blues

The Blackbird Rider. Awesome.

It sounds like the raven haired ghost of a southpaw bluesman ridin’ them blinds on the run from his own shadow. It isn’t though. Its the BLACKBIRD GUITAR COMPANY’s steel or nlyon string carbon fibre,  CNC routed, ultra modern solution for the guitarist on the run!

The Blackbird Rider features an all-hollow uni-body shell setting it apart from any guitar in the world. That is the body, neck, and head are cast in one-piece with the sound board, fretboard, tuners, etc. added to that main component.

Forming the main component in one-piece eliminates the weak and sound-absorbing joints associated with standard guitars. This patent-pending construction relies on the incredibly strong and stiff properties of carbon fiber as well as plenty of unique design features to create the strongest, most resonant small-bodied guitar available anywhere.

What makes these things ultra cool is that the entire guitar is hollow and acts as a resonating chamber. There’s a  sound hole in the HEAD of the guitar as well as within the body – BUT  in an unusual position where the top horn would normally be. Also because they’re made from carbon fibre they come as tough as old boots – bring it on!

AND, Just like the revolutionary Model T Ford you can get them in any colour – as long as it’s black! With such an unusual symmetry in design these things look like the geometrical offspring of a Futurists dream. In those softer moments when Darth Vader gets the blues and an oily black tear wells up in his cyborg eye you know that this is the piece he reaches for.

That’s the soulful sound of Darren Watson, a resonator, a valve mike and a truckload of talent turning up the heat!

Last year I had the lucky chance to interview Darren Watson when I was writing for the Jamarama Guitar Blog and this year I was lucky enough to see Darren just recently cooking up some great blues tunes at the Ruby Lounge in Wellington whilst enjoying some fine, fine ales amongst the company of like minded blues rock afficionados.

What particularly caught my attention was Darren’s band. They were tighter than two coats of paint, never overplayed and the bass man was definitely off the hook – as fluid as a lavalamp in zero gravity.

Darren also cooked up some serious glass finger bottleneck on the stratocaster that really had the place buzzing. Every now and then the band segued into classic guitar motifs, such as Jimi Hendrix‘ melody hook from Third Stone From the Sun; and, I was pleased to see Darren bashing the ole guitar with his fist every now and then to generate some feedback. Something we can ALL relate to. It was a versatile set and a great show with plenty of varied pace and Darren’s range, tone and fidelity are something else – not only that Darren Watson is a great guy so go to his show – say “hello”, and  check out his records at www.darrenwatson.com.

Here is the interview from  last year and what will impress upon you immediately is Darren’s no-nonsense, down to earth unpretentious approach to the guitar, the blues and life in general; it’s a guitar lesson in itself!

Today I`m going to spend ten minutes with highly accomplished south pacific blues master Darren Watson. You may not have heard of Darren but in a career spanning three decades Darren has worked on the bill with such blues luminaries and giants as Robert Cray, Koko Taylor, George Thorogood, Billy Boy Arnold, Doug MacLeod, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dr. John and Keb Mo . . certainly no bunch of blues slackers by anybodies stretch of the imagination and a real testament to Darren’s skills as a musician.

To those who remember New Zealand music back in the day, in the ’80s, or those who have even a passing interest in blues, the name Darren Watson will always bring on a smile. As the founder and leader of Wellington powerhouse band Chicago Smoke Shop, Darren enjoyed a 6 year stint in the public eye with chart singles like Mind On My Sleeve and I Can’t Live Without Your Love.

He has been nominated a colossal six times for New Zealand Music Awards for a body of recorded work that includes two Top 40 albums and singles and three critically acclaimed solo albums including 2002’s Tui Award nominated ‘King Size’, and 2005’s stunning and genre breaking ‘South Pacific Soul’.

Darren is the real deal when it comes to blues guitar. I’ve been listening to guitar myself for 30 years and Darren has style, taste, timing, technique and tone…and just what the hell else is there?

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QUESTION 1.

Jake:

Hi Darren, kia ora, How`s it going man, and how`s the weather up there, blue enough for you ?

Darren :

Heh heh… not today, bro`! It’s nine degrees and raining! Wellington in springtime.. heh heh

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QUESTION 2.

Jake:

Darren, our readers are more often than not beginner guitarists so I`d like to start by asking how, when and where you first became seriously involved in the guitar – was there anyone in particular that helped steer you in the right direction?

Darren:

I grew up in the era just after The Beatles broke up so their shadow loomed large in my life. That, and my cousin was guitarist in a pretty popular band in NZ in the 60s – the Librettos – so I got to hear a fair bit about how cool rock n’ roll was. I played some drums, piano and trumpet before I actually thought I had settled on bass. My first couple of years playing was on bass . . a regular rightie Macca heh heh…. in my DREAMS!
But, yeah then I stopped playing in covers bands at about 17 and started taking guitar seriously instead. About the same time I discovered blues for myself.

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QUESTION 3.

Jake:

And, did you start out with a high-end guitar like a gibson 335, or like most of us, begin playing on a rotten old plank from Walmart? (myself – I had an old plank but I had to take a ferry from the fretboard to the strings the action was so damn high!)

Darren:

LOL…. No way man. My first six-string was a nasty Carlos Les Paul copy. The neck warped within a couple of weeks. Grin* A total P.O.S..
I didn’t have my first real Strat` until we had a record in the charts when I was twenty-two!

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QUESTION 4.

Jake:

Okay. So, do you have any advice for those who are struggling to get to grips with the instrument? Can you remember your early days, and which artists really inspired you back then?

Darren:

I am really lucky in that music has always come really easy to me. I feel like I have always understood how it works, even before I had NAMES for things. Getting to grips with the guitar was all about mechanics for me – and I think it is for a lot of people – you know, finding a technique that works for them. I don’t buy this idea that there is only one ‘right’ way to play.

As for inspiration on guitar, I was hugely inspired by the ‘lefty-upside-down’ players like Albert King, and Otis Rush. Also really got into guys using different techniques and tunings – like Albert Collins and Skip James. You can’t go past early BB King either. I mean his 1950s stuff is almost without peer vocally and for the guitar stuff. I also like Robert Cray and early Jimmy Vaughan with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. I reckon Cray is the most important guy in blues today – he’s actually got his own voice. Too many Stevie Ray Vaughan clones out their, may he rest in peace one day…..

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QUESTION 5.

Jake:

Well Darren I`ve got to say I agree with you there. And why is the blues a great place to start when approaching the guitar? is it because there are a range of styles and forms from the simple to the highly complex that  allow players such a depth of expression ?

Darren:

I think it’s because to make it sound good you really have to get to grips with rhythm and your sound. There’s nowhere to hide melodically or harmonically. If you just wail away playing scales you are guaranteed to sound shit in my opinion. It forces you to be inventive with time.

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QUESTION 6.

Jake:

That`s a smart smart answer people! Right Darren; you`ve got a killer guitar tone – what`s the deal with your guitars and amps, have you got any particular amps and guitar combinations that you prefer for electric blues playing?

Darren:

Thanks man. I have really concentrated on this for most of my life. I used to think it was about gear but the older I get the more I realize it’s mostly in the hands. You can line up 30 people playing through the same gear and they’re all gonna sound completely different. Having said that, great gear helps plenty. At the moment I’m mostly playing a Fender ’59 ThinSkin Strat through a Headstrong Lil King-S. It’s like a souped-up blackface Princeton, LOL,  but not as souped up as  a MK1 Boogie! I run a HBE compressor and a MXR CAE clean boost into the amp and that’s it as far as effects go. The comp for slide and the boost for… um, well  boosting. Grin*

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QUESTION 7.

Jake:

Awesome Darren, just awesome. I just love the MK1 Boogies; but they`re definitely supercharged amp’s. The MXR CAE clean boost sounds great – and unusual; I’ve never heard of one before. Cool man.

For those out there just beginning to become familiar with the language of the blues are there any fundamental scales that you tend to use ?

Darren:

I’m a big believer in playing the changes and not getting too hung up on scales. Most of my favorite blues players aren’t big on the minor pentatonics like a lot of blues/rock players tend to be. I get modal from time to time but I really don’t think about it too much. I teach people how to use their ears and play the changes first. Too many people I hear playing in music shops and (God forbid!?!) sometimes on stage sound like they’re running exercises as solos. Rambling and phrase-less. I actually think we can all learn from singers and wind instruments. BREATHE in between those phrases, baby! Heh heh Make the notes count. Soloing is basically composition on the fly – so let’s have some hooks. I would rather play a fat groove than solo anyway.

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QUESTION 8.

Jake:

(smiles) Yeah Darren; I`m with you on that one it’s saxophonists for me!
So, when it comes to playing acoustic fingerstyle blues what do you look for in your guitar sound – I see you`re using a `58 Gibson LG-2 – could you also tell me what’s so special about this instrument and how it informs your playing?

Darren:

Oh man, that guitar is a total babe! I’m so lucky I found her. It’s the first small box I have found that lets me really dig in and doesn’t choke.  You can also play whisper quiet and the tops are just so silky sounding….. I’m in love with that guitar, man. It cuts without ever sounding nasty and there’s not a hint of nasty boxiness. But it’s also not a boomy strum box like the D28 etc. They’re o.k. for some stuff but for what I do a small box is perfect and this is about the best example I’ve played.

Jake:

I May have to translate that  for our readers a little Darren!
I think what Darren is saying is that this guitar allows him to really rhythmically groove, like a steam train, without losing any tone or characteristic timbre and clarity at high or low volumes. Here is what it sounds like:

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QUESTION 9.

It would be great Darren if you could pick five inspirational records and maybe give us a short explanation as to why they resonate with you:

Darren:

1. BB King – Live At The Regal

The ultimate blues performance? Probably. BB King at the peak of his powers. 40ish and taking no prisoners. The band swings like a whorehouse and even the audience is amazing.

2. The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Girls Go Wild

This album totally changed my life. Recorded in 1978 but it sounds like it could’ve been made in the 50s. I discovered Jimmie Vaughan and (harmonica great) Kim Wilson through this album. He was channeling all the great old blues players here – and his tone is to DIE for. Unlike Stevie Vaughan who was all about flash and brute strength, Jimmie had sweet touch and a rare economy of phrasing that puts Stevie in his place I reckon. If you haven’t heard this album I suggest you try your darndest to pick up a copy.

3. Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombnes

I was at high school when I saw a clip of Tom on TV. In a world of vapid synth-pop and dumb ass post-punk pop this record really spoke to me that blues, jazz and weirdness could still be grown and merged successfully. I’m a huge fan to this day. Not particularly about guitar this album but then neither am I really – I always reckon music counts above petty things like what it’s played on.

4. Top Of The Stax – Various Artists

Steve Cropper is a big hero of mine as a writer and a session master. He plays on most of the tracks on this Stax records compilation. He never played two notes when one would do – and how about the total genius of reversing the chords for the intro of Midnight Hour to make the riff for Knock On Wood. And getting away with it! Brilliant.

5. Muddy Waters – His Best 1947-55

This guy did more to teach me about TIME and tone than anyone else ever did. This is the best Muddy compilation and avoids a lot of the later crap that Chess Records led him into in search of a hit.

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QUESTION 10.

Jake:

Thanks Darren – these are great great discs and I think your comments about timing will really, really help some of our readers. Finally I noticed in some of your early performances with the big band sound you`re rocking a rather large quiff that gives you the suave yet dangerous appearance of a riverboat gambler – does this help at all – and can it be performed without blues supervision?

Darren:

LOL – yeah well at least I never sported a mullet, bro!     

Jake:

Fantastic !!
Well there you have it everybody , THE WORD from none other than south pacific bluesmaster Darren Watson. Thank you Darren for talking to us and for giving us such an invaluable insight into your approach to guitar and for sharing your time.

Darren is available for one on one lessons if you are in New Zealand’s beautiful harbour city capital of Wellington.

…some dreams are destined to become the ephemeral, transient, fleeting, angels of the imagination, or fragile, brittle, creatures of clay…

Not all seraphs effloresce into beautiful flying colour; some may fly but fall earthbound from heaven – the filthy offspring of rotting flesh cast to the wind…

this song is in progress.

DREAM BIG or DONT DREAM AT ALL

Back in `o7  – an improvisational  jam live with cool jazz  guitar messenger Wellington’s D-mas…

13

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I call it thirteen cause

“Now there’s number on every man.”

2005

after spending time at the docks and at the historic pub in the valley:

” I asked Davey to come and cut my lawn, but he never blaady did it. It was 6 feet high – he said a chinaman used his lawnomower to hang himself between the boats…”

All the bars are drunk right dry
like Napoleon came here to die
with a sacred codex that ever ry body else..er seems. to… know
pour yaself another bourbon and wait until-a timeball comes down
old ghosts’ll dance the rattlebones in prsion cells across the town
beneath the chapels that falling down
we all fall down

But that was back in `69, when the Queen of Bath went down the sink
Mack says “yowa goddamned liar” and then storms outside to think
but back in the bar with a cluster of stars  he had stolen from the trinket sky
“Never turn your back on a drink” says Mack, but we all know that hes’s a lie

IN walks the local providore, who’s brought his cross to bear,
And drags behind a broken anchor; a sextant and a rusty square,
where rusty hulls of dying fleets are drowning in the Irish bar,
the guitar maker plays the barb wire whilst speaking to his guitar.

silent russian sailors are drinking poison in the seafront hotel
the flaking paint dolls head lampshades glimmer for a different clientele
gramaphonic histories from
broken trombones groan their mysteries
to the people that know me well

I didn’t see the time fall, didn’t hear the midshipman’s bell.

2006

Let not your heart
be so sad baby
jesus gonna meet me in the air

meet me in the air, air
you know my time is soon
meet me in the air
we’ll meet behind the moon

i been trying to reach you baby
in the mountains and the sky
in the distant echo of my memory
it’s no shame for you to cry

meet me in the air
you know my time int long
meet me in the air, maybe
soon I will be gone

upon the clouds, upon a white horse shining
steadfast, faithful and true
eyes aflame and with a head of many crowns
and with a name that no-one knew

met me in the air
you know my time is gone
meet me in the air air baby
you know my time is gone

Written in ‘96

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Flick the switch and turn off the machine

[Cauterise] my soul and set me free

Please help me god I cant breathe

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I only wanna see the sun

(x2 first time)

Collide with space and slowly burn away

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Cant we heal can we repair ?

Hurts so bad

Hurts so bad

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I only wanna see the sun

(x2 first time)

Collide with space and slowly burn away

Dont cry…the wires
Dont lie, desire…

_{Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000173 EndHTML:0000002739 StartFragment:0000002368 EndFragment:0000002703}

I only wanna see the sun

(x2 first time)

Collide with space and slowly burn away

Flick the switch and turn off the machine

[Cauterise] my soul and set me free

Please help me god I cant breathe

_{Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000173 EndHTML:0000002739 StartFragment:0000002368 EndFragment:0000002703}

I only wanna see the sun

Collide with space and slowly burn away

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Don’t try to cut the wires

Don’t try to cut the wires

Life support it isn’t life

Life support its just a lie

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13 years after recording this into a YAMAHA MTX3 4 track,  here’s what I laid down as a guide; just faster:

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…stormy rough-hewn glory recorded in about 10 minutes using the inbuilt microphone on a laptop, a wineglass, drumstick, table leg and guitar… a missionary song  -

It was one friday morning three years ago
when he appeared the way a cigarette smokes
a name of warning, a lonely sermon about the war
with the truth
He said “theres only them and us, the good lord above
And now; just me and you”

Sho.. he was standing at the side of the road when I come around the curve standin there face and no face,
hangdog determined and calm too like he done desperated himself up for the last time.

[break - fall, break - fall, break - fall]
[for the last time, to take the last chance, for the last last time]

With Blood yellowed eyes and dirty nailed hands
We sealed with signs our terrible plans
Lord strike me down
You dance with the devil else you don’t dance at all
In Jackson town

[break - fall, break - fall, break - fall]
[for the last time, to take the last chance, for the last last time]

Fate and circumstance had brought us together
But memory believes before knowing remembers
I coulda bit my tongue in two when he shot her down
Love and hate is all we got, all we really need
And all we believe.

Take two stolen pistols down that dirty old road
Past a pillar of salt and a yella column of smoke
Hi Ho Silver lightning and away we go, Hi Ho, Hi Ho

A bloodless coward and a prodigal son
A one armed messenger with the rebels gun
Get outta here Judas, you’ll kill us all
(he shot me down)

So sing a song of six cents
And a pocket full of rye
Hoist me like a mainsail…HI HO HI HO HI HO
Swinging through the sky
Onward christian soldiers
Marching as to war
“I never meant to kill her”
Where the grapes of wrath are stored
Where the grapes of wrath are stored
(lord forgive me , please forgive me now)
Stamping out the glory
(lead us not into temptation)
Stamping out the glory
(And forgive us our sins)

Sho.. he was standing at the side of the road when I come around the curve standin there face and no face, hangdog determined and calm too like he done desperated himself up for the last time.

(c) jake edwards may 2008

This post started out as a best guitar solos post, but, it has mutated into a great players post and  has begun to encompass hooks, riffs and more. I mean, you just can’t exclude Keith Richards from a post about great guitar can you?

I had a rummage around inside my head and here, in no particular order, are some great guitar players. I’ve named the specific tracks in the videos. Most of these artists are HOT on anything they play…

If anyone out there would like to offer up any more superlative examples then please comment.

1. Snowy White (on Peter Green’s) Slabo Day

2. Jeff Beck Where were you

3. Junior Wells & Buddy Guy Stormy Monday

4. Chet Atkins Kicky

5. Eric Clapton Blues Power Live on Just One Night

6. Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced Live at Winterland UK L.P.

7. Billy Corgan Soma

8. Johnny Winter – Mississippi Blues

9. Dire Straits Sultans of Swing

10. Alvin Lee Live (with 10 years after) I’m going Home

11. Roy Buchanan The Messiah will Come Again

12. Santana – Soul Sacrifice

13. Ry Cooder – Paris Texas

14.Rolling Stones with Mick Taylor - Cant You Hear Me Knocking ?

15. Joe Satriani – Surfing with the Alien

16. Nirvana – Smells like Teen spirit

17. Otis Rush – unsolo on I can’t quit you babe

18. Jimi Hendrix – Bold as Love

19. David Gilmour – skeletal arpeggio from S.O.Y.C.D.

20. B.B King – Sweet Sixteen live in Africa 1974

21. Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun

22. Adrian Legg – Pedal Steel without Pedals

23. Eric Johnson – Song for George

24. Radiohead/Jonny Greenwood – Airbag

25. Rory Gallagher – Too Much Alcohol

26. Son House – Death Letter

27.King Crimson - Discipline Album

28. George Benson-Breezin’

29. The Edge / U2 -When I look at the World

30. Django -Honey Suckle Rose

31. Keith Richards -Happy

32. Sonny Landreth -Zydeco Shuffle – almost everybody slides

33. Joe Bonamassa -Sloe Gin

34. Freddie King -Woman Across the Water

35. Scotty Moore - That’s Alright Mama

36. Albert Collins - If trouble was money

37. Mississippi John Hurt - You’ve got to walk that Lonesome Valley

38. Robert Cray - Don’t be afraid of the dark

more soon

Some people believe the Ouija board, the talking board, is a simple toy, and some consider them to be highly dangerous objects, capable of opening holes in the fabric of space and time, communicating with Daemons and Elementals. I`ve been working on the Prince of Cats;

those Eyes that never left the ground, no-one made a single sound;
around the sullen faces, maudlin like the poems of inarticulate men staring;
the skeleton people with tight yellow skin. sleepin` all day, on heroin, the neighbours only found him
aft’ the buzzards fill’d the sky.

ONE day the ground is gonna swallow you up - cause in the tear blown eyes of god
you aint nothing but dust,

so sing a sad sad song, if you aint got long,
so sing a sad sad song,if you aint got long

I watched you break the furniture, watched you cut the pillows, the french flags in tatters,
the guns from your battles warm & beating lazily beside you, your head in the stream…

sing a sad, sad song, so sing a sad sad song, if you aint got long,
so sing a sad sad song, if you aint got long

frosted glass and crystal pendants hang about her, and guilty men leave the graves of their fathers
on mentholatum painkillers are stringing up the children…
and pouring kerosene in your singing eyes because one day the ground’s gonna swallow you up

so sing a sad sad song, if you aint got long,
so sing a sad sad song, if you aint got long

…working fucking hard on sorting through demo tracks recorded hastily under pessure when I wa flying up to the studio alot. It’s time consuming and of course, as everybody knows the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune still fly, and smart so keenly.

Myself right now, well I moved back down south;canned my job – it was sucking the life out of me -  living in an old spare room, next to the washing machine and that’s thanks to the charity of the only real friend I have; with little beyond a bmx bike, some clothes, one laptop, recently collected second hand literature, two mint condition old blues LP`s (muddy waters & ???),  a painting, two vases I don’t need, one stratocaster and one beaten up hofner for slide playing, a collection of rocks, pauau, a dreamcatcher bricolage of  found objects, talismans, feathers, trinkets, rosaries, crosses from as far afield as Barcelona, London, and Waikakahi, Hawea…

One day hopefully I’ll eulogise nostalgically about the good old days when I had nothing…and the washing machine was god.

down at the studio november `08 I cut this guide on the plank:

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Desolation angels everywhere….I’m on the road, thank god for freedom; after the sting of disappointment and the hard earthquake work of a tectonic shift is gone comes the mellifluous colour-tones and taste of time, motion; mountain, river and ocean, vision and celebration, dedication and devotion.

Be the water – you cant stay in one place too long but unlike the million raindrops falling on the glass around you  – avoid the path of least resistance. Take the difficult road and be prepared to die for what you believe in…risk everything to complete your vision…just to write and breathe; songs, messages, art that eat worlds…

I first saw House when I was maybe twelve or thirteen years old, and,  it changed everything for me.

House`s sounds are characteristically steam driven rhythmic explorations of disturbingly apocryphal and intense gothic desolation, loss, isolation and spiritual retribution. His early experience as a baptist preacher
bleeds through and informs his vocals empowering them with an incantatory, mesmeric resonance that borders on Native American shamanism. House`s lexicon occupies a position of such emotional lucidity and trail blazing acuity that much of what followed after him could be viewed as incomplete, inchoate gestural cliches. It was House who, speaking to awe-struck young blues fans in the 1960s, spread the legend that Johnson had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical powers…but he musta been talking about hisself.

I got a letter this mornin, how do you reckon it read?
It said, “Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead”

So, I grabbed up my suitcase, and took off down the road
When I got there she was layin on a coolin’ board

Well, I walked up right close, looked down in her face
Said, the good ol’ gal got to lay here ’til the Judgment Day

Looked like there was 10,000 people standin’ round the buryin’ ground
I didn’t know I loved her ’til they began to let her down

You know I didn’t feel so bad, ’til the good ol’ sun went down
I didn’t have a soul to throw my arms around

You know, it’s hard to love someone that don’t love you
Ain’t no satisfaction, don’t care what in the world you do

You know, love’s a hard ol’ fall, make you do things you don’t wanna do
Love sometimes leaves you feeling sad and blue

The mighty Son House. The real deal; spent the first half of his life in the Steam Age and the later half working on the New York Central Rail line. If this man`s music doesn’t move you – nothing will. You must be dead. In my humble opinion Son House is the greatest blues player of all time…

House was born in 1886 (officially) 1902 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and in his mid twenties, inspired by Willie Wilson, he bought a guitar and played alongside Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. Son House even spent time on Parchman Farm for killing a man in self defence.

House`s sounds are characteristically steam driven rhythmic explorations of disturbingly apocryphal and intense gothic desolation, loss, isolation and spiritual retribution.  His early experience as a baptist preacher bleeds through and informs his vocals empowering them with an incantatory, mesmeric resonance that borders on Native American shamanism.

House`s lexicon occupies a position of such emotional lucidity and trail blazing acuity that much of what followed after him could be viewed as incomplete, inchoate gestural cliches.

This is the voice of the Wicked Messenger, when he rolls back into town.

Music can be inspiration, divination and self exploration within the ancient church of self; your DNA possesses and encodes evolutionary time…….the ancient “church” is everywhere; that is everywhere we haven`t desecrated it with base architectures and  pollutants often incorrectly disguised beneath a veneer of language such as “progress”, “industry”, “change” and more. Water is the carrier and light is the messenger.

Liberte, equality, Egalite…
freedom, equality, egalitarianism; the hypotheses of European Revolutionaries remain still only ideals enoded into arbitrary signs. I recently picked up a copy of the 1962 Freedom Movement songbook – unity & music were at the centre of social change.

After four years with no acoustic guitar writing songs on borrowed planks and often times on my beloved stratocaster with a collection of maybe 6 guitars left to decay, rot, decline and gather dust, rust and cobweb somewhere in an empty cupboard on the other side of the earth I have finally found a plank for myself. Its a simple rather than a complex machine…An old hofner F-hole!  Fortunately the gods here have smiled upon me and hooked me up with Mojo Sound in Wellington for recording with some pricey pricey guitars…

With a mellow, aged, ochre, molasses and diesel sound this baby is just built for percussive, skiffle styles, slide lead lines. It`s great even if it rattles like tthe eeth in an old desert lost skull, and the actions higher than god…

Ive been using my phone for years now to record stuff ..modern technology makes me sick.

Ive just started working on a new song with this new blues guitar but I can`t.

I`m surrounded by more technology right now than used to launch the hubble telescope, video cameras, sound interfaces, computers – windows and mac, photo cameras, mixing desks, amplifiers, electronic drums, p.a.`s and I cant record a single damn riff into any of it…so I`m using my mobile phone and I wish I had a cassette recorder…complexity is the enemy of creativity…

“Blood like cold needles that slide in my veins
You fell from heaven in the yellow rain
Stealing the crimson flowers of day
Black embers shone of a time now gone
crosses & candlesticks, conquests, cathedrals now forgotten”

aeons ago, almost another lifetime – arriving on the plains with a guitar, a bicycle and a rucksack 6 months in the fields taught me the titan majesty of mountains & rivers. I traveled around as much as I could and I slowly built  talismans and people, gifts, and found objects into a huge feathered dream catcher onto the rear view mirror of my van which was my accommodation on excursions across the island…

Four years have passed -  working in a city, a beautiful city, flying to the capital to record songs that came out of the  rivers, mountains, hills and plains…but, this beautiful florid city is sucking the life out of me…I need to work to pay for the recordings, to work in the city to make enough money, but it doesn`t make any sense…

Here are the contents of the slowly assembled “dream machine” mosaic of minds and matter:

…rekiie healers handmade amulet as gift, antique remnants of barcelona spain cathedral prayer beads-rosary the crucifix lost, amerindian ex-girlfriends animal gift from 1999, southshore plastic toy handgrenade, 2006 kaitorete feathers from long walk, emo cow print new brighton bracelet plus two brass bracelets unknown origin, maori doll wellington, plastic sun amulet mid-canturbury plains `06, paua earing and purple feather (now decayed) (both found objects), silver watchchain early 20th century from U.K., american indian silver handmade ring – white feather, working pocket watch trinket originally japan from friend (returned). semi-precious rock collection from Longford river, Waikakahi/Jacobs Bay/Rangitata & Rakaia bed/Motukatuka point – Pauau from Wahine Park, Purau and east coast S.island bays shells…

The last recording sessions went well again with the presence of the underworld, the invisible and the unholy taunting us from the ruins of forgotten lives and lessons. Mojo sound, again helped out with guitar supply and we re-tracked  the guitar parts for Rakaia River a third time and breezed through the anthemic You Lost It All in no time at all. Film Broadcast quality hardware combined with ultra sensonic microphones and expensive Martin timber really makes a difference. We use hardware made by Sound Devices. Messing about with a slide, in natural open tuning can be pretty good fun here`s an outtake from the session…

The song Architecture of Destiny is an loosely constructed homage to the autistic, but multidimensional City of Glass, The sublime House of Leaves, Beckford`s Vathek and intertwines the everyday, matter of fact relational breakdown, difference and decay within the broader context of an “architecture” of pre-ordained bad luck. I journeyed today with a psychic to an abandoned school built in the early 20th Century;
We live in a  supranatural world.

Click here for a slideshow.

There`s obviously a supernatural tradition innate to the blues lyric and the historical context from which the early blues pioneers emerged.

It`s a subject of great interest both for its pseudo religious supranatural leanings and the degree to which this tradition has been perpetuated… The lone artist, soaked in liquour, absinthe and opium, an artist struggling with, for or against the elements or humanity in defiance of tradition, change, oppression -a freedom fighter channelling the forces of good or evil through a talismanic or demoniacal engagement to the guitar, the pen or the cause. A vocal tradition hoodoo-esque, incantational, evangelical, proselytising, confessional, mean, base or sexual…it’s blue.

Robert Johnson; there`s a lot of hoodoo wrapped up around the man, in particular that he sold his soul to the devil down at the crossroads in Clarksdale. Originally, Son House suggested, Johnson was not regarded as a good musician at all but after the trade with Satan he returned with the blazing skills and blues mastery of a demi-god. Much of the early blues protagonists framed their content within the context of african american hoodoo/religious belief wrapped up in the historical context of migratory diaspora and most of the cliches of the blues narrative are more culturally rich in meaning than they might at first appear. The simple cliche alone of “the highway” is extrapolated and interpolated by numerous artists over the last 90 years by Bob Dylan alone many times across his recorded work. A great bridging work for the blues to the present date is Michael Gray’s ‘Song and Dance Man III’, which illustrated Dylan`s reappropriation of the blues through other song forms.

The narrative and folk tales, the telling of lies or competitive tales, the healthily obscene “putting in the dozens”, the long and witty toasts and the epigrammatic rhyming couplets which enliven the conversation of folk negro and harlem hipster alike, have their reflections in the blues.

Paul Oliver`s book “Conversation with the Blues” (1965)

There`s a great thesis here about the concept of the Trickster, which leads me onto what I`ve talked about previously with regards to Radioheads re-appropriation of the blues through a series of post modern metaphors and the Sublime. Eric Clapton himself has suggested that Johnson`s cross tempo work is unparalleled and Johnny Winter makes use of this technique also.

In the following video Eric Clapton, another “guitar hero” whose early songwriting capabilities and exploration of new genres (e.g. Cale & Marley) seems to be wholly forgotten now, talks about Robert Johnson and plays “Stones in the Passway”.

It`s a great place to start exploring what Robert Johnson has to offer and why he is who he is. It also illuminates the sheer technique, the impact of the unusual, that is often confused with something arcane, mythical, metaphysical, divine and otherworldly or more specifically in the blues with superstition, an encounter with the Devil or other dark force and the conceit of a conspirational universe.  It’s also interesting to note that the cross tempo section Eric Clapton discusses is a technique that many artists have plagiarised or emulated: Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher have used it in varying degrees throughout their careers.

At any rate as much as Johnson’s technique was formidable and undeniably unique recordings have always sounded odd: his voice always seemed pitched too high and anyone who owns a gramophone knows that speed is ultimately the choice of the listener. Anyway, it seems that we may been listening to Robert Johnson at too many revolutions.
Touched.co.uk are offering Steady Rollin’ Man – 24 tracks of Robert Johnson slowed down – click here. I.M.H.O. this is the way Robert Johnson should sound and you can read all about it here.

original video version of the Rakaia River Murder song. This version was recorded into a camera whilst living on the floor at a friends house maybe 4 years back?
(I wrote all this song near Rakaia from 2005-2006 and recorded them in 2007).

I`d been out on the road, travelling around, living in a van. Hanging out. It was a metaphysical journey. 6 months re-reading Desolation Angels on the inverse hemisphere.Anyway, I didnt tune up too tight, didnt rehearse at all, placed the lyrics on the floor and hit record on a cheap Canon camera. I separated the audio and the footage later. If I can find it I`ll dig it up and post that too.

[click to continue...]

You can`t make something out of nothing, but too much nothing will make a man feel ill at ease. Worldly possessions; you cant take them with you. But this is the 21st century too. Better be sure to put a value on the things you really care about, because at the end of the day, nothing material counts for jack shit. Look after your soul and travel light. Ignore the media and don’t buy any of their crap. Suddenly I own too much and then Suddenly everything evaporates. Maybe I bought into myself too much.

1.fender stratocaster, leads, pedals, small amp, pair of cans, small midi keyboard
2.laptop, hardrive, leads, mbox mini
3.Small pile of books
4. small car
5. Bicycle x 2
6. rucksack with clothes, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 caps, 1 broad brim hat
7. large collection of rocks, pauau, and 1 cactus.
8. couple of paintings, a few pictures, mobile telephone
9. pile of cd`s including Subterranean Homesick Blues, 6 cassette tapes, Big Lebowski & Dylan other side of the mirror dvd
10. battered hofner side guitar

Having said all that it sure is uncomfortable without table, chairs, or bed. Sadly though at the end of the day you only have yourself; and yourself to blame. That last breath you breathe is gonna be mighty lonely but at least its brief. There`s only the in between. Truth might get in the way of a good story, but life’s cold hard realities will never get in the way of a good song…

n’

_{Last time I was in London I attended a party replete with goldfish bowls in the stairwells, famous chef, name dj and a stunning view of Tower Bridge, the Gherkin and the Eye. It was pretty good and the champagne was flowing. I also attended a business meeting in the West End. I arrived at around 12 and left at four. We made our way to the Tube/Underground afterwards to say farewell. As I stood within a maelstrom of bodies pouring in and out the entrance to the Underground I realised with complete acuity that if I had expired and fallen to the floor no-one would have paid the blindest bit of notice at all.}Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000186 EndHTML:0000043111 StartFragment:0000002570 EndFragment:0000043075

The architecture of destiny 2005

The conversation thus ignored flies on up towards the yellow ceiling

Cant decipher being bored, cant decode this desperate feeling

Whilst the truth fights the trash on the garage floor

Between the rotten old chairs and the broke down doors

And the rusty old cars, that rot out on the lawn

And I just don’t care

Really I don’t anymore

You say we`re all equal but some more equal than others

Who does the judging and as your god discovers

Your history is all lies and all your truths are whores

Call all your prophets, call your disciples call them to your cause

Your suffering fathers and all your surrogate mothers

To wash all your dishes and sort out the cupboards

The kids start to fight and the rain beats the shutters

Theres a howling in the wind for Jacqueline, but she only mutters,

Strange cries in the kitchen the antenna just stutters

Smoke ourselves to death outside whilst the rain fills the gutters…

And of course you`re just so, over it all, and you say I don’t give nothing

back at all

Oh mercy me, bad luck designed

Oh mercy me, bad luck design, my destiny

Three sisters in the distance their resistance fills my eyes

They fight the amber rain, whilst silently we drive

Im waiting at the station for the future to arrive

In this desperate situation the conversation… slowly dries

There`s Jesus at the crossroads hanging out to dry

Abandoned by his god baptized in thorns and lies

And even that kids got something to say

When the arguments don’t go your way

Its okay I`ll leave all my faults here at the door

You can stamp them all out as they creep across the floor

Guess it`s just a change youre going through, guess its got something

to do with the moon

Oh mercy me bad luck designed         

Oh mercy me bad luck design

I think the house is talking to me, asking me to leave

You fucking friends who hang around are just old buildings falling down…

Falling down.

In november `08 three years later I went down to the studio to cut a guide track and see if I could make it through the song:

Architecture of Destiny guide track

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… I could write a million acerbic verses…..