Vol_3_No_2

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Magazine Volume 3, Number 2

January/February January/F ebruary 1999

Jim Hurst Russell Moore Dan Lashbrook Bryan Kimsey Travis Alltop Tim May

1 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

January/February 1999

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Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


CONTENTS FEA FE ATU TURE RES S

Flatpicking Guitar

Jim Hurst Flatpick Prole: Tim May Dan Lashbrook Wineld ‘98 Columnist Prole: Bryan Kimsey Masters of Rhythm Guitar: Russell Moore By Request: Kenny Smith’s “Studebaker” Guitar Highlight: Collings Clarence White

Magazine

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Volume 3, Number 2

COLUMNS

January/February 1999 Published bi-monthly by: High View Publications P.O. Box 2160 Pulaski, VA 24301 Phone: (540) 980-0338 Fax: (540) 980-0557 Orders: (800) 413-8296 E-mail: highview@atpick.com Web Site: http://www.atpick.com ISSN: 1089-9855 Dan Miller - Publisher and Editor Mariann Miller - Sales and Advertising Connie Miller - Administration Contributing Editors: Dave McCarty Bryan Kimsey Subscription Rate ($US): US $22.00 Canada/Mexico $27.00 Other Foreign $32.00 All contents Copyright © 1999 by High View Publications unless otherwise indicated Reproduction of material appearing in the Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Magazine is forbidden without written permission Printed in the USA

Don’t Let Your Guard Down Craig Vance Beginner’s Beginner’ s Page: “Under The Double Eagle” Dan Huckabee Flatpick Rhythm Guitar: 5/4 Time “Take Five” Joe Carr Flatpicking & Folk/Acoustic Rock John Tindel Kaufman’s Kaufman’ s Corner: “Flint Hill Special” Steve Kaufman Nashville Flat Top: Double-Time Lead Brad Davis Break Time: Slow Song Intros Chris Jones The O-Zone: “St. Anne’ Anne’s s Reel” Orrin Star Guitar Making: Inlaying Pearl, Part II Don Gallagher “Sally Goodin’ Texas/Sock Rhythm Dix Bruce Music Theory: Mastering the Fingerboard Mike Maddux Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes: The Presidential Medley Adam Granger Exploring Bluegrass Guitar: Improvisation V Steve Pottier Eclectic Acoustic: Right Hand Command John McGann

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DEP DE PARTME ARTMENT NTS S

New Release Highlight: Travis Alltop Reviews

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EDITOR'S PAGE IBMA Guitar Player of the Year We would like to extend our congratulations to Kenny Smith Smith who was voted the 1998 “Guitar Player Play er of the Year” Year” by the International Internationa l Bluegrass Music Association. Smith, Sugar Hill recording artist and lead guitar player for the Lonesome River Band, has also won the Society for Preservation of Bluegrass Music in Americaʼs Americaʼs (SPBGMA) “Guitar Player of the Year” award two years running. Great job Kenny! Kenny Smith fans can enjoy working working on Kennyʼs solo solo to the title cut of his solo project Studebaker Studebaker in our brand new column column “By Request.” See page 52 of this issue.

New Columns Now that we have completed just over two years of publication, we thought we would add some new features to the magazine in order to provide our readers with something different. different. The rst new column, which we added in the previous previous issue, was the “Guitar Highlight” Highlight” column. In this issue we continue continue with the “Guitar Highlight” feature with a highlight highlight of the Collings Clarence White White model. In the future we will highlight such great guitars as the Lucas Kenny Smith model, the Taylor Tayl or Dan Crary model, the Gallagher Steve Kaufman model, some of Martinʼs limited edition and reissue models, and many more. Another new column we are adding in this issue is the “By Request” feature. This Th is new column will showcase songs which our readers request to have transcribed in the magazine. We kick off this new column with Kenny Smithʼs “Studebaker.” “Studebaker.” Another new regular column column which we intend to start in the next issue issue will be called “Jam Tunes.” Tunes.” It is our intention to to have a variety of professional professional players transcribe their favorite favorite jam session tunes. Along with the transcription we will request that the guest columnist describe his or her arrangement both in specic technical terms and in terms of the arrangement process in general. general. In other words, we want them to tell us how they they came up with their particular particular arrangement. arrangement. In this way we feel that our readers will not only get some great new licks to try on their favorite jam tunes, but also gain insights into the arrangement process. We will continue to try and adapt, adapt, grow, grow, and make all efforts to improve improve the magazine. Reader feedback is is important to us. Let us know what you would like to see!

Dan Miller Editor and Publisher

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Working Man’s Guitar:

An Interview with Jim Hurst by Chad Ward Jim Hurst has been part of a world that few musicians will ever see, the high-ying world of big-name country music. He has played dozens of television specials and hundreds of sold-out arenas. It is a tribute to the man and to the enduring nature of bluegrass that he has returned to the music that he has loved since he was a child. Having spent years traveling and playing lead guitar for country stars Holly Dunn and Trisha Yearwood, Jim has returned to his bluegrass roots as guitarist for Claire Lynch and the Front Porch String Band. Those roots also show strongly in his debut CD, Open Window. And as soon as you hear Jimʼs jaw-dropping arrangement of the Monroe classic “Wheel Hoss” or his tasty atpicking original “Alarm Clock,” youʼll know that countryʼs loss is our gain. Hurst was born in Middlesboro, Kentucky, right in the heart of bluegrass country. Like many Southerners, his family had migrated to Toledo, Ohio, in search of work in the factories. But they were visiting Kentucky when Jim was born. “I guess my timing was right,” he says. Although he was raised in Toledo, Hurst spent most of his summers in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. “I grew up in Toledo but had more fun in Kentucky because of the open spaces and the closeness of my aunts, uncles and cousins. I love the mountains, the people and the time I spent there.” Music was a big part of the Hurst family. “My mother didnʼt play an instrument, but she loved music and would have the radio on all the time. My father and my uncle had a duet, a Louvin Brothers sort of thing. They didnʼt play professionally really, just for the 4

love of it.” Jim credits his dad as his rst musical inuence, “because (in him) I could see somebody making music.” He also credits his father for his own w ide-ranging musical tastes. “My dad loved traditional country and bluegrass, but he appreciated all kinds of music. He would listen to everybody from the Stanley Brothers to Simon and Garfunkle. I remember that he really liked a couple of songs by the Lovinʼ Spoonful. He could even appreciate Elvis at a time when folks of his generation were up in arms about Elvis gyrating and swinging his hips. That helped me to be open minded about music as well.” “My brother Alvie is probably my second biggest influence after Dad. We

never played music in a ʻbandʼ but I learned a ton from him, most importantly how to groove and play with style and taste.” At age four, Jim got his first guitar, a Gene Autry Silvertone “with a ridinʼ, ropinʼ cowboy painted on the front.” Jim still has the guitar and fullled a lifelong dream when he used it on “Crazy Locomotion Blues” on his new CD. “I love that guitar,” he says. “And it still sounds pretty good!” “I learned a lot from my dad. The rst real song that he taught me was ʻWildwood Flower.ʼ He said that if I was going to play guitar, I would have to learn ʻWildwood Flower.ʼ We listened a lot to Ralph Stanley, and George Shufflerʼs guitar playing really caught my ear. Of course it was a while before I knew who was playing. A lot of those old albums didnʼt list any credits; there was just a big advertisement on the back. If it hadnʼt been for George Shufer, we would all just be rhythm players right now.” He also credits Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Don Reno and Red Smiley as some of his early inuences. “Earl Scruggs playing guitar with ngerpicks blew me away,” he says. “Then I heard Doc Watson play with Flatt & Scruggs and that really opened my eyes. I also loved Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. Later on I discovered players like Clarence White and, much later, Tony Rice. I listened to each guitarist with a fresh ear. I loved Clarence Whiteʼs anticipation of the chord changes and his overall expression. Doc, to me, has the greatest tone and touch on a dreadnaught guitar. Tony has probably got the best right hand in the business, and



his left hand . . . well, thatʼs a whole other page on its own.” But in his mid-teens Hurst found his biggest inuence, Jerry Reed. Reedʼs playing opened new frontiers for the young guitarist. “That was the rst really complicated guitar playing that Iʼd heard. It was amazing. I wanted to learn everything that he had ever done.” Jim honed his chops and even got to meet his hero backstage one night. “I wanted to play for Jerry Reed,” says Jim. “And I was crushed because he didnʼt have time and told me, ʻIʼm attered, son, but no one will ever pay you to be Jerry Reed. But if youʼre good enough to play my stuff, youʼve really got something; use it to play what you create.ʼ And he was absolutely right. It just took me a while to realize it. It was probably the best advice Iʼve ever gotten.” After high school Jim began driving a truck full time and was playing bluegrass, blues, and country in four different bands, playing a lot of wedding receptions and parties. His bluegrass band, Raisin River, consisted of Jim on mandolin, Tim Ellis (formerly of Jim & Jesse) on banjo, Jimʼs brother Larry on bass and Mike Wilhoyte (of Roanoke) on guitar. “It was tough,” Jim said. “I would be out on the road, sometimes for two weeks at a time, so we never found time to practice. There were a couple of shows where I was late because I had literally just stepped out of the cab of the truck and changed clothes before I got on stage.” Between 1983 and 1987 Jim was working for a trucking company whose schedule allowed him to be home on weekends. Not only did he have more time to play music, but he also now had the time to spend with his family that he had been missing. Jimʼs wife, Judy, is directly responsible for their move to Nashville. The trucking company was reducing its staff and Jim took a voluntary layoff. “Judy told me that if I was ever going to try it, now would be the time.” So Jim went to Nashville with a demo tape and landed a contract with an independent country label. Encouraged, he moved to Nashville in June of 1988. He didnʼt have a place to stay so he slept in the record label ofces. He made money by winning guitar contests around the region. He kept just enough to feed himself and sent the rest home to Toledo. His wife, son and daughter, then just 7 and 9, moved down in October of that year.

However, Jimʼs record deal went sour. “We had found a little house to rent and sold our place in Toledo. Neither of us had a job then. It was bare bones for a while. I wouldnʼt want to live it over again, but it was denitely a learning experience. I realized quickly that I had to jump right in the middle and make as big a splash as I could.” Making a splash takes a while in Nashville. Jimʼs break came in 1990 when a friend arranged an audition for Jim with Holly Dunn, who was looking for a new guitar player. He won the job and started a two-year stint with Dunn. He played the Grand Ole Opry, TNNʼs Nashville Now program, and Austin City Limits in addition to a hectic touring schedule. In 1992 country superstar Trisha Yearwood was looking to add another guitar player to her band. Tammy Rogers, who was playing ddle for Yearwood at the time, recommended Jim, whom she had met while she was playing with Dusty Miller. Jim auditioned and got the job. He started by playing lead acoustic guitar and singing harmony with Yearwood. Eventually he had expanded his role in the band to include playing some electric guitar as well. Jimʼs soaring tenor ensured that he got the choice harmony parts. “I always had to sing the tough ones,” he says. “If you hear Vince Gillʼs part or Don Henleyʼs part on the record, those were the parts I sang in the show.” Yearwood was named the Academy of Country Musicʼs female vocalist of the year in 1992, the year Jim joined the band. He has a lot of admiration and respect for Trisha. In a 1993 interview with The Toledo Blade, Jim said, “She treats us more like brothers and sisters than her employees. She has a great fresh talent. Sheʼs got a lot of spirit. Itʼs been a real pleasure to work for her.”

Jim rened his role as a top Nashville sideman during the year and a half he toured with Yearwood. “To be a good sideman you really have to know how to blend with the artist. You have to know your gear inside and out and understand exactly how to get the sound you need on stage.” For example, Jimʼs prized Gallagher guitar didnʼt work well on stage with ve other instruments and a dozen stage monitors. “It was too resonant, too nice,” says Hurst. “I had to go with something a little more dead just so it didnʼt feed back in the monitors.” According to Hurst, a good sideman also has be able to read a Nashville numbers chart and to have his parts down cold. You also have to be able to play them while “selling the show.” “Selling the show means that you have to look like you are having a good time. Ninety-nine percent of the time you are having a good time. Itʼs a lot of fun being up there. But the fans are there to hear the star and to forget about their bad day. They donʼt want to know when the guitar player is having a bad day. You canʼt let that show

Jim Hurst on stage with Trisha Yearwood, 1993 5



Jim Hurst picking with Doc Watson and Steve Kaufman through. That is not what they are paying to see.” With Yearwood, Jimʼs diverse musical tastes proved to be an asset. He would use whatever technique worked best for a particular song, playing some ngerstyle, atpicking others and playing some with a hybrid ngers and atpick approach. You have to take yourself out of the mix, forget about yourself a little bit,” he says. “Playing guitar in that situation is like singing harmony. You really have to work to make sure that you blend with the rest of the band. Trisha allowed us a lot of freedom in how we got a particular sound as long as it was pretty close to what was on the album.” Jimʼs other talents proved to be helpful as well, especially his experience as a truck driver. He still had his commercial driverʼs license and frequently drove the bus on the long trips between cities. “Iʼd driven those long hauls before, so I knew what it was like for the drivers. It made me feel a lot better if I knew they were rested, so whenever they needed a nap, Iʼd just jump in the driverʼs seat and take the wheel.” “That was the poshest gig Iʼve ever had,” says Hurst. “It was great. We had a big, brand new bus. People would load and unload all the equipment for us. They would set up the stage and the instruments. All we had to do was walk out on stage and play great music every night. We would do these double bill tours, so I even got to play with Travis Tritt a couple of times.” It does have its downside, however. “If youʼre not careful, it can give you a false sense of royalty. It can make you think you are something youʼre not,” he cautions. 6

After coming off the road in 1995, Jim began selling real estate in Nashville and taking Chris Jonesʼ place as guitarist for the McCarter Sisters when Jones was busy with his own band. The arrangement turned into a regular gig until the McCarter Sisters broke up. Jim was also playing with Old Hickory, a bluegrass band he had put together in Nashville with Gene Wooten, Vic Jordan, Charlie Derrington and Kent Blanton. Then he got the call from Claire Lynch. Keith Little, who was playing with Ricky Skaggs, had helped out with Claireʼs Friends for a Lifetime album, so Claire called him when Kenny Smith made the decision to move to the Lonesome River Band. Keith had seen Jim play with Holly Dunn. He was starting to concentrate on his own music at the time and told Claire that he thought Hurst could handle the job. Jim was already familiar with Claireʼs music. He had heard her rst album in 1986 and had been a fan ever since. The McCarter Sisters had also done a couple of Claire Lynchʼs songs in their sets. He auditioned in a Nashville hotel room the night before Claire and the rest of the band had to y out west to nish a tour. His solid playing and strong harmony voice would have been enough, but it was “Wheel Hoss” that sealed the deal. “Wheel Hoss” is a driving hybrid of ngerpicking and atpicking. “I play the opening part fingerstyle, but switch to atpicking with the thumbpick for some parts in the song. I had always wanted to create a song that had the bass, the melody and the rhythm all moving at the same time. ʻWheel Hossʼ was something that I had

started working out with Mike Wilhoyte when I was with Raisin River. It evolved into the piece Iʼm playing now. Claire and Larry say it was that song that helped them make up their minds.” Jim had never considered himself a great atpicker. It was a style he played well, but not exclusively like many atpickers do. “I really had to practice after Claire called. Iʼve had to spend a lot of time working to make sure that my tone, volume and speed are there.” Anyone who has seen Hurst on stage with the Front Porch String Band knows that the practice has paid off handsomely. Hurstʼs atpicking style is uid and dynamic with a strong sense of melody. “I really want to be identiable when I play, but I also want to be true to the melody of the song rather than playing ashy licks. To be a great atpicker takes a lot of effort and a lot of hours. I really appreciate that, especially when I hear players like Tim Stafford. To me he is one of the best players today. As soon as he starts playing, you know immediately who it is.” When he took the job with Claire Lynch, Hurst was concerned about being accepted by the bluegrass community. “With my country background and my fingerstyle background I was a little worried,” he says. “But the bluegrass community has really accepted me. That is the great thing about this music. You have folks like Del McCoury and Ralph Stanley keeping the tradition alive and then you have people like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas really expanding the boundaries of the music. There is a real openness in bluegrass now that I think is helping to increase its popularity. New fans are getting to Bill Monroe through David Grismanʼs playing. It is a wonderful time for bluegrass. The music is really growing in depth and breadth. Missy Raines and I got three standing ovations at the Roots & B ranches concert we did at the IBMA, and the music we are playing runs the gamut from bluegrass to jazz. The fans have been great.” “There is a wonderful camaraderie in bluegrass that I donʼt think youʼll find anywhere else, both between the artists and between the artists and the fans. Iʼm a big fan myself, so I really appreciate that about the music. When weʼre on tour, I really enjoy playing festivals because you get to see other acts that you never get a chance to see.” Tim Stafford said in the liner notes to



Open Window, “I rst heard Jim with Claire Lynch and the Front Porch String Band, the job which has given him his largest exposure thus far to the bluegrass world. With Claire, Jim threw out impossible leads effortlessly, while just as effortlessly singing behind her with an always-on-pitch baritone. He sounds like no one else. Unlike most modern atpickers, Jim comes from a background in nger-picking, which allows him to quote from country masters like Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins and gives him the versatility to do things most atpickers would never think possible on the instrument. I canʼt remember a fresher sound in bluegrass guitar in years.” That freshness comes from Hurstʼs approach to the guitar. He has a strong right hand attack but the breaks he plays are uid and lyrical. “I donʼt want to hear the sound of the pick,” he says. “I want it to sound like the note is just jumping out of the guitar. So I donʼt want a very hard or thick pick.” That is why he uses a Dunlop Delrin .96 pick. “They have a smooth texture and they are very forgiving. The Dunlops really respond well. And theyʼre cheap! If I lose one, Iʼm only out a quarter.” Hurst has taught advanced guitar at Laurie Lewisʼs Bluegrass at the Beach camp and at the Augusta Heritage workshops. His advice to atpickers is, “the three Ts: timing, taste, and tone.” “Flatpickers have a lot of energy. It is an exhilarating experience playing a fast break, searching out and nding new territory. But a lot of times you need to slow down a little and concentrate on your tone and make sure youʼre playing in time. I also tell people to work on scales and nger exercises, not only for the sake of learning scales, but to get your ngers in synch with your picking hand. Thatʼs how you get a smooth, legato sound, by having your ngers lift off the previous note just as you are picking the next one. It takes a lot of practice and coordination to keep your ngers in synch so every note ows properly. The more you practice, the clearer you get. The more familiar you are with the neck, the more you can do. It leads you into new ideas.” “Taste comes from having respect for the melody. There is a certain amount of music that has to be there for you to have ʻCabin Home on the Hill,ʼ for example. Once you go past a certain point, you donʼt have the song any more. Thatʼs the real challenge of this music, working within the form, but stating how you hear the melody. A lot of times Iʼll

end up with more of a counter-melody, but it still works within the parameters of the tune. Some people like to play patterns when they improvise, which is okay, but I like to nd the melody and then play around it.” “When I play a break I try to build in dynamics. There needs to be some tension. I also try not be a lick player. Having a big vocabulary of generic licks can be a safety blanket, but it leads to a sameness in your playing. If you play a particular lick over a particular chord change in one song, then play the same lick three or four songs later you really havenʼt done anything to make either song special. After a while all your breaks start to sound the same.” “That is another great thing about playing with Claire,” he says. “On a big country tour you carry your own stage, your own lights, everything. So the whole setup is the same from night to night. The only thing different is the color of the seats in the hall. The shows are very choreographed, with the same set list every night. You can sometimes feel like a human jukebox. Somebody puts a quarter in your pocket and punches your nose and you play all the hits. Traveling with Claire and the Front Porch String Band is the exact opposite. There is no light show. There are no sound effects. This is the real thing. And we have a lot of freedom up there. I play different breaks every show. Sometimes somebody will yell out a song from the audience and weʼll play it. Itʼs a great thing to have that kind of exibility on stage. It is very freeing as a player. Claire is really wonderful about that.” “I try to be true to the music of the person

Iʼm playing with. I improvise most of my breaks. I donʼt have anything worked out ahead of time except for a couple of the songs from Silver and Gold that need to be close to what is on the record. But I always try to support the music of whoever Iʼm playing with. With Claire I have a lot of freedom. I play something different every day just to keep myself musically in balance, but everything I play is there to support her music. Or, for example, if Iʼm playing with John Cowan, on certain songs I try to keep Pat Flynn in mind. Pat and John played together for so long that his style is a big part of the music. I donʼt play Patʼs breaks, but I keep him in mind and play something that he might have played if he had been there. It lends more credibility to the music.” “You have to have a feel for what to play, but you also have to know what not to play. There is a structure to bluegrass that you have to respect. I listen to a lot of different music. Right now Iʼm listening to a lot of jazz and new acoustic music, people like Phil Keagy, Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. I enjoy it, but I am also listening for their approaches to a song, their technique. That really stretches my musical understanding. But a lot of that is inappropriate for a bluegrass song. If you get too far out into left field, youʼre not playing bluegrass any more.” “To me what is great about being a guitar player is that it is as much a joy to back up as it is to take a ride or a break. Itʼs like playing a team game. That is the essence of music, communicating, trying to help the people you are playing with sound better.”

Jim Hurst performing with the McCarter Sisters, 1994 7



His most recent recording project was with former Newgrass Revival member John Cowan. Jim played on a couple of cuts on Cowanʼs upcoming CD. He is also playing dates with Cowan, Scott Vestal and drummer Larry Atamanuik “I feel really blessed. Iʼm having a great time playing music that I love with players that I admire. And I expect next year to be even better.”

Jim Hurst conducts a guitar workshop with Tim Stafford, David Grier, and Gary Brewer at the 1998 IBMA Fan Fest Jim has been with Claire Lynch for three years and played on her 1997 Grammynominated album, Silver and Gold . With the Front Porch String Band, Jim has played the Ryman Auditorium as well as the 1996 Olympic Festival. He and the rest of the FPSB were featured in Claireʼs CMT/TNN video “My Heart is a Diamond” and have appeared on TNNʼs Prime Time Country, the Grand Ole Opry Live, and This Week in Country Music. He says, however, that 1998 has been his best year ever. Claire Lynch has cut back her touring schedule, playing 12 to 14 dates a year, so Jim and Missy Raines, the FPSBʼs bassist and 1998 IBMA Bass Player of the Year, have formed a musical partnership. “Missy is a great bassist and a wonderful person. This is one of the best musical experiences Iʼve ever been involved in,” says Hurst. “We are playing acoustic music with bluegrass, roots and jazz and blues inuences. The music is almost effortless. Very seldom do we have a problem working out an arrangement for a song. We are never in each otherʼs way, which allows us both a great deal of freedom in our playing. Weʼre very respectful of each other. What is so wonderful is the way the songs take on a different character each time we play them. The duo format really allows us both to explore, so the songs change on the y depending on how we feel that night.” He has also released his debut solo album, Open Window, a collection that ranges from a soulful rendition of James Taylorʼs “Nothing Like a Hundred Miles” to the bluegrass classic “Tall Pines.” “Iʼve never wanted 8

to be pigeonholed into one thing,” he says. “I like to adapt to different kinds of music. Iʼve been in bands for so long that I really wanted something that said, ʻThis is Jim Hurst music.ʼ If I had a musical idea, I would just do it. This was a real creative release for me. I also wanted my album to be a musical forum for the players. I have some great players on the record and I really wanted to turn them loose.” “Claireʼs Silver and Gold was a great learning experience for me. She allowed us a lot of creative freedom and input into the songs. From that experience I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do in the studio, which was a real blessing when it came to making my own album.” Hurst credits Claire Lynch with much of his current success. “Claire has opened a door for me that allows me to do what I love for a living. If you look at the cover of Open Window, youʼll notice that Iʼm sitting on a front porch. I donʼt have a front porch on my house, so we had to use somebody elseʼs. But I wanted one on the cover as a way of saying thank you to Claire and the Front Porch String Band.” In addition to his own CD, Hurst has been busy in the studio with other artists as well. He played on Missy Rainesʼ solo debut My Place in the Sun, played on Suzanne Thomasʼs Rounder release, Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts, and played on Sara Evansʼ RCA release, No Place that Far, in addition to several small, independent releases.

Gear Notes: Jim Hurst plays a 1986 Gallagher Doc Watson model with voiced bracing, a mahogany back and sides and a spruce top. “I love this guitar,” he says. “It is the best guitar Iʼve ever played.” He has a Fishman pickup installed but tries to use it only to feed the monitors on stage. “I really like to work a mic on stage. It is a real art form. Unfortunately, because of the variety of places we play, I have to use the pickup more than I would like. Stage volume, a bad stage layout, or an inexperienced engineer can make it tough to get adequate volume without feeding back if you just use the mic.” He is exploring a dual pickup and internal microphone system in order to get a more natural tone. While the Gallagher is his “cover-allthe-bases guitar,” Jim also plays a custom Brazilian rosewood dreadnaught made by luthier Darren Perry of Tullahoma, Tennessee. “Darren works out of a music store and shop called Horns, Strings & Things in Tullahoma. The guitar he made for me is gorgeous, but I donʼt always take it out on the road. I use it primarily as a ngerpicking guitar.” The guitar on “Crazy Locomotion Blues” is a Sears Silvertone Gene Autry model that he received from his uncle as a Christmas present when Jim was four. Hurst endorses Fishman pickups and DʼAddario strings. He uses DʼAddario phosphor bronze medium or bluegrass gauge sets. He also has an endorsement with Gibson. He uses .96 Dunlop Delrin picks. Selected Discography: Open Window — Jim Hurst My Place in the Sun — Missy Raines Silver and Gold — Claire Lynch Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts — Suzanne Thomas More Fun than We Ought to Have— The Mclains No Place that Far — Sara Evans



Don’t Let Your Guard Down! by Craig Vance

I originally began this column with the intention of providing you folks with more guitar tablature. This all changed when somewhere along the line I fractured my left ngertip. When I attempted to continue the tab, it became too darn painful, so that will have to wait until another time. Iʼm sure that many of you have had to do dangerous work with your hands to supplement your income. This is just exactly what I was doing when the incident occurred. I was working on an ofce unit using several potentially hazardous implements throughout the course of the day, never once using poor judgment with the tools I had to use for the project. When I closed a door with a hasp, my little nger became lodged between the hasp and the door. I continued moving in a forward direction, but my finger wasnʼt coming with me. Then there was that morbid sound of bone crunching. Initially there was no severe pain. I did notice that the ngertip was bent downward, and I couldnʼt seem to straighten it. At that precise moment I realized the severity of the injury. Within thirty minutes there was swelling and growing discomfort. Soon after, I saw purple forming in the area of the damage. Once the swelling kicked in, so did that annoying hot, throbbing sensation. Normally I like to refrain from the use of medical assistance, but no musician would toy around with any type of hand injury, no matter how minor it may seem. Being a self-employed musician, I went to the town clinic to obtain x-rays of the injury. It was a small fracture, which had also caused some damage to the tendon. After the nature of the injury was determined, I was sent to see a hand specialist who recognized me as a member of The McKrells. He knew when he was giving me the instructions of care for the nger that I would be likely to bend the rules a little. He advised me to keep the nger in a half splint for six

to eight weeks. We more or less had an unspoken agreement of these terms. What the doctor was telling me was to keep it in a splint to avoid what he called “mallet nger.” A condition in which the nger retains a downward hook from improper setting. I have to make money to cover the bills, so itʼs a catch twenty-two situation. As I looked back on the day that this unfortunate mishap took place, I came to one conclusion. I had used caution while working with the potentially dangerous tools, but I let my guard down when I wasnʼt using them. Looking back at my past history of nger injuries, I recalled a couple other incidents that were of similar nature. I'll pass them along to you in order to emphasize the point of this article—even when we are careful in potentially hazardous situations, accidents can happen when we let our guard down. I was working on a basement job doing some framing. It was at the end of a long day when I went to make a notch cut in a 2x4 to t around existing plumbing. The cut was being made on a radial arm saw, and I had to raise the 2x4 up with my right hand, securing the other half with my left. When the saw bit into the wood, it jerked against the fencing of the saw where my hand was. I got my third nger lodged between the 2x4 and the fencing, mashing my third nger tip badly. The ngertip instantly turned into a throbbing Concord grape. The next night I had an important gig at the Troy Music Hall in Troy, NY. I had a very tough time getting through that gig trying to omit the use of third nger. Once again, my guard was down. I had used caution all day long until that last eeting moment when I was hurrying to complete the job. In a very similar situation, Iʼd been framing out a basement to make into a living space. It was the last 2x4 studding to be installed that day. I was tacking, or toenail-

ing, the bottom of the stud into place. A small wedge of the wood popped loose. The contractor of the job looked over my shoulder and said, “Take a nish nail and replace that chunk of wood; that will keep the building inspector happy.” I begrudgingly set down the framing hammer and picked up my nish hammer and commenced to replace the seemingly insignicant piece of wood. Since Iʼm mostly left-handed, I was holding the nail with my right hand and hammering with my left. The hammer slipped off the nail and wound up smashing my right forenger. This again was bad timing, as I was off to Saint Thomas a few days later to play seven nights a week in a nightclub. The rst week was tough enough, trying to hold the atpick between thumb and forenger. The pressure was intense, but I had to keep going. Within two weeks, the ngernail separated slightly. Now I was faced with a severe dilemma. The remaining portion of the nail would catch on the strings during some of the downstrokes. I know this creates an awful image, but I have to relay it to those of you who have dangerous sidejobs. These type things do happen. The most important thing to keep in mind is that anytime you use your hands in an occupation, an element of danger is always lurking. These are not pleasant memories of my career, but in sharing them, I can only hope that you will use caution to the fullest extent.



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Beginner’s Page

Under The Double Eagle

This could be the most popularly requested guitar instrumental in all of bluegrass music. Not only that, but Iʼm teaching it in this monthʼs column because it was a special request from non other than Dan Miller, the founder of this magazine. Iʼve always had a policy to play (or teach) every special request that I can, (especially when it comes from the boss). When I think of “Under the Double Eagle,” the rst thing that comes to my mind is Charlie Wallerʼs version that he did for so many years with the Country Gentlemen. They were the definitive showmen and they started this one off with a snare drum sound that Charlie made on his guitar by twisting the sixth string around the fth string and plucking them with the pick. It made a sound like a drummer boy

marching the troops into battle. Bill Yates would cover Charlieʼs ngerboard with his hand and announce to the crowd that it was a “Secret Lick.” This tune is usually played in the “Carter Family” style, which is a technique that combines rhythm and lead all in one. Dan Miller pointed out to me that his children always start dancing when he plays a “Carter Family” style tune, but he gets no reaction when he plays ddle tune style without rhythm. Made sense to us because the “Carter Family” technique sort of makes you a full band. Put this one in your repertoire and youʼll get ʻem dancing, too! This one is usually played in the key of C from start to nish but another common version is to switch to the key of F for the

Flatpicking ‘98

chorus. You may thank me someday for teaching it here in the key of C all the way through, because this will circumvent the dreaded B at chord. My version is a “hybrid” version because Iʼve heard it played by so many different guitar players that Iʼve devised my own way to do it that is faithful to the melody and easy on the ngers at the same time. Itʼs a fairly long piece so donʼt expect to learn it all in one sitting. If you need to hear it in a recorded lesson, itʼs one of the tunes from my course entitled “Easy Guitar Solos,” which includes a cassette tape on which I play each song once at full speed, once slow, and once as a phrase-by-phrase lesson. If youʼre interested, you can give us a call at Musicianʼs Workshop 800543-6125 and weʼll send you out a free catalog.

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Presents:

Flatpicking ‘98 Featuring 20 of todayʼs best atpicking guitarists: • James Alan Shelton • Dan DeLancey • Charles Sawtelle • Richard Bennett • • Russ Barenberg • Dan Crary • Sean Watkins • Larry Sparks • Richard Starkey • • Luke Bulla • Craig Vance • Adam Granger • Jimmy Haley • Orrin Star • • Mike Maddox • Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce • Chris Jones • • Jeff Autry • John McGann • Joe Carr •

Featuring 20 tunes that have been transcribed and presented in the second volume of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

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Listen to Want You Have Been Reading! 12



Under The Double Eagle C

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Arranged by Dan Huckabee

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T-shirts: $15.00

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On the Internet at http://www.atpick.com



Flatpick Prole Tim May by Joel Stein

Tim May is the kind of guy everyone likes. Heʼs humorous, self-effacing, humble, and fun to be around. Heʼs also an accomplished guitar player and songwriter and a founding member of the hot, young band Crucial Smith. Mayʼs talent and easy-going attitude serve him well. At the rst Steve Kaufman Flatpicking Camp, May was brought along to accompany atpick virtuoso Pat Flynn during a workshop and for a portion of his evening concert. At subsequent camps, Flynn (who produced the rst Crucial Smith CD) brought the entire band to open and join him during his concert. At Crucial Smithʼs New England debut at the ʻ98 Joe Val Memorial Bluegrass Festival, May (along with the rest of the band) joined in a jam session with weekend pickers. At the ʻ98 edition of Winterhawk—the Northeastʼs premier bluegrass festival, May and his band got on stage as unknowns, only to have a line of people at their table waiting to buy their CD and T-shirts when they nished their set. It seems whenever May and his cohorts in Crucial Smith hit the stage, they win new converts to their brand of tight, polished, and tastefully executed hot picking and singing. May was born in Texas and raised in Steens, MS, to a musical family. “Daddy played a little guitar and ddle, my brother played banjo, guitar, and mandolin and my mother sang.” By the time he was 11, May had fallen under the spell of Earl Scruggs and was becoming fairly accomplished as a banjo player. “We had the May Family Bluegrass Band when I was in high school,” May explains. While it was often tough to nd bluegrass in the Steens area, making music with his family provided great training. “It was always nice to have somebody to play with. A lot of people donʼt have that,” May adds, counting the blessings of his musical family bond. As May approached his teen years, he began to play guitar. “I still played banjo,” May says, but the guitar gradually took more and more of his interest. “I heard people like Dan Crary, Tony Rice and had to learn how to do that,” May explains. Another signicant inuence on Mayʼs budding musical development was the tight ensemble sound of groups like the Seldom Scene and J.D.

Crowe and the New South. “Even though I was into the hot pickers, Iʼve always been into the band, the total package,” he says. While learning, May studied records—especially Dan Craryʼs Bluegrass Guitar album. “That was probably the biggest solo inuence—I tried to learn everything on it . . . ʻtryʼ is the operative word” he offers wryly. “I could have picked up a lot faster if I had lessons or if I had the (Steve) Kaufman books,” he goes on. “I think itʼs great what people like Steve are doing. I learned a lot of things wrong. I put my nger down to anchor (my hand). I had no idea if that was right or wrong, I just knew you did that with the banjo. It was a long process for me to sort it all out,” he concludes. As for his approach to improvisation, May says he started “to get a le, a library of ideas by learning other peopleʼs breaks.” With the band, May nds himself learning more about musical theory so that he can communicate his ideas to the others more quickly. “You need to know what youʼre doing for communication purposes,” he concludes. By the time he arrived at David Lipscomb University, May had already performed at the prestigious Kentucky Fried Chicken Bluegrass Festival. As a student at Lipscomb, May became the guitar player in one of the schoolʼs recruitment bands playing covers of country, pop and top forty tunes at functions trying to encourage prospective students to enroll at the school. One of his fellow musical recruiters was an electric guitarist, Kyle Wood. Wood and May became fast friends. While they shared a passion for music, they approached it from different angles. May was acoustic; Wood, electric. “Kyle was into what he was doing, and I was into what I was doing,” May reects. “We always felt it was a shame we couldnʼt get together and play the same music.” That arrangement soon changed. “One day he (Wood) said he was going to get a mandolin,” May explains. “I didnʼt know if he was serious or not. He came back after Christmas break having

learned a bunch of songs. Next thing we just jammed forever—and still are.” With May on guitar and Wood on mandolin, the pair played around school and were joined on occasion by Mayʼs brother. Shortly thereafter, another Lipscomb student, Dave Holladay (bass), and a high school friend of Woodʼs, Chris Joslin (banjo and dobro), joined forces with the pair and christened themselves Sam Hill. “We found there was another band with that name” says May. Since he and his band mates took a year off, they gave up the rights to Sam Hill. The name Crucial Smith brings a few stories. With a typical smile across his face, May tells the story “Bill Monroeʼs middle name is Smith. Anyone who is into bluegrass knows Bill is crucial to the sound of it. Itʼs crucial smith. Itʼs Bill Monroe.” May winks, adding “Thatʼs the story Iʼm going with and youʼll have to decide if itʼs true.” It was another connection from the bandʼs time at Lipscomb that brought Crucial Smith to the attention of former New Grass Revival guitarist and session player extraordinare Pat Flynn. After the demise of New Grass, Flynn enrolled at Lipscomb to pursue his education. “Patʼs brother-in-law saw us play and told us we had to get with Pat Flynn. Determined to make the connection, Wood got hold of Flynnʼs schedule, cornered him after a class and gave him a tape. Flynn didnʼt promise anything more than a listen 15



to the tape. A few days later he called; they got together and soon Flynn was producing the young band and writing with May (“Father Time”). The inuence of Flynn and the sound of New Grass is profound. Crucial Smith features tight band arrangements, hot picking, and strong vocals woven into a contemporary sound. “We never tried to copy New Grass,” May explains, “Iʼve always thought we copied people like the Seldom Scene and Crowe—because thatʼs what I grew up with. We certainly are inuenced by the progressive pickers, and New Grass too,” May continues. “Patʼs producing us; helping us with arrangements has inuenced us, too. Itʼs certainly a compliment when people compare us.” May is quick to share his enthusiasm for Flynn. “His depth is really amazing. He can do many things.” May adds that Flynnʼs inuence on his guitar playing is “by osmosis” because they play together so frequently.

Listening to Crucial Smith—or better yet, seeing them live—one can see and hear the benets of playing with a close-knit group of friends. All the members seem to shift gears as if connecting telepathically. In fact, one of their current show-stoppers, “Game Of Chase” from their debut record, is a good case study. The song was originally written by May for Woodʼs clear high vocal. “I wrote it in the key of E, because thatʼs Kyleʼs range.” E is also a key the band tends to enjoy jamming in. During one performance the band was waiting for Holladay to retune his bass from a drop D tuning in the previous song, May ripped into what became an extended solo jam. Once Holladay was tuned, the band fell into a perfect groove behind May, with Wood stepping in for his vocal. The extended intro worked so well, that it is now a regular part of the bandʼs set. “At this point,” May says, “we have an idea of what the sound is, what a guy might do, how he might approach a particular song or part.” As a

writer, May says, “you might have a line or riff in mind, but it really comes down to the guys getting together and everyone adding what they can. You have the structure and let the guys go.” When not playing with Crucial Smith, May works on the restoration of antique furniture, a trade he learned from his father. In fact, May and his father were involved in the restoration of the Hermitage and a number of other Civil War-era houses. May also builds instruments—he and Joslin collaborated on Chrisʼ banjo—including a number of guitars, mandolins, dobros and even a viola. In addition to Crucial Smithʼs debut (Micah Records 1997), Mayʼs explosive guitar can be heard on the Jim Buchanan System The System At Work—Volume 1, AMI 9701 and on Tom Saffellʼs Another Lifetime AMI 9801 (the latter also features Wood). The Buchanan record showcases Mayʼs more traditional material, while the Saffell release leans to a more contemporary, jazz inuenced harmonic approach due to Saffellʼs instrument of choice, an eight string banjo—seven strings with an eighth drone string (similar to a traditional fth string). At present, Crucial Smith is in the studio with hopes of having a release ready for this coming summer season. On the following page, we offer a transcription of Timʼs solo from his song “Against The Grain” from Crucial Smith (Micah 8197).

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œ œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ Flatpick Rhythm Guitar H.O.

0 0

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by Joe Carr

3

5/4 Time Five beats a measure! Unheard of in country and bluegrass music you say. Check out “On the Road” from John Hartfordʼs Morning Buglealbum. Discussing 5/4 time gives me the chance to introduce a great jazz tune which has become a standard. Dave Brubeck was an established jazz musician when his Time Out album was released in the 1960s. It was full of tunes in “different” time signatures - meaning not 4/4, 2/4, or 3/4. “Take Five” makes a good atpicking tune. (Jazzers everywhere feel the hair on the back of their necks raising.) It helps to think of a 5/4 measure as a measure of three followed by a measure of two. Now we atpickers understand that — bass, strum, strum, bass, strum —5/4! Nothing to it. Try example 1. Notice that in measures with two chords, the first chord gets three beats and the second chord gets two. Try example 2.

“Take Five” is a two-part tune with a jam section adde d betw een the play ing of changes. The jam section uses the introductory measure repeated many times. The length of the jam section depends entirely on the musician. Players generally use a musical or visual clue to tell the band when to begin playing the changes. To simulate Brubeckʼs piano rhythm, play the pattern shown in example 3 throughout. The strums of the Dm chord are very short and arenʼt allowed to ring. Let the Am chord ring. Example 4 shows a suggested rhythm arrangement of the second part of the melody. To atpick the melody, rely on counting at rst. 5/4 feels strange, so donʼt rely on your instincts. Make a good rhythm track at a moderate tempo and play along. The pick-up notes come on beats 4 and 5. Count “1-2-3,” then play on “4 and 5 and.” This

Example 1

Example 2

Dm

Dm

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1 3 2

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A former member of Country Gazette, Joe Carr joined the Country/Bluegrass faculty at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, in 1984. Since that time Joe and his fellow faculty member and recording/performing partner, Alan Munde, have not only produced a few highly acclaimed recordings, they have also written an award winning book titled, From Prairie Nights To Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas, and have developed a two man theatrical production titled Two Swell Guys From Texas. Mel Bay Publications has recently released two books written by Joe Carr that are of special interest to readers of this column: Rhythm Styles for Flatpicking Guitar and 25 Great Backup Licks for Flatpicking Guitar.

Example 3

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tune is challenging for us straight-time pickers, but itʼs well worth the effort. Try it in a medley with “Lonesome Fiddle Blues.”

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Take Five Arranged by Joe Carr Dm

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Flatpicking Guitar All back Issues are Still Available

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Flatpicking ‘97 Featuring 23 of todayʼs best bluegrass guitarists: • Peter McLaughlin • Chris Jones • Dix Bruce and Jim Nunally • • Brad Davis • Scott Nygaard • David Grier • • Jack Lawrence • Steve Palazzo • Beppe Gambetta • • Mark Cosgrove • Dale Adkins • Norman Blake • Allen Shadd • • Joe Carr • Steve Kaufman • Steve Pottier and Sandy Rothman • • John McGann • George Shufer • Mike Whitehead • Gary Cook •

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Guitar Set-up Specialist

Dan Lashbrook by Kenny & Amanda Smith

I am sure that most atpickers have at some point in time asked themselves, “How can I get more volume, better tone, and an overall better response from my guitar?” Experimenting with various brands of strings and picks and exploring a variety of right-hand techniques certainly will change the guitarʼs volume, tone and response, and these are great options to entertain in the search for the sound. Once these avenues have been transversed, however, many pickers start to look at making modications to the guitar itself. This is the world where Dan Lashbrook lives. Not only is he the rst person to have performed largescale work with “fossil” walrus ivory nuts, saddles, and bridge pins (a modication that has now become very popular), but he has also become quite famous for his other unique and somewhat unorthodox methods of “hot rodding” guitars. Dan grew up in Michigan. His father owned a bluegrass bar in Detroit during the 50s and 60s and many of the bands that played at the bar also jammed around his house. However, Dan did not begin playing the guitar until he was in the Army (1971-1974). It was during that time that he became very frustrated with the volume and tone of his guitar while trying to be heard over other instruments in jam sessions. His rst “modication” was to take out his nut and saddle and run them across a sidewalk curb in an effort to improve his action. That simple nut-and-saddle job was the rst of many modications Dan would eventually make to a countless number of guitars. After Dan left the service, he moved to Alaska and eventually got a job setting up guitars at the Down Home Guitar, a music shop in Anchorage. It was there that Dan made a name for himself and his fossil ivory work. In 1989 Dan moved to his current home in Asheville, NC (shortly after winning the Alaska state atpicking contest that same year). This past summer Kenny Smith and his wife Amanda visited with Dan and conducted the following interview for Flat picking Guitar.

22

How did you get into the business of setting up guitars? When I got the job at Down Home Guitar in 1985, my rst thought was that if I could ever get a guitar to perform at banjo volume, that would be something I was going to work on. Early on I noticed that the old Martins had long saddles and that the newer Martins had short saddles. But in 1985 you couldnʼt nd a four-inch saddle blank anywhere. I wound up going to a gift shop in Alaska that had walrus tusks with scrimshaw Dan Lashbrook with his “street legal” on them. I bought one of those 1932 Martin OM-18 thinking that I could make a saddle any size and length that I wanted. This was actually white walrus harder than white ivory, is not only better ivory; it wasnʼt fossil ivory. I used that and for sound, but it is legal. If the ivory we were found that it was far better than having a using were actually “fossilized,” it would be short little saddle like most of the modern chemically changed to stone and youʼd be guitars had. talking about dinosaur age material. Iʼve Shortly after I began using the walrus never used anything like that. Only mamivory, I did some work for a jeweler friend moth ivory, anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 who had worked with lots of fossil ivory, years old, could be called fossil ivory. which is walrus ivory that has been dug out Ivory that is white and raw, like the eleof the ground. This was tusk material and phant ivory, is too soft. I have made bridge walrus teeth which was even harder than pins out of that material and it turns on the the white ivory I had been using. I began lathe like butter. The older walrus ivory is making saddles, nuts, and bridge pins out of very, very hard. Making bridge pins or an this material and found it to be even better end pin out of that will literally drag the lathe than the white ivory. down to a dead grunt. In fact it is so hard that I have bridge pins I have used for ve years that donʼt have a string scratch on them. Can you explain the differences between the various types of “fossil” ivory? One other thing I want to talk about while The technical term for what is comwe are on the subject of walrus ivory is that monly called “fossilized” ivory is actually on a molecular level the ivory molecules are “mineralized” ivory. The color that the ivory perfectly round and interlocking. They are picks up is due to the minerals that are in the not porous; there are no gaps between them. ground. The ivory I use is actually “mineralIf you look at bone under an electron microized” ivory. The term “fossilized” is one that scope, you actually see the particles are long the Fish and Game Administration came up and porous, connecting like hairs, with a lot with to insure that we are using legal ivory of grain lines and empty pockets. Ivory is rather than something that is white and raw better for conducting vibration because the that was taken from a walrus slaughtered molecules are perfectly round and interlocklast week. The mineralized ivory, which ing. John Arnold told me that. has been buried in the ground and is far Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


In addition to using the mineralized ivory material, I know that your nut, saddles, and bridge pin design is also different from that of most builders. Could you describe your designs and how you discovered them? I was watching some Dan Earlewine videos and I saw that on one particular video he made a nut for a classical guitar which was called a “uted” nut. Seeing that, I thought, “Well, Iʼll try that some day.” I tried it and when I did it on a guitar which had a sound I was familiar with, I found that it added to the sound right away. Can you describe a “uted” nut? A uted nut is one that has been scalloped between the strings. Technically, on a standard nut, the string transmission through the nut goes not only straight down, but also side to side. On a uted nut, because it is scalloped between the strings, the string transmission can go only straight down. Also, when the string slots are cut into the nut so that the strings are sunk down into the nut, the transmission travels everywhere throughout the nut. I discovered that when the nut is both topled and back-led and the strings are only half submerged and the nut is scalloped between the strings, the vibration from the strings can go only straight down. It creates a megaphone type of effect which shouts the string vibration straight down at the nut slot. Tell us about your saddle design. Working with intonation, Iʼve experimented with different saddle angles—that is, having the saddle moderately tapered at the top where youʼre making contact as opposed to being bluntly rounded. I found that the sharper the saddle angle, the “hotter” and more sensitive to string contact it is because the contact with the string is not so blocky. I also started making saddles that were anywhere from four inches to four and a quarter inches long. I found that the deeper in the bridge you are with the saddle and the longer you make the saddle, the hotter the mechanical energy of the string transmission is into the bridge, so there is more sound coming out of the guitar. For the same reason, I also superglue the saddle into the bridge.

How about bridge pins? When I rst started experimenting with guitar, I thought that the 1930ʼs Martin design had everything optimum, so I thought that copying that design would be best. I initially made 1930ʼs-design bridge pins. From there I rst tried exaggerating the length and diameter. I thought since the 1930ʼs bridge pins were bigger than the modern ones, I would make mine even bigger to see what would happen. But when I thought about it, what you have with bigger bridge pins is that the bigger and heavier pins would slow the bridge vibration down just as a big bridge or big bridge plate would. So then I thought that if I made bridge pins that were smaller and lighter, the whole bridge area would be lighter and would move easier. I would therefore have more sound as you do with a small bridge plate as opposed to a large bridge plate. I started making pins that had no ball head at all, just a at head. They are called at heads, or nail heads. After doing that, it was a game to make the bridge pins as light as I could. I started hollowing the shaft of the bridge pins and making the shaft shorter. I only made them as long as they needed to be to extend down to the level of the ball end of the string. I used the walrus tooth ivory, which is the hottest transmitting material that Iʼd come across. By making the pins atheads and with shorter and hollow shafts, I found that to be the hottest bridge pin design. You make those bridge pins without the string groove? Exactly, there is no groove in the bridge pin because when you have a groove in the pin, you donʼt have any pressure up against the string pushing it into the string notch. These people who make a guitar that has no string notches are skipping the last step in the procedure of completing the bridge. Putting the groove in the bridge pin instead insulates your string and it is not conducting to the bridge plate. Iʼve found that if the string notch in the bridge plate is cut correctly and the bridge pin is cylinder shaped w ith a ve-degree taper, the ball end of the string is locked into the bridge plate and you get a hotter transmission. What bridge plate material are you using? I have found that the smaller the bridge plate the better, as long as the top is stable. You have less surface area restriction. Up until 1993 the best material that I had used

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was a material called snakewood. It was better than ebony, maple, or Brazilian rosewood. Then a certain atpicker friend of mine sent me the prime bridgeplate material; it is called wenge. However, if you are having a problem with your top lifting and you want to use a material that has a good tap tone and much more stiffness, you can use pernambuco.

Are you using a 1930ʼs design for the shape of your bridgeplate? Yes, a 30ʼs design with the rear corners cut back. That would be an inch and three-eighths from front to rear. What type of tuning machines do you use? The very best tuners made are the Waverly 4065. They are the ones with the ivoroid knobs. They are the best because they have less weight than the others. The less weight, the better it moves the sound. I have gone one step farther by taking the tuner posts and making them shorter so you donʼt have excess mass above the tuner eye in the string post. If you have excess mass there, your string transmission is going up as well as down. When that is cut off, your string transmission can only go down. The ivoroid button is 10 to 15 percent better and when the posts are cut short and the grommets are milled down from .090 to .030, your tuner eye is closer to the peghead. Then, using only one or two wraps of your string around the post, you have maximum downward pressure on the nut. What types of frets do you use? I use a Jim Dunlop 6105. They are taller in height than a normal fret. The taller the fret height, the hotter the transmission. When you have taller frets, you can have a taller nut and thus more downward pres-

sure on the nut. Also, the taller fret is easier on your left hand, you donʼt have to press as hard and you donʼt feel the wood, only the string. With a jumbo fret that is wide and at like on Les Paul guitars, you donʼt have much sound because your mass is in width, not height and you are playing on a at contact surface. Ideally you want a fret that is tall and narrow. However, when we are setting up guitars, we will use whatever type frets the customer is comfortable with.

How would you set up a rosewood guitar versus a mahogany guitar? If we are working on a rosewood guitar that has an exaggerated bass response and a lack of highs, we want to do what we can to brighten that up and get some edge on the guitar. If we are working with a mahogany, guitar with a rosewood bridge and ngerboard, that might be overbright and have nothing but a treble sound and no bass, we will use an ebony bridge plate and bridge pins to balance it out. It depends on the individual. If the person kills or deadens the strings easily, then you want to try to get as much edge on the guitar as possible. If someone is a rhythm player and wants a bassy tone, we can achieve that. If they are a atpicker who wants a bright edgy tone, we can also do that. What kind of strings do you prefer? The best string to use is the DʼAddario J17 phosphor bronze medium. In concluding the interview Dan said, “Anyone who is interested in hearing what a ʻhigh performanceʼ guitar can do, if you are in Asheville, please come by and hear the guitars we have here.” Dan Lashbrook can be contacted at: (828) 252-1641.

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The 27th Annual National Flatpicking Championships By Chad Ward Wineld, Kansas, is atpicking Mecca. The faithful eagerly make the annual September pilgrimage to Wineld, home of the Walnut Valley Festival and the National Flatpicking Championships. Some arrive as much as three weeks early to secure a good camping spot. These folks are serious about bluegrass and about atpicking. The festivalʼs ofcial dates were September 17 - 20, but campers arrived early for the “Land Rush” to vie for prime locations. As early as the 8th of September, festival staff were handing out wristbands and numbers for the Land Rush lineup. By 8:00 am on Thursday the 10th—the ofcial Land Rush start—there were three lines of campers and RVs awaiting the signal to begin. Many are here for the music, especially this yearʼs headliners—Claire Lynch and the Front Porch String Band and Laurie Lewis. Many are here to pick in the campgrounds, renew old friendships, and make new ones. Some of these long-time regulars only rarely venture onto the festival grounds. For them the true joy of Wineld lies in the Pecan and Walnut Grove campgrounds. But for hardcore atpickers, all of these events are just the trimmings surrounding the festivalʼs cornerstone event, the 27th annual National Flatpicking Championship. Although other atpicking contests have gained some national attention, most notably the contest held at MerleFest, the Merle Watson Memorial Festival in Wilkesboro, NC, none have the cachet of the National Championship. And no other festival or contest is able to draw such a tremendously talented pool of players to compete for the title of National Flatpicking Champion. By 8:30 on Saturday morning the metal barn that houses Stage IV already held nearly 200 people, with more crowding in every minute to see the beginning of the contest. On the other side of the barn there is a tent set up where contestants and their rhythm players mill like horses in a paddock before a big race. Some pick softly to keep their hands loose. Other contestants get their assigned numbers and disappear until it is nearly time for them to play.

There were 31 contestants this year. If you gure that they played at an average speed of 240 beats per minute (a conservative estimate) for their assigned ve minutes and add in the two tunes played by each of the ve nalists, nearly 50,000 notes went by before the judges named a winner. And they were some pretty amazing notes. There was no slow buildup. The second contestant, Bobby Trapp, placed third in 1985 and made the final five this year, playing with power and style. Watching contest veterans like Trapp or 1980 and 1991 champion Roy Curry is like watching chess masters at work. They are relaxed and play with a detached concentration, sometimes looking at the audience, most often staring into space as though their ying hands were completely disconnected from their bodies. Curry, who also made the nal ve, played his opening tunes with a pop and sparkle that breathed new life into the contest standards “Bill Cheatham” and “Alabama Jubilee.” It was this kind of musicality that made the ve nalists really stand out during a contest where lyrical playing was sometimes lost in the blur of ashy technique. By 10:30—and contestant number 14— the barn was packed with spectators as temperatures rose into the 90s. People crowded around the huge fans near the doors at either side of the barn. Contest veterans and former champions like threetime champion Steve Kaufman and 1995 winner Mark Cosgrove occupied a corner near the far door by the waiting area, watching the players with a practiced eye. There is a low murmur of conversation— “Uh oh, did he bobble that part?” “Yeah, but he recovered nicely; I donʼt think the judges will notice.” The judges are in a room on another part of the festival grounds. They only hear what the contestantʼs microphone picks up and do not hear the backup player at all. Many of the players have learned to work the mic, leaning in to emphasize a delicate passage or drawing back a little so they donʼt overload the microphone when they rip through a strongly picked part.

The pace picked up when Carl Miner took the stage as contestant number 21. This was Minerʼs fourth championships. He made the finals last year and was a favorite to place in this yearʼs contest. He picked through “Harveyʼs Reel” and “Roanoke” with power and authority. The challenge had been issued. And it was answered two contestants later when 17-year-old Cody Kilby sat down in front of the microphone. Kilby has placed three times, 2nd in 1995, 3rd in 1996 and 2nd again in 1997. Many people believed this would be his year to win. With 1997 Champion Allen Shadd backing him up, Kilby played cleanly, but somewhat conservative renditions of “Cotton Patch Rag” and “Greensleeves.” It was good enough to get him into the nals. Robin Kessinger, 1985 National Champion, took the fth nalist slot with a great arrangement of “Kansas City Kitty,” easily the best tune played all day, and “Arkansas Traveler.” The ve Finalists were: Bobby Trapp of Oklahoma, Roy Curry of Tennessee, Carl Miner of Oregon, Cody Kilby of Tennessee, and Robin Kessinger of West Virginia. In the nals Kilby drew the rst slot. He was relaxed and smooth as he played quickly through “Washington County.” Then he laid everything on the line and burned through “El Cumbanchero,” a endishly difcult tune Cody learned from a Jim & Jesse McReynolds album. “I just wanted to play cleanly in the rst round,” he said. “I really decided to take a chance in the nals. I was originally going to play ʻSt. Anneʼs Reelʼ as my second tune, but switched to ʻEl Cumbancheroʼ. I wanted to play my best and had decided if it wasnʼt good enough, it wasnʼt good enough. Iʼd just come back and try again.” Kilby, from Cowan, TN, has been playing for about 8 years. He also plays banjo and mandolin, taking third in this yearʼs banjo contest. He won the mandolin contest in 1996. If you do the math, you quickly realize that Cody started playing when he was 9. In fact he was featured at an early age in The 25



The 1997 Wineld champ, Allen Shadd (right), prepares to give the 1998 champ, Cody Kilby, his championship trophy National Enquirer as the “Half-pint Picker.” In working out his contest tunes, Cody says that he spends about three months getting a tune into shape for a contest. Three of the tunes that he played in this yearʼs contest were holdovers from last year, so he was especially comfortable with them. The fourth, “El Cumbanchero,” he originally learned on the banjo. Cody likes to work out a basic melody arrangement of a tune rst, then adds more difcult parts to it until he reaches his contest version of the song. Then he goes back and concentrates on the melody. “Anything can make a good contest tune as long as itʼs got a good melody. You just have to be comfortable with it.” Even at 17, Kilbyʼs experience and poise on stage was evident. “Last year I was playing in a contest every weekend. This year Iʼve cut back a lot.” He says that he rarely plays in jam sessions, preferring instead to work on his tunes to bass and rhythm guitar tracks he has recorded. Cody Kilby won this yearʼs National Flatpicking Championship and took home a Collings D2H guitar. Carl Minerʼs great tone and amazing crosspicking made “Cotton Patch Rag” and “Tom & Jerry” sound like new tunes. You could see the intense concentration on his face as he played. He was working hard, but if you closed your eyes you couldnʼt hear it in the music. The judges certainly didnʼt seem to notice. “I just wanted to make sure that I made it into the nals this year,” he said. “I was actually more com26

fortable with my nals tunes than the ones I played in the rst round.” Miner, from Medford, OR, says he practices four to ve hours a day. Asked about when he started preparing his tunes for this years championships, he replied, “As soon as I walked off the stage last year.” He says it usually takes him about two months to work out an arrangement and get it properly polished for contest playing. “I look for tunes that havenʼt been done but are catchy and have a great melody,” he said. “I usually just hum the tune to start with, then the different parts begin to come to me, but I really have to like a tune in order to play it in a contest.” This was his fourth National Championships and the rst time he has placed. Miner won 2nd and took home a Martin OM28VR as his prize. Robin Kessinger played with a mature subtlety that demonstrated why he is a regular nalist in the contest. His light, swingy touch on “Bye Bye Blues” and his signature tune “The Third Eyebrow” made the difcult arrangements sound easy. Kessinger took second in 1982 and won the Championships in 1985. This year he took 3rd and won a Taylor Dan Crary Signature Model. In the end, the event was everything that the National Flatpicking Championships should be—a stage for great guitarists to play for an audience uniquely qualied to appreciate and enjoy their skill. If you decide to come to the 28th Annual Walnut Valley Festival, youʼd better hurry. I think the line for the Land Rush is forming now.



Flatpicking Flatpicking & & Folk/Acoustic Folk/Acoustic Rock Rock by byJohn JohnTindel Tindel

Phrase Embellishers Welcome, one and all, to a fresh new year of atpicking. This will be the last year this century to get really good at guitar playing, so prepare to buckle down and get serious. After all, someone has to proudly carry the atpicking banner into the brave new world; it might as well be us! Lord knows weʼll all be needing a counterbalance to the increasingly complex myraid of technology being thrust upon us these days. What a comfort it will be to turn off the TV, shut down the computer, ignore the phone for 5 minutes, and sit down with our guitars in a circle of friends, swapping songs and telling tales, reforging that sacred connection with our parents and grandparentsʼ time through the “music of our people.” Where folk, acoustic rock, and atpicking intersect, one often nds the need for interesting transitions from one section of a song to another—usually places like leading up to a chorus or finishing one off, setting up a bridge part, or an ending. Here, then, are a couple of my favorite “phrase-embellishers.” One good way to resolve a phrase back to the tonic, also known as the “one” chord, is to hammer-on to it. This is accomplished, in our rst example in the key of E major, by bridging across the B, G, and D strings on the 4th fret with the at part of the rst nger. Holding down these three notes, hammer-on with your 2nd and 3rd ngers to form an Am7 shape while letting the low E string ring (see example 1). See how many different ways you can pick this by changing picking patterns, timing, cross picking, or making arpeggios. To change to the key of A, pick the A string open and bridge across the 9th fret with the forenger and hammer-on the Am7th form to resolve to A major. This, of course, can be shoved up and down the neck to any desired key, although without the nifty lower open string ringing out. With practice and proper application, this

can be a sweet sounding resolve. The rst notes “rub” against the bass note and then are released by the hammer-on. Tension and release. It also borrows some elements from a popular Hawaiian slack key technique and can be used to simulate a pedal-steel type of sound as well. So add this one to your bag of licks and try not to overuse it. Another simple but effective phrase embellishment is a handy two-note string combination using the high E string in combination with the 3rd, or G string. Remember the classic Van Morrison song “Brown-Eyed Girl”? The signature for that tune is based on a gure that begins with the rst nger on the high E at the 3rd fret, or G note, and the second nger on the 4th fret, 3rd string, on the B note. Slide up to the 5th fret, same strings, with the 2nd and 3rd ngers, then slide to the 7th fret, same ngers. Then reverse back to the start (see example 2). Try picking this by using your atpick on the G string and plucking the high E with the 3rd or ring nger. You can also downstroke across all three strings while muting the B string with your fretting ngers. Try both ways or make up your own. This easy pattern in G can be

used in any number of ways to dress up a turn-around or delineate a chorus. You can slide this whole three-part phrase up to the 8th fret for the key of C, 10th fret for D, 5th fret for A, etc. To nd the pattern for the key of E, start with the open E string and the 3rd string, rst fret. Instead of stopping at the third sequence of notes, continue the scale on up to the next octave (see example 3). Have you ever noticed that trying to describe something of a musical nature using words on paper can be a little like attempting to dene a color to someone who has been blind since birth? Something very technical sounding and complicated on paper often translates into a fairly simple sequence of notes containing its own inherent logic. At some deep level your body understands this logic. So try to get past the sterile language and diagrams and tablature and get to that magical place where the head, the hands and the heart join forces with the guitar to create music, the elixir of the soul.

Example 1

## # 4 # & 4 1

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8th hammer hammer mute play open



Example 2

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Example 3

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A FEW FAVORITES

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Liner Notes— “A Few Favorites” by Dan DeLancey “From the rst note of “The Girl I left Behind Me” to the last lick in “Clarinet Polka” you can tell that Dan DeLancey is a powerhouse guitar player. His playing is up-lifting and soulful. The song selection is splendid! Dan is backed by a group of super musicians who know how to make a recording work. A nicely thought out project that w ill remain a favorite of mine as I know it will be of yours. The only down side—and it was hard to nd one—is that the recording is over too soon for me. It only means that I’ll have to hit re-play all day!! Enjoy “A Few Favorites” as I have. —Steve Kaufman • 3 Time National Guitar Champion

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is reminiscent of the chromatic banjo runs. Use the 2nd nger for the 8th fret and use the 1st nger for the 7th fret AND leave your ngers down on the frets until you HAVE to turn them loose. This will ensure sustain! To achieve proper “oatie” response you must have closed notes ringing over open strings and all notes must sound like open strings. This measure is the “hook” of the [A] part variation. Measure 33: This is the part where Earl would use his “Scruggs tuners” to give the drop note and stretch note effect. Keep the pressure down for maximum sustain. Good luck with this tune and treat it like the favorite that it is bound to become. See you next time in my corner of the world!

Welcome back to the land of banjo tunes Flatpik (800-FLATPIK, that is) style. Here is another Earl Scruggs tune for you that lays out very well on the guitar. Letʼs take a look at the arrangement. Measure 2: Use the 2nd nger to hold the second string - third fret. After you hit the rst note you must leave the 2nd nger down and hammer-on from the 2nd fret to the fourth using the 1st and 3rd ngers. This measure is one of the main “hooks” of the song. It repeats in several places in the rst part. Measures 5 and 13: this is the “C” chord series of pull offs. Use the 2nd nger for all of the second fret notes. Measure 14: You need to hammer from the 3rd to the 5th fret. Use the 1st and 3rd ngers and this will set you up for the following run in measure 15. Measure 18: this is a “oatie” run that

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AcuTab Publications • P.O. Box 21061 • Roanoke, VA • 24018 [email protected] • 540-776-6822 • 540-776-6827 (FAX)

30



Flint Hill Special Key of G

# 4 & 4Œ

G

Arr. by Steve Kaufman

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Flint Hill Special (conʼt)

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By Brad Davis IF YOU REQUEST A FREE COMPANION TAPE YOU QUALIFY FOR A DISCOUNT ON BRADʼS LATEST FLATPICKING CD OR CS “CLIMBINʼ COLE HILL” OFFER GOOD UNTIL NEXT ISSUE

DOUBLE-TIME LEAD When a solo is picked, itʼs usually executed using dotted 8th notes. In this article I want to explore what I call “Double-Time Lead” that is, playing a solo using eighth note triplets. It can also be described as “picking twice as fast as normal.” I would not recommend playing an entire solo in double time, but it can electrify a solo phrase when used in the proper situation. Iʼve used this type of speed picking on my Climbinʼ Cole Hill CD and in the song “Muleskinner Blues” on the latest Sweet Hearts of the Rodeo CD on Sugar Hill. Below Iʼve tabbed out several exercises. Double-time lead picking works best with the “Double-

Example 1A: Eighth note d-d-up technique

Down-Up” technique so Iʼve included the basic d-d-up lick exercise in examples 1-A and 1-B. This will help you learn the d-d-up technique if you wish to try it out. Itʼs good to start a solo like a lamb using basic melody and then maybe shift to an improvised section only to nish like a lion roaring at 180 miles an hour. All solos should evoke color. For example, some should start grey/slow and smooth and change to orange or purple to evoke a more tense reaction, or the opposite. It sounds crazy, but from my years of road and studio experience as a professional musician even some of the most “off-thecuff” and improvised solos have a colorful

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artistic ow and form. Our companion tape is FREE for this issue and when you order it you qualify for a discount on my solo CD titled Climbinʼ Cole Hill on Raisinʼ Cain Records. CDs retail for $10.00, So You Pay Only $7.00. Cassettes retail for $8.00, So you pay only $5.00 OFFER GOOD TILL NEXT ISSUE RELEASE. Send us your address and get on our condential mailing list. Weʼve got a lot of great specials on many of our new instructional products, soon to be available to you pickers. (Many of our new products will come complete with compact disc).

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Break Time Slow Song Intros example 4); this is serious downstroke and rest stroke territory. There is also a lot of use of double stops. When the intro ends in a double stop, remember that this is the rst statement of the melody and should be played with authority and sustain. Try to play these intros with as much tone and dynamics as possible, and be careful not to rush the notes. Example number 1 is borrowed from my break on “So Afraid Of Losing You Again” from my newest CD. The song was recorded in E at (ddle and mandolin players love this), but I played it out of C position, capoed at the third fret. It has a quick slide which leads the song from its rst position intro to a higher-position solo. Example number 2 would work for “Let Those Brown Eyes Smile At Me” in the key of G (and many others—that just seems to be the one that sprang to mind). Alternating with the open D and ending with the hammer-on with the held D note on the 2nd string gives this a pedal-steel feel that is appropriate for a country song. Itʼs best to play this in 2nd position, with your third nger playing the D note on the 2nd string. Example 3 is a variation on number 2, but more bluegrassy and in rst position. This could work for the Hank Williams song, “Lost Highway.” Example 4 is also in G but leads to a D note at the end (harmonized by the G in the double stop), and is in 3/4 time. This could be the start of “Angel Band.”

We have discussed some ideas for playing breaks to slow songs in past columns, and this month I wanted to give you some ideas for playing intros to slow breaks. Iʼve rattled on in broken-record (or scratched-CD) fashion about making your breaks melody-oriented, and this is even more important on slow songs. Even if you play something that sounds pretty to you on a slow song, if it doesnʼt at least incorporate the melody you may be in danger of giving your solo that Grateful Dead jam feel, or worse yet, youʼll just sound like you donʼt know the song. One of the best springboards for a melody-oriented slow break is an intro that leads you nicely to the rst “strong” note of the tune. As with the rest of the break, the problem is what to do with all that space. With the intro, youʼll have at least part of a slow measure to ll before you get to that strong note. Iʼve provided 7 examples of intros to songs in different keys and different time signatures. Here are some general notes about all of them. These can all be used in songs different from the ones I mention if those songs also start with the same strong note. There is only one upstroke to be found in all of these intros, and even that one is optional (itʼs the 4th note of

Example 1

Example 5 is in the key of D, although it would also work as the start of a 5/1 (or 55 11 in Nashville-ese) turnaround in the key of G. In D this could be the start of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie.” Example 6 is a simple, up-the-neck intro to a song like “Drifting Too Far From The Shore.” It would also work in 4/4 time as the start to “Blue Eyes Cryinʼ In The Rain” (no, I will not launch into a Willie Nelson imitation). Make sure to give that last slide plenty of sustain. In example 7, I thought weʼd get out of the G, C, D rut for a moment and try a closed kind of intro in the key of A. The fact that itʼs closed means you could move the whole thing up a fret and play it in B at (of course then youʼd have to play the whole break in B at ... yuck!). This intro slides smoothly from one position to another and was borrowed from Albert Lee, the great British country guitarist, who was known for his brilliant, up tempo solos with Emmy Lou Harrisʼs Hot Band, but also played beautiful stuff on the ballads. This would work for “Blue Eyes Cryinʼ In The Rain,” too, now that I think about it. If the Gene Autry song “Ages and Ages Ago” (made popular in bluegrass by the Country Gentlemen) happened to be in A, this might make a good intro for it. As you play through these, try to think of songs that you know that these intros would also work for, and remember you can also come up with your own variations that might take them in the direction of a different melody note. As long as it ows and sounds musical, itʼll probably work.

Example 2

œ œ œ 4 œ &4 Œ œ œ œ œ Œ 1

by Chris Jones

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Example 3

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36

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Columnist Prole:

Bryan Kimsey by H. Kelly Shuldberg Although Bryan Kimsey is not technically a columnist in this magazine in the sense that he has his own regular column, he has contributed articles and/or reviews to every one of our issues. We thought it appropriate, therefore, to let the readers nd out a little bit about the man behind those reviews and the great Tony Rice article printed in the previous issue. Kelly Shuldberg was kind enough to sit down with Bryan and conduct an interview for Flatpicking Guitar, however, before we roll into the questions, here is a short biographical sketch of the man they call “Modzilla.” Bryan started atpicking the guitar in 1978. Since then he has been in several bands, although, he has usually played mandolin or bass. His contest highlights include a 1998 rst-place nish in both the guitar and mandolin contests at the Western Slope Championships, a second-place nish in mandolin at Rocky Grass ʻ97, and a third-place nish on guitar at Wickenburg ʻ97 (behind Gary Cook and Sean Watkins). Bryan has owned a Martin D-28 since 1979. His current main instruments, however, are a ʻ92 Collings Clarence White and a 1998 Martin OM-28 VR. After high school, Bryan attended South Plains College (1980-1982) and earned an A.A. degree in country/bluegrass music. From there he went on to study Wildlife Science at New Mexico State, earning a B.S. in 1986. Gradute work at Eastern New Mexico University led to a M.S. degree in Wildlife Biology (1991). He has published well over 200 articles in such publications as New Mexico Wildlife, Gun Dog, Bluegrass Unlimited , Flatpicking Guitar, Bluegrass Now, Computer Solutions, Condor, Journal of Wildlife Management , and the Wilson Bulletin. He also published a book on falconry equipment in 1992, which is now in its 2nd printing. Bryan married his wife, Georgia, in 1986 and they have one daughter, Brianna, two dogs, and two parakeets. After spending 12 years as a raptor biologist, he currently works his familyʼs 28,000-acre ranch in New Mexico. Members of the Flatpick-L Internet list know Bryan, a charter member of the list and the current list manager, to be one

to constantly tinker with, and make modications to, his guitars—so much so that his list nickname is “Modzilla.” And now, the interview:

How did you get into music in the rst place? John Denver was my rst big inuence, and The Rolling Stones (chuckles). And so I just decided I needed to know how to play guitar. I mentioned it to my mother. She said “OK,” and we went out and got a little nylon string Goya guitar. I took lessons for a couple of years, but it was really tough! I just didnʼt have any musical background and didnʼt know a melody from a medley. I fooled around with that until I was a Sophomore in High School and I never really did anything. I mean, I could nger-pick some things, but I didnʼt have any sense of rhythm or anything. It was purely mechanical. One day I was riding my motorcycle home and I came around the corner and I looked over and there was this guy sitting on his porch and he had a guitar, and there were two banjo players. I thought, “Thatʼs kind of cool!” So I whipped in there and I listened to them and we got talking. They said, “Go get your guitar.” So I went and got that Goya, and he played on it. He was atpicking; he had a Martin, probably a D28. And I said, “Hey, thatʼs pretty good!” He said, “You gotta get steel strings.” That was the rst time Iʼd seen instrumental music actually being played by real people. So that had major impact on my life, and I never saw him again! He moved, like, the next day. He couldʼve been Tony Rice for all I know (chuckles). It wasnʼt long before I took his advice, sold the Goya, and bought a used ʻ73 Martin D-28 that was my only guitar for the next 18 years. You went to South Plains College—what was that like? It was great. Theyʼve got a two-year program in Bluegrass music and I went there immediately after graduating high school. We studied music theory, ensemble, voice, guitar, recording—you name it. I struggled

with a lot of stuff, since Iʼd really only been atpicking for two years or so and had so little musical sense, but at the same time, I also learned enough to keep my busy for the rest of my life. Itʼs amazing how many people say “How do you know that?” and the answer is “I learned it at South Plains College.” I also met a lot of friends there and still in keep in touch or even pick regularly with many of them.

How did the “Modzilla” thing get started? (laughs) Iʼd never felt comfortable with my D-28, but Iʼd always just blamed it on my lack of talent. “I canʼt make my ngers move. Iʼm naturally sloppy,” that sort of thing. Then, I temporarily traded it for a 1957 D-21 that a friend of mine had. And overnight, and I mean literally overnight, I improved! It was astonishing! I picked up that D-21 and just played it. It was like, my God, I canʼt do this on my guitar! The D-21 was just effortless. So, then, immediately, I knew it wasnʼt me, it was the guitar. After we switched back, two years later, I decided, Iʼm gonna get this D-28 playing right! Iʼd previously taken the D-28 to several shops, and theyʼd set it up according to their preconceived notions—they had no idea what kind of stuff I played. So, this time I went around to several people and talked to them. I said, “Hey, I listen to Tony Rice.” And theyʼd go “Who?” (Finally) I went to this one guy and I said, “I listen to Tony Rice,” and he said “Ah, Tony, yes, I love ʻManzanitaʼ.” He had actually set up Pat Flynnʼs guitar once, and so he knew the kind of stuff I played. We talked about the D-28 and he measured it and he told me, “Yeah 37



the fretboardʼs at.” So I let him have it. And this guy did it! He set it up real well. That was the rst time that guitar was ever playable for me. Then I started getting other guitars, like I got that 1935 reissue (a 1993 Martin ʻ1935 Specialʼ), and man, that thing hooked me on wide necks real fast! It had a 1-3/4inch neck—actually, just a little over 1-3/4, probably 13/16ths, with very wide bridge spacing. Playing that thing was like driving a Cadillac! And, again, that was a major breakthrough. All of a sudden I could play these things. Clean! Fast! I got more critical about the D-28, and I played other guitars that I thought played really well, and I wanted to know why they played well and why the D-28 didnʼt. Thatʼs when I started measuring things. I wanted to see if I could take the D-28, which still didnʼt play as well as I thought it could, and turn it into something that played really well, and then I wanted to be able to take any guitar and make it play well. Instead of running from repairman to repairman and spending a lot of money in the process, I wanted to be able to do it myself, so I started learning about setups and how guitars work. As a scientist, I knew these things could be measured and duplicated. There are some things, you canʼt duplicate, of course, but there are a lot that you can and thatʼs the approach I took.

Figuring out what you want to do to it is one thing, but actually learning how to do it is another. How did you learn to do things like neck resets. Flatpick-L has been a tremendous help. Iʼd come up with a theory in my head as to, “would this work?”. And then Iʼd ask somebody like Lynn Dudenbostel, or Frank Ford, or somebody whose guitars Iʼd played that worked really well, “What do you think about this?” Iʼd throw the theory out at them and see if I got the answer back I wanted, as sort of a self-test. At some point, though, youʼve got to just dive in and start doing it. At rst, I experimented with reversible things like saddles and nuts until I got a feel for working with the tools, and then progressed from there. I eventually ended up replacing the D-28ʼs entire neck with a vintage 1 3/4” one, since it needed a neck reset anyway, and then, of course, I had to replace the bridge to match the spacing of the wider neck, and nally I overlaid a small maple bridge plate over the original, which I shaved down a little, to cover all the holes and give a bit of maple 38

tone. The end result is that the D-28 plays great now, sounds great, and I learned a lot about guitars in the process.

Have you thought about opening a shop? Yeah! Actually, I think thatʼs probably in the future. I donʼt want to do it until Iʼm good enough to do it. Iʼve done some setup of Flatpick-L memberʼs guitars, but Iʼm not quite ready to do it on a larger scale yet. Itʼs certainly on the horizon, though. What prompted you to enter your rst contest, and when did that happen? The very rst one was at Adams County, in Colorado. They had a contest, and I thought, “Iʼm gonna enter the contest, just to see.” When I was getting ready for it, it was great because it really prompted me to sit down and work on something. It was a little bit more intense than just practicing. And I got out there and I got my butt kicked! Big Time! Then I didnʼt enter any contests for a long time. I eventually entered a contest in Stevenson, WA. A small contest. I got third, and I thought, “Thatʼs pretty cool!” So I just worked at it over the years, and kept going. Iʼve only won three, but Iʼve only failed to place in the big ones, like Wineld. What I like about contests is that they give me an impartial ruler to judge my playing progress. The judges donʼt know me, they canʼt see my ngers moving or be impressed by my guitar or anything like that. All theyʼve got to go on is my playing at that moment. Itʼs kind of like taking a test. As long as I make the top cut, I gure Iʼm doing okay, although I will say that I feel that contest playing is a little removed from real life. When Iʼm sitting around playing or jamming with friends, I play a lot fewer notes and a lot less ashy than Iʼll play in a contest. So contests are kind of like their own little world with their own little style, and itʼs just a challenge to see if I can play that style. Letʼs shift gears here a little bit. Youʼre a regular contributor to Flatpick Magazine. How did you get involved in writing? Thatʼs another thing that I just have worked at over the years. I used to never be a good writer. Finally, I took a class in creative writing where we were supposed to sit down and just blast off! That really opened the oodgates. I learned how to put

my thoughts down on paper and write with a natural voice, and then once I had that process down, I learned to control things a little more. Then, Iʼm a falconer, too. I y falcons and hawks. Thatʼs kind of an unusual thing, and itʼs a highly publishable sort of thing. I decided to submit an article on falconry to New Mexico Wildlife Magazine. And they took it, and they liked it. So, I started writing more and more wildlife articles for them, and that got me into the writing thing. But all the time I was wanting to branch into music writing. Flatpick-L came along—I was on that from day one—and I posted a lot of stuff there. Dan Miller was reading that, and he said, “You know, I like your writing. Do you want to write for us?” And I said, “Well, sure!”

OK, a lot of the stuff you write for the magazine is reviews of recordings. What qualications does a person have to have to write music reviews? (laughs) Iʼve been playing guitar and listening to bluegrass for about 20 years! Iʼve seen a lot of things come and go. I just felt like I had the background. Some of the best reviews Iʼve read are by the guys who are the historians. One thing you canʼt do is say if itʼs a good or bad album. I never try to do that. Because, who am I to say if someoneʼs musical creativity is “good” or “bad”? Another topic. Tell me about the ranch. We raise cattle. We run yearlings. They come in during the spring. We stock 2000 of them. The ranch is just under 30,000 acres. The cattle come in during the spring, and theyʼre on pasture all summer long, and then you sell them in the fall. So, your prot comes from comes from whatever weight theyʼve gained. Before this, I was a wildlife biologist. I always wanted to work at the Snake River Birds of Prey Area in Idaho. Thatʼs the ultimate. So when I got there, that was the peak of my career. My family has this ranch in New Mexico, but I always thought, “Well, I donʼt want to do that. I want to make my own living, be my own man.” But my heroes in the raptor eld—and I got to work with the best—were saying, “You got a ranch in New Mexico? What are you doing here?” So after I heard that for four or ve years, I thought, “Iʼm gonna go back to the ranch.”



Masters of Rhythm Guitar:

Russell Moore by Dan Miller

The International Bluegrass Music Association has awarded the “Male Vocalist of the Year” honors to Russell Moore twice (1994 and 1997). Additionally, Mooreʼs group, IIIrd Tyme Out, has won the “Vocal Group of the Year” award an astounding ve times in the last ve years. However, Moore is not just a great bluegrass singing talent. The next time you listen to IIIrd Tyme Out, and you are enjoying those award-winning vocals, bend your ear towards Mooreʼs guitar and youʼll notice that he knows how to make that thing do some mighty ne singing of its own. Moore honed his masterful rhythm chops to a ne edge during his years with Doyle Lawson and his tasteful lead work is also worthy of praise. In the following interview, Russell discusses his approach to playing rhythm guitar:

How did you become interested in playing music? I grew up in the southeast Texas area, in Pasadena. There was a show that my family started going to on the rst Saturday night of every month just outside of Cleveland, Texas, when I was about eight or nine years old. It was something we started doing just like going to church or something. This is what we did on the rst Saturday night of every month. As I became exposed to the music, I slowly started getting an interest in it and I wanted to play. The musicians and singers were hands-on people. They were not so detached that you couldnʼt be around them. Theyʼd be outside jamming and you could walk right up beside them. I thought that was really neat so I took up an interest in wanting to play bluegrass. What kind of acts would play at the show in Cleveland? There was one group that was always the host of the show. They were called the Bluegrass Ramblers of Texas. Actually, that was the rst band that I performed with. They would perform on the rst Saturday night show whether another band was coming through or not. This was a stop-over place for some bands if they were going out West.

I saw Larry Sparks several times, the Lewis Family, the Sullivan Family, and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver passed through there. So I was exposed to a lot of the East Coast bands as they came through.

You said that your first performing experience was with the host band, the Ramblers? My rst gig was playing upright bass with the Ramblers. I was about fourteen or fteen. The rst instrument I learned how to play was the guitar out of an old Mel Bay book. But at that point I didnʼt feel like I wanted to settle on any one instrument. The Ramblers needed a bass player, so I took up that. A while later they needed a mandolin player, so I took up playing the mandolin. All the while I slowly started to break into singing some vocals with the group. When you started, you were not singing? It wasnʼt anything I was comfortable doing in front of a crowd. You sure outgrew that! Yeah, well, it was a do or die kind of thing. I found out real quick how important it was to be able to sing and not just play. Even if you are just doing harmony parts it is a whole lot easier to nd people to pick and jam with if you can sing some, too. When did you start playing the guitar in a band? The guitar as my main instrument started when I went to work for Doyle Lawson in about 1985. I stayed with him from 1985 to 1991. How did you get the job with Doyle? I had a band called Southern Connection with Scott Vestal and his brother Curtis. We where based out of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We opened the show for Doyle when

he came just outside Cleveland to play at the Blue Barn. He heard us there and we also opened for him at Bill Stanleyʼs Barbecue in Asheville, North Carolina. It wasnʼt real long after that that Doyle called and offered us a job.

Where you playing guitar with Southern Connection? No, actually I was playing mandolin. Doyle put a stop to that real quick. What kind of inuence did Doyle Lawson have on your development as a rhythm guitar player? He was really the rst one who sat me down and showed me things that he knew and had learned from guys like Jimmy Martin. There is a certain rhythm lick that he likes to use and likes to hear and he is comfortable playing with. He showed me that and at the time I started to work for Doyle I had no strong rhythm lick. It was not anything he wanted to hear. He referred to what I was doing as “Boom-ching.” That is not what he wanted. He showed me a rhythm lick that was two downstrums and then a fan of four strokes, down-up down-up, and then repeat. It was like doom-doom de-de-de-de, doom-doom de-de-de-de. He showed me this lick and said, “I want you to eat, breathe, and live this right here.” He wanted it to be second nature. He wanted it imbedded because that 41



is what you work off. From there you can do anything. You have to start with your basics, and that was the basic rhythm lick he wanted to hear.

How did you build upon that basic rhythmic foundation? As I got accustomed to the basic lick, I started using other poly-rhythms to accent it. I like to use “swells.” Doyle calls them “hills and valleys.” The swells are used between lines. He wanted to hear that emphasis in there. All this stuff that I am telling you he taught me, you can hear in his playing. Doyle is a really strong rhythm guitar player. Those were the basic things that Doyle showed me. After that, there wasnʼt a whole lot of verbal teaching, it was more like hands on experience and listening to him. He was an inuence whether he was playing guitar or not. It was something I heard and, as I worked at it, it became second nature. But it is something that can always be improved. I still work at it. When you are playing those “swells” to ll in between lines, are they singlenote licks, or are you strumming full chords?

It is mostly strumming. There is maybe a single note picked out at the end of the strum. If you are in a D chord, you would pick out that D note at the end of the strum or urry. It is a pretty basic rhythm lick. Del McCoury uses it; Tony Rice uses it; it is just a basic thing that you use between the words.

Would you characterize your rhythm style as a predominantly strumming style as opposed to a walking bass note, boom-chick style? Right, a full rhythm. The way Doyle explained it to me was, “Son, you already have got the bass doing the bass notes and you have got the mandolin doing the off beat. You need something that lls all that in. The purpose of the rhythm guitar is to ll in between all that.” What other players have you been inuenced by? Well, Tony Rice is everybodyʼs inuence on the guitar. Del McCoury is a strong rhythm player. Here recently, Dan Tyminski does some really neat things on the rhythm guitar. Doc Watson has also been an inuence. There have been others, but I canʼt remember everybody.

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You mentioned earlier that you still work on your rhythm playing. Do you work at it when you are at home by yourself, or is it something that you need to work on with the rest of the band? Both. It is hard to sit at home and try to imagine what the rest of the guys in the band are going to play at any given time. You can start reading peopleʼs minds to a point when you have been together for a while. With this group here, we have been together with the same guys for five years and we feel very comfortable with each other. We know what to expect. That makes it easier to play off of (each other). When I am playing

with the band, I like to work on using chords that will complement whoever is playing, or compliment the song itself. If it is a bluesy song or a “mean- sounding” song, I will use a lot of seventh notes. I like to build an underlying palette that will complement everyone elseʼs choice of notes. If someone is playing something that is kind of melancholy, I will not be in there hitting great big 7th notes that will not t. I nd a lot of enjoyment in nding the right chords to go with the feel of the song. I am not noted as being a lead guitarist. My main thing is singing. I think everybody knows that. But I do try to use my knowledge of the guitar to help everybody else sound as good as they can. To me that is really important. Around the house, I will work on things like tone. That is something that you can hear when you are by yourself. When you get on stage, the guitar is one of the weakest instruments in the monitor mix, so it is kind of hard to work on tone when you are doing that. I also work on lead breaks at home.

What kind of guitars have you played? At rst I played a 1976 Bicentennial Model Martin that Doyle had. I played it for the rst eight or ten months. Then I bought a new 1985 Martin D-28. I played it for the remainder of my stint with Doyle and into the rst year of IIIrd Tyme Out. Then I got a hold of one of Geoff Stellingʼs guitars and I played it for two or three years. I then got the guitar that I play now, which is a 1938 Martin D-28. I also have a blonde guitar, maple back and sides, that Jim Triggs made. What kind of strings and pick do you use? I use DʼAddario J-17 strings and I like a medium- to heavy-gauge pick. Is there anything else you would like to add that you think is important for rhythm players? One thing that I think is really important is to not become too obsessed with yourself when you are playing. You have to listen to what is going on around you. If you think, “I am right and everyone else is wrong,” it is going to clash. Everything else that is going on in the band is going to affect your rhythm playing in some way. I try to listen to everybody in order to nd that little place I need to be in.





Guitar Making by Don Gallagher

Inlaying Pearl - Part II Photography by William Brooks

In our last issue we discussed the emergence of pearl inlay work on acoustic guitars after World War II. As mentioned in the previous article Mike Longworth was a driving force in the post-war resurgence of pearl bound instruments. Mike first began doing pearl inlay work in 1955. In 1956 Mike preformed his pearl magic on a Martin guitar owned by Bluegrass great Lester Flatt. It was this guitar; the Lester Flatt customized Martin guitar, which The Martin Guitar Company produced a limited edition of to pay tribute to Mr. Longworthʼs contributions to the eld of pearl inlay work. Perhaps the most famous customized guitar Mike did was the pearl work on Hank Snowʼs guitar. To my knowledge the Hank Snow instrument was the rst guitar to have a pearl inlay strip run around the perimeter of the ngerboard inset about 1/8” from the edge. Mike Longworth is still an inspirational force in this beautiful craft of pearl inlay. His current project is creating a limited edition of pearl inlayed ukuleles. He is always most gracious in offering tips and advise concerning pearl inlaying. The basic approach for doing a pearl bound instrument is the same as using herringbone or wood strips for purfling material. As with any other aspect of instrument making the preliminary steps are very important. During body assembly, the top and back are left over hanging the frame when they are glued on. A router with a ushing bit is used to trim the over hang of the top and back ush with the sides. The 44

top, back and sides are then sanded level. The uniformity of the sides is particularly important for the binding and purfling operations. The sides may be sanded with small vibrator sanders or a pneumatic drum sander to smooth and level. It is always good policy to nish-sand the sides with a hard block to insure as level a surface as possible. It is important the sides be level since the sides are used to reference from in cutting the grooves around the top and back for the binding and puring. A hand held router with a depth attachment that references off of the sides is used to cut the grooves around the body for the binding and puring. Any irregularities in the sides will cause irregularities in the grooves, which must then be touched up by hand. The groove for the puring is cut about 2/3 of the way through the top. The groove for the binding is stepped down past the joint of the top and side. The binding and puring serve a useful function in sealing the end grain of the top.

Puring and Binding Grooves

After the groves are cut around the top, the binding, a strip of Teon the size of the pearl which is to used, and strips of black-white-black wood placed on either side of the Teon are glued in place using masking tape. The width of the pearl on the top of a guitar is typically .063”.

Taping the Binding After the glue dries, the tape is removed and the Teon strip is pulled out leaving the proper size groove in which to place the pearl.

The Pearl Groove



A thin string is placed in the bottom of the groove to compensate for variations in the thickness of the pearl. As the pearl is laid down in the groove it is pressed ush with the surface of the top. Pearl will have small air pockets in it so it works best to do as little sanding on it as possible. The pearl is broken into short pieces and tted together to make curves.

Fitting the Pearl Mike Longworth makes some suggestions as William Brooks does pearl inlay work on a Gallagher guitar.

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Sally Goodin’ Texas/Sock Rhythm by Dix Bruce If you have the new CD Flatpicking Guitar ʻ98 youʼve heard Jim Nunally and I play our version of “Sally Goodin.” Jimʼs solos were featured in Flatpicking Guitar a few issues back and Dan Miller asked me to write a little bit about the “Texas Swing” or “Sock” rhythm I played behind Jimʼs lead work. (By the way, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, Flatpicking Guitar ʻ98 is jam-packed with great guitar playing. Itʼs a great opportunity to hear the things youʼve read about in the pages of the magazine. I recommend it 100% and no home should be without one!) I first learned about “Texas Swing Rhythm” in the mid-1970s while listening to recordings of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Iʼd noticed something different about Eldon Shamblinʼs rhythm guitar work. He seemed to be playing a walking bass line along with his chords. A bass note plus a rhythm chord isnʼt all that unusual. In fact, the foundation of old time and bluegrass rhythm guitar is to play the root bass note, strum the chord, play an alternate bass note, and strum the chord. That approach is familiar to all of you as basic Carter-style accompaniment. But Eldon was doing something more. He was playing ascending and descending bass lines along with chord voicings or substitutions which changed every two beats! It evolved with constant motion and never seemed to repeat. I couldnʼt quite get my ears and brain around the concept and so I was mystied. Soon thereafter I attended my rst ddle contest and heard a similar technique used by guitarists backing up ddlers on ddle tunes. They called it “Texas Swing” or “Sock” rhythm. It was basically the same technique that Eldon Shamblin used with the Playboys but much more dynamic and accented. There also were fewer chord substitutions—these were ddle tunes with relatively simpler chord progressions—but the motion the bass line and chord changes provided was there in spades! (As a matter of fact, I remember “Ace of Spades” as one of the rst tunes I heard played in the Texas style.) 46

Seeing this Texas swing rhythm style up close was entertaining and inspiring but it offered me few clues as to how to actually do it. I, of course, made a pest of myself and began following my favorite players around with a tape recorder. In retrospect, I was quite presumptuous and probably rude as I rarely asked permission before whipping out the microphone. Luckily for me, all the guitarists were considerably older than I and genuinely attered that a young punk like myself was interested in their music. None complained, at least to me. These days I try to be a bit more reverential with the masters and always scope out the scene before I ask permission to record. Often the sight of a tape recorder makes people nervous and ends all the fun. A couple of guitarists were especially helpful and offered me tremendous insights into the style. The rst was Howard Jackson, who taught me versions of “Faded Love,” “San Antonio Rose,” and “Please Release Me.” He patiently showed me each chord and the appropriate bass note as I slowly wrote out the songs in my music notebook. Chord function was completely beyond me at that time, but I was able to learn the tunes by rote and had a ball with them. I later met Vern Baughman, who played in Tiny Mooreʼs band. Vern plays the same basic style and uses it to back up country songs, swing and jazz standards, and ddle tunes. He can be heard on Tiny Mooreʼs Kaleidoscope LP Tiny Moore Music (F12). Vern also recorded a backup cassette for fiddlers that features this technique. (Vern Baughmanʼs back-up cassette can be ordered for $15, postage paid. Write: Vern Baughman, 102 Meadowlark Court, Auburn, CA 95603.) My primary sources for this type of backup playing were performances and recordings that featured ddlers who identied themselves as playing “Texas Style.” They invariably were backed up by a guitarist playing Texas swing rhythm. Several LPs by Benny Thomasson are just great and my favorite for guitar rhythm is A Jam Session with Benny & Jerry Thomasson (Voyager 309). Eventually I worked up Texas swing

rhythm for a few ddle tunes, country, and jazz standards. One of my favorites has always “Sally Goodin.” With its simple IV chord progression, itʼs open for lots of experimentation and somewhat forgiving of those experiments that donʼt quite pan out. During a rehearsal, Jim Nunally and I happened onto “Sally Goodin.” Initially we played it in a fairly typical atpicking style where we traded leads. It occurred to me that it might be fun to try playing it with a Texas style backup. So we slowed it down a bit, let Jim have all the leads and started working it out. Eventually we recorded it for our as yet unreleased CD, tentatively titled The Way Things Are. But, as I mentioned previously, you can hear it now on Flatpicking Guitar ʻ98. Below Iʼve written out what I play on the recording along with a couple of variations. Work toward a smooth walking-bass line punctuated by swingy rhythm comps (explained later in the article). The bass line ascends and descends and the chords change generally every two beats. There are, however, a few measures (8, 9, 25) where you will play three bass notes in succession. Youʼll notice that the two variations introduce only a few new chords and basically recombine chords from the rst example in new patterns with different bass notes. As I work out variations, I try to think of a bass line rst and then t chords around it. Chord positions are worked out so thereʼs a minimum of fretting hand jumps. The ending to our arrangement is somewhat unusual with its ascending diminished chords, but Jim and I think it ts with the spirit of the rest of the recording. The chords are listed below. One of the unique characteristics of diminished chord forms is that one form can be named by any of its notes. Thus a F#° form is also an A°, a C°, and an Ebx. On the guitar, these chords repeat every three frets. For the ending, youʼre really playing different inversions and voicings of the same diminished seven chord as you ascend the neck.



Texas swing rhythm is a challenging technique to master, rst of all because you have to learn quite a few chords and bass note positions up and down the neck. At the same time you have to strum the chords with a swinging comp that grooves. You do this by holding the chord with your fretting hand as you strum it and then immediately loosening your grip to mute the sound and accent it. It involves a good bit of coordination. Still, Iʼm sure you can do it. Take it slow and learn the chords rst. Gradually work it up to speed and by all means listen to the CD. This stuff is tough to get off the paper and onto your strings if you donʼt rst get it into your ears and head. I had the pleasure of interviewing Eldon Shamblin in 1978. I was curious about the roots of his guitar style and asked him how heʼd developed it. He answered with a loud and hearty laugh and I remember him saying, “Well, it was because Bob (Wills) would usually hire a singer to play bass. Trouble was, the singer usually didnʼt play the bass, he just held it. Bob was able to save a little money that way, but the bass line was sometimes pretty weak. So I started playing a bass line along with my rhythm chords.” Necessity is once again the mother of invention!

Dix Bruc e has a new CD available: Tuxedo Blues: String Swing & Jazz. The CD features Dix Br uc e on guit ar and vocals with the late mandolinist/guitarist Bob Ale kno , vio linist Dav id Balakr ishnan, and bassist/guitarist Mike Wollenberg. The music is high energy vocal and instrumental String Swing and Jazz that covers territory from Django Reinhardt to Wes Montgomery to Count Basie to B.B. King, from swing and jazz to Latin grooves to ballads. (See the review on page 64.) Seven of the selections are Dix Bruce originals. Available for $14.00 postage paid from Musi x, PO Box 231005, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.

Flatpicking ‘97 CD and Transcriptions in One Package! This new Mel Bay Publications project provides the Flatpicking ‘97 CD packaged in a book which contains the solo transcriptions for each tune. Also included is a biographical sketch of each artist.

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Sally Goodin’: Texas/Sock Rhythm A

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Arranged by Dix Bruce

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Sally Goodin’: Texas/Sock Rhythm (con’t) A

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Mastering the Fingerboard  



 

 

 

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A brief survey of the use of the Blues scale in Flatpicking and Bluegrass Music In the last issue (Flatpick ( Flatpick Guitar Magazine,, Nov/Dec 1998) we discussed Magazine the circle of fths and the dominant 7 scale; with this issue I want to introduce you to the blues scale. The blues scale, and bluesy sounds, are fundamental parts of bluegrass music. Bill Monroe grew up around and with blues players and singers, and their sound inuenced the music that he created. The G run (sometimes called the Flatt run), which is probably the most well known guitar lick, has elements of the blues scale. Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Dan Crary all use bluesy sounding licks in their music. Itʼs an accepted, and in fact expected, part of bluegrass music. For this issue issue I want to take a short survey of the use of blues and blues licks in atpicking guitar. guitar. While this brief survey wonʼt be comprehensive (as the number of possible licks that could be considered blues licks is staggeringly large), we will introduce the blues scale and show an example of its use in bluegrass music. As always, the goal of this study is to increase your knowledge of the ngerboard and to enable you to make your own music in your own way. We want to be able to hear a lick from someone else, in any genre or on any instrument, and be able to play it on the guitar.

Tony Rice Lick from “Your “Y our Love Lo ve is Like A Flower,” The Bluegrass Album, Volume II

Letʼs start by examining examining one of the greatest licks ever applied to the guitar. guitar. This one was recorded by Tony Rice on the Bluegr the Bluegrass ass Album, Volume II , on the old Lester Flatt tune, “Your Love is Like a Flower.” 50

  

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 

 

 

 

 

 



Example 1: Excerpt from “Your “Your Love is Like A Flower”

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C

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333

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63

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The Blues Scale The blues scale is very close to the pentatonic scale; pentatonic means 5 notes, so when playing a solo, or improvising with a pentatonic scale you use 5 notes. The two most important scales using the pentatonic form (just like in every other form), are called Major (which means most important), and Minor (which is second most important). important). In the key key of C, the notes that you would use in the pentatonic scale are: C Major Pentatonic: C Minor Pentatonic: and the scale degree:

C D E G A C C Eb F G Bb C I II III V VI I I biii IV V bvii I

The blues scale is very closely related to the minor pentatonic pentatonic scale. The blues scale has six notes, and the minor pentatonic has ve of the six. C Minor Pentatonic: C Eb F G Bb C C Blues Scale: C Eb F F# G Bb C and the scale degree: I bIII IV V bVII I I bIII IV #IV V bVII I Notice that the difference between the pentatonic scale and the blues scale is the sharp IV, in the key of C thatʼs the F#.

3

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34

0

4

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3

11 0 2 3 3

Letʼs use the scale degree to transpose from C to G, because the lick (above) that weʼre studying is in G. G Minor Pentatonic: G Bb C D F G G Blues Scale: G Bb C C# D F G and the scale degree: I bIII IV V bVII I I bIII IV #IV V bVII I The lick in Example 1 ts really well into the basic blues scale (shown as Example 2 on the next page). You play it in third position, so that means your index nger is on the third fret. fret. The notes that are played on the 6th fret are played with the little nger. Instead of starting the scale in Example 2 on the lowest note, Iʼm going to start on the high notes to emphasize the relationship between the scale shown on the next page and the lick shown above. Here are a few things to pay attention to while practicing this scale: • I repeated the the root on top and bottom to make the scale work better while you practice with a metronome. • Notice that every time time you play the root, root, in this case G, the scale pattern makes you want to hold that note a bit. Play through



G Blues Scale— Basic

# œ œ œ œ œ # n œ n œ 4 œ œ œ # œ . # œ & 4 . # œn œ# œ œn œ œ# œn œ# œ œ n œ œ œ # œ # œ œœœœ œ . . G

1

3

it a few times, times, and see what I mean. The scale resolves to the root in a very strong manner. • Notice that if you start at the bottom bottom (on the third fret, sixth string) you get a more traditional blues scale. • Notice that this scale is not only easy to play, itʼs itʼs completely moveable. That means that to “mess around” in Bb, you move the scale up to 6th fret; down one fret to the key of A, and so on.

6 3

6 5 3

5 3

5 4 3

6 3 3 3 3

3 6

3 4 5

3 5

3

Exercise in G based upon Blues Scale:

œœn œ œ# œn œ# œ # 4 & 4œ œn œ œn œ œ# œn œ# œ œ œ 1

3 3 6 3 6 5 3 0

5 3

5 3

5 4 3

5 6

3 6

3 6 3 3

œœ œœ œœ 3 3 0 0

6 3 6

3 3

Well, thatʼs enough for today. today. Keep working on this stuff, and donʼt neglect the metronome. Use the blues scale and mess mess around with it—try different combinations, and try to use them in some new songs youʼre working on. Try using the pentatonic form, form, and see what a solo might sound like using it. It wonʼt always t, but sometimes it will be just the right splash. splash. Hereʼ Hereʼss a nal lick to add to your bag of tricks. tricks. Have fun and keep on pickinʼ!

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PICKIN’ FIDDLE TUNES by Adam Granger

The Presidential Medley itʼs commonly referred to in my neck of the woods)—particularly in the Hornpipe section. His tunes tend to be arpeggiatic (brand new word—donʼt look it up), and these two gems are no exception. Iʼve emphasized their similarities, but I want to stress equally that these tunes have distinct themes and personalities. To the untrained ear, this medley may sound like a bunch of notes in Bb, but to us tunesmiths they are two well-groomed, well-bred and well-behaved little brothers, each with his unique personality. Do your parental duty: learn The Presidential Medley, and do it today, before these two kids are out of the house and you never hear from them again!

Hello, plectrologists everywhere! After a couple of original tunes and a look at rst position scales, weʼre back to ddle tunes. The medley I herewith present will be on my new atpick album, Solo Plectrum.

These two tunes are siblings—theyʼre both written by the same fellow, Harry Carleton; theyʼre both in Bb (donʼt worry, weʼre capoing); and they both start the same way. I assume Mr. Carleton deliberately made these two tunes so similar. I got them both from One Thousand Fiddle Tunes, published by M M Cole (out of print, but recenty re-published by Mel Bay—see “ABOUT COLEʼS” on the next page). Carleton is well-represented in Coleʼs (as

PRESIDENT GARFIELD’S HORNPIPE

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: p - , e . , e t d , e u a e d r n ” h a n e m p l t h a r e u y - e k e h u h u t o c t l s n w m t r c t n n s a t n S s w h a y o r t e e n g o c s w p e s R n d a n I g s s t t o m o i e w . n n e a n t y t d a E a p f d o e i i k f i l m o n p p n o k t a “ o r u r o n u R N - t e n u t e a o - d u r r t n t s l o t e o n n h e s i n n t O N a w o , n b p l y t t g w a I a i o t u a s w a r F n h o s a d s p o h r d u e t d l n i t G -  - . g n u a h h e d  p a h p p t o t t e g o E i u e h s g n n k n , n i u h - u s i i B w a s s i r n n T s l n s o c s t y k w . r t e i a a t w e w c o c e s e s h i l o e o t u h e P d e s t r T p b h t e r h t d d

KEY: Bb (capo 3)

I 0 0 •0 •0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

II 2 0 •0 •0 0 0

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 2 0 0

0 0 0 0 3 0

0 0 0 2 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

C 3 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

D

G

G

D

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

000000000000000 00000000000000000000000200000000000 00013000300032303100000000000000000130003100000000 0300020202020000000200000000000203000000000200200• • 00000040004000000000000000000400000000000000000400 • 0000000000000000000000 2000200000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0

G

D 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0 0

G 0 0 0 4 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 4 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

C 0 0 0 0 0 0

G

000023000000000000000000200000000000 030000010000003000000023003100000000 00000000000000000000000000000200200• • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0• 000000000030000000200000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000

“President Gareldʼs” starts with a urry of arps (thatʼs cool musiciansʼ lingo for arpeggios). The second measure sort of ladders up the G scale, hitching back in half steps on its way up. The third measure is an inverted D arp. “Inverted,” for our purposes here, means that the order of notes in the D chord we normally play on the guitar is switched around. That fourth fret note on the D string is an F#, and you would normally nd it (an octave higher) on the second fret of the high E string. If you use your index nger for the rst-fret B-string note which precedes this measure, and then your second nger for the third-fret note which follows, youʼll be set up in the second position, where you can play this inverted D chord with your rst three ngers (not, mind you, that one shouldnʼt be able to play this chord with the last three ngers if the context called for it . . .) The fth and sixth measures restate the theme, and we close the part with a mostly scalar tag. 54

D

0 0 0 4 0 0

The real fun starts in the second part. We start with two fullblown ve-note arps and then proceed to one of the hardest gures youʼll ever nd in a ddle tune. Now donʼt turn tail and run; think of this as a challenge! Ready? Okay, here we go: The rst note of the third measure is picked down, of course. We then skip a string, while making a four fret reach with our left hand, and pick the fourth fret D string with an upstroke. Then we skip back not one, but two strings and catch the high E string with a downstroke and the B string with an upstroke. Now we repeat those four notes, and charge on into the fourth measure, which is the same type of musical gure, but in G instead of D. This one is easier to play because of the relative ngerings of the the D and G scales. We now have only to repeat the theme and end the part with a tag almost identical to that of the rst part and weʼre done (except for the repeat of the whole part, that is). Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


Since I was so gabby about “Gareldʼs,” I pledge to be more taciturn about “Grantʼs.” This shouldnʼt be too hard even for me to accomplish, since “Grantʼs” is more straight-ahead. As you explore the rst part, apply Grangerʼs Fifth Law of Music to it (consult your back issues: Vol 2, No 6). Youʼll nd it to be comprised entirely of arps and scales. Quod Erat Demonstrandum. The second part moves along pleasantly through the rst four bars (the theme and sub-tag). Then comes the big payoff: A phrase thatʼs easier to play than it sounds (instead of the other way around, which is usually the case) and a phrase that is really neat. I mean, really neat at that. People will stop what theyʼre doing and stand staring slack-jawed. While it does require skipping a string and then coming in on an upstroke, this process happens in a downward context instead of upward, as in “Gareldʼs.” This, youʼll nd, makes all the difference.

ABOUT COLEʼS . . . Although the collection Iʼve mentioned in this column is referred to informally as “Coleʼs,” it was originally published over a hundred years ago as Ryanʼs Mammoth Collection. M. M. Cole republished it in 1940, but its edition went out of print ten years ago. Sixties folkie Patrick Sky crawled all over this collection and did his masterʼs thesis on it. Bill Bay (Melʼs son), bless his heart, has done us all a huge favor by re-re-publishing this collection as Mel Bay Presentʼs Ryanʼs Mammoth Collection by Patrick Sky. (The Mel Bay book number is 95359.) Just as Coleʼs was, this is a fascimile of the original Ryanʼs edition, great handengraved notation and all. Thanks to Sky, however, there is a fabulous set of notes, including biographies of the principal gures involved in the collection, a history of the collection itself, and a short history of music publishing in the 19th century.

This collection is a mix of old standards and pop tunes of its day. Youʼll nd many current bluegrass and old-time standards. Fringe benets include author credits and abbreviated dance instructions for a lot of the hornpipes and reels. But ya gotta be able to read music. . . For themʼs that canʼt, my book includes about a hundred of the tunes found in Coleʼs.

PRESIDENT GRANT’S HORNPIPE I 0 0 •0 •0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

II 3 0 0 • • 0 0 0

2 0 0 0 0 0

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

Em 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

2 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

G

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

C

0 1 0 0 0 0

3 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

G

D

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 • 0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 0

0 • 0 0 0 0

320230000000000000 000000300000000000 000000000020200000 00000000000000 2000 0000000000000000 20 000000000000000000

Am

0 0 0 0 0 0

D

0 0 0 0 0 0

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

Am

0 3 0 0 0 0

C

0 0 0 0 0 0

G

0 0 0 0 0 0

KEY: Bb (capo 3) C

G

D

G

C

G

D

G

00000000000000000000000300000000000 00100000000013030000010003000000000 020020000020000000•20000000002•0•0• • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0• 00000002000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000

MORE ABOUT CAPOING: I have several times in the past encouraged you to try playing formerly-capoed tunes open. This encouragement has run especially to D tunes. Enough is, however, enough. There comes a point at which capoing is recommended. Iʼve mentioned that most A tunes work better capoed two frets and played out of G, for reasons having to do with open strings and scales. Well, thatʼs true in triplicate for the key of Bb. HEADS UP! Here comes this columnʼs winner of the “High Falutinʼ Sentence Award”: While attempts to play either of these tunes (or any other Bb tune I know, for that matter) uncapoed may be excellent ngering drills, they are, in terms of functional do-able atpicking, totally untenable—depressing and futile exercises in counterproductivity.

0 0 0 0 0 3

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 4 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 4 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0000 0000 0300 0000 0000 0000

000 323 000 000 000 000

02300000000000 00003000000000 000000002•0•0• • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0• 00000000000000 00000000000000

There are two reasons one should consider capoing. The rst—and hands-down the most important—is whether or not it will make the music sound better; the second is whether or not itʼs appreciably easier. If it really sounds better uncapoed, then one should go to the trouble of learning the new ngering to make it possible. (This means that youʼve gotta know the rst-position D and A scales–see last issueʼs column.) The paucity of open string notes in these tunes coupled with their difculty and the expectation that theyʼll be played at a fairly good clip make them prime candidates for capoing. For those who want the closed-position practice, an uncapoed version of “President Gareldʼs Hornpipe” can be found in The Guitar Playerʼs Fake Book. The two versions Iʼm laying on you here are as they appear in Grangerʼs Fiddle Tunes for Guitar, and are almost exactly the way they are found in Coleʼs.

Well, thereʼs The Presidential Medley, folks. The satisfaction of learning a tune as difcult as “Gareldʼs” is right up there with learning to oss properly, and “Grantʼs” is a fun tune that is a real attention-getter and is easier to play than it sounds. Learn these tunes and play them each ten times a day and youʼll live a long, active, happy, healthy, prosperous life. Adam Granger has been playing guitar since Ike was president. He worked on A Prairie Home Companion for three years, as leader of the house band, The Powdermilk Biscuit Band. He has judged the National Flatpick Guitar Contest in Wineld, Kansas, and serves on the faculties of The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Camp Bluegrass in Levelland, Texas and The Stringalong Workshop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His book, Grangerʼs Fiddle Tunes for Guitar, is the largest collection of ddle tunes in guitar tablature, and, along with the accompanying set of recordings of the 508 tunes, it comprises the largest source of ddle tunes for atpickers in the world. Adamʼs most recent appearance on A Prairie Home Companion was October 3, 1998. He played “Golden Slippers” for ninety seconds at the end of the show. Adam still has his tonsils, his appendix, his spleen, his gall bladder and one wisdom tooth. He loves cold weather and hates heat. His father has written books on Benjamin Franklin and Washington Irving and a history of satire in the American Revolution. 55 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


56



Exploring Bluegrass Guitar Improvisation V by Steve Pottier “Itʼs like deja vu all over again.” Yogi Berra One concept of improvisation is to play whatever pops into your head in the moment. Shoot, anyone can improvise, just put your ngers anywhere on the fretboard and wale away. Could be lots of fun for you. Could be painful to anyone listening in. What is it that allows a listener to be part of your game, to follow your line and understand with heart and mind what youʼre playing? There may not be a complete answer to that question, because in music, as in all art, part of the meaning comes from the artist, and part from the observer and the background of experiences he brings with him. Still, there are some ways we all make sense of what is going on. Letʼs start with the language analogy. Our written language begins with symbols organized into an alphabet, in turn organized into words, which can then be arranged into sentences, paragraphs, articles, chapters, books, and libraries (whew!). To understand (at any level of organization), you must have repeated associations with your own experience. Try the word “letʼs.” Before you could read, you heard the word and associated it with things done together: “Letʼs eat,” “Letʼs go to the beach,” “Letʼs sing a song.” When you learned to read, a similar association of sound and written patterns took place, again with repeated association. When you learn a new language (including music!), you have to have repeated a ssociations. We look at repetitions to tell us that something is important. It seems to say, “It happened once, but anything can happen once. Now it happened again—hmmmm, must be trying to tell me something.” In other words repetition catches your ear and lends meaning to the line! Think about it. Fiddle tunes are commonly in the form AABB: rst part, repeat rst part, second part, repeat second

part. Song forms are usually verse, chorus, verse, repeat chorus, etc. Check out this song with repeating lines: It takes a worried man to sing a worried song It takes a worried man to sing a worried song It takes a worried man to sing a worried song Iʼm worried now, but I wonʼt be worried long. On the next page, I provide a good AABB ddle tune, “Devilʼs Dream.” As you work through this, you should notice that it repeats a lot. Play part A, repeat, play part B, repeat. Also, lines 1 and 2 are repeated as lines 5 and 6, and in part B, lines 9 and 10 are repeated in lines 13 and 14. Even more, the rst 4 notes form a motif that gets played 3 times before the pattern changes. Iʼm sure you can see a few more things that get repeated in this tune. The point is, the repetition gives this tune stucture, making it easier to hear whatʼs going on. Listen for the repeating motifs in ddle tunes, like the rst part of “Black Mt. Rag.” Back to improvisation. If you can create structure in your leads, it goes a long way toward making it more listenable and understandable to your listener. One way to do that is to use a sequence— repeat an idea in one chord as a similar idea in the next chord. Turn the page and try a variation of “Devilʼs Dream.” In part A, I used the idea (from the last column) of copying the rhythmic structure of the melody (in this case the 8th note grouping of 4 notes) combined with the idea of outlining the chord. By outlining, I mean this: visualize an F chord at the fth fret (making an A chord). Each group of 4 notes starts on one of the notes of this A chord, effectively tracing an outline of the chord. Then I repeat the idea in the next chord, outlining an Em chord barred at the fth fret (I donʼt hold a barre chord, I just visualize it.

I actually only use my rst 2 ngers here). This is a sequence. It has a structure, so it sounds like itʼs making a statement. It is! The next A chord is the same outlining idea, this time outlining a D shape, then starting back up outlining the Bm chord again, but following the chord progression, I have to put in the E chord, which looks like an A chord barred at the 7th fret. In part B, I use a DUDU crosspicking pattern, repeating it through several chord changes (another sequence). So these are two ideas that you can use to help you compose/improvise more coherent solos1) use a sequence and 2) outline the chords. Outlining the chords as Iʼve shown it here is like a sequence, where you perform a similar operation on each chord tone. Outlining chords can help you learn how to play up the neck by helping you to visualize the chords. Try using sequences and outlining chords on the second part of “Salt Creek.” Also, as you listen to ddle tunes, listen for the ideas that repeat. Youʼll gain insight into the structure of the tune and ways to mimic the structure with your own improvisations. Next time: 50 ways to use sequencing/outlining on the second part of “Salt Creek” (just kidding, folks).



John McGann's Eclectic Acoustic Right Hand Command The right hand (or for you lefties, the pickinʼ hand) is the voice of the guitar, the hand that makes the guitar speak . We pay a lot of attention to cool and interesting left hand note choices, but without a great tone, derived 99% from the picking hand, those notes wonʼt add up to much. Itʼs hard to discuss “correct” righthand technique, because there really isnʼt any one technique. Tony Riceʼs approach of oating the picking hand, making no contact with the bridge or top, is different from most other players. Adapting Tonyʼs every nuance of right hand technique will still not give you his musicianship or ideas, and the technique just may not work for you at all—your hands will never be his. Finding your own voice on the instrument requires a lot of thought, experimentation and common sense. Regardless of your choice of pick—also a big component of your tone—how you hold your right hand has a huge effect on your sound. I have experimented with various pick angles and hand positions. Slanting the pick (tipping the thumb toward the oor slightly) allows me to draw sound from the string, rather than slapping it by hitting it dead-on. This also cuts out some of the pick noise and gives an all-around warmer sound. Allowing the “other” three fingers that arenʼt holding the pick to hang semicurved in a naturally relaxed fashion will allow maximum freedom of movement. By keeping the tendons in your forearm relaxed, youʼll gain control, speed and

exibility of tone. I touch the karate-chop edge of my hand on the bridge pins, but most importantly I do not anchor—I allow my hand to move laterally, dropping from the elbow, to deliver the pick to each string. Imagine a zero-tracking tonearm on turntables from the ʻ70ʼs, the idea being to deliver the needle to the groove without friction, regardless of location on the LP. I nd that anchoring makes me twist the hand awkwardly to deliver the pick and doesnʼt allow for ease of playing. If it feels relaxed and sounds good, it is good. When I practiced this right hand development, I played in front of a mirror to help keep track of the variables. Here are a few routines to help you nd your own great tone in a relaxed fashion:

Exercise 1: Pick any chord shape that uses all 6 strings. Starting with the low E string (string 6), play a downstroke. Picture a small “window” starting where you begin the downstroke with the pick; stay close to the string for economy of motion. You can follow through to rest on the 5th string (a rest stroke) or stop the pick before it hits the 5th string (free stroke), but donʼt let the pick leave that imaginary window. Now, repeat a few times, varying the angle of the pick. Notice how the tone changes with your pick angle. To move on the the 5th string, allow your hand to drop so the position of the hand to the fth string is the same as it was for the

6th string. I call this the ʻoptimum angle of attackʼ. By delivering the pick to each string with the same angle/position, you can get the most exibility of sound.

Exercise 2: Do the same as above, starting soft, increasing volume until itʼs so loud the string starts to “break up.” Back down to nd the loudest attack without breaking up, then back down to very soft. Try to remain relaxed when “digging in” for more volume; you donʼt want tension in your arm. Exercise 3: Again, do the same as above, varying the pick placement vertically along the length of the string. Listen how the tone changes from very trebly and cutting toward the bridge to warm and fat toward the neck. You can be expressive within a tune and vary your tone depending on the phrasing. Generally, Iʼve found it helpful to balance the wound strings by playing them with a brighter tone and the top two strings with a warmer tone. Try applying these concepts to your own repertoire of tunes, and listen critically for tone, timing and ease of execution. A tape machine and metronome can make a helpful and truthful mirror.

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New Release Highlight

Travis Alltop Two Different Worlds Reviewed by Dan Miller

Although Travis Alltopʼs father had bluegrass records around the house when he was growing up, his musical taste had always leaned in the direction of country rock. He loved three-guitar rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and loved playing his electric guitar. Then something happened that inspired him to give all of that up for bluegrass. That single event was so inspiring that he sold his electric guitar to buy a Santa Cruz guitar and he has never looked back. The event that redirected his musical path is one that many of us can relate to—he heard Tony Rice play the guitar. Travis said, “I was into the rock and roll thing all the way up through high school. The summer after I graduated, I went to Frontier Ranch in Columbus, Ohio. They had J.D. Crowe and the New South with Richard Bennett playing guitar and the Bluegrass Album Band was there. I heard that and it just ipped me out. I never knew you could play lead on acoustic guitar like that.” Listening to Travisʼ new solo release, Two Different Worlds, you can hear a little of the Rice inuence in a few of his solos. However, unlike many young players who have been inuenced by Rice, it is also evident that the guitar solos are not the only part of Riceʼs brilliant playing that Travis digested. Solid rhythm work, strong vocals, tasteful song selection, and a cohesive band sound are as important to him as any of his guitar solos. This is very refreshing to see from a twenty-three-year-old. A conversation Travis had with Doyle Lawson is what turned his musical focus away from guitar leads and towards an appreciation for an overall band sound and the guitarʼs role in creating that sound. He recalls, “I had the opportunity to do a little jamming with Doyle Lawson. After we played, I asked Doyle what he felt I was doing incorrectly and he said, ʻYou are a Tony Rice fan, arenʼt you?ʼ I said ʻYes!ʼ and he said, ʻHave you ever listened to his rhythm?ʼ I said, ʻWell. . . . .ʼ He said, ʻExactly! Like a lot of young guys, you are worried about the ashy stuff and you are not thinking about a band sound. Go back and listen to those Bluegrass Album Band albums. The reason Tony is so much fun to play with is because he does all of those

other things well, but he doesnʼt forget the fundamentals.ʼ He also told me I needed to learn to listen to what is going on. He said I should go back and listen to the likes of Jimmy Martin and Charlie Waller. I went and did that—I got Dadʼs old records out and panned the speaker to the left to hear Martinʼs rhythm. It really helped open my eyes to things that I could improve on. Jimmy Martin and Russell Moore are two of my favorite rhythm players.” Travis admits that when he rst began learning to play bluegrass he spent hours devouring Riceʼs material. He says, “The rst year or so, everything I played I tried to do just like Tony. I later found out that there was a little bit of an animosity towards that. People say, ʻThere is only one Tony Rice.ʼ I think the guy that helped me the most with my playing when it came to heading in a different direction was Kenny Smith. I met him at a mutual friendʼs home one

day and we picked all afternoon. He was the rst guitar player that was totally different from Tony Rice that I had heard. He didnʼt specically tell me, ʻDo it this way.ʼ But just being around him and hearing him play, I got a different way of approaching a guitar break.” Although Travis has entered a few guitar contests, he says, “The favorite thing for me is playing in a band context. The dynamics of playing in a band is what gets me excited. There is so much that happens. Good rhythm is something I found you can never learn enough about. I remember one time I went to listen to the Tony Rice Unit and Tony had to walk away to the back of the stage for something and his guitar was out of the mike. The rest of the band still sounded great when he stepped out, but when he came back and turned into the mike, it was just like an explosion. It totally changed the sound. I realized right there that good guitar rhythm is where it is at. Whether you ever play a note of lead guitar in your life, if you are going to play bluegrass, to play that full rhythm and try to make the band sound good is what it is all about.” Luckily, Travis listened to the sage advice he got from Doyle Lawson and it has put him on the road to becoming a very well rounded bluegrass guitar player. Travis says, “That experience with Doyle was humbling, but I am so thankful for it. Every time I see him, I tell him, ʻIʼm still working on it!ʼ I have enjoyed the jam sessions and the playing a whole lot more after that. I really sat down and thought, ʻThis guy has been doing this



for forty years. I have been playing for a year. Who is going to know more?ʼ ” Two Different Worlds

Travisʼ rst solo release evolved out of his desire to record a bluegrass project which included some of his favorite tunes. He says, “I wanted to do a straight-ahead bluegrass project. A lot of these songs have been done a million times and I knew right at the start that we were going to have to try to freshen them up. But I wanted to do them because I really love those songs. “Fickle Wind” and “Humble Man” would be the most obscure tunes. The others are all standards, but they have always moved me inside and I hope that somebody else will feel that way when they hear me play them.” Through his friendship with Kenny Smith, Travis was able to bring an all-star band into the studio with him. Kenny lends both his superb guitar work and singing voice to the project, his wife Amanda also sings tenor on one tune. Ronnie Simpkins plays bass, Elmer Burchett picks the vestring, Dave Miller plays mandolin, Fred Travers plays dobro, and Dede Wayland sings some harmony vocals. These veterans also helped Travis with the arrangements of the songs and he says he was very open minded to all their suggestions. Travis said, “I learned a lot and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to play music with the likes of those people.” With the “likes of those people” picking great bluegrass standards such as “Big Mon,” “Two Different Worlds,” “Our Last Goodbye,” “When You Are Lonely,” Letʼs Part The Best Of Friends,” “Have You Someone Waiting,” and “Freeborn Man,” you know that this CD is going to be something worth checking out. When it arrived at our ofce several weeks ago and I put it in the CD player, I found it very enjoyable and kept coming back to listen to it again and again. When Travis and the group sing and play these bluegrass standards, you can feel a youthful energy, passion, and enthusiasm. On “Big Mon,” one of two instrumentals on the CD, Travis swaps licks with Kenny Smith (an enjoyable listening experience for any atpicker) and the band throws in a nice “stop time” twist to the traditional Monroe tune. The other instrumental, 62

Herschel Sizemoreʼs “Rebecca,” features Travis playing a nice lead guitar break in which you can hear that Kenny Smith inuence. The remainder of the recording features vocal tunes with Travis singing the leads. In these tunes Travisʼ concern for a full and cohesive band sound is evident. He does not try to step out and shine with hot guitar licks. He does take guitar breaks, but he does not try to spotlight his guitar playing. His effort to bring all the elements of a good bluegrass band together gives this project a nice feel and makes it a very enjoyable listening experience. Song List: Big Mon Fickle Wind Two Different Worlds Humble Man Our Last Goodbye When You Are Lonely Rebecca Letʼs Part The Best Of Friends Have You Someone Freeborn Man To order send $15.00 (postage paid) to: Travis Alltop PO Box 135 Grafton, OH 44044



Reviews CD/Audio Tape Reviews Orrin Star and the Sultans of String Sultans Live!

Road Feelinʼ Bad,” where he demonstrates his ability to play a very bluesy solo while always retaining the feel of the melody. In “Take Me Back to Tulsa” he nds ways to inject his humor into his playing. How? Itʼs hard to describe. You will have to pick up the CD to nd out. I recommend this disc to anyone who is curious about Orrinʼs playing or who is looking for examples of great live performances. There is also some outstanding mandolin playing here but thatʼs for another magazine.

Dix Bruce Tuxedo Blues Musix CD102

Richard Bennett A Long Lonesome Time Rebel

Reviewed by Van Hunter When first listening to this CD, I found myself in a rather humorous mood to begin with and ended up rolling on the oor laughing. I knew Orrin was a great flatpicker but I didnʼt know he was an outstanding stand-up comedian. This is a truly enjoyable recording of Orrin and the Sultans performing live. It is reminiscent of an episode of A Prairie Home Companion with plenty of good humor and lots of great music. While listening, one can tell both the group and the audience are having a great time, which for me is the reason we do this kind of thing. This is not work for these guys; they are having too much fun! The Sultans are a trio consisting of Orrin on vocals, guitar, mandolin and banjo; Greg Vongas on stand-up bass and vocals; and Bob Green on ddle, mandolin, and vocals. Their music is a mixture of bluegrass, old-time, swing, Latin and contemporary folk, which gives this effort a wide range of appeal. Throughout many of the tunes you can hear Orrin cut loose with his straight-ahead approach on the guitar. One of my favorites is an original apptly named “Orrinʼs Boogie,” which is a fast-paced tune showing off Orrinʼs championship atpicking style. In the rst number there is a great break to “Going Down the 64

The non-originals here include jazz trumpet great Clifford Brownʼs “Sandu,” the oft-covered “Evening” and “Django,” John Lewisʼ moving tribute to the legendary Gypsy jazz guitarist. Bruceʼs original tune “Dawgʼs Pause,” reveals his Grisman inspirations and gives him the chance for some hot New Acoustic atpicking. CDs like this open us all up to new harmonic and rhythmic possibilities for atpicking guitar. Dix Bruce shows here heʼs not only an excellent columnist capable of expressing jazz and swing-oriented guitar theory in clear, practical writings, he goes that extra step to take those swinging 6th and 9th chords off the page to create timeless, terric music.

Review By David McCarty Genevieve, Skip It, Dawgʼs Pause, Evening, Richard Royal The Baker, I Ainʼt As Young As I Used To Be, Anti-Calypso, Tuxedo Blues, Sandu, Visiting, Key To My Kingdom, Soldierʼs Jah, Django, High Heel Sneakers

Recorded in 1985 long before the current “neo-swing” revival brought the jump blues of Louis Jordan to Gap khakis commercials, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine columnist Dix Bruce and a talented group of cohorts created a 14-song recording of mostly original string swing and jazz tunes. Now available on CD, “Tuxedo Blues” highlights Bruceʼs peppy, energetic atpicking and lush chordal rhythms. Backed by some of the best West Coast string musicians—David Balakrishnan on violin, Mike Wollenberg on bass and the late Bob Alekno on mandolin—this group intuitively falls into the groove as easily as Ken Starr issues a subpoena.

Reviewed by Bryan Kimsey In the earlier part of his career, Richard Bennett was often compared to a certain well-know guitarist. While these comparisons were usually favorable, most of us recognized Bennettʼs potential and were eager for him to step out of that other fellowʼs footprints and start making some tracks of his own. Iʼm happy to report that on Long Lonesome Time, that time has arrived. While youʼll certainly hear Bennettʼs roots on this album, his playing and singing here is very much his own. And while I felt that his rst album suffered from a few “rst album” glitches, this latest release is excellent. There is a full band on every cut, the production is crisp and clear, and the overall sound is very professional.



On the title cut, Bennett saves his guitar break for last, but when it comes, it is well worth the wait. His pre-war Martin-customized with a large soundhole just like you-know-whose sounds terrific, with a big punchy sound. The bass strings sound especially crisp and the treble screams. This is snappy, powerfull guitar playing that states the melody while embellishing it. Over the course of this CD, Bennett demonstrates that he can play in a looser and jazzier style, as well as doing some simpler and ne crosspicking. Richard and his wife Wanda (who plays excellent ddle) wrote several of the songs, including the title cut, and they are some of the best cuts on the CD. There are only a couple of standards here, including the warhorse “Doinʼ My Time” which, for me, is the weakest cut on teh CD, sounding a bit like it was left over from his rst CD. The previous tune, however, “Washington County Breakdown” makes up for it by being a stand-out version with great playing by everyone involved. This tune seems sure to work its way into the atpicking vocabulary and I suspect that there will be some liberal quoting from Bennettʼs version. Bennettʼs rhythm work is equally as punchy and dynamic as his leads. He tends more toward chord voicings and licks, keeping bass runs to a minimum, but heʼs got that hard to get purcussive, driving rhythm sound. Thereʼs a lot to praise on Long Lonesome Time and not much to fault. This is a great CD and I listened to it time and time again, even after I nished reviewing it. In short, this is bluegrass guitar the way I like to hear it and the way Iʼd like to play it.

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Jim Hurst Open Window

Reviewed by Bryan Kimsey Jim Hurst has been generating a lot of excitement lately on places like the internet Flatpick-L, especially from those fortunate enough to have seen him play. His previous recorded work was mostly whith Claire Lynch and, while good, didnʼt really show his full potential. Thus, this solo effort was eagerly awaited. In addition to atpicking, Hurst is an excellent ngerpicker. Open Window showcases both of his styles, and also features Jimʼs excellent singing voice which, for me, is the CDʼs high point. However, that is not to imply that Hurstʼs guitar playing is not exciting-far from it. Heʼs a great guitar player with a full pallette of sounds and a wide variety of inuences, most of which are outside the normal bluegrass spectrum. That is a “good thing” because it makes Hurstʼs guitar playing fresh and exciting. Hurst has a big powerful sound that really cuts through the mix. Heʼs also not afraid to stand along and play-check out his solo arrangement of “Wheel Hoss” for a great example of this. I mentioned Hurstʼs singing and, again, Iʼll say “Wow!” He ahs a very versatile voice with a strong blues influence. He can sing low and expressive as on the opening James Taylor cut “Nothing Like A Hundred Miles,” or higher and lonesomer on the bluegrass “Tall Pines.” Heʼs drawn from his previous truck driving experience (and there is nothing like a great truck driving song) on “17 Days,” just one of several Hurst penned tunes. “I Can Tell You The Time” is a traditional avored gospel song with a neat twist. Even if youʼre not a ngerpicker, youʼll appreciate Hurstʼs licks on the ngerpicking songs and should have no trouble “borrow-

ing” some ideas for your atpick. Hurst plays in a punchy bluesy style, evidently inuenced by Jerry Reed, to which two of the songs are dedicated. Open Window is a great CD and I highly recommend it to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine readers. If youʼve heard of Jim Hurst and have wondered what all of the excitement is about, this CD will open not only your windows, but your ears as well. The only thing left to say now is “Jim, where can I catch one of your shows?” Song List: Nothing Like A Hundred Miles Wheel Hoss 17 Days Swamp Reel My Babyʼs Gone Alarm Clock Locomotive Blues This Old Guitar A Miner Infraction I Can Tell You the Time The Pearl of Pearl Kentucky Tall Pines Little Bit Oʼ Blues

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Video Reviews Doc Watson & David Grisman I n Concert Vestapol 13082

Reviewed by David McCarty In response to the strong sales of David Grismanʼs Doc & Daw g CD, Vestapol has issued a thoroughly entertaining and enthralling performance video of the two veteran pickers onstage with Docʼs right hand man, Jack Lawrence. Recorded at a March 1998 gig, this 70-minute VHS video features exceptionally clear sound, good stage lighting and some excellent camera work that brings the viewer right onstage with these three brilliant instrumentalists.

Ranging from some of Doc and Jackʼs folksier numbers like “Hobo Billʼs Last Ride” and “Deep River Blues” to a slightly sedated version of Grismanʼs Dawg music barn-burner “EMD,” this video resounds with strong playing. From the opening rendition of “Bye Bye Blues” where Doc drops a memorably melodic lick into his first solo, only to hear it enhanced and reinterpreted by Jack during his solo, itʼs clear this was a special night for all three musicians. For fans of Doc Watson and David Grisman, this set captures them at their best. Interspersed between musical segments, the viewer hears brief but illuminating interviews with both men about their musical partnership. Grisman, for example, reveals that he loves playing with Doc because itʼs such a “low-pressure gig,” and backs that up by explaining that he has to change strings after every show with his Quintet but that a set of strings will last three shows with Doc. His mandolin work on the two Lloyd Loar-era F5ʼs he plays here sounds inspired and creative. For atpicking fans, this is a “not to be missed” video. Docʼs playing on his signature Gallagher cutaway is typically strong and frequently quite inventive. Hearing him rip through great tunes like “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Big Sandy/Salt River” is what we all expect from this legend, but watching him solo over Grismanʼs most exotic “EMD” shows us that thereʼs still plenty of

The

Bluegrass Guitar Style

creative re left in the masterʼs hand. Super-sideman Jack Lawrenceʼs playing has matured to the point where he clearly stands as one of the rst-tier players in this style. Playing his Collings D2H held in a classical position on his left leg, Jack executes stunning solos and brilliant accompaniment here. Playing everything from delicate triplets and concise crosspicking passages to open-ended chromatic licks and even some cool octave sections a la Wes Montgomery, Jack Lawrenceʼs playing ought to be studied and absorbed by every reader of this magazine. The only aw in this video, in fact, is that all too often the director uses Jackʼs solos as his opportunity to switch to his stage-view camera to show all three musicians together. Players eager to catch a glimpse of Jackʼs deft fretboard work and controlled right-hand picking will nd this frustrating. Capturing an entire evening of music by three of Americaʼs most talented acoustic string musicians, Doc Watson and David Grisman In Concert is a video fans will turn to and replay many times, I predict. Now if we could just get Jack Lawrence to issue an instruction video where his dazzling playing can be highlighted, it would save a lot of rewinding and squinting at the screen trying to absorb what heʼs doing here. Two enthusiastic plectrums up!

The Bluegrass Guitar Style of Charles Sawtelle

of To order, send

Charles Sawtelle 27 Great Flatpicking Guitar Solos

$19.95 plus $3.00 Shipping and Handling to: High View Publications P.O. Box 2160 Pulaski, VA 24301 or call

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In addition to the tablature and standard notation of 27 Sawtelle solos, this book also includes: Detailed Sawtelle biography, An in-depth interview with Charles, Section on Charles’ rhythm style, Charles Sawtelle Discography, The rst ever Slade biography, Notes on each solo transcription, Dozens of photographs

66



Gear Review By Mike Maddux

Iʼve spent the better part of the past 20 years standing behind microphones in the name of bluegrass guitar. Iʼll admit that there have been a few rare occasions when I felt that the guitar was really heard acoustically, but the sad truth is that more often than not itʼs been a battle to present the sound of the atpicked guitar as a lead instrument on an equal footing with the ddle, mandolin, and banjo. The constant search for an improved sound and an improved way of presenting that sound has lead me through a multitude of ampliers, pickups, microphones, and methods, all in an effort to capture and present for the audience the sound of a great acoustic guitar, without feedback problems, roaring and squealing from the monitors, and constant battles with the sound man. In moments of reection, I sometimes think: “Wouldnʼt it be great if I could be just as loud as I wanted to be, with no feedback problems, and still sound like an acoustic guitar?” Well, the time is now, and the tool is the new High Cliff Acoustic Instrument Amplier, the Soundboard. The Soundboard amplier not only looks different from other ampliers that Iʼve used, it is different. It actually has a solid sitka spruce top, complete with sitka spruce X-bracing, instead of a speaker cone! The folks at High Cliff decided that the best way to make a guitar sound like a guitar was to have the sound production mechanism be a guitar top. A spruce top on a guitar vibrates, and that produces the sound, so why not put a spruce top on the amplier to produce the sound? Indeed, why not? Not only a great idea in concept, this is a great idea in production. The Soundboard Amp arrived late on a Wednesday. I unpacked it on the following Thursday morning and used it that same night at my regular concert. I was thrilled at the sound. All the volume that I wanted, no feedback, and the freedom to move around on stage was coupled with the tone of an acoustic guitar.

First Exposure Opening the shipping carton revealed an

The High Cliff Soundboard Acoustic Instrument Amplier - HC 125/M

attractive amp with a vinyl covering, but the big surprise was the sitka spruce top. This amp has a guitar top, with guitar bracing. Thereʼs even a guitaresque sound hole, complete with herringbone trim. I couldnʼt wait to try it out. The specication sheet and owners manual are clearly written and easy to follow; it took me through the basic setup for the controls and inside of 5 minutes I was up and running.

First Concert The spec sheet says to mike the amplier when playing out through a PA system; there is a direct output connection on the amplier, but using it bypasses the spruce top (which is really the front portion of the amp), and will cause the sound to revert to the more electric sound of the pickup. I put the microphone at about the midpoint of the amplier, to the left of the soundhole, adjusted the equalization on the amp to get a nice warm sound, and we were ready. Adjustments The electronics head on the amplier has 4 sections: gain control (two inputs are provided, with individual gain on each), the timbre (equalization section), an antifeedback section (this is now standard on acoustic type ampliers, with a pot to select a troublesome frequency and another one to remove it), and two remaining controls for effects and master volume. There are no onboard effects, but there are effects loop inputs on the back if you just have to use them. With other ampliers, Iʼve always added a touch of reverb and chorus to the mix just to fatten up the sound. With this one theyʼre not needed. The timbre section has 7 pots for equalization, Bass (boosts or cuts frequencies from 100 Hz down), Treble (boosts or cuts frequencies from 5kHz up), and ve controls at 200Hz, 400Hz, 800Hz, 1.6kHz, and 3.2kHz. The spec sheet reads “We chose to call this section ʻTimbreʼ, because they can be used to alter the tone characteristics of your guitar.” What youʼre really doing here is adjusting the sound produced by the amplierʼs spruce top to match the sound

of your instrument. In fact, because of the way that sound is produced, you can actually make the amplier produce a sound that ranges from a dreadnaught with warm, woody-sounding lows and resonant mids and highs, to that of a lighter bodied parlor guitar. That exiblity yields a range of tones thatʼs far superior to any other amplier that Iʼve used. In fact, you can even make the amplier produce a sound thatʼs superior to that of the instrument, which is a pleasant surprise. That last comment may be a bit of a mental adjustment for you, as it was for me. Because of the nature of this piece of equipment, I can take any guitar with an under saddle pickup and get the kind of sound that I want for that show. My preference in sound runs to that of the old Martin Dreadnoughts. For recordings I use either a 1936 Martin D-18 or a 1955 D-28, so thatʼs the sound that I want to reproduce during a performance. Starting with all of the controls at midpoint, or at, I found that I needed to roll off a bit of the bass. Itʼs easy to get too much. I left the treble pretty much at, but did roll the high end down about one click. The sound of the amp with those settings was almost exactly what I wanted—not perfect, but the best Iʼve heard to date from an undersaddle pickup. I also did an experiment with a solid body guitar that had an under-saddle pickup installed, and I was astonished at the warmth and depth of the sound—not quite a 1936 D18 but better than I expected, and not electric sounding at all. 67



The Challenge of Acoustic Sound Reproduction Acoustic guitars were designed to be heard in acoustic settings. An 1860ʼs style parlor guitar is a small bodied guitar with a slothead. The sound that it produces is rich and full but not very loud. Prior to the development of electric sound amplication systems, bands were either loud or soft. A loud band needed to use multiple players to make the sound louder, as in an orchestra, or needed to use louder instruments like trumpets, saxophones, and trombones to make the sound loud enough to provide music for a hall full of dancers. Stringed musicians used banjos, ddles, and mandolins to achieve the same effect, and used the guitar primarily as a rhythm instrument. The Dreadnought guitar was developed specically to make the guitar louder, and it, along with the archtop and newer models like the jumbo guitars, are all trying to get a louder sound out of the instrument, primarily when playing rhythm. Sound generation occurs when the string vibrates, passing that vibration directly to the wood of the guitar top, causing it to vibrate. This vibration moves the column of air inside the guitar, bounces around and off the back and sides, and comes out the soundhole. Well, thatʼs perfect for the listener who is one or two feet away, and is wonderful for the player. Beyond a distance of two feet you begin to lose some of the quality of the sound; by the time youʼre 10 feet away, youʼve lost a lot of it, and at a distance of 20 feet or more, unless everyone holds their breath, you can barely hear the guitar, especially when playing lead. When you put a microphone in front of the soundhole youʼre effecting a compromise. The best sound would be at about eight inches to two feet from the guitar—closer than that and you get so much air coming out of the soundhole, that it overdrives the microphone, causing the sound to be ʻwoofyʼ at the low end. For most microphones when youʼre eight inches to two feet away, theyʼre not as effective, especially in a noisy environment. Microphones work within a specic range; that means that in order for the microphone to function properly you need to be within that range, usually about two to three inches is best. Move beyond three inches and the sound that the microphone picks up includes the ambient noise of the stage, and that causes feedback problems from the monitors. A really great band with a great sound 68

man can solve this problem in a couple of ways. The rest of the band can lighten up and the sound man can stay on the board and x feedback problems quickly. Sometimes the guitarist has to ignore the feedback (pretty hard to do!) or the sound man drops the guitar out of the on-stage mix, so the guitarist is playing blind, that is, without his ears, which is really hard to do and which affects the rest of the band as well. The problem is even worse when youʼre working without a sound man in a noisy environment (i.e., the hated bar gig).

Electric vs. Acoustic Electric guitars have solved the problem of being too soft. Magnetic pickups, often several, are mounted under the strings. The guitar has a solid body, which barely vibrates at all. The sound of the instrument comes from the electronics, not the wood. OK, purists among the electric community will shout loudly that the wood still makes a difference, so Iʼll defer. In comparative terms, however, an acoustic gets the sound from the top while an electric gets the sound from the pickups and the electronics in the amp. An acoustic guitar with an under saddle bridge might as well be considered an electric guitar. Sure, the top of the guitar still vibrates, but the majority of the sound of the instrument is passed from the string, to the saddle, to the pickup, and from there to the amplier. That the top vibrates is hardly relevant; the reproduction comes from the pickup and from the electronics in the amp. That really gives us three kinds of guitars, acoustic, acoustic/electric, electric. Weʼre going to use these types of guitars in different applications (e.g. living room or quiet concert hall with microphone, noisy or louder sound requirements, up to very loud requirements). From the strict bluegrass perspective, I still want my guitar to sound like it does acoustically, without microphone induced feedback loops. Thatʼs where this new amp comes in; placing the microphone in front of the amp - which is at the back of the stage - keeps it (the microphone used for the amp) away from the monitors, hence, no feedback. That means that I can put as much guitar in the mix, both on stage and out front, as I want, and the sound is that of an acoustic guitar. I donʼt need to turn the amp up very much, enough that I can get a good sound out for the microphone, and some for stage presence.

Appropriate Applications Note that the soundboard amp is not going to work well with guitars that use magnetic pickups (donʼt bring your Les Paul in and expect it to sound like a Dreadnought), nor will a microphone, either internal to the guitar or external, sound right. These latter applications will sound either thin or woofy, or muddy in some registers. This amplier was designed to be used with a saddle-installed pickup, and it works well with that combination. You can use any one of several pickups of this style that are available. For my trials I used the Thinline Acoustic Plus thatʼs in my HD-28, with excellent results. The literature for the unit also indicates that it will work equally well with mandolins, ddles, and acoustic bass, provided that they are equipped with the appropriate pickup. For this evaluation I only tested guitars. Other Options Hereʼs an interesting twist on most ampliers; for those who want to pay a bit more, the cabinet is also available in satin finished oak, cherry, or walnut. The unit can be purchased with either the Sitka spruce soundboard (which was the conguration that I evaluated), or you can specify a cedar soundboard. High Cliff also sells extension cabinets. These are simply a second soundboard cabinet that you can plug into the extension speaker output. The extension cabinet is likewise available in either spruce or cedar, with the same external options (oak, cherry, walnut or vinyl). This addition increases the effective output of the amp from the rated 85 watts continuous to 132 watts. A protective eece-lined, cordura case cover with protective hardboard panel is probably a must; the one thing you donʼt want to do is crack or damage the soundboard. Care and Feeding I chatted with Bruce Petros from High Cliff about the potential for damage of the soundboard (Bruce and his partner, David Van Delinder, co-invented the amp.) He said that the unit was designed to allow the soundboard to move a bit to accommodate changes in humidity. The soundboard is in place between two layers of cork so that any slight changes in humidity will allow the soundboard to expand or contract slightly without damage. Bruce is an instrument builder with 25 years of experience, so heʼs taken those concerns to heart in the con-



struction of the amp. To my way of thinking, this unit is a bit more delicate than most of the other amps that Iʼve used, and I would suggest that you treat it with as much care as you use with a good guitar is not out of the question. Buying the optional case cover will obviate the majority of my concerns; other than that, donʼt leave it out in sub-zero temperatures, or subject to the rain.

Negative Comments I donʼt really have anything very negative to say; I like this amp, and have used it in my concerts with good results. Two slightly negative comments that Iʼm going to bring out are the removable electrical power cord and the proximity of the gain control to the input jack. The former isnʼt a big deal, but I can envision some musician somewhere who gets to the show without the power cord; weʼre a forgetful bunch. Bruce told me that the cord is removable to accommodate European requirements for devices of this type. Thatʼs a really minor issue. If you throw the cord in with the rest of your gear, youʼll be ne. The other slightly negative issue that I noted with the amp: the input jack is a bit too close to the input gain control for

! Y E H

my fat ngers, especially when Iʼm using both inputs at once. This is not much of an issue, and it could be easily xed by giving each jack about another quarter of an inch of room.

Closing Thoughts Most flatpickers arenʼt gear heads. Thatʼs a handle usually reserved for guys that play Stratocasters and have a good hair image. A atpicker with a guitar and a picker friend under a shade tree can afford to be somewhat removed from discussions of equipment, and happily so. The warmth of the guitar and the very simplicity of the setting are part of the appeal of atpicking and bluegrass music. Well, for those of us that have been forced to learn a bit about sound reinforcement, the majority of the time itʼs been a forced compromise between bad sounding pickups, microphone-induced feedback, or not being heard. The vision of providing that warm, shade tree sound, to a large audience has often seemed unreachable. The Soundboard amp is going to change that by providing a warm, woody, guitar sound in an application that can benet anything from a small gathering with no

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Specications: Price Range: approximately $1398 to $2000 Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz Weight: 45 lbs Output Power Rating: 85 watts continuous into 8 ohms, 132 watts continuous into 4 ohms (with extension cabinet) Note: The full specications for this product are available at the references below. Contact Information: The High Cliff Company, 155 Lord Street, Elgin Illinois 60123 Voice: 847-695-5626 Fax: 847-695-5912 E-mail: [email protected] WorldWideWeb URL: www.soundboard.net

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Guitar Highlight:

Collings Clarence White Model by David McCarty

Perhaps no guitar has stirred up atpicking guitarists in recent years the way the Collings Clarence White (CW) model has. With fewer than 200 in existence, their rarity and exceptionally high quality have combined to create an aura around them that has generated spirited discussions of their merits on the Internet and at jam sessions. The guitar came to life as a way to honor Clarence Whiteʼs incredible musical legacy, and the use of his name has been approved by Clarenceʼs heirs. John Holman, who holds exclusive rights to distribute the model, approached Bill Collings with his idea of creating a modernized version of the original 1935 D-28 Martin owned by White. That guitar, which is now owned by Tony Rice, also inspired the Santa Cruz Guitar Companyʼs extremely popular Tony Rice model. With assistance from David Turkheimer and Bryan Kimsey, both excellent guitarists and current CW owners who've helped compile the construction details of this model, I've been able to pinpoint some of the factors responsible for this guitarsʼ unique, compelling musical voice. The Collings Clarence White is a dreadnought model available only in Brazilian rosewood or mahogany. All CW models include an Adirondack spruce top. Like all Collings dreadnoughts, the CW uses the ʻ30s-style advanced-X, scalloped bracing found on Martin D series guitars until 1939. Unlike the Collings D2H, D1 and D3 models, however, the CW does not come with the so-called “tongue” or “popsicle” brace, which is a wide, flat, thin brace under the guitar's ngerboard extension. This brace stiffens, and in the opinion of many guitarists, slightly changes the acoustics of the upper portion of the soundboard where many of the transient high frequencies originate. Viewed from the front, the CW guitar displays an unusually large 4.25” soundhole similar to the original guitar. In experiments done by Bryan Kimsey, the larger soundhole has denitely increased perceived projection on some guitars. The Collings guitar also uses a beveled tortoise-imitation pickguard applied to the top over the nish; original

Martin dreadnoughts had the pickguard glued directly to the top with the nish applied over it. Other internal construction features worth noting include the use of atter back braces like the original Martins and very thin, triangular cedar side braces. Collings opts for a bolt-on neck construction, which some purists donʼt like. However, Collings believes the bolt-on design actually increases sound transmission from the neck into the guitar's body. The neck is an exceptionally comfortable (for me) V-shape like the prewar vintage guitars. Width at the nut is 1 3/4 inches and string spacing at the bridge is 2 1/4 inches. The guitar, like all Collings D-size instruments, uses a 25.5 inch scale length, 1/10th of an inch longer than Martinʼs 25.4-inch dreadnought scale length. The materials used certainly play a major role in the CW's characteristic sound. Due to its greater density, Brazilian rosewood, in general, tends to sound louder, clearer and brighter than Indian rosewood in guitars of the same design. The Brazilian rosewood used for all CW models comes from the private supply of John Holman, who selects only wood he feels meets the highest standards for these guitars. Grades of rosewood do vary, with “B” grade wood being the lowest used and “AAA” being the highest. I compared my B grade CW guitar to Johnʼs AAA and found no obvious difference in sound, although the cosmetic difference was quite dramatic. Of equal or greater importance, in my opinion, is the selection of top-grade, straight-grained Adirondack spruce for the tops of all CWs. This wood was used on Martin guitars until 1947, when the factory substituted Alaskan Sitka spruce. Adirondack, also known as red spruce, is among the hardest, stiffest and densest of the spruce species. Those qualities impart a truly magical timbre to stringed instruments if the wood is properly used. The Collings Clarence White features an ebony bridge incorporating staggered stringholes which maintain an even pressure on the saddle from string to string, thereby helping to balance the sound. The

guitar comes with a bone nut and saddle, and ebony bridge pins. Other distinctive features found on the CW include a 22-fret, ivoroid-bound, extended fingerboard with no position markers, nickle-plated Waverly tuning machines and the “Collings” logo inlaid in pearl on an almost black rosewood peghead overlay. Like all modern acoustics, it includes an adjustable truss rod instead of the steel T-bar reinforcement found in the necks of 1930s Martins. Describing the tone of a guitar is always a subjective task depending on the individualʼs preferences. Nevertheless, the CW clearly produces a tone most players would describe as “dry” or “tight.” Single note articulation is best described as punchy, and the guitar cuts through loud jam sessions efciently. The transient attack is so rapid, it's reminiscent of a great archtop guitar and works well on swing chords and Django Reinhardt-style lead guitar. Not surprisingly for a guitar of this quality and temperament, the CW also is highly sensitive to changes in strings and picks. I've experimented with Pearse, DR, Adamas, DʼAddario and Thomastik strings, and have used Delrin, Clayton Ultem synthetic tortoise shell, natural tortoise shell, Greven Guitar Co. Tor-Tis picks, Tortex 71



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and other picks extensively. Each change brought out different aspects of the guitar's musical character; owners need to do their own experimentation to nd a combination that suits their particular picking style. Does all this make the Collings Clarence White the perfect atpickerʼs guitar? Yes, for some; no, for others. Like ne wines and great art, the Collings Clarence White does not attempt to satisfy everyone. It is designed instead to achieve a highly particular sound best suited for lead atpicking in a band or large jam session setting. Not everyoneʼs taste runs to the dry, tight sound both the Brazilian rosewood and mahogany versions of the CW guitars produce. To some players, the CW sounds “cold” or overly bright. Since these are custom-order ed instruments, you canʼt just go to Elderly or Mandolin Brothers or another dealer to try one out. You can only acquire a new CW through John Holman, who can be reached at 214-943-6667. John also can frequently put prospective buyers in touch with CW owners in their area for a “test drive.” He also often has pre-owned models available

on approval. Like any guitar, that hands-on experience is important. Thereʼs no question thatʼs true. But then again, the differences in bracing and the larger soundhole employed in the CW unquestionably combine to give this limited edition model a unique tone and appearance which some players prefer. Whether they eventually buy one or not any atpicking guitarists looking for their “ultimate guitar” ought to check out the Collings Clarence White if they can before making a nal decision.

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For Bookings: Contact Chris Jones P.O. Box 984 Franklin, TN 37065 e-mail:[email protected]

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CLASSIFIEDS Classied ads will be accepted for guitar and musical related items @ 40¢ a word, 50¢ a word for bold lower case type, 60¢ a word for bold upper case type. Please call (800) 413-8296 to order, or send ad to High View Publications, P.O. Box 2160, Pulaski, VA 24301

Instructional Material: VIRTUAL BAND BLUEGRASS METHOD. Matching and progressive arrangements, multiple tempos, backup, theory and technique for Guitar, Fiddle, Banjo or Mandolin. Book and play along CD $23.00 ppd. Specify instrument. Jay Buckey, 4017 N. Torrey Pines, Las Vegas, Nevada 89108 (702) 396-7824 THE GUITAR JAM TAPE: Play leads to “Blackberry Blossom,”“Salt Creek,” and ten other jamming favorites with your complete bluegrass Band-in-a-Box backup cassette! $16.60 ppd. includes tab booklet. Andy Cushing, 6534 Gowanda St. Rd., Hamburg NY 14075 MUSIC THEORY COURSE FOR GUITAR Correspondence Course. Certicate issued on completion. Beginning courses also available. Course outline and enrollment order form for this and other home study courses, write to: Jim Sutton Institute of Guitar, 23014 Quail Shute, Spring, TX 77389 E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://guitar-jimsuttoninst.com 800-621-7669 CUSTOM TRANSCRIPTION SPECIALIST Quick free estimates (large catalog/tons of Doc), exact, easy to read, song/solo tab (all styles), digital speed reductions. John Maier, 55 Williams St. Dept FG, Pleasantville, NY 10570, 914-741-6321. FREE HAROLD STREETER CATALOG! Over 1,000 tablature/cassette atpick and fingerstyle listings - basic to advanced, most styles. Send $2.00 ($4.00 overseas) to LeWalt Publishing, 4950 East 20th Ave. Post Falls, ID 83854 USA

TEXAS MUSIC AND VIDEO PRESENTS SUPERCHARGED FLATPICKING! David Grier slows down Wheeling, Old Hotel Rag, Engagement Waltz, Bluegrass Itch, Thatʼs Just Perfect, Eye of the Hurricane, Impulsive, Shadowbrook, Smithʼs Chapel, Porkchops and Applesauce, and Lone Soldier - $29.95. Also videos from Joe Carr, “60 Hot Licks for Bluegrass Guitar” and “Bluegrass Flatpick Favorites,” $29.95 each or both for $49.95. Advanced Concepts, PO Box 830, Levelland, TX 79336, 1-800-874-8384, Fax 806-894-2580, Web: GUITAR LICK CARDS: from standard to stellar, 81 licks are isolated on playing cards. Line them up with the same chord progression as your favorite song and voila! Itʼs a new arrangement! Rearrange the licks for endless variations. Theyʼre inspiring! Available for mandolin and banjo too. $11.50 ppd. per set. Andrew Cushing, 6534 Gowanda St. Rd., Hamburg NY 14075.

Are the arrangements you are seeing too difcult? Try single note, melody only, in Tab. Learn the melody and do your own arrangements. Write for our Tab list. Ten songs for $5.00. Twenty-ve Christmas song package for $10.00, postage included. Melody Line, P.O. Box 104, Vero Beach, FL, 32961. Florida residents add 7% sales tax.

COLORADO MIDLAND DREAM: Cassette of 13 songs about this fabulous railroad. $10.00 plus $2.00 shipping. Tom Greco, 1555 Cedar Hill Place, Duncanville, TX 75137-3826



CLASSIFIEDS

continued

Guitars, Strings, and Accesories: TONY RICE PROFESSIONAL model by Santa Cruz duplicates most closely the specications of Tony Riceʼs personal Santa Cruz guitar. Four examples currently in stock, including one with rare vertical grain Brazilian Rosewood. Steve Swan Guitars (510) 527-1734, Fax (650) 401-7306, email [email protected], website www.steveswanguitars.com SANTA CRUZ TONY RICE model redened the modern bluegrass dreadnought. Eight new examples in stock in various combinations of Brazilian Rosewood, Indian Rosewood, Sitka Spruce, European Spruce, and Adirondack Spruce. Steve Swan Guitars (510) 527-1734, Fax (650) 401-7306, email [email protected], website steveswanguitars.com BLUEGRASS and VINTAGE ARTIST dreadnought Santa Cruz models give you a vintage sound with modern playability advantages. Seven new examples in stock in various combinations of gured Mahogany, Indian Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood, European Spruce and Adirondack Spruce. Steve Swan guitars (510) 527-1734, Fax (650) 401-7306, email [email protected], website www.steveswanguitars.com

ALLEN GUITARS guitars ~ mandolins ~ resophonics “building tomorrowʼs collectibles today” (916) 346-6590 or visit our website http://www.allenguitar.com PO Box 1883 Colfax, CA 95713 USA

FOR A GOOD TIME try a free sample copy of The Vintage News, monthly review of the most special, superb sounding fretted instruments. Subscriptions: $15 a year for 12 issues ($20 overseas). Mandolin Brothers, 629 Forest Ave, Staten Island, NY 10310; tel 718-981-8585; fax 816-4416; website: www.mandoweb.com; email: [email protected] 76

EUPHONON COMPANY STRINGS First quality major manufacturer strings in bulk at fantastic savings. Same strings you buy in music stores, without the expensive packaging. Acoustic guitar sets extralight, light, or medium: 80/20 bronze $24.50/dozen, $15/half dozen; phosphor bronze $26/dozen, $16/half dozen. All prices post paid. Twelve string, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, special gauges available. Write for String Catalog. Euphonon also offers guitar repair and building supplies; Write for Luthierʼs Catalog, Euphonon Co. PO Box 100F, Orford, NH, 03777, 1-(888) 517-4678

GUITARS FOR SALE Gallagher Guitars, performance and studio micorphones. Phone Gary Gordon, Alligator Music: (618) 443-5051

Gallagher Ragtime Special Guitar , cut away, fishburn pickup, unplayed, new condition $2100. Call John Willis, (804) 776-9900

Gallagher Doc Watson model , bell-ower inlay, unplayed, new condition, $2000. Call John Willis, (804) 776-9900

WORLD OF STRINGS 1738 E 7th Street Long Beach Ca 80813 562/599-3913 *Specializing in Stringed Instruments* Martin, Santa Cruz, Gibson, Seagull, Ramirez, Electric & Acoustic Guitar & Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, Dulcimer & hammered Dulcimer (Violin, Cello, Harp and Guitar to Rent) Repairs, Accesories, Custom Building We are not mail order . . . come visit & have a cup of coffee, and share our appreciation and knowledge of instruments.

MARTIN BRAZILIAN GUITARS WANTED: 1968-1969 D-45, 1969 D-41, 1987 D-45LE (A “Guitar of the Month” - 50 were made). DESIRABLE TRADES. Dennis Friedberg. Phone: (301) 246-4943

Guitars New and Used. Authorized Dealer for Santa Cruz, Huss-Dalton, Stelling and Gibson. Also banjos, mandolins and ddles. Discount prices. Call or write for current listing. The Bluegrass Connection, P.O Box 92, Birch River, WV, 26610. Phone: (304) 649-2012

CHEAPEST PRICES ON STRINGS!! All major brands. Quick delivery. Fast friendly service. Visa, Mastercard, Check or Money Order accepted. Call (423) 681-4958 or (888) 386-2838 or ORDER VIA THE INTERNET!!!! WWW.APPALACHIANMUSIC.COM. FREE CATALOG!! THE APPALACIAN MUSIC EXCHANGE

STELLING GUITAR Known the world over for superior quality in Banjos and Mandolins, Stelling ofers a superior quality guitar. Limited in production, the Stelling guitar is available through a limited number of Stelling dealers. Please call, write, or fax us for more information. Visit our web site at www.stellingbanjo.com. Dial 1-800-5 STRING or fax us at (804) 971-8309.





Vol_3_No_2

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