Innehållsförteckning för October 2022 från Guitar Player

YEARS BEFORE HE became one of the most celebrated guitarists on the planet, Joe Satriani was a club-gigging musician who paid his bills — sometimes barely — by teaching other aspiring players. His famous alumni includes the likes of Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, Alex Skolnick and Primus’s Larry LaLonde, among others. “It was a great experience,” Satriani says of his teaching days. “No matter what abilities my students came to me with, I always tried to give them their money’s worth and build their musical knowledge in ways they could grasp and use. And I tried to make the lessons fun, because I knew that if things got boring, they’d tune out and stop coming.” In his own life, Satch considers himself ever the student. “I’m still teaching myself,” he…

A ROBERT FRIPP interview has become a rare thing. “That Awful Man,” as he calls himself, has been quite happy to keep journalists at arm’s length. He hasn’t even allowed his guitar collection to be photographed. That includes the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Custom, serial number 9 1986, used on many classic albums by his group King Crimson. Which is why it strikes us as implausible that we are here at Fripp HQ in the Middle England countryside for a lengthy discussion with Fripp on all things King Crimson, as well as a photoshoot of the instruments behind some of that group’s — and prog rock’s — finest moments. “I don’t collect guitars,” Fripp cautions as we settle down to talk. “They are merely tools that I use in my…

IN 2015, I had the honor of being on a panel of judges for the First Annual Wes Montgomery International Guitar Competition, sponsored by George Klabin of Resonance Records and held in Merkin Concert Hall on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. This evening showcased half a dozen rising-star guitarists from around the world, including Dan Wilson from Ohio, Michael Valeanu from France, Lucian Gray from Toronto and Roland Balogh from Budapest. But of all the finalists that October day, one preternaturally gifted guitarist stood above the rest. In fact, after Pasquale Grasso from Italy finished his set, I elbowed fellow judge Pat Martino sitting next to me and said, “It’s all over. That’s the guy.” And Pat agreed. Grasso won the competition, taking home the $5,000 prize and a Pat Martino…

“I CAN KNOCK certain songs of mine for one reason or another, but not this one,” Marshall Crenshaw says of “Someday, Someway,” the irresistibly catchy 1982 pop-rock gem that launched the Detroit-born musician’s career and is now considered his signature song by fans and critics alike. “It sounded good when I released it, and it still sounds good today. People want me to play it at every show, which is fine, because I happen to love it and I’m really proud of it.” PHONY BEATLEMANIA In February 1980, Crenshaw was in Boston for a four-week run of Beatlemania, the musical revue in which he’d portrayed John Lennon for three long years. “One night, the stage manager gave me a warning: ‘You’ve got to try harder. Look like you’re enjoying it,’”…

LET’S FACE IT: The chances for a rock band to have any kind of success, much less maintain it, are statistically very low. And then there’s Shinedown. Together since 2001, and with record sales exceeding 10 million copies, the Jacksonville, Florida–based outfit has the kind of staying power that seems to defy all odds. How does guitarist Zach Myers explain the group’s longevity? “It’s something I think about a lot, and I certainly don’t take anything for granted,” he says. “Most of the bands we came up with aren’t here anymore. I think one of the things that’s kept us going is the fact that we write songs that mean something and speak to people. We don’t write about partying or doing drugs. Plus, we have a pretty unique sound.…

ON HIS SIXTH studio album, 2020 Visions, maverick guitarist Stephen Dale Petit has created a blues record unlike any other. For one thing, it’s a concept record. For another, it presents a dystopian view of society, America in particular, with themes of factionalism, tribalism and alienation, all through the lens of someone gazing into the not-too-distant future. In this case, that someone is an ex-pat (Petit moved to England from California in the mid ’80s) who penned much of the material back in 2017 but is only now seeing his album — and a good many of his prescient predictions — become a reality. “I guess it’s pre-dystopian, to make up my own term,” Petit says in a distinct British accent. “Having not lived in America for so long, I’m…

PETER ROWAN’S 60-YEAR career weaves like a thread through the vast bluegrass tapestry, from its traditional roots through the progressive movement and onto the modern landscape. Rowan has never been a flashy player. He’s a subtle guitar hero, renowned for his artistic rhythm accompaniment full of meaningful bass runs and purposeful passing chords, setting the stage for his signature vocals and a lengthy list of virtuosic soloists. Equally adept as a flatpicker or fingerpicker, Rowan has probably played alongside as many all-time acoustic greats on every conceivable instrument as anyone who’s ever donned a guitar. The iconic list includes Bill Monroe’s mandolin in the Bluegrass Boys, Jerry Douglas’s Dobro, Tony Rice’s dreadnought, and Jerry Garcia’s banjo in the extraordinarily popular Old & In the Way, which in the mid ’70s…

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WITH REHEARSALS FOR his tour just a week away, rising indie-rock star Bartees Strange is surrounded by his favorite guitars and amplifiers. From all indications, this is the hard part of the job. “If you could see me right now, I have all of my amps in a circle around me and, like, five guitars,” Strange says over the phone from his home in Virginia. “And I’m just like, ‘What’s going to be the perfect combination?’ I can’t figure it out.” Whether he’s strapped with his Gibson ’59 ES-335 Reissue, ’67 Epiphone Casino or ’59 Fender Jazzmaster, Strange will show up ready to blaze. Over the past year, he’s toured with indie vanguards like Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Car Seat Headrest. But as one can tell from his latest…

IN 1971, 20-YEAR-OLD Davey Johnstone was just starting to get his career as a professional guitarist off the ground when he got a call from his producer friend Gus Dudgeon that literally changed his life. “Gus asked me to meet Elton John, whom he was producing, and the next thing I knew I was playing on Elton’s new album, Madman Across the Water,” Johnstone recalls. “I played on four cuts — ‘Tiny Dancer,’ ‘Levon,’ ‘Holiday Inn’ and the title track. A week after the sessions, I was asked to join the band.” Johnstone didn’t have to be asked twice. Although John wasn’t yet a huge star, his music appealed to the Scottish-born guitarist. “Elton was writing such beautiful songs with Bernie Taupin,” Johnstone says. “Plus, you had Gus Dudgeon and…

ONE OF THE cruelest misfortunes to befall musicians of any stripe is when memory fails just as their inspiration and abilities converge at the summit of their creative Kilimanjaro. Our best ideas are often the most perishable, the first to evaporate if we fail to document them, get them down on tape. Kurt Vile is alive to the danger. He takes every precaution, booby-trapping his home studio with recording devices to ensure those song ideas get committed to something more reliable than his grey matter. The ideas might not seem like much in the moment, but that’s okay, because sometimes there’s gold right there, just waiting to be extracted. “You just lay stuff down really fast with some keys, guitar, or whatever you have, and you’d be surprised,” he explains,…

THINK ABOUT THE Gibson Flying V and chances are good Albert King will come to mind. The left-handed blues guitarist adopted the model for its symmetrical body, as well as its versatility. It has also become a favorite of Stephen Dale Petit, a Gibson obsessive who received tour bus lessons from King. So it seems a bit of musical karmic justice that Petit was the recipient of a custom Modern Flying V bearing his initials in the serial number. The new sci-fi special edition has been heralded as a “blast from the future,” with its space-age design, custom-plated metal appointments and a shimmering prism-sparkle finish. With it, Petit follows in the footsteps of not only King but also Flying V adoptees Dave Davies and Jimi Hendrix. “I always seek fresh…

LAST MONTH, WE explored the practice approaches and routines of great players like Pete Thorn. We learned about the importance of going beyond the notes when learning a favorite piece of music, as well as the value of challenging oneself to play a new style. Let’s get right back into it! I first heard Patrick Hay (fons.app/@patrickhay) play on singer/songwriter Matt Singer’s stellar 2008 EP, The Drought, and I was moved and inspired by his subtle creativity. More recently, Patrick has toured internationally and recorded with Brooklyn band Great Elk, and he currently teaches guitar virtually. Patrick recommends taking a lick you already know and learning it in as many different ways as you can find on the neck, even if the results are unorthodox. He explains, “This opens up…

ALTHOUGH ITS RUGGED looks might imply a more sinister meaning, the “KGB” in Valco’s new KGB DIST stands for keyboard, guitar and bass, hinting at the unit’s broad functionality. Valco is a subsidiary of Eastwood Guitars, whose pedal line is designed and built in Canada, and has thus far released several pedals and a handful of pickups. The Valco name was associated with amps branded as Supro, Oahu and Gretsch in the 1950s and ’60s, but today the company is aiming for the characterful, slightly aggressive personality its name implies, and the KGB DIST’s looks inspire a street cred to match. Housed in a wedge-shaped, folded-steel box, the KBG DIST demands some real estate on your pedalboard, but it does a lot to warrant its squatter’s rights. The input and…