was not abandoning my other guitars. But this gave me creative freedom to do my job better, faster and more creatively than ever before. Allow me to demonstrate with a pair of scenarios.
SCENE 1: Old days of doing a session: As I would lay down tracks, I would start thinking that maybe the chosen guitar wasn't right for the song. This happens often. Maybe a Strat or Tele would be better than a Paul or 335. So I would get up and switch guitars. Check the tuning. Listen to the amp. Or change the amp. Or mic. Or effects. Or cabinet. Or ALL OF THE ABOVE! Vibe gone. Gotta get back into it. ARE YOU GETTING THIS?
SCENE 2: Sound not working? Change the knob on the guitar through my favorites. Guitar still in tune. Still playing the song. Not happy with the amp? Keep the amp and add another amp in stereo and dial in new mics. Or cab. Or change the amp. Or pedal. Dial through my favorites. It has become second nature already, and I am making most of these changes on an intuitive level. No thinking, Just doing. What is happening is I am able to stay in the creative mode without gear changes stopping the process. I am staying in the right brain. The gear is not getting in my way. The gear is aiding the process. And subsequently, I am doing more for my clients than before!
When I get called to add guitar to a song, I am expected to give the client all they ask for. Sometimes the parts are written. Sometimes described. That is what is expected. However, I can now offer the unexpected! Things they didn't think of adding. Why not add some chimey 12 strings to the chorus! Or a seriously new sound to the second verse! Ear candy! Keyboard players have been doing this for years. Now we can.
The result? Faster work, great quality, More flexibility. And the price for this magic is nothing compared to a good amp, a good guitar and a few pedals. The bang for the buck seriously equates to a no-brainer. It does it all and more for me and does it well.
I am limited on space here. How can I discuss the tuning options, high-gain custom models, building chains in the HD, etc., in one blog post? I can't. So I've included the video below. First I talk about the setup. At around the 6:50 mark, I start demonstrating sounds. I'll be getting into more detail in future videos and blog posts. For now, I will always love all my guitars, but when I go to work, the first guitar and modeler will be the JTV-89 and HD500.
Till next time …
Ron Zabrocki on Ron Zabrocki: I’m a session guitarist from New York, now living in Connecticut. I started playing at age 6, sight reading right off the bat. That’s how I was taught, so I just believed everyone started that way! I could pretty much sight read anything within a few years, and that aided me in becoming a session guy later in life. I took lessons from anyone I could and was fortunate enough to have some wonderful instructors, including John Scofield, Joe Pass and Alan DeMausse. I’ve played many jingle sessions, and even now I not only play them but have written a few. I’ve “ghosted” for a few people that shall remain nameless, but they get the credit and I got the money! I’ve played sessions in every style, from pop to jazz.
He’s an award-winning singer, songwriter and recording artist, a virtuoso guitarist and one of the most respected and well-loved musicians amongst his peers.
Steve Wariner, who has charted close to 30 Top Ten country hits, including 14 at No. 1, has just released It Ain’t All Bad, his first non-instrumental album in almost eight years.
It’s an all-inclusive project, in that he wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks, produced them and is releasing it on his own label, SelecTone Records.
Wariner grew up in Indiana and began playing music professionally at an early age. As a youngster, he played drums in his father’s band, played bass in cover bands and toured as a singer/bass player with Dottie West, and then Bob Luman, before joining Chet Atkins, who signed him to his first recording contract.
Nashville led him to collaborate and perform with a long list of talent, including Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley and Ricky Skaggs. Over the years, he amassed four Grammy awards and a total of 11 nominations.
In this interview, he discusses the global reach of country music, the role of social media in expanding the genre’s popularity, taking control of all aspects of his music, and the closely knit relationships amongst Nashville’s musical elite.
GUITAR WORLD: First of all, how was NAMM?
Oh, it was fantastic! I hosted the Top 100 Dealer Awards show, and I didn’t really get to see NAMM other than that. But I had a blast doing that. I had a killer band with me, with a horn section, so my NAMM was great. I spent the whole day working on that show and it was fantastic. NAMM is the Mecca, and we have a new convention center, so that was really cool. Randy Gardner, the engineer that works with me, spent an hour and a half looking at the gear, but I was doing an interview with a guy from the Czech Republic, so I didn’t even get to look at stuff. I wanted to!
From the Czech Republic? When you think about having that kind of reach with your music, has it always been so widespread, or is it the result of technology making your music so much more accessible on a global level?
Isn’t that amazing? He knew more about me than I did! I think in my case it’s a combination of the new world we’re in, with social media, but it also collides with me being around forever. When we toured Europe several years ago, we did a show in Poland, and they were after me to — and I use air quotes here — “teach a guitar class” at a college.
I was amazed that anybody there knew who I was. I would equate it to a community college; they were young adults and it was 99 percent guys. No one could really speak English, and every now and then I’d hear “Chet Atkins” or “Albert Lee.” They were asking me about those people. Another good example is a few years ago I did a little guitar Christmas project [Guitar Christmas, 2003] that we weren’t going to market. We just put it up on the Web.
We turned the machines on and I recorded with no accompaniment, no bells and whistles. I used different guitars for each song. It started out to be for friends at Christmas, but when we finished, it turned out pretty cool, so we made it available on the website with no promotion of any type, just word of mouth.
By the next Christmas, we were getting orders on our website from Japan, France and England, in addition to all over the US. We were astounded. Every year around Thanksgiving we get orders for that album. Finally we pressed it and put it in stores. That has to be social media. How else do they know about it? We never promoted it. Every year I can’t wait to see where the orders come from. That speaks to how wide-reaching social media can be.
In addition to owning the record label, you produced the album. According to your colleague Sam Bush, the advantage to that is that the producer always wins, but at the same time, he has to listen to the lead singer, and he’s both. In addition to always winning, what are the challenges that come with doing everything?
Sam is exactly correct in that the good news is you’re the head guy, they’re all your decisions, and you’ll be the last one standing. The bad news is that you’ll be the last one standing! I don’t know that it’s a great situation for every artist, and I include myself.
There’s no question that when I sat in front of Chet, playing a part, if he was producing, I would play and sing differently than when I do it myself. More times than not, I’m by myself in the studio. I’m engineering it and doing it all, and I listen to the playback and make a decision that, “Yes, that’s the one. That’s the take.” Sometimes you stop and think, I hope I’m right about that. I hope that is the take.
Chet may have said, “I think you’ve got one more in you better than that. Get in there and let’s see what you’ve got.” The whole thing with two heads is good too. He or [producer/Capitol Records Nashville president] Jimmy Bowen or somebody would say, “Try a different approach. Go this way.” You try it and, “Oh my god, that’s just what I wanted!” You don’t have that when it’s just you, so I try to be really careful. My biggest challenge as a producer is trying to wear a lot of hats, and there’s a lot of money you’re dealing with when you have a whole room full of players. For example, when I was recording this album, especially on the stuff that I play on as it goes down, that’s the most tricky for me.
Sometimes I’ll overdub my parts after everybody goes home, but when I play on stuff, I have to walk into this control room and listen with wide ears. I’m listening to everything. It’s got to be the right drum, the right bass, and when they leave, it’s all over with unless you hire them and bring them back in, so you’ve got to make sure that that is the one. Everybody’s looking at you like, “Is this the take or not?” You have to be really focused. I think that’s why when I get done with an album, I come home, fall on the bed and pass out for about two days, because I’m so intensely focused on everything — drum sounds, bass sounds, every little thing — and I’m not sure that’s always a great thing for every artist.
A lot of times it’s good to have somebody else cracking the whip on you a little bit. But I really enjoy that challenge and I love creating and arranging on the fly. Something about it gets me going. I paint a little bit, too, so my analogy is that it’s almost like throwing paint on canvas. When you come up with something creative off the cuff, it’s like, “Wow, man, that’s so cool. Look at what we just did. We didn’t even try. It just happened.” Those little happy mistakes sometimes are just awesome.
Another advantage of owning the label and the studio: There’s no suit coming in and reminding you about budget. You can consume as much time as you like.
I remember being so frustrated at a producer when the suit guys came along with the stopwatches. The minute the song started, they were timing how long until the chorus comes in and then trying to change it. You can’t change that. The song is written and structured.
But they’re looking at it strictly from a radio business point of view, you’re looking at it like a performance, and that’s where the two worlds collide. There’s an old saying I love, “Try not to stir the batter so much that the biscuits won’t rise.” It’s true. That’s what happens in a lot of cases. They’ll have you go and go, over and over, and finally everyone is so sick of the song that they want to move on to something else. There’s nothing left because you’ve sucked all the life out of it.
There are so many YouTube videos with all-star jams at the Opry and other places. What creates that sense of community in Nashville and what are those events like for you? Aside from bringing the A-game, how do they push you musically?
You probably do have to bring the A-game, but that’s what the Opry’s always been about. When you look at old pictures, you see all these pickers playing together and having fun. I think it’s inbred; it’s just there. It’s what we’ve always been, and I love that. Everybody gathers around and it’s a family kind of thing. I love to do those things. A while back, they called and said there was going to be a jam with Keith [Urban], Brad [Paisley], Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart. We’ve done several configurations of those things. I did one at the Ryman that was me and Vince [Gill] and Brad and Ricky and on and on. It’s so much fun.
I would venture to say that other than getting there, getting in your dressing room and playing a little bit, you look at it like a regular Opry thing. I usually warm up like a typical Opry night. If I play at 8, I get there at 7, go to my dressing room and start playing. When it’s time to go on, they say, “You’ve got 10 minutes,” and then we go play. I guarantee that’s what everybody does. They’re all great players, so it’s another day at the office.
That’s what I love about it — it’s what we do. The beautiful thing is that everybody is so good and all those guys are having so much fun. It’s not the typical show where you play your set list. Everybody’s smiling, and oh my gosh, it’s fun, we’re throwing it around, now so-and-so’s going to play one. It’s buddies getting together. That’s really what it is.
Read more of Steve Wariner’s interview, including a track-by-track for It Ain’t All Bad, HERE.
— Alison Richter
Alison Richter interviews artists, producers, engineers and other music industry professionals for print and online publications. Read more of her interviews right here.
ToneVille is the absolute best in quality and sound. With amazing vintage looks and extraordinary craftsmanship, ToneVille is out of sight!
Dig this!
• Built to last forever, ToneVille uses only the very best of the new old stock tubes (NOS) giving all ToneVille amps that authentic, retro tone. • Every single component of the amp is over-engineered to meet the highest quality standards. • Sound isn’t colored with reverb or added effects, just pure, marvelous tone. • 1/8” thick Custom-Made Aluminum Chassis • Choosing between head and combo amp is a thing of the past since ToneVille’s Combo Amps are automatically set up to play through our custom ToneVille Extension Cabs. • The cabinet’s woodworking is top-of-the-line. Using the highest quality Black Walnut and Hard Maple, our amps are constructed with dovetailed joints giving them style and durability to last forever. • The Additional Reverb Unit is a fantastic addition to the combo. Made from 18- gauge steel, it has storage space to hold all of your additional cables and accessories for gigs. • Box: 11.5”X18”X10”. Storage: 4.25”X7.75”X8”. • Master Push/Pull Knob • Mid-range on EQ has feature to eliminate EQ from the Circuit • Custom ToneVille knob for Negative Feedback • Each amp is made with a 12” Speaker at 16 ohms: • Vintage 30 Celestion Speaker installed in the extension cab • G12H30 Celestion speaker installed into each combo amp
Four solid amps: • Rio Grande, $995: Tube Reverb Head with Natural Compression
o 5 Watt Reverb Amp
o Tube Specs: 1 Mullard 12ax7; 1 RCA BP 5965/12AT7; 1 RCA BP 6K6 • Sunset Strip, $1995: Tweed Clean & Break-up Sounds, great for studio
o 10 Watt Amp
o Tube Specs: 1 Mullard 12ax7; 1 RCA BP 6L6GC; 1 RCA BP 5Y3GT • Beale Street, $2,295: Ultimate Blues or Rock and Roll Amp
o 15 Watt Amp
o Tube Specs: 1 Mullard 12ax7; 1 RCA BP 5965/12AT7; 1 pair RCA BP GG 6V6GT;
1 Mullard GZ 34 • Broadway, $2,395: AC-15 Sound with a heavier punch CPF ENGCPGT VQPG
o 15 Watt Amp
o Tube Specs: 1 Mullard 12ax7; 2 Japan Mullard 12ax7; 1 pair Mullard EL-84;
1 Mullard GZ-34
ToneVille Extension Cab, $895: Single 12-inch Extension speaker exclusively built for our combo amps. Our extension cab has a closed back with option to remove panels for an open back.
Option Knob Inc. has introduced the VKnob, the newest addition to the Option Knob line of advanced controllers. The VKnob provides advanced dynamic colume control for electric guitars.
It's an alternative for the volume knob on your guitar and enables players to instantly execute fine-tuned volume control and lightning-fast volume swells with ease.
• Pull off the factory volume knob, push on the VKnob, and you're ready to go.
• The "arm" design extends your volume control closer to the strumming area, so it's quicker and easier to adjust your volume on the fly.
• You can rapidly move the arm up and down to create tremolo effects at whatever tempo you want.
• Couple your pinky finger with the notch on the tip of the arm to fine-tune the volume level on every individual note you pick.
NOTE: Awarded “Best In Show” at the 2013 Summer NAMM show for the Accessories and Add-Ons Category.
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
One of the true staples of the sound of hard rock and metal is the use of repeated pedal tone figures to drive heavy riffs and rhythm parts. A pedal tone is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, that is performed while at least one additional harmony is sounded in another register.
Within the scope of rock and metal guitar playing, this often translates to the repeated striking of a low note on the sixth or fifth string (typically open) that alternates with higher single notes or chords. Two classic examples of pedal tones used this way are Judas Priest’s “Another Thing Comin’ ” and the verse figure to the Ozzy Osbourne classic “Crazy Train.”
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
As promised last month, here’s the second half of my original 16-bar solo, entitled “Americana,” which was inspired by Carlos Santana’s rock instrumental classic “Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile),” Gary Moore’s “Still Got the Blues (For You)” and jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker’s harmonically sophisticated soloing style.
In case you missed last month’s column, the chord progression over which this solo is played is structurally similar to that used in the old jazz standard “Autumn Leaves,” which is a circular (repeating) eight-chord sequence that moves diatonically (meaning the root motion is scale based) through the cycle of fifths/fourths (either descending fifths or ascending fourths).
It’s written in the guitar-friendly key of C major/A minor, with the melody superimposing harmonic extensions and tensions atop the basic underlying chords.
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Last month we investigated the dark sound of the Phrygian mode, which is spelled intervallically 1 f2 f3 4 5 f6 f7. In the key of E, the notes would be E F G A B C D. Four of the Phrygian mode’s seven scale degrees—the second, third, sixth and seventh—are minor, or “flatted,” intervals, which is what gives Phrygian such a foreboding, “evil” sound, one that is perfectly suited to heavy metal music.
Once you are well familiarized with the Phrygian mode, it’s fairly easy to learn its “evil sister,” the Phrygian-dominant mode. To morph from Phrygian to Phrygian-dominant, only one note needs to change: the minor, or flatted, third (G in the key of E) is raised one half step to a major third (Gs in this case), resulting in the intervallic spelling 1 f2 3 4 5 f6 f7.
In the key of E, this translates to E F Gs A B C D. FIGURE 1 illustrates E Phrygian-dominant played in first position, with open strings used wherever possible.
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
One of the most often-requested topics my students have asked me to cover over the years is the use of two-note figures, such as thirds and sixths, while soloing or playing rhythm.
These note pairings, commonly referred to as double-stops, allow a guitarist to play harmonized melodies up and down the fretboard very easily, which of course can be explored either within the context of a solo or when supplying a rhythm accompaniment behind a melody.
In this edition of In Deep, we will focus primarily on the use of thirds but will also look at fourths and fifths.
These videos are bonus content related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Folk-blues/ragtime guitarist Elizabeth Cotten lived from 1895 to 1987, but by age 12 she had already written the tune that would make her a legend: “Freight Train.”
It would take another 55 years before she would achieve status as a legend. Her long road toward that rank was as unique as her unusual left-handed approach to playing the guitar.
Before reaching her teen years, Cotten helped make ends meet by working as a maid. She married at 15 and retired from playing music to raise a family. By 1947, Cotton was divorced and working as a housekeeper for the musicologist/folk-singing Seeger family, which included children Peggy and Mike (folk legend Pete Seeger was their half-brother). Immersed in the family’s musical surroundings, Cotten began relearning to play the guitar as she approached the age of 60.
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
In the Fifties, Chicago was the center of the blues universe. Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf were at their creative and commercial peak, and Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and Freddie King were all earning their bones. But alongside these now-legendary names are others who but for various twists of fate might be equally well known. One of these is Jody Williams.
Williams was introduced to the guitar by fellow Chicago teenager Bo Diddley and quickly took to the instrument. Before long he began working with elite musicians such as pianist Otis Spann, who introduced Williams to the Chess Records studio scene.
Williams proved himself to be remarkably versatile. He backed Howlin’ Wolf on “Evil” and “Forty-Four,” among the heaviest tracks of the era, but he could also swing with the uptown feel of his idol, B.B. King, and solo with blazing excitement.
The Faceless, EMG Pickups and Guitar World are teaming up to present the Faceless "Accelerated Evolution" Guitar Contest.
As Faceless guitarist Michael Keene explains in the video below, the Faceless are looking to find the best cover of "Accelerated Evolution," a track off their latest album, Autotheism.
"I was watching a bunch of videos on YouTube of people covering the song," Keene says. "I noticed people were making some mistakes, and they were the same mistakes, which I thought was kind of weird. Then I realized it's because people were downloading a bad tab."
As a result, we are providing you with the correct tab of the song, plus a backing track given to us by the band (See below).
You can download the "Accelerated Evolution" tab AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THIS STORY. NOTE: Scroll down and look for "The Faceless - Accelerated Evolution.pdf" below the advertisement image pertaining to this contest.
Then you'll need to create a video that shows you playing the song using the new tab. Next, post the video to YouTube with the label "'Accelerated Evolution' Guitar Contest." The band will find your videos and judge them.
The prizes (first, second and third) are listed in the graphic and video below. The contest runs through September 30, so get busy!
Be sure to catch the Faceless on tour starting September 13 with Between the Buried and Me, the Contortionist and the Safety Fire. For more about the Faceless, check out their Facebook page.
Below, check out the latest gear-demo video from the gang at BBE Sound.
In it, Ozzy Osbourne and Firewind guitarist Gus G demos his signature BBE G Screamer overdrive pedal.
"The Green Screamer was working great for me, but I had ideas about how to make it even better for my tone," Gus G said. "Paul Gagon and I collaborated, and we modified the input driver to the distortion circuit so that more lower-mid harmonics are focused where I want them.
"Now my new G Screamer pedal lets me drive even more harmonics, and they're focused right where I need them to be for a cleaner, tighter distortion. The G Screamer delivers explosive power with precision. It’s my new weapon. Want a killer screaming lead tone like mine? Step on a G Screamer!"
For more about the G Screamer, visit bbesound.com.
Metallica have posted two new clips from their 3D film, Through the Never, and you can check them out below.
The film debuted yesterday, September 9, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It will open on every IMAX screen in North America September 27 and make its way to standard theaters October 4.
Directed by Nimród Antal, Metallica Through the Never cuts back and forth between the narrative, which follows a roadie named Trip (played by Dane DeHaan) and performance footage of the band playing some of their more popular and rocking songs.
Check out the new clips — and be sure to tell us what you think in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter!
His brilliant, Doc Watson-inspired acoustic flatpicking, which incorporated lightning-fast fiddle lines played on an already-vintage Martin D-28 guitar, helped the bluegrass world recognize the guitar as a lead instrument. Several masters of the genre, including Tony Rice and Norman Blake, list him as a key influence.
As an electric guitarist, White literally built the bridge between country and rock in the late '60s. His work with the Parsons/White StringBender— an ingenious B-string-pulling device invented and installed in White's 1954 Fender Telecaster by multi-instrumentalist Gene Parsons — is simply mind blowing.
Whether employing a crisp, bell-like tone (the Byrds'"Tulsa County") or a touch of fuzz (The Flying Burrito Brothers'"The Train Song"), White inserted his dancing, whimsical runs into songs with confidence, knowing that a little can often go a long way.
White, a member of the Byrds, Nashville West, Muleskinner and the Kentucky Colonels, also was an in-demand session player who recorded with Arlo Guthrie, Wynn Stewart, Joe Cocker and Jackson Browne, to name just a few. He was killed by a drunk driver after a gig in California in 1973, never getting to fully grasp the influence he'd have on bluegrass, country and rock.
There's really aren't many "Clarence White in action" videos to be found on YouTube, but I think I've collected a decent sampling of his work and skills below. Enjoy!
"You Ain't Going Nowhere," The Byrds
Because the Byrds' better-known Sweetheart of the Rodeo version of this Bob Dylan cover highlights pedal steel guitar, we suggest you check out a live rendition instead — like this one from a 1968 TV appearance — which puts the emphasis on White, his Telecaster and his Parsons/White StringBender.
"Crawdad Song," Clarence White and Bob Baxter
Here's White (on the left — the guy with the beard) on the Bob Baxter Guitar Workshop TV show from 1973, sitting in on "The Crawdad Song." To really hear what he can do on a bluegrass tune, check out the Flatpick album on Amazon.com.
"Nashville West," Nashville West
No Clarence White playlist would be complete without his signature song. Although White recorded the official studio version with the Byrds, here's a stripped-down 1968 El Monte, California, club-date version by another of White's bands, Nashville West, which featured fellow Byrd Gene Parsons on drums. Consider it the perfect product demo for the Parsons/White StringBender!
"Time Between," The Byrds
Feel free to argue, but if you had to choose one album that best demonstrates White's B-bender skills, it would be Live at the Fillmore: February 1969 by the Byrds. The musicians on the album are Roger McGuinn on 12-string Rickenbacker, Gene Parsons on drums, John York on bass and Clarence White on the B-Bender Tele. He never puts it down, so there's no escaping his B bending! While the most impressive guitar track on the album is the band's cover of Buck Owens' instrumental "Buckaroo," that song isn't available on YouTube. Here, however, is a Chris Hillman tune, "Time Between," from the same live album.
"Dark Hollow," Muleskinner
Did I mention White could sing? He was actually a great vocalist with a distinctive, deep voice that was just right for bluegrass and the spaced-out material the Byrds were recording from 1969 to 1972. Here's another live YouTube appearance by White, this time with Muleskinner, his post-Byrds band, in early 1973, the year he died.
Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World (and a B-Bender player). Follow him on Twitter.
