Wednesday, May 19, 2010

DANNY GATTON, "REMINGTON RIDE"



More vintage Gatton, this time with Herb Remington's steel guitar classic "Remington Ride," which turns into one of Gatton's crazy medleys.
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Thursday, May 13, 2010

JAMES BURTON w/RICKY NELSON, "STRING ALONG"



My colleague Alex McCullough says this is his favorite Burton solo.
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Monday, May 10, 2010

MARC RIBOT



It seems to me that most of what Ribot does here is pretty basic or standard rock vocabulary, but with unusual approach to time, staccato phrasing, etc. I think this shows that just thinking about time and phrasing in a slightly different way, you can immediately get away from rock territory. (With some exceptions, rock is mostly pretty conservative about use of rhythm and time.) Ribot seems to be drifting into some odder territory at the end, but sadly the clip is cut off.

I hope I'm not giving anyone the impression I didn't like his playing here! It's got some Beefheart, some Ennio Morricone, some "Ghost Riders in the Sky"-- what's not to like? I like it a lot, actually-- but it's certainly a lesson in how to avoid cliche without working too hard. Or, another take on it-- he shows how you can use cliched material, but in a slightly different way, and it changes it for the listener.
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