Tag Archive for 'independent music'

HEY! Do you like jazz? Cuz I like jazz…and Youtube.

Published on February 22, 2010 in Internet Stuff. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Okay, every now and again I totally immerse myself in one style of music which is one good way to distract me from all the insanity going around me during the day.  So, I thought I’d just put up some nice (yes, I like using the word “nice”) youtube videos for your enjoyment.

If you have never heard of Lenny Breau, he was this Canadian jazz guitarist who kind of blind-sided a lot of the straight-ahead jazz guitarists back in the 60’s with his finger-picking technique and revolutionary way of playing single note lines and chords at the same time.  So…uhh…give this one a minute, it’s very pretty.  Also, the host is straight of 1961.

Liked it? Then there’s plenty more of that. Just write “Lenny Breau” into the search window in Youtube. Is it funny or not that I just explained how to use a basic search engine? Here’s another video, with a preface.

Preface: So we live in a time where almost anything having to do with media is at our disposal. When you watch this video, try to imagine you never heard rock and roll or jazz at all. Just…TRY!
That’s WIllie Dixon announcing in the beginning. He basically wrote all the great blues songs that every rock group covers. Memphis Slim on piano and the reason I thought to put this video up: Matt “Guitar” Murphy. His middle name is “Guitar.” Nice. These guys invented this music. Enjoy.

Okay just one more. I could keep this going for a while. I like watching live concert footage on Youtube, but here’s one to blow your mind. I had the pleasure of hanging with this cat for a brief second last summer after he came through the Northeast. If you haven’t heard of Lionel Loueke, he’s the triple threat: great guitarist, great composer, and great singer. And when I say great, I mean he’s arguably the best guitar player in the world. But, I never like saying one dude is the best at anything. Other than Evan Lysacek. He’s the best at something.

Yeah. Marinate on that for a while.

Last week in D.C.

Published on December 13, 2009 in Touring and Travelling. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

It got cold fast, didn’t it?  Well, at least in New York it did.  It’s raining today, so I figure I’ll take the ol’ blog out for a spin.  For the most part, things have been pretty fast-moving and most of all fun.  Last week, I played Asylum down in D.C.  I took a Boltbus from Penn Station for 17 bucks.  Not so bad, eh?  Seems like that’s the only part of the economy that’s been working in our favor lately.  I pulled in on a Saturday and took the next two days off for a little D.C. vacation.  I haven’t been there since I was 12 or something like that.  It’s hard to pinpoint when you did certain things in your childhood years.  They all seem to run together somehow, or you end up dividing them up into pockets of time, like your 4 years in high school or the years before you went to Europe.  I ended up doing every touristy thing you could do in Washington minus the tours.  Chilling outside the Capitol was incredible.  It sucks to think that such awful people work in such a beautiful architectural display.  I mean, they’re not all bad, some have good intentions, but greed is contagious, and I can’t trust anyone just because they were voted into office.  I feel politicians today need to take lie detector and morality tests before they can take office.  Holding office is like a get out of jail free pass for most politicians and they’re has got to be a method to weed out the easily corruptible.

Anyway, the show at Asylum was awesome.  Luckily my good friend, Matt, lives three blocks away from Asylum so It only took a hop, skip and a jump to get there.  A trendy, young D.C. crowd showed up and a couple sang along.  I’m looking forward for my next busride down and playing there again.  Until then, it’s all NYC for me and the band, except for a show out in L.A. in January.  Be well everybody.  See ya.