I would love to play a guitar like this. Rondo Music has quite a few 8 string
guitars for sale. This style of guitar playing must be getting popular. I
can barely handle 6 strings on a guitar. I can't imagine having 7 or 8! There
are very few to try in the local stores. Tobin plays Ibanez guitars.
My HubPages Articles
I have recently started to write articles on Hubpages.com. This is a great web site to use, and is very easy to post to. Here are links to a few of my articles.
- Iconic Guitars in Rock History Part 2 - Rory Gallagher's 1961 Fender Stratocaster
- Freddie Gruber - Drummer and Teaching Master
- Cliff Gallup - Legendary Guitarist with Gene Vincent
- Mountain - Heavy Metal Pioneers
- Duane Eddy - King of the Twang Guitar
- Jim Weider - Guitarist with The Band and Levon Helm
- Iconic Guitars in History Part 1 - Duane Allman and Peter Green
- Open Blues Jams Give Aspiring Guitarists Chances to Perform
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Early Blues and Rock Music Pioneer
Mick Taylor
It is early Sunday morning.
On the turntable is an album that never really got the airplay it deserves.
This album dates back to 1979. It was the first solo album by Mick Taylor,
former guitarist of the Rolling Stones.Mick left the Sones around 1974,
due to the inability to work with Keith Richards.
From Wikipedia: “In a 1997 interview with Mojo Magazine, Taylor said: "We used to fight and argue all the time. And one of the things I got angry about was that Mick had promised to give me some credit for some of the songs – and he didn't. I believed I'd contributed enough. Let's put it this way – without my contribution those songs would not have existed. There's not many but enough, things like "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile" on Sticky Fingers and a couple of others."
The album in question, that I am listening to as I type this, is simply called “Mick Taylor.” Mick plays in a style that he was not able to do with the Rolling Stones. Jazzy, spacey, full of Latin music influences, with a few pop-like songs to fill it out. The standout and most well-known track is “Giddy Up.” His guitar work on this is stellar, playing a Stratocaster, probably straight into a Marshall amp. Mick knows where to put the notes and when to hang back and let others shine. I dare say that a guitarist today would probably play 20 notes to Mick’s one! His Strat tones cry out, mixed in with classical and steel string guitars.
The extended song “Spanish/A Minor” weaves in and out with tasteful guitar solos and heavy use of the Arp String Ensemble a (very popular sound in the day.)
Mick has never gotten
the attention he deserves. Most of us have heard him on the classic Rolling
Stones albums, Exile on Main Street, Let it Bleed and all of the
other greats from the early 1970s. It is my opinion that the Rollings Stones
best work had Mick on guitar and he was underused in the band and di not
get the credit for to work he did and songs he had a hand in writing. Mick
did not release another solo album until “Stranger in This Town” in 1990.
He did keep busy with session work and appearances since, but kept quiet
throughout much of the 1980s.
We saw Mick in concert around 1990 at a small venue. Unfortunately, it was so loud we had to leave after five songs. What we did see was excellent. We just valued our ears!
Mick has worked with the Grateful Dead in 1988 He did session work and toured in Europe, America and Japan with a band including Max Middleton. He moved back to England in the mid 1990s. He released a new album in 2000, A Stone's Throw and played at clubs and theatres as well as appearing at festivals.
Mick also worked with Carla Olson on "Too Hot For Snakes."
In 2003, he reunited with John Mayall for his 70th Birthday Concert in Liverpool along with Eric Clapton. A year later, in autumn 2004, he also joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers for a UK theatre tour. He toured the US East Coast with the Experience Hendrix group during October 2007.
Mick has had helath problems for the last few years, but has had a steady, but limited, touring schedule for the past few years.
Mick's music is well worth searching out, particularly the album that inspired me to write this.
Lisa Gerrard
I have a love/hate relationship with this website. There are days when I can think of many things to write about, others where I just draw a blank. I let it go for a month or so, then get back into it when I do discover a topic that I want to share. I always look for new music and artists, ones that flew under my musical radar and were just waiting for me to find it. I found one last night.
I was looking around YouTube
viewing videos of ambient (or new age) artists. We had The Band's" The Last
Waltz" on the TV, so I had one ear on that and the other on YouTube. YouTube
is my main source for this, since LastFM.com stopped offering songs to preview.
I was watching videos of a favorite band of mine, Bel Canto, featuring Anelli
Drecker on vocals. I noticed that people were comparing them to Dead Can
Dance. I had never heard of them so I looked them up and started watching
to videos. The lead singer is Lisa
Gerrard, who is famous for singing Now We Are Free,
from the movie Gladiator. I have heard her name before but never
really got around to listening to her.
She is just not of this earth. Her vocal style is beyond words. Her vocals have been described as rich, jaw-dropping, deep, dark, mournful, and unique. She sings many of her songs, such as Now We Are Free and Sanvean in an idioglossia (an idiosyncratic language) that she has developed since the age of twelve.
Lisa was born in 1961 in Melbourne, growing up in a Greek-Turkish with Irish parents who loved Mediterranean music. This influenced her music, particularly on later Dead Can Dance albums and in her solo and collaborative works.
She was with Dead Can Dance until 1998, when she embarked on a solo career. She has worked on many films, with Gladiator being one of the most well-known.
She received a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt.
Lisa has just released DEPARTUM, the new joint collaboration with Marcello De Francisci.
Here are few samples of her singing.
My favorite, The Sea Whisperer. I am not sure she actually sings on the soundtrack of this movie, City of Angels. It could be just what the maker of the video used. Regardless, I love this song.
From the movie, Henry Poole is Here, called On An Ocean. This is a video made by a fan, which has nothing to do with the movie.
A song with Orbital, called One Perfect Sunrise
I could put a lot more up, but I will leave it up to you to explore.
Lisa is an incredible singer and artist, and I look forward to discovering her music. I hope many of you agree. This is not your traditional style of music. Listen to it with an open mind, and with headphones on! Close your eyes and just let the music take you to another place.