While stopping by the Acoustic Nation studio to teach us his hit single “Fight,” singer/songwriter and gutiarist Lee DeWyze delivered a couple exclusive performances as well.
Below, watch DeWyze perform acoustic renditions of the tracks "Fight,"“Frames” and “Don’t Be Afraid,” all of which are featured on his latest full length album, Frames. As the winner of the 9th season of American Idol, DeWyze may be best known for his voice, but here we’re reminded of his ability to pen a well-crafted song––and deliver it flawlessly, too.
If you’re eager for more Lee DeWyze, don’t worry. There’s more to come! Our exclusive interview with the singer will be posted in the coming days, so stay tuned.
Boston’s Tom Scholz has been blazing ground with new technology since before the band’s groundbreaking self-titled debut album in 1976.
Scholz has remained the foundation of the band for more than 37 years and, along the way, has composed and recorded countless rock staples and developed his line of Rockman guitar products.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Scholz’s approach to recording. In this age of Pro Tools and Garageband, when results often can be quick, Scholz prefers his tried-and-true methods of analog recording. The results can be heard on Boston's new album, Life, Love & Hope.
We recently got inside the head of the mastermind to talk about the process.
GUITAR WORLD: The new Boston album, Life, Love & Hope, sounds fantastic. How did this particular collection of songs came together?
That’s a long story [laughs]. Pretty much the same way I’ve done all the Boston albums, which was I started with an idea for a song, maybe a chord progression or a lick for the chorus or verse. I’ll start with that on tape and then sort of see where it takes me. It's an iterative process, definitely not step by step.
Every time I put something down, I get a million more ideas of where it could go from there or how it could be done differently. I don’t try them all but I do try a lot. Once I have a rhythm guitar track and a drum track down, I will start a bass track and pretty soon I realize if I use a different chord form I could maybe do a different bass line, so I have to go back and redo parts.
Each new layer I put on adds a new world of options and possibilities. It’s a mathematical progression that expands at an exponential rate. By the time I’m done with a song after months and months, assuming it’s one that ends up on the album, 99 percent of what I’ve recorded doesn’t make it on the final track. I describe it three steps forward and 2.9 steps back.
Obviously the technology of recording has changed tremendously since Boston’s 1976 debut album.
For some people! [laughs]
Has your process changed at all, or do you still do it like you did it in the 1970s?
There is one change. Regrettably at the end of the process I have to do a conversion from analog to digital. I have to deal with what that does and do maybe some editing. Typically I will spend three to six months recording a particular song. As I’m going along, I have versions and incarnations.
I like to relax a minute at the end of the day and let the tape play. I really enjoy that. But in that last step in converting to digital, even “good” digital at 24 bit, after a few hours I don’t want to hear the song anymore. It’s an agonizing process for me. It’s heartbreaking. What I hear is fantastic. It sounds spacious and beautiful. Then it gets converted to digital and sounds like crap. I can’t do anything about it.
However, I have made a series of mixes that are completely analog. So for most of the songs all analog versions. I’m just in the process of finishing that up and we will be releasing this on vinyl, which will be completely analog. I’m very much looking forward to that. I’m not sure if there are any other analog recordings on vinyl these days. It sounds great. I can’t stand digital. I can't stand listening to it. If I had to record in digital, I would stop.
When the label put out the first few Boston albums on CD, you would get them and think it was the newest and greatest technology. But at the end of the day, you ended up back at the record because it sounded much fuller. I can’t imagine how good these new songs sound to you because they sound so great even on the CD.
Thank you. I work as hard as I can to make it work with this digital format, but it's always a big step down for me. Analog can’t be beat. There are three technical reasons digital is not as good as analog. Clearly it bothers some people a lot more than others. Some people look at me like I have two heads when I say it bothers me. Others couldn’t agree more and can’t stand it.
Of course, to add insult to injury, they added compression. They compress the files and make these ghastly mp3 files everybody loads onto their iPods. I can’t imagine that. I can’t stay in the same room when someone plays one of those. When somebody puts their downloaded stuff on the sound system where I skate at, I’ve been known to leave [laughs]. I can’t take it.
It’s more than just the sound. Probably the record-buying audience is too young at this point to appreciate what vinyl and cassettes sound like in comparison to CD’s, but also you guys were always known for amazing artwork on album covers and the liner notes. That seems to becoming a lost art.
Yes, people really latched on to this whole “more is better” thing online where you grab a song from here and a song from there. The whole experience of getting an album from an artist you like and listening to it from beginning to end is sort of gone. Now it’s piecemeal.
The best most artists can hope for is a “greatest hits.”
The only two rays of hope are that there are this group of people setting up to play vinyl. One of the most promising parts is that those people aren’t all older adults. They are college kids. When I was in college, that generation created the market for great audio sound. That was the generation that started buying stereo LP’s and power amps and all these things to have great audio.
Somewhere, that got lost along the way many years ago. College kids were at the front of the line for downloading junk off the Internet in any cheap way possible. It’s really good to see that there is a start of that movement toward quality. The other thing is, although I’ll probably never be a fan, there is finally a provider that has started to offer higher-resolution digital copies with a much higher sampling rate. That was my biggest complaint about CD’s.
When you were putting these songs together, you used almost every vocalist who has ever been on a Boston album. When you were writing, did you say to yourself, “This one is good for Brad” or “This one would be great for Tommy?"
It’s not easy. Of course, if Brad were here I would have him singing a lot more songs. I really have to guess at it. I don’t always get it right. The last song, “The Way You Look Tonight," I had four different singers sing it all the way through, complete with editing, before I finally got the right one. It turned out to be Tommy DeCarlo. So many other ones I have gotten lucky and got it right off the bat. Tommy did a great job on several of the cuts.
I have Kimberley Dahme on “If You Were In Love." I wrote the lyrics for a female voice because I thought it would be a good range for her. I’d planned on doing the harmonies with male voices behind her. When I heard her actually sing it and she sang the harmonies for the second verse, I was knocked out. That was the only song on the album that is sung by one voice. All the other songs have more than one vocalist. That’s one of my chance songs. I stuck my neck out on that. Obviously there are a lot of people who expect to hear only male voices, but I thought it was the right voice for the song.
The one thing I noticed with this album is that it has a continuity you don’t expect. Seeing it had all these different voices, I almost expected something like the Beatles with the different flavors depending on the singers.
It was intentional, of course. I’m lucky the style of all of these singers is very similar. Obviously me singing a song was a departure [laughs]. I’ve been showing singers for more than 30 years how to sing my songs. I figured it was time I just did one.
How many guitar tracks are we typically listening to on these new tracks?
A lot! What I’m after is always that choral or orchestral effect. There are a couple of important things I have to keep in mind when I’m doing that. If there is an electric guitar, there are almost always two. Very frequently I will double up the track on each side, the left and the right. The difficult things with rhythm guitars is that they can't be tuned exactly the same. They have to have a difference in pitch. You have to play it enough that the guitar is naturally de-tuned. The pitch has to be intentionally altered.
When you start to get up into larger numbers, like four guitars, you have to be off, but you can’t get too far off. This is nothing new. I started doing this from the very beginning. For example, “More Than a Feeling,” that last chorus has four electric guitars, two on each side, de-tuned as I described. There are then three lead guitars. Leads are a completely different story. There you have to be careful in the other direction. The tuning must be very, very close. The playing should be slightly off time.
When you get into bending a string and doubling it, it can get to be a little scary. It takes a lot of work to get it right. When we do it live we have three guitars, and it takes a lot of work. That’s a very long answer to a very short question. Typically eight for a rhythm, and if there is a lead then anywhere between two and six.
Are you looking at 2014 for a possible tour?
We are looking into it. We don’t have any firm plans, but it looks very promising. We are basically full speed ahead. We did 50 dates in 2012 but we never made it left of the Rocky Mountains, so we had best start out west. We are going to try not to leave anyone out this time.
Can you talk about the process of creating the Gibson #10 Tom Scholz 1968 Les Paul? Do they work with you or do you sort of hand them your baby and see what they come back with?
No, there was a lot of back and forth. I stayed with them while they were measuring the first time. They took a lot of care and it was a serious scientific endeavor that I was really impressed with. They came back with a rough prototype and I picked it up and immediately noticed some things and did my own measuring and sent them back a whole list of error corrections or what have you. They, with dogged determination, got the physical properties of that guitar exact. If I picked up my main guitar and that guitar, I couldn’t tell you which one I was holding. They did a remarkable job. I was pretty impressed.
It has to be intimidating for a luthier to go to you in particular knowing the amount of knowledge you have and have to make something to your standards.
They really did a great job. They put a lot of effort into it and I was amazed at how good visually it is. They got all the knicks and the bumps.
That might be the hard part.
I think so. I’m thinking how do they do that. Do they make a drawing for that.
Boston’s new album, Life, Love & Hope, will be available in the US December 3 via Frontiers Records. Visit bandboston.com for more information and future tour dates.
John Katic is a writer and podcaster who founded the Iron City Rocks Podcast in 2009. It features interviews with countless rock, hard rock, metal and blues artists. In 2013, he started Heavy Metal Bookclub, a podcast and website devoted to hard rock and metal books.
According to announcement released today, Black Label Society have amicably parted ways with longtime guitarist Nick Catanese, aka "the Evil Twin."
The band, who "wish him the very best in his future musical endeavors," added that a replacement will be officially announced soon.
Zakk Wylde and the rest of the band have been holed up in Wylde's personal recording studio the past few months recording their much-anticipated new album, which is set for a spring 2014 release through EOne.
Here's part of Guitar World's 2011 interview with Catanese, who discusses his role in the band and more. For the rest of this interview, head here.
For those not aware, you had sent your demo tape to Zakk in response to a magazine ad and subsequently did the Book of Shadows tour. What was on that tape?
No, there was no ad in a magazine. I saw his email address in Metal Edge magazine. It wasn't an ad that he needed a guitar player; that was just very good timing and fate (for people who believe in it ). I just emailed him and said, "If you need a guitar player, I'm in Pittsburgh," or something like that. He responded and said, "As a matter of fact, I do — for this Book Of Shadows tour." He said to send him a tape and a picture and I did the next day. The tape was just a demo of my old band.
Your role in Black Label Society is somewhat of a hybrid between a rhythm player and lead player. For the sake of a novice guitarist, can you talk what the role of the rhythm player does relative to bass and drums?
To me its the glue between the rhythm section and the lead guitar, just when Zakk goes into a solo, the song doesn’t drop out. But you have to have a good sense of rhythm and feel. I love it, keeping the song chugging along.
Conversely, what is the approach to your leads and dual leads with Zakk?
Well, when he plays piano he wants me to do all of the guitar work, which is awesome and always a challenge. Like this tour, we do "Darkest Days." The solo is amazing and the last lick he did is sick. I obsessed on that lick for a month and finally nailed it. I just dig making him proud when I do his solos and make them sound like the record. As far as doubling, we just jam it and have a blast.
Black Label Society's newest album, Unblackened, is out now. It's a live acoustic album recorded March 6 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
Below, we present a bit of footage that didn't make it onto the PBS/American Masters version of the new Jimi Hendrix documentary, Jimi Hendrix — Hear My Train A Comin'.
In this clip, various Hendrix associates discuss the making of "The Wind Cries Mary," a track from Are You Experienced, the 1967 debut album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The video features Hendrix's late manager Chas Chandler (a former member of the Animals) describing how the song was recorded in 20 minutes, including five guitar overdubs. Then Eddie Kramer isolates various guitar tracks from the song.
Welcome to Part 3 of my series teaching you Mozart's 25th Symphony in G minor. For parts 1 and 2, see RELATED CONTENT to the left, directly under my photo.
We're starting to get pretty far into the piece. After this new section, you'll have about one and a half minutes of material when performed at the correct tempo of 160 bpm.
This new section is great for beginners since there's nothing too challenging, technique-wise. The majority of this section is straight quarter notes, which, even at 160 bpm, is easy. The only challenge is memorizing all of the arpeggio shapes, which also is a great exercise, particularly for beginners.
Due to the simplicity of this section, I've decided to play this entirely using a "volume swell" technique, which is totally optional but a lot of fun! I've seen many guitarists using this technique, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Jeff Beck and Gary Moore. It almost mimics the sound of a violin if done correctly.
I've made a video demonstrating this technique, but the basic idea is that you use your volume control to hide the sound of the pick attack when playing single notes. You pick the note with your volume rolled fully down and then roll the volume up right after so you just hear the sustain of the note. I play every note in this section with this technique except the pull-offs in bars 3, 4, 7 and 8.
You can really only do this technique on guitars where the volume control is close to the strings, such as a Stratocaster. For guitars like Les Pauls, it's difficult to execute as the volume control is too far to reach with your picking hand.
This section focuses on the relative major key of G minor, which is Bb major. It begins with playing Bb notes octaves apart each sustained for an entire bar. Following this, you have a pull-off, which should be played with your pinky, second to first finger. This entire phrase is repeated and followed by arpeggios outlining a simple chord progression (Bb Maj - Eb Maj - A Dim - D Maj - G Min - C Maj).
Memorize each arpeggio shape and then play the entire progression slowly to a metronome. If you are using the volume swell technique, make sure your swells are in time with the click and each note is clear and articulate. The section ends with the following descending progression: F 7 - Bb Maj - Bb Min - Bb Dim, followed by a chromatic/octave phrase at the end.
So far, this is my favorite section of the piece. I think it is great for beginners who are new to learning classical pieces and are unfamiliar with playing arpeggios outside of the open position. Once you've learned this section, try performing parts 1, 2 and 3 and see if you can do so at the correct tempo without making mistakes. That's a pretty good challenge, even for advanced payers.
I'm going to take a break from this series for a couple of weeks, but don't worry — I will come back and continue during the second half of December. Next week I will show you a "quick lick" for hard rock and metal players; the following week I will be doing a writeup for an event I'm performing at with one of my biggest guitar influences, Jake E. Lee!
Will Wallner is a guitarist from England who now lives in Los Angeles. He recently signed a solo deal with Polish record label Metal Mind Productions for the release of his debut album, which features influential musicians from hard rock and heavy metal. He also is the lead guitarist for White Wizzard (Earache Records) and toured Japan, the US and Canada in 2012. Follow Will on Facebook and Twitter.
One of the most commonly used chord subs in jazz guitar, the Tritione Sub, is a concept that comes up time and again when studying soloing and comping, but sometimes its meaning and usage isn’t always clear.
To help clear the air with this important and cool-sounding chord sub, we’ll be using the next few lessons to dissect, apply and practice various chords, scales and arpeggios you can use in order to bring this chord sub concept into your jazz guitar playing today.
In this first lesson, you’ll learn how to use 7th and 7#11 arpeggios to outline the tritone sub in a ii V I chord progression, allowing you to take your soloing chops up a notch and begin to create lines in the same vibe as your favorite jazz guitarists at the same time.
So, let’s dig into tritone sub arpeggios for jazz guitar!
What Is a Tritone Sub?
To begin, let’s take a look at what a tritone sub is on paper, and then we will be ready to transfer this knowledge to the fretboard. Simply put, a tritone sub is when you have a V7 chord, such as the D7 in the example below, and you sub that chord out with a bII7 chord, such as the Ab7 in the same example.
This chord sub works out because both chords share a 3rd and 7th. This means the 3rd and 7th of D7, F# and C, are the same notes as the 7th and 3rd of Ab7, Gb(F#) and C. This connection is what allows these chords to be so easily swapped out for each other in comping and soloing situations.
Play through the following example and hear how both chord progressions, ii V I and ii bII I, sound similar but have a different feel to them as well that is created from the bass note movement in each progression.
Tritone Sub Arpeggio 1 – 7th Arp
Now that you have an idea of what a tritone sub is, let’s take this concept to the fretboard as you begin to apply the theory to your jazz guitar solos and improvised phrases. The first place to start is by learning an arpeggio for the bII7 chord that you can then use to solo over the V7 chord in a ii V I chord progression, as you can see in this first example.
Start by learning these arpeggio shapes in this position, taking them to all 12 keys across the neck if possible, and then put on a ii V I backing track and start to solo over those chords using the ii bII I arpeggios from the example below.
When you have a handle on these arpeggio shapes, try applying any 7th arpeggio you know to this chord progression, so that you will be able to apply this concept to any area of the fretboard as you take this idea further in your practice routine and jam/gigging situations.
To help you get started with this sound, here is a sample lick written over a ii V I in G major, where the bII7 arpeggio is used over the V7 chord in bar 2 of the phrase. Start by learning this lick in G, then taking it to as many other keys as you can in order to get an idea of how it fits and sounds across the fretboard.
When you have worked this lick across the neck, you can try writing out 4 to 5 licks of your own that use the same concept, the bII7 arpeggio over V7, and then begin to solo over a ii V I backing track as you make up similar licks on the spot with these same arpeggios.
Tritone Sub Arpeggio 2 – 7#11 Arp
You can take this approach one step further by applying a 7#11 sound to your tritone sub chord in bar 2 of a ii V I chord progression, as you can see in the example below.
This chord, bII7#11, sits nicely over the V7 harmony as the #11 of a bII shape is the same note as the root of a V7 shape, as you can see with the note D in the example below, which is the #11 of Ab7 and the root of D7. Start by learning the arpeggio fingering below and solo over a ii V I backing track using these shapes in order to begin to hear how the 7#11 chord sounds when superimposed over the V7 chord in this progression.
In order to take this idea further in your practicing, you can take any 7th arpeggio you know, on any string set as well, and simply lower the 3rd note, the 5th, to turn that 7th arpeggio into a 7#11 arpeggio.
This will allow you to learn new sounds, based on the 7#11 arpeggio, without having to learn a bunch of new shapes on the neck. Instead, you will be creating new sounds from previous knowledge as you transform 7th arpeggios into 7#11 arpeggios with a one-note adjustment.
Here's a sample lick that uses the bII7#11 arpeggio over the V7 chord in bar 2 of a ii V I progression in the key of G major. Once you have this lick under your fingers in G, take it to other keys across the fretboard, and then begin to write out and improvise lines of your own that use the tritone bII7#11 arpeggio in this context.
As you can see, learning how to play 7th and 7#11 arpeggios will allow you to comfortably outline a Tritone Sub ii V I chord progression the next time your want to bring this sound to your jazz guitar improvisational ideas and phrases.
Check out these shapes in the woodshed this week and see what you can come up with on your own as you explore tritone arpeggios for jazz guitar in the practice room.
Matt Warnock is the owner of mattwarnockguitar.com, a free website that provides hundreds of lessons and resources designed to help guitarists of all experience levels meet their practice and performance goals. Matt lives in the UK, where he is a lecturer in Popular Music Performance at the University of Chester and an examiner for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors).
Acclaimed singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke will present two performances of her one-woman show My Mother Has Four Noses on Monday, December 16 and Tuesday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio in Minneapolis, MN. The new play with music, which played to sold out houses at the Playwrights’ Center in August, is pulled from her experiences caring for her mother at the end of her life as she struggled with Alzheimer’s.
Tickets are $22 and will be on sale beginning Monday, November 25 through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org. Seating in the Dowling Studio is general admission.
My Mother Has Four Noses recounts Brooke’s experiences with her mother, Darren “Stoney” Nelson, as she declined into the final stages of Alzheimer’s. The story is told through a series of monologues in which Ms. Brooke portrays both herself and her mother with 11 new songs to complement the performance. My Mother Has Four Noses has played to sold out houses at Playwrights’ Center, at the Warner Theater in Torrington, CT, and World Café Live for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
“My mom was a character,” says Brooke. “She was a published poet, a Christian Scientist, a clown, and always up for drama. In fact, I used to thank her on stage for all the good material. In her last two years, we shared every human experience on the spectrum. My only instinct? Write it down, sing it, tell it. It was her instinct too: Almost daily she would say, ‘Boolie,’ (my nickname) ‘That’s good! Are you getting this down? We should make a play out of it!’ I did get it down, and I did write a play. It is my songs, her poems, and our stories enmeshed.”
Jonatha Brooke has been writing songs, making records and touring since her early days in Boston with her band The Story, which released two albums, Grace in Gravity and The Angel in the House, on Elektra Records.
In 1995, Ms. Brooke released the first of two solo albums on MCA/Universal, Plumb, followed by Ten Cent Wings in 1997. In 1999 she started her own independent label, Bad Dog Records, and has since released six more albums. Her most recent release, The Works, combined previously unheard, unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics with her own music and arrangements.
Ms. Brooke has written for three Disney films, has had songs included in many television shows and composed the theme song for Joss Whedon's television series Dollhouse. Most recently, she co-penned the song “Choose Your Battles” with Katy Perry for Perry’s latest release, Prism.
Rock icon Richie Sambora and music legend Stevie Wonder performed a surprise duet of “Silent Night” during last night’s 82nd Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. Richie also performed a soulful rendition of “Lean on Me” and his hit song “Livin’ on a Prayer,” lending his powerful vocals to the evening’s festivities which benefitted the Marine Toys for Tots and saluted Disabled American Veterans.
One of Los Angeles’ biggest and longest-running Christmas traditions, The Hollywood Christmas Parade took over Tinsel Town on December 1st as the stars came out to celebrate the holiday season. Richie was joined by an incredible line-up of performers, including the Goo Goo Dolls, Daughtry, Kenny Loggins, Leann Rimes, William Shatner, Billy Ray Cyrus and more, in addition to Wonder.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the grand marshal and the evening was hosted by Erik Estrada, Laura McKenzie, Dean Cain and Montel Williams. Many notable names also made an appearance including Valerie Harper, Susan Lucci, Wayne Brady, Marie Osmond, Larry King, Joe Mantegna with the cast of Criminal Minds, and stars of The Young and the Restless. The Parade will be broadcasted as a two-hour primetime special on the Hallmark Channel on December 11th and will air again on the Hallmark Movie Channel on December 20th and 24th. The parade will also broadcast by more than 350 stations around the country on December 20th from 8-10pm and will air to more than 1 million American servicemen and women worldwide on American Forces Television Network.
Richie’s appearance at the Hollywood Christmas Parade rounds out a year that has once again seen Richie continuously contributing his talents to important causes that resonate deeply with him. He gave inspiring performances during Vice President Al Gore's ‘24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon’ (a live-stream event exploring the cost of carbon pollution), Dream Foundation’s 12th Annual Celebration of Dreams Gala (a wish-granting organization that serves those battling life-threatening illnesses), and the grand opening of Step Up On Vine (a supportive housing project in Hollywood that fight chronic homelessness, made possible by The Clinton Global Initiative in partnership with The Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation.)
Richie Sambora performs "Dead or Alive" for The Dream Foundation.
On 9/11, Richie released a heartfelt tribute song, co-written with the illustrious Bernie Taupin, called “Engine 19” to honor the hard work and dedication of the brave men and women of the Fire Department, and all of the first responders around the country.
Check out "Engine 19" here.
Earlier this year Sambora also took part in CBS.com’s music performance series Tip Cup to help support MusiCares, which provides assistance to music people in times of need.
Sambora recently released his latest solo album Aftermath of the Lowdown. You can watch Richie’s new video for song “Come Back As Me” here.
The Wild Feathers are set to make their debut appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (ABC, 11:35PM ET/PT), performing their acclaimed single "The Ceiling." The Nashville five-piece is performing "Got It Wrong" on Rachael Ray December 10th.
"Got It Wrong" is the new single off the band's self-titled debut album, which opened at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. The Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Emmylou Harris)-produced release came out August 13th via Warner Bros Records.
The Wild Feathers have spent 2013 on the road, putting well over 200 shows behind them. They have played with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, ZZ Ward, Gary Clark Jr., Dawes and more, with stops at the Sasquatch and Hangout Festivals, Milwaukee's Summerfest, Louisville's Forecastle Festival, San Francisco's Outside Lands, Nashville's Live on the Green and the Austin City Limits festival. They will join Dwight Yoakam on a few California shows this month, and are already confirmed for Stagecoach 2014. Hometown fans are in for a treat this New Year's Eve; the guys will be headlining a special show at Mercy Lounge in Nashville. Click to watch a pretty amazing clip from a recent Nashville show:
The Wild Feathers Tour Dates:
12/5 - Anaheim, CA - The Grove*
12/6 - Portland, OR - Roseland - 101/9 KNK Jingle Jam
12/7 - San Francisco, CA - Warfield*
12/8 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Lauderdale Live
12/11 - Birmingham, AL - Iron City
12/31 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
4/25 - Indio, CA - Stagecoach
*with Dwight Yoakam
For those who might not be familiar with intervals, we’ll start by reviewing the core concept.
The term sounds kind of advanced, but an “interval” simply refers to the distance between two notes, while a harmonic interval is when you play two notes at the same time.
So to bring the simplicity home, a power chord is a harmonic interval, and most of us are pretty comfortable with power chords.
So when you’re playing a “perfect 5th power chord,” you’ll typically have two major components:
01. The root note (typically the lowest note)
02. The consonant interval.
For a power chord that has a root note on the sixth string, you can make it a perfect fifth by simply playing the fifth string two frets up. For example, a G5 power chord would look like this:
If you’ve been playing guitar (particularly electric guitar) for any length of time, you’ll know this chord is incredibly common and is even exclusively used in many songs.
So why does this matter?
Perfect fifths make it incredibly easy to find the consonant interval, which can be simply thought of as two notes that resolve or “sound good together” and don’t leave you wanting. The term “staple” is also used to describe a consonant chord or interval.
Additionally, perfect fifths make it easy for you to find octaves, assuming you’re playing your chord on either the fifth or sixth string.
Playing a power chord on the fourth or third string changes things a bit because of the tuning of the second string to B, which means you have to reach further for one of your consonant notes; three frets up instead of two. This is just something to keep in mind.
For this lesson, we’re just dealing with power chords played on the sixth and fifth strings.
So let’s recap — perfect fifth power chords give us easy access to:
01. A consonant note in an interval
02. The octave of our root note.
Improvisation
It pays to understand this concept whenever you want to start figuring out how to improvise because it gives you a starting point and provides some simple structural components to start out with.
You know now that any power chord with a root note on the sixth or fifth string will have a workable or “stable” note two frets and one string up. Additionally, you’ll have an octave of that note two frets and two strings up.
So, going with the G5 power chord:
Root Note on the Sixth String and Third Fret
• Consonant Note: 5th String and Fifth Fret • Octave Note: 4th String and Fifth Fret
This gives you a bit of a skeleton to build your improvising off of, so the best way to get that anchored in your mind is to go through a few basic exercises that utilize the perfect fifth at several different spots on the fretboard:
Exercise 1: Perfect Fifths Power Chords (Sixth String Root)
Exercise 2: Dyad Chords (Fifth String)
Exercise 3: Perfect Fifths Power Chords (Fifth String Root)
Exercise 4: Combination
Exercise 5: Combination
Hearing the Consonant Notes and Octaves
Once you understand the concept, the challenge is to start to be able to hear the consonant and octave notes that correspond to your root note. As you develop familiarity with that system, your instincts as a guitar player will start to improve, and your ear will be able to pick up on more subtleties of the instrument.
You’ll know what a consonant and octave note sound like, even if you might not be thinking in those terms as it’s happening.
So in a sense, it’s really more about your ear than it is about what you see on a piece of paper. If you can hear what’s going on in these patterns and replicate it in other musical situations, then you’ve built a crucial foundational tool to help you become better at improvising and playing by ear.
To help ring in the holidays, we’ve teamed up with Cordoba, Dean Markley USA and UltraSound Amplifiers to bring you our December giveaway – the ultimate acoustic prize pack!
The prize pack consists of a Cordoba Fusion 12 Natural acoustic guitar – a high quality, hybrid style nylon string guitar designed to play and feel like a steel string acoustic. The 12 Natural is built with a solid Canadian cedar top or European spruce top paired with mahogany back and sides. Its mahogany neck built with slimmer dimensions combined with a radiused fingerboard give the Fusion series the feel and playability that most steel string and electric guitar players are used to.
The rosette is hand inlaid using maple and rosewood rings, and it features 3 ply maple and ebony top purfling for a sleek aesthetic. It also comes equipped with the Fishman Presys pickup. Tonally, the 12 Natural has all the warmth, body, and resonance that traditional “classical” nylon string guitars are known for, and is built using traditional Spanish guitar methods like domed soundboards and fan bracing patterns.
To provide the purest possible amplification for the 12 Natural, we’re also including an UltraSound AG15M acoustic amplifier. With its specially designed 8" coaxial speaker, the AG15M is known for its warm lows and ultra-clear, sparkling high end. The Ultrasound AG15 acoustic amp is perfect for acoustic guitar players looking to amplify their instrument, especially for those playing small clubs and coffee houses, and who are looking to cart around a light but reasonably loud amplifier. The front panel is simple and easy to use, but intended to give you satisfying control over your tone, with a volume control and 4-Band EQ. For quiet playing, use the included ¼" stereo headphone jack.
And to keep the Cordoba Fusion 12 Natural stringed and cleaned, the prize pack includes a box of 10 sets of Dean Markley strings, as well as Dean Markley guitar polish and their super soft, versatile polishing cloth.
To recap, here’s the list of prizes:
● Cordoba Fusion 12 Natural acoustic guitar ● UltraSound AG15M amplifier ● Box of 10 sets of Dean Markley strings ● Dean Markley guitar polish ● Dean Markley polishing cloth
This prize pack has a retail value of over $800.00!!
During his recent chat with Jim Florentine of That Metal Show, David Lee Roth confirmed that Van Halen are indeed working on their next studio album.
That's the good news. The bad news, if any, is that the album is more than a year away from being completed and released. Roth says the process will take about 18 months.
"I was up at Edward's house, maybe three days ago — just before I came here to the city — and we're starting to put music together," Roth told Florentine on Ozzy's Boneyard. "Not to give away exactly what the package will be, it's gonna be about 18 months, I think."
Roth continued:
"We start way, way, way in advance, 'cause we are eminently art-centric, which is a really fancy way of saying we really do generate all the artwork, the graphics, etc. We don't hire out and have somebody design a bunch of album covers for us and then choose. We start from scratch ourselves. Same thing with the merchandise. If you buy a T-shirt, that was designed, literally, in my living room.
"So if you really want to generate the ideas from scratch and bring them all the way to the finish, you're gonna have to learn a few other languages, and you're gonna have to speak those over a lot of extra phone calls. And that's usually the break point for most artists."
"We're writing. I write lyrics routinely. It's a perishable skill. And the band plays together routinely, at least three times a week. They're up at Ed's place, routinely."
You can hear the entire 28-minute interview below.
Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive behind-the-scenes video featuring the Reverend Horton Heat.
You get to be a fly on the studio wall as bassist Jimbo Wallace and Jim "The Rev" Heath discuss and record their new single, "Let Me Teach You How to Eat." The song is from the band's new album, Rev, which will be released January 21 by Victory Records.
In the clip, the guys also discuss relationships, fine-tuning their craft, finding inspiration and opening the next chapter from the book of the Reverend Horton Heat. The band is rounded out by Scott Churilla on drums, who also appears in the video.
The album, which was produced by Heath, is the followup to 2009's Laughin'& Cryin' with the Reverend Horton Heat. It features 13 tracks of pure psychobilly mayhem. Rev is available for pre-order HERE.
Reverend Horton Heat have hit the road, and you can see their current tour dates below the video. For more about Reverend Horton Heat, visit victoryrecords.com,Facebook and their official website.
2013 Reverend Horton Heat Tour Dates:
December 19 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
December 20 – San Antonio, TX @ Korova
December 21 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
December 27 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
December 29 – Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre
December 30 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
December 31 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
January 2 – Cheyenne, WY @ The Atlas Theater
January 3 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Depot
January 4 – Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory
January 5 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
January 7 – Eugene, OR @ Wow Hall
January 8 – Vancouver, BC, CA @ Commodore Ballroom
January 9 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox
January 10 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
January 11 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory
January 12 – Missoula, MT @ Top Hat
January 15 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
January 16 – Minneapolis, NM @ Mill City Nights
January 17 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
January 18 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
January 19 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
January 23 – Boston, MA @ Royale
January 24 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
January 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero
January 26 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
After a 44 year hiatus, Linda Perhacs will release The Soul of All Natural Things, out March 4, 2014 on Asthmatic Kitty records.
Perhacs’ 1970 album Parallelograms has enjoyed a special classic status and long-enduring afterlife among music fans; a rediscovered gem that never fades back into obscurity. Perhaps, the American equivalent to Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day. Parallelograms is an uncanny mix of Aquarian folk and ethereal, avant-garde treatments, Parallelograms was created in the heart of hippy country, LA’s Topanga Canyon, by a dental hygienist named Linda Perhacs who was inspired by nature and by the cultural revolution going on around her.
In the internet age, though, obscurity can be discreetly transformed into a kind of niche immortality. As the 21st Century began she learned that Parallelograms had become a cult album. A CD reissue on The Wild Places imprint followed in 2003, but Perhacs’ reputation only continued to grow. Devendra Banhart was particularly evangelical, and tempted Perhacs back into a studio in 2007 to provide backing vocals on his reconstruction of the vintage Topanga vibe, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.
Disparate and unlikely fans revealed themselves: Swedish death metal group Opeth covered “Parallelograms;” Daft Punk placed “If You Were My Man” in their Electroma movie. “I first bought Parallelograms on vinyl when I was in New York on tour,” remembers Ramona Gonzalez of the LA group Nite Jewel. “I carried it under my arm to a crowded party, shut the door to the room that had a turntable, turned it on, and laid on the ground. I probably listened to it a dozen times while tears filled my eyes.”
And slowly, Perhacs began making music again. In 2010, she performed live for the very first time, at a tribute show (organized by the internet radio station, Dublab) that connected her to a new generation of LA musicians supernaturally attuned to her vision.
Perhacs fell into auspicious and hip young company, tentatively negotiating a return to musical activity with the help of Gonzalez and Julia Holter. Inspiration came, too, from listening to “Francisco”, a Milton Nascimento song that Devendra Banhart had passed on to her, and from watching Inside Björk, a documentary which showed the Icelandic singer escaping from the pressures of performance by sailing up close to a majestic iceberg.
Then came an email from Fernando Perdomo. "I get a lot of messages but something said, ‘Answer that email right away.’”
Perdomo, it transpired, was a skilled musician and producer who’d just moved from Florida into Perhacs’ LA neighbourhood. Along with another dedicated and gifted Perhacs fan, Chris Price, the trio began recording the eclipse song, “River Of God,” and what became the new album’s title track, "The Soul Of All Natural Things." It’s a remarkable follow-up album, one that sustains and extends the aesthetic mission of its 43-year-old predecessor. Julia Holter and Ramona Gonzalez contribute, too, on a set of 12 new songs which Mojo has already called “a spectrally hypnotic work of prismatic beauty.”
Watch the video for "Freely" from The Soul of All Natural Things here:
As a consequence The Soul Of All Natural Things, for all its apparent serenity, is also a subtly polemical album, full of exhortations to take a step out of our frantic everyday lives. “We get too far out of balance and we must find a way to get back to our polestar,” Perhacs says. “I felt that people needed to be reminded of that. My music isn’t just recreational, it’s not just entertainment. I have a deeper purpose. My soul is giving itself to the people; I want them to be helped, I want them to be lifted.
Lofty aspirations, perhaps, but they typify this new age of Linda Perhacs’ music. “Linda,” says Sufjan Stevens, who is releasing The Soul Of All Natural Things on his Asthmatic Kitty label, “has a prophetic voice that speaks beauty and truth with the kind of confidence and hope that has been lost for decades. There is nothing more real in music today.”
It’s hard to imagine there’s much in the Hendrix family archives that’s worth hearing or seeing at this point, but Jimi Hendrix — Hear My Train A Comin’, which aired last month on PBS’ American Masters series, certainly fits the bill.
Below, you can watch the entire American Masters version of the documentary, courtesy of PBS.
While the ancient Jimi Hendrix documentary is, well, ancient, and the Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child film (narrated by Bootsy Collins as Hendrix) from last year was disappointing, Hear My Train A Comin' is a first-class addition to the Hendrix catalog.
It tells Hendrix’s story in an intimate and refreshing way. All the key players — Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Chas Chandler, Eddie Kramer, Steve Winwood, Fayne Pridgeon, Linda Keith, etc. — are shown in new interviews or archival pieces that are either unfamiliar or used in new and interesting ways.
While Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton are notably absent, that’s more than made up for by a wonderful, relaxed interview with Paul McCartney. There’s also loads of newly discovered audio and video, and what we have heard and seen before looks and sounds better than ever.
Even better than the American Masters version of Hear My Train A Comin’ is the expanded Blu-ray/DVD version, which is available now. Everything looks and sounds fantastic, especially in the 5.1 DTS mix on the Blu-ray version. And the bonus features — near-complete versions of 1968's Miami Pop Festival, 1970's New York Pop Festival and newly discovered archival footage from Hendrix’s appearance at 1970's Love & Peace Festival in Germany synched to a cleaned-up amateur recording of the performance, along with his legendary 1967 Top of the Pops appearance — are worth the price of the home video version alone.
In Part 1 of this series, I set the stage for the general differences between improvising and soloing.
While both approaches require focused practice to excel, in my opinion, neither is superior to the other. It all depends on the player.
Essentially, improvising is the act of embellishing notes over a given chord progression on the spot. Likewise, soloing can be thought of as the same process, except that it also can be pre-planned and composed ahead of time.
Let's explore improvisation first and liken it to what a surfer does when he or she rides a wave (I've never surfed in my life, but it seemed like a good analogy). The surfer goes into the water with two things: his surfboard and his experience (or lack thereof). Similarly, the musician goes into the improv session with the same two things, except the surfboard is an instrument.
The wave will represent the chord progression. So in both cases, the wave and the chord progression are unpredictable variables. The surfer has to stay ahead of the wave's breaking point and must constantly adjust and react to its ever-changing texture. The musician has the same job in that he must always stay a step ahead of the chord changes and compensate for unexpected shifts in melody, rhythm and key.
An important task for musician and surfer alike is that they work in unison with their respective waves, not against them. The surfer has no control over the wave and the musical improviser, in most cases, has no direct control over the chord progression.
As a musician, you might have a special lick or two you've been practicing and perfecting for weeks or even months. Before the improv session begins, you might think it's the best time to showcase this new lick. But the backing band might decide to jump into a progression that's totally incompatible with your favorite new lick.
So should you force it? Some players will try, but it might not work and could be apparent to your audience. Instead, use techniques, licks and lead melodies that will best complement the chord progression. If a surfer tries to force a particular maneuver on the wrong wave at the wrong time, he'll likely wipe out. Same goes for the improviser.
Let's turn to a slightly different analogy for the concept of soloing and relate it to a skateboarder riding a half pipe. In this scenario, both musician and skateboarder can approach this task knowing there's a pre-determined structure at play. The obvious and crucial advantage the half pipe has over the surfer's wave is that it is a fixed constant and not an erratic variable. This means continually reacting to unknown factors is no longer a concern. We can now methodically craft the best performance over our established chord progression.
The skateboarder can plan out all the particular tricks and maneuvers in his head and relentlessly practice them on the half pipe to perfect his repertoire. The musician can go even further than that and can change the nature of the half pipe itself. If you don't like how the chord progression sounds, you can always alter it to better fit your soloing ideas.
I like to think of a solo section as a song within a song. You can borrow many of the same concepts from song writing and apply it to your solos. Particularly the idea of having a catchy vocal line can be very effective for guitar solos. Slash has perfected this approach throughout his career. Songs like "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "November Rain" showcase his impressive ability to mimic vocal qualities with his phrasing and a "less is more" style. This also makes Slash's faster intricate licks stand out more because they're well placed within the ebb and flow of his solos.
Now, does Slash ride the "wave" or the "half pipe"? As I said in Part 1, as long as the final product works, does it really matter? The audience will never know if you write your best work on the fly or not. But it does matter to you. You have to find your own inner-voice with the guitar, and it might take some trial and error to get there.
Maybe sit down and write out some lead guitar stuff and see how it sounds. Then start from scratch and record yourself improvising over a section without thinking too much. Perhaps you'll like some of your work from both approaches.
This is what separates music from surfing or skateboarding. It's a creative endeavor with virtually no rules attached to it. The only limitations we have are our own. We can rip through an entire guitar solo in one take, we can compose it like a song within a song, or we can do a little bit of both.
It's definitely advisable to be prepared for both the wave and the half pipe, but don't feel like you're a bad guitarist just because you can't do one as well as the other. All that means is you've found which works best for you. Harness your strengths. In my book, that will put you on the fast path to musical success.
Chris Breen is a New Jersey-based guitarist with 14 years of experience under his belt. He, along with his brother Jon (on drums) started the two-piece metal project known as SCARSIC in 2011. Due to a lack of members, Chris tracked guitars, bass and vocals for their self titled four-song demo (available on iTunes, Spotify and Rhapsody). They have recently been joined by bassist Bill Loucas and are writing new material. Chris also is part of an all-acoustic side project known as Eyes Turn Stone. Chris teaches guitar lessons as well (in person or via Skype). If you're interested in taking lessons with Chris, visit BreenMusicLessons.com for more info.
Greetings, and welcome to another segment of 4RM's tour diary.
This installment is about four differences between big and small shows. Many readers will probably guess what these differences are, but perhaps you can get a chuckle as we stumble our way through them.
For those who haven't experienced these situations, enjoy!
01. Sometimes it's just worth ditching the wireless system. We were having wireless issues that were intermittent between venues. For anyone who has dealt with wireless anything, it can be a real pain figuring out what the actual problem is.
Usually it has something to do with identifying the source of the interference, and this usually involves special gear of some sort. This kind of gear we don't have, so at the first sign of trouble, out came the cables.
The actual issue? Between Slayer and Gojira, they have a series of Sennheiser and Shure wireless instrument and in-ear monitor systems with backups that are all equipped to constantly scan the available frequencies for the best signal. So for a smaller system, it's like walking into a wireless battleground with your eyes closed.
02. Gear maintenance: How much is enough? Your gear has to work or there is no show, duh. Many bands have equipment set up in such a way they can handle several levels of failure before the show is in any danger. I have two RGIR Iron Labels that are identical for this purpose, so identical that I had to put a sticker on the headstock to tell them apart.
I have a few spare parts lying around in case any issues crop up; however, I didn't purchase any of the holding blocks for the locking system and they are a very specific shape. I discovered how hard they were to find when one flew out at a show, requiring a quick guitar change and a fruitless trip to several guitar stores in LA. Turns out I got lucky and found it on stage that afternoon casually sitting next to Kerry King's footboard after Slayer played the night before. I think that was a warning from my guitar telling me to treat it right.
03. Load-out efficiency. A bigger show doesn't mean a more leisurely show; actually, it means quite the opposite. There is the same amount of time in an evening and literally two truckloads of gear that have to come out at the end of the night. For us, while we don't have two truckloads of gear, we have to make way for it so it is a mad dash to get all the gear out of the way, put away in its cases (without breaking any of it) and get it into the trailer. So if you have seen us play and wonder what we do once we finish, it's this, and it has to be done fast.
04. When you do things, have a process. I offered to help some of the Gojira crew pack up after a show, and they politely declined because they have an order they do things that guarantees everything gets done. While helping is great, it might interrupt the order of things and you risk forgetting something, especially if you are tired.
We've since adopted this and it helps a great deal as we're often tired from the long drive, the show and maybe a late night or two hanging out with the other bands and crew. We've also stopped leaving stuff we really needed behind, only to discover it's missing a few hours down the road.
Hope you've enjoyed our foray into the differences between show scale for us. Until next time!
Railroad Earth has announced a new run of tour dates to support their forthcoming seventh album, Last Of The Outlaws.The Winter 2014/ Last Of The Outlaws Tour will launch January 9th in Milwaukee and includes stops in Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Boston, multiple night stints in Denver (On album release weekend), San Francisco, DC, Philadelphia and then continues into April with dates in Knoxville, Charlotte, NC as well as multiple nights in Atlanta. See below for the current list of dates (more to be added).
Railroad Earth’s Last of the Outlaws is their most evocative and ambitious set to date. At once melancholic and joyous, often deep, yet always accessible, the album captures the band as they are now; twelve years in, wiser and worn and pondering how this life affects those around them. Every song has a story and every story has its meaning.
Last Of The Outlaws was recorded and produced by the six band members of Railroad Earth at a remote private studio in rural New Jersey. The album also marks the launch of the band’s own Black Bear Record, which is officially their first self-funded release.
Last of the Outlaws will hit stores nationwide on January 14th.
Until then, check out this video of Railroad Earth performing Live at Red Rocks this past summer:
Complete dates from the winter 2014 tour, Last Of The Outlaws:
1/9 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
1/10 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
1/11 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
1/12 Bloomington, IL Castle Theater
1/15 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s
1/16 Lincoln, NE Bourbon Theater
1/17 Denver, CO The Fillmore
1/18 Denver, CO The Fillmore
1/21 Fayetteville, AR George’s Majestic Lounge
1/22 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom
1/23 Columbia, OH Blue Note
1/24 Lawrence, KS Granada
1/25 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
2/6 Richmond, VA The National
2/7 Washington, DC 9:30
2/7 Washington, DC 9:30
2/12 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom
2/13 Syracuse, NY Palace Theater
2/14 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
2/15 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
2/20 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
2/21 Boston, MA House Of Blues
2/22 New York, NY Best Buy Theater
3/13 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
3/14 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
3/15 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
3/20 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
3/21 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
3/22 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
4/2 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
4/3 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore
4/4 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
4/5 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Neo-folk singer-songwriter, Armon Jay has premiered the title track from his upcoming album "Everything's Different, Nothing's Changed," today. The album is set to release on January 21st, 2014. Album pre-orders are now available via iTunes here: http://bit.ly/180dbGw.
A culmination of Armon's two-year journey from darkness to sunlight, or in his words, "desolation to consolation," his debut album is a manifestation of restored hope - a set of songs derived from sleepless nights that speak from the very core of his being. Reminiscent of artists such as Paul Simon, Bright Eyes and Ryan Adams, Everything's Different, Nothing's Changed draws from these influences, while solidifying a unique sound that is distinctly Armon Jay. Fans can catch him on tour this spring with Noah Gundersen.
Thanks to raising close to $14,000 on Kickstarter, Armon was able to travel to producer Joshua James' idyllic Willamette Mountain on a one-acre farm against the beautiful backdrop of American Fork, Utah, to record the album in two eventful weeks. James, introduced to Armon Jay by mutual friend, singer/songwriter Noah Gunderson, proved a valuable partner, not just producing the album, but serving as "farmer, mountain climber, goat herder, high-tailin' bike rider and a bit of a wild man," helping Armon get over his fear of heights as well as failure.
The album was mixed in Los Angeles by Todd Burke, who has worked with the likes of Ben Harper and Jack Johnson in his Monrovia studio. "Joshua is all about creating an atmosphere that inspires genuine and real creativity," says Armon. "He also has a phenomenal group of musicians on call-his own secret weapon for making great records. We hit the ground running. He just said, 'If you're going to sing the song, sing it.' Almost every track on the record started with just an acoustic guitar and vocal performance and then we built from there."
Hear "Everything's Different Nothing's Changed"
From the pain of "Edge of the Dark" and "Flight from Sorrow" to the breakthrough of "The Harvest" and "Carry Through," from the painful self-awareness of "To Be Honest" and "I'm Not Home Yet" to the optimism of "Tomorrow" and "Sunlight," neatly summarized by the transparently autobiographical title track, Armon Jay lets us glimpse his deepest fears and darkest anxieties, while pointing the way towards salvation. "It's like I'm stuck in between the cure and the disease," he sings. "I'm walking straight just in a crooked way." This theme of light and darkness is echoed through the album's artwork, which features two original pieces from Anton Van Hertbruggen, a Dutch illustrator Armon quickly became a fan of after stumbling upon his work online.
The Chattanooga, Tennessee-born Armon's father was a portrait painter ("An 'eccentric' artist like me," he adds), who plucked out songs by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson on a guitar, while his mom, who used to sing around the house, introduced him to the likes of Whitney Houston and Kenny Loggins on the tape deck of the family's '89 Buick. Armon sheepishly admits to plinking out the theme to the movie Titanic on the piano by ear before picking up a guitar at 12 and starting to write songs two years later.
"I've learned to be careful not to create walls that interfere with the ability of music and art to connect with anyone," he explains, "A song can have so many different layers of meanings for different people. It's such a precious and beautiful thing, the fact that we can all find a common ground through the language of art and music. But, it all has to come from a genuine place. I can't muster up the truth. It already exists. I just have to tell it, and it's up to the listener with how they choose to receive it."
