Tom Scholz’s metamorphosis from rock and roll dreamer to living the rock and roll dream is legendary.
Toiling long and hard in his basement on funky used recording gear he’d stitched and bolted together, Scholz, primarily with the help of his friend and singer Brad Delp, crafted the Boston album during nights and weekends off from his engineering job at the Polaroid Corporation
The lanky six-foot-six MIT grad had nearly gone broke after years of making tapes and having them rejected by record labels.
Friday, May 16, 2008 4:23 PM
All week we've been focusing our lessons on the blues. Well, Friday is a good day to shake things up a bit, and there's no better way to do this than by throwing a little classic rockabilly into the mix.
Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore are widely considered two of the first rockabilly guitarists to blast onto the scene in the early 1950s, when rock and roll and country music—or hillbilly music, as it was called—were fused together to form this new style and genre of music. Legends like Elvis Presley helped catapult rockabilly and its emerging artists into the mainstream in the mid to late 1950s, thought its influence and popularity waned in the 1960s. Rockabilly made a strong comeback in the late 1970s and early 1980s with bands like the Stray Cats and players like Brian Setzer, and has endured to the present.
Friday, May 16, 2008 1:52 PM
Almost nothing's more rock and roll than an arm full of tattoos. And almost nothing's more permanent. These Gibson fans love rock and roll—and the brand it was built on—so much they've got it on 'em for life. Now that's love.
Friday, May 16, 2008 1:21 PM
Few producers can boast a Midas touch comparable to that of Rick Rubin. From Run D.M.C. to Tom Petty to Slayer and beyond, Rubin has helped shape some of the most important albums by some of America’s best artists. But his most incredible collaboration thus far was with the great Johnny Cash. For nearly a full decade―from 1994 until Cash’s death in September 2003―Rubin assisted the legendary singer-songwriter in crafting some of the richest, most timeless music of the past half-century. In the following interview Rubin talks about his relationship with Cash, and how that music was made.
Friday, May 16, 2008 12:59 PM
Forget Brooklyn, for the past few years the country’s best bands have been coming out of the hotbed of rock that is Omaha, Nebraska. In fact, the city’s incestuous music scene hasn’t only birthed some amazing bands but has also helped propel the locally based Saddle Creek Records into one of the biggest independent labels out there today. Here, we profile a few of the city’s most notable artists as well as a couple more obscure ones. Oh, and the best part? You don’t have to trek out to the cornfield yourself in order to enjoy them.
Friday, May 16, 2008 12:21 PM
This week has seen three fantastic lessons from some of the music world's greatest blues legends—Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and Hubert Sumlin. Today's lesson steps away from traditional finger-style blues and instead focuses on how to incorporate slide guitar playing into your blues style.
Roy Rogers (not to be confused with the banjo-picking country music legend from the 1960s and 1970s) honed his unique style of blues playing as a featured guitarist and vocallist for John Lee Hooker. He's also produced two of Hooker's albums, both of which have won Grammy awards. His own band, the Delta Rhythm Kings, have recorded several albums and have toured the world. He's also worked with Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, and Carlos Santana, among others. Needless to say, Rogers is one of the foremost authorities on slide guitar blues, and his DVD Slide Guitar for Rock and Blues, produced by Homespun, is one of the most popular guitar tutorials on the market.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:57 PM
Now that Neil Diamond has actually scored his first career No. 1 album with the Rick Rubin-produced Home Before Dark, he’s going full-tilt with his latest comeback efforts. As promised, he's going to “celebrate in a big way.”
For starters, the 67-year-old singer has been booked as headliner for Britain’s enormous Glastonbury festival, and he’s looking to recreate the lightning generated by Johnny Cash when he appeared on the same stage in 1994. “Those are tough footsteps to follow in, but I think we'll have some fun,” Diamond told the NME.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:33 AM
13-year-old Todd Cochran has been playing a little over a year-and-a-half. Here’s a clip of him showcasing his sweep and speed-picking techniques.
Fernando Miyata, guitarist for Brazilian instrumental rockers Boneland, offers up this new demo clip. It’s another bracing example of how a guitarist can incorporate familiar stylistic inspirations from Van Halen, Satriani, Vai, et. al., yet fold them seamlessly into his own magnificently fluid playing.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:27 AM
See, the problem with some amp modeling software if you’re not careful is that it can give you a guitar tone so chock full of cheese it ought to come served between two buttery slices of whole wheat. If you are looking for ways to make your guitar tracks sound like an electric tooth brush or a synthesizer, there is no learning curve.
But hey, what if you want to get your home recording guitar tracks to sound like —gasp!—an actual great guitar rig? Impossible? Not at all—and I can prove it.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:00 AM
Not all tribute albums are created equal. We take a look at the ones that actually step out of the shadows of the people they’re honoring.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 4:24 PM