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In a Trade, I Swap Out National Resonator Guitars at Dave’s Guitar Shop in La Crosse, WI

After a 2.5 hour trek across frozen farm country in Iowa and Minnesota, I cross the Mississippi River into Wisconsin and spend several hours at one of the preeminent guitar stores in the U.S.

My first resonator… A steel NRP…

I play finger-style country blues and those of you who’ve read this weblog know that… I take lessons at my local shop which is an excellent guitar store and the community is blessed to have it… After one of my lessons a couple of years ago, I decided to noodle around with a resonator guitar and the shop had a modestly priced Fender that I picked up and tried out.

The Fender was a wooden bodied resonator with nice low play so that fingering the guitar was quite easy. I played through a few of old country blues tunes on the resonator and was smitten. I loved the bonk and splang of the guitar. I decided then that I would acquire a resonator, and guitar snob that I am, I was not inclined to purchase a Fender… Instead, I wanted a National because those guys invented the resonator… Well… it’s a little more complicated then that… I think the National/Dobro company that originally produced the resonator went out of business for some years, and was reconstituted as a manufacturer of resonators in 1989, but for all intents and purposes, it’s symbolically and culturally the same company, as they build their guitars just like in the old days and have added new innovations too along the way…

Mr. Catfish Keith playing a Tricone (from his website)

Fortunately for me, eminent country blues performer, award winning recording artist and resonator aficionado Catfish Keith gave me some basic beginner’s points on shopping for a resonator. He recommended a single cone guitar that fell into the Duolian or Triolian class as a good place to start. Keith also is a representative for National Guitars and will sell you anything in their product line. At this point, I was thinking a pre-owned instrument was my best choice to save some money and thanked Keith for his help.

National guitars were not to be had in Cedar Falls, IA, so I jumped into Reverb world for the first time and found a pretty good deal on a “mint” steel bodied NRP Black Rust that was designed to emulate the original Duolian steel guitar that famous bluesmen like Son House played. It was perhaps a bit too adventuresome on my part to buy an NRP without ever having played one, and when it arrived I was appalled at how high the “action” or string play from the fretboard was and how heavy the instrument settled onto my lap. To save my life, I could not fret the neck properly to play finger style on the NRP and was pretty distraught until I decided I would learn to play bottleneck style to justify the purchase!

National Reso-Rocket WB with Hot Plate pickup

Now, I really like playing bottleneck and will always remember that the NRP led me down that path… I was so enthused by bottleneck playing, I decided to broaden my tonal range by purchasing a wooden bodied resonator and again through Reverb received a “mint” conditioned National Reso-Rocket WB (wood body). I loved this guitar to the point that I rarely picked up the NRP anymore, and when I did the splanky overly metallic sound compared to the woody/mellow toned Reso-Rocket put me off…

Recently when my guitar teacher learned I wanted to dump the NRP, he was initially apoplectic, defining the NRP as one of the “coolest” guitars ever; however, after hearing me play my WB and also playing it himself, he thought it was a more natural axe for me given my style and sentiments.

So, recently I tried to sell the NRP by consignment at my local shop, but that did not work out… I concluded after a brief experience that there was a low probability of selling an expensive resonator in Cedar Falls. I took the guitar back home to keep, but it sat there barely being used like a sore tooth and I eventually took another route to rid myself of it.

Some years earlier, I was informed by the local guitarati that a wonderful guitar shop (Dave’s Guitar Shop) existed in La Crosse, Wisconsin that not only had a huge selection of guitars (over 2500 according to their website), but in addition, Dave has an enormous personal collection of specialty guitars (over 500) on display up on the second floor that contains some of the most interesting and rarest guitars and amplifiers on the planet Earth.

Besides being a leading dealer for Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Taylor, National and PRS etc., Dave’s also has a brisk trade in used and vintage guitars. In fact, they have a no muss/no fuss electronic form to submit to get an estimate of the trade value for your guitar, which is I what I did last Sunday night for the NRP.

The very next day, they offered me a straight cash exchange or a better deal if I rolled the money over into a new purchase. So, being retired and healthy and having all the time in the world, I took off on a cross country drive the next day to visit Dave’s Guitars. Fortunately, for me the terrible weather over the past several days had abated temporarily so I had safe driving for the 2.5 hour trip.

Two lane blacktop through Iowa & Minnesota frozen farmlands…

Frankly, 2.5 hours through frozen tundra was a long drive, but it was exciting to finally cross the Mississippi into Wisconsin, enter La Crosse, and find the guitar store practically on the riverbank. The shop itself is a substantial two story building. It was impressive from the outside. I was told by my contact, a fellow identifying himself as JR to find him in the “acoustic room.”

Main floor at Dave’s… the electric guitar space…

So I entered through the double doors and landed in the electric guitar space. You can see in the image to the left, some of the Gibson ES models for sale. Well, I marched through the electric guitar space and was directed to the right side of the main floor where the acoustic room was.

Besides the store staff, I noticed mostly alte kakers (yiddish for old duffers) like me patronizing the store. One might conclude that lots of alte kakers play guitar and like to hang out where they’re sold!

Well… my man JR had to take care of a pair of alte kakers before he could meet with me, which was fine as I found a stool and took in the world around me. As you can see in the image below, I was surrounded by choice acoustic guitars, including, Collings, Santa Cruz, Gibson, Martin and Taylors. Not being in the market for an acoustic guitar because I own two lovely Taylors, my eyes sort of glazed over… the sheer number of high end, premium factory produced guitars was just overwhelming…

Corner section of Dave’s Guitars Acoustic Room
The NRP finds a new home…

In fairly short order, I had the full attention of JR and the first thing he did was look over and “test out” the NRP whilst plugged into an acoustic amp. Then he went “all airline” and starting plugging away at his computer, until he made a final offer, which was actually higher than the initial one given to me the day earlier via email. I was pretty delighted and took the deal to roll the “offer” into a replacement guitar, either pre-owned or new depending upon how my search went. The guitars I was considering during my drive over were as follows: (of course only one would I purchase)

  • The National Reso-Lectric, because it looked and sounded as cool as a cucumber when I did some online research. Plus, Dave’s had a used and new one so I could compare them and I had a fascination for this unusual appearing and sounding axe. I will speak to this try out momentarily below.

  • The National M-1 Tricone Cutaway Wooden Body. As I said earlier, I already own a Reso-rocket WB, so I was concerned as to whether the M-1 sounded different enough to justify purchasing it. Further, I wondered how it could be amplified… my Reso Rocket WB has a hot plate installed and I want my guitars amplified when I perform. A tricone is more difficult to amplify and it’s probably expensive to do it well. Sadly, Dave’s just sold the last one in stock. It was a very cool guitar.

  • Gibson ES 335. I play finger-style country blues almost exclusively and this guitar is a semi-hollow bodied electric classic; however, I own a lovely Taylor T3 Custom (flamed maple) with Vintage Alnico humbuckers and I wondered if they are too close to each other to justify getting one. I actually tried one out. It was a pre-owned “Custom Shop” guitar at half the original premium price, and it was very, very nice, but it did not capture my imagination. Further, I was also surprised how grubby it was, which turned me off… Is that a thing? Selling vintage guitars in grubby form to make them appear more authentic? Bad form…

  • American Professional Strat. I do not own an electric guitar with single coil pickups though I have some that will split their doubled coiled humbuckers… As I said, I own the T3, and I own a Taylor T5z Pro which is very different from a Strat and finally I own a beautiful 2007 Taylor Solidbody Custom Walnut with mini humbuckers and a newly replaced neck… So the question was do I really need a Strat both for my own personal experience or to round out my stable of sounds? I decided at this moment no. I have enough electric guitars for the time being. If I ever buy a Strat one day, it will probably be at my local shop.
My tryout space where I could plug into a Fender
Princeton Reverb, similar to one I own…

Now for the fun part of the trip. At my kind request, JR pulled out the used and new National Reso-Lectrics and found me an amplifier similar to one I have at home, procured a cable, let me plug-in, and then he left me to my own devices, suggesting I seek him out if I need any help or information. I greatly appreciated that he did not hover over me.

So, I picked up the used Reso-Lectric first as I really wanted to like it because it was considerably less money then a new one, and it was clean as a whistle. Sadly, I did not like it very much… It was thin, whiny and shallow sounding. Although it had nice low string play, which made for easy finger picking, it was unforgiving when I played with my brass slide. Too clangy… I tried a ceramic slide… no better.

I began wondering then if the Reso-Lectric was the guitar I had hoped it would be. It certainly sounded nice on some of the Youtube videos where I’d seen it reviewed, but this one was a bit of a dog! Perhaps it needed new batteries, or a reset, or pickup adjustments, but I did not have the time or patience to fight through that battle… I unplugged the used guitar and set it aside.

Then I picked up the new version of the Reso-Lectric and plugged in. It looked virtually the same as the used one aside from some finishing details on the headstock and the color of the plastic scratch plate and pick up cover. But, this guitar was very friggin’ different… it had a deep throatiness to it that was missing on the first one I tried… this guitar could go low and swampy, which is where I like to be! The play was still accessible for finger-style which delighted me; however, there was enough action to easily accommodate the slide too. With all systems go, I happily played through some of my Open D repertoire and the more I played it, the more I was convinced that this was the guitar I would walk out with…

When I was playing the new version of the Reso-Lectric a fascinating thing happened to me. Several of the old duffers hanging around the store came by and congratulated me on my playing! I was astonished because I was somewhat insecure playing out in the middle of one of the biggest and most discriminating guitar shops in the Midwest… One gentleman came by repeatedly, complimented my playing, asked for advice and told me how much he learned by our interactions! Wow… But the kicker, was when a store guy dropped by and told me that I reminded him of Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas movie soundtrack referring to the slower, more languid and accurate playing of the slide that I was producing… He said that it was rare for someone to play like I was performing in the store. I was really taken aback and thanked him for his kind words…

I’ve not seen Paris, Texas but looked up a sampling of the soundtrack on Youtube, which I post below. It’s quite nice and appeals to me and I can see some similarity in how I approach playing slide. I am definitely not in the same universe as Ry Cooder, but it was nice to be compared to him in such a manner.

Ry Cooder doing the languid thing…
JR and I pose with the National Reso-Lectric… I am delighted…

After I played for quite a while, I decided to take the Reso-Lectric home with me and asked JR to prep it for sale. There was a bit of schmutz (yiddish for gunk) that he cleaned off on the shiny metal parts and he performed a slight adjustment to the neck.

It really is a fascinating looking instrument. There is an art-deco sensibility to the design and the control knobs remind me of a 1950’s era kitchen toaster! Combine the sunburst finish with the resonator cone cover and the aforementioned flourishes and you have a completely unique looking axe.

For all intents and purposes, the Reso-Lectric is a hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. The combination of an acoustic designed piezo pickup under the biscuit where the strings rest on the resonator cone, and the traditional electric P90 single coil up near the neck gives the player a fairly wide ability to influence the tone along the acoustic/electric spectrum. Combine the guitar controls with a Princeton Reverb Amp, echo delay, octaver, and tremolo pedals and it can create quite an alluring sound when played with a slide! Below you can see the guitar ready to go…

Take me home to Iowa…

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the Reso-Lectric, I embedded below a factory tour of National Guitar focused entirely on the production of that particular guitar. The tour was done by a German outfit, so it begins in German language, but the tour itself is in English!

One of the rituals involved with visiting and/or shopping at Dave’s Guitars is to ascend to the second floor where Dave’s personal collection of historic, rare, and unusual guitars exists. This I decided to do and I took some shots which I post below. The sheer number of guitars and amplifiers is overwhelming. I knew I was in the midst of guitar history and museum quality greatness but did not have the wherewithal to take it all in, but it was fun to be up there for a while to wander around in awe… Sadly, I did not get to meet Dave himself, but if you scroll down below my shots of the collection there is a 45 minute interview with Dave and a detailed tour of the collection hosted/conducted by Premier Guitar Magazine… It’s worth the viewing if you have the time and the interest.

Some shots of Dave’s historic guitar collection

Below is the Premier Guitar Magazine interview with Dave of Dave’s Guitars:

Was the visit to Dave’s Guitar shop worth it? You Betcha!

Comments are welcome…
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Tone Zone for the Taylor Electrics: the Solidbody and the T5z…

or Jacob makes a house call… Part 2

A few weeks ago, my friend Jacob Lampman made a house call to help me set-up a my Taylor T3c from a tone perspective. It was a great visit and an education for me and is well-documented in a prior posting.

In short Jacob, who is an accomplished guitarist, guitar instructor, and all purpose floor guy at my local shop, Bob’s Guitars agreed to work with me at my home with my three electric guitar’s tones as barter for a very nice, barely used hand-tooled El Dorado guitar strap.

Left Taylor SBc Walnut; Right Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd

The guitars remaining for Jacob to work with were a 2007 Taylor SBc Walnut (SB stands for solid-body) and a 2019 Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd (Molasses Burst).

The SBc is an interesting guitar. Taylor manufactured solid body guitars for only a brief time. They had developed a set of “innovative” pickups when they designed the hollow-bodied acoustic/electric hybrid T5 and sometime thereafter introduced their solid bodies to the marketplace so they could deploy the pickups in other guitars. They produced multiple designs with varying specs and the one I purchased last summer off of Reverb was one of the nicest ones that they made. My SBc had a Walnut top laid into a routed out Sapele body, and equipped with mini-humbuckers. The unusual appearing aluminum bridge was also a Taylor invention that allows multi-directional setting of the guitar string.

Taylor’s solid bodies reviewed well among the guitarati; however they did not sell enough of the product to justify continuance of manufacturing and phased them out. As a caution to anyone else inspired to buy one of these on the used market, they can be found at reasonable prices; however, make sure to carefully check the Sapele neck for twisting/warping as I have heard of several units, including the one I purchased, that suffered from the aforementioned malady. I was exceptionally fortunate in that Taylor replaced my neck, but I have heard again from multiple other sources that they no longer will do replacements.

The other guitar for Jacob’s review was a 2019 T5z Pro, Ltd. The Pro version is made with a flamed maple top inlaid into a routed out Sapele body. You can spend more and get a Koa top if you wish, which would be a T5z Custom. Other than gold-plated works and the top wood, the guitars are spec’d the same. The T5z is sold as an acoustic/electric hybrid with a 5 way switch to vary the choices of which of three different pickups (2 humbuckers of varying design and location and an acoustic body sensor under the bridge) with combinations thereof that can be selected. Unlike the recently introduced Fender Acoustasonics, there is zero modeling or sound alteration internally taking place with the T5z other than the preamp tone controls. The T5z is a lovely, small hollow bodied guitar with three nicely designed pickups.

In the rear left a Fishman Artist Acoustic Amp and on the right a reissued Fender Princeton Reverb. In the foreground my pedal boards.

The purpose of Jacob’s visit was to help me sort out how best to used the above described guitars as they interact with my amps and pedals, which can be seen on the right.

For a more detailed discussion of my various pedals please refer to here.

During his previous visit Jacob and I worked exclusively on my Taylor T3c, which is a semi-hollow bodied electric guitar with two full-sized “vintage” alnico pickups. and the goal of that set-up with to keep a relatively clean sound with enhanced mid-tones to suit the electrified country blues that I like to play.

Jacob working on the Solid Body (SBc)…

We opened our discussion of the Solid Body by speaking to the differences between my full size vintage humbuckers on the T3 and the mini humbuckers on the SBc. The minis have a more focused tone and a clearer, brighter sound because they sense less string vibration with their smaller size. Further, mini humbuckers will create more “grind” when pushing the amp with extra gain, which increases the power of the signal from the guitar to the amplifier.

Jacob quickly disabused me of the notion that the Solid body was designed to play clean as “country water” like the T3. As suggested above, to sound its best, a solid body with mini humbuckers requires some extra “grind” or “grit” to take best advantage of the instrument, which means sending increased gain to the amplifier. The implements for that process would be my two Mesa Boost/Overdrive pedals. In sum, Jacob said we should seek to achieve a “hairier,” more intense driving sound from the mini-humbuckers.

Why Mesa gain pedals? Well, the marketplace is awash with pedals of this type and choosing proper ones can be overwhelming. I had owned an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food and an MXR Boost, but decided to dump them because I thought they added unwanted noise to my pedal signal chain. Rummaging around one Saturday at my local shop I noticed the Mesa pedals. They were originally very expensive but were marked down and the guys in the shop demonstrated them for me. I grabbed the Tone Burst that day and the Flux Drive a month or two later. The Mesa pedals were produced by a company (Mesa/Boogie) that makes high-end guitar amplifiers so they know what they’re doing, the pedals were well reviewed, they are beautiful, well built objects and I got an excellent price for them. Bob’s your uncle…

Mesa does not make a plethora of pedals and they focus primarily on the gain/drive/boost sort. The Tone Burst is mostly a gentle boost and tone modifier, while the Flux Drive acts more like a pre-amplifier with the purpose of adding enough gain into the signal chain to overdrive the amplifier and create break-up or distortion.

Mesa Overdrive Pedals… Tone-Burst on the Left and Flux-Drive on the right… note Jacob’s recommended settings for the Taylor SBc when played through the Fender Princeton…

Despite almost a year of fiddling with guitar pedals I am still a relative neophyte, particularly with the application of gain and overdrive to the signal chain. As a general rule and personal preference, I do not like playing with a lot of distortion. I agree with the late great Charlie Christian who preferred his guitar to sound electrified but not electronic! Because gain pedals are so omnipresent, I put a couple of them on my board because I thought I needed them, but because I am loath to add distortion, I used the Tone-Burst to lightly thicken my sound and actually rarely utilized the Flux-Drive.

Jacob was adamant that it was time to deploy both Mesa pedals to get the SBc properly sounding. In fact, he had me rearrange the order of the two pedals, flipping the Flux-Drive from behind to in front of the Tone Burst in the sound chain. With this arrangement, the Flux-Drive would determine “how thick the bread slice would be.” In other words, the Flux-Drive would be used to fatten the sound, and then the signal would be “sculpted” afterwards by the Tone Burst to bring out appropriate “highs” and “mid-tones” as determined by Jacob. The goal was to be within the scope of sound quality that I am comfortable with, and that works well with the electrified country blues that I play.

Taylor T5z five-way selector switch set to 4th position to use both humbuckers in parallel

We left the modulation control settings on my pedal board, including Reverb, Delay, Vibrato, Tremolo, and Chorus the same as used with the T3, which can be found here. Jacob is not a big fan of pitch shifting, so we left use of my Octave pedal to my discretion. I like to the way it punches out the lower tones. And that was the end of our work with the Solid Body.

Jacob and I spent less time with the T5z mostly because it is a very acoustic-sounding electric guitar and though it can handle gain and distortion, it is not how I would ever play it. Plus it was getting late and we were getting tired. We did decide that for my purposes, using the 5 way selector switch in the 4th position to deploy both the “hidden” neck and stacked “lip-stick” humbuckers simultaneously and in parallel would be a good setting for my purposes.

Onboard preamp settings at neutral detent locations.

We dabbled with the onboard bass and treble controls provided with the guitar’s preamp but were inconclusive as to how to best set them, leaving them to my discretion. I tend to drop the treble and to increase the bass signal a bit to suit my ear. The preamp controls are actually very sensitive and a light touch best serves proper sculpting of tone.

Jacob’s settings to complement the T5z.

Finally, Jacob and I considered the broad array of pedals I have at my disposal for use with the T5z. We turned off the Flux Drive, which has true bypass, and left the remainder of the pedals set similarly to how I had them for the T3; however, Jacob saw fit to fine tune and adjust my chorus pedal to complement the T5z. I am actually not a big fan of chorus effects but Jacob was insistent that for the acoustic nature of the T5z, chorus is an important effect to use to sweeten the sound. As described by Reverb, “Chorus effects thicken your signal by copying it multiple times, coloring the copied signals, and playing them back slightly delayed.” Jacob readjusted every setting on the pedal while I played the guitar to best suit the T5z! I suppose I will use the chorus effect for a while to see if it suits me… As of this writing I actually prefer a bit of delay with my MXR Echoplex over the Boss Chorus…

Jacob and me at the end of our session…

So in the end, it was a great learning experience for me having Jacob make his house calls and was well worth the barter of the El Dorado guitar strap.

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And I didn’t know right from wrong…

To Study the background of and learn to play Rollin’ & Tumblin’ Blues…

Those who read this weblog know that a good deal of my retirement time is spent learning guitar. I play almost entirely from the country blues canon. I’ve written earlier about the allure of playing country blues. Historically those tunes were most frequently played on acoustic and resonator guitars, which I do; however, I also like to play them on electric guitars too!

By no means an expert on all things country blues, I am gradually getting up to speed and built a considerable library on the subject, though there are many of which I still need to read. I do know this… As with all forms of music, there are standards recognized by most people familiar with the genre and Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues (sometimes just Rollin’ and Tumblin’ or even Roll and Tumble Blues) is one of them… Like many blues tunes, Rollin’ and Tumblin’ has multiple interpretations, some of which I’ve gathered below.

For starters, most people are familiar with the Mtv series unplugged, and Eric Clapton’s segment was arguably one of the most famous… though British, Clapton built is career mining and then interpreting the blues, which was a distinctly American idiom. In fact, were it not for musicians like Eric Clapton, John Mayall and the Rolling Stones many of the blues classics we are familiar with may have in all likelihood passed by our notice!

Eric Clapton is important in Rollin’ and Tumblin’ lore because he played an incredibly rousing version of the tune during his Mtv Unplugged show, which millions of people witnessed and as a result its become one of the most recognizable interpretations… The irony is Clapton’s band and the director charged with filming the show were completely unprepared for Clapton breaking out in an unplanned, impromptu version of the tune! Nevertheless, he and the band quickly recovered and began filming; however, it is one of the reasons the song begins so abruptly on the recording… It can be seen just below:

According to what I’ve learned, Clapton was visibly delighted with his performance and shouted to the director afterwards, “did you get it?” While Clapton’s performance was a cultural milestone, I still think that famous bluesman Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) recorded one of the definitive versions of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ and the one I like best of all! You can listen below:

The earliest recorded version (1927) of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues was attributed to Hambone Willie Newbern, which can be played below. It is somewhat different from the Clapton and Water’s versions and is closer to version that I am learning from Stef Grossman’s DVD Bottleneck Blues Guitar. You’ll note too that Newbern’s version was titled somewhat differently as Roll and Tumble Blues…

https://youtu.be/gOtyJs5SoSE

As you might expect Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues is a sad, dark tune about a man who’s woman walked out on him… the original lyrics are listed below…

Roll And Tumble Blues — Hambone Willie Newbern

And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long
And I rolled this mornin’, mama, and I didn’t know right from wrong

Did you ever wake up and find your dough-roller gone?
Did you ever wake up and find your dough-roller gone?
And you wring your hands and you cry the whole day long

And I told my woman, Lord, ‘fore I left the town
And I told my woman just before I left the town
“Don’t you let nobody tear the barrelhouse down”

And I fold my arms, Lord, and I walked away
And I fold my arms and I slowly walked away
Says, “That’s all right, sweet mama, your trouble gonna come some day”

Other musicians have altered the lyrics or added to them… In fact, as is his wont Bob Dylan almost completely changed the lyrics with the exception of the opening line and claimed writing credit for the tune… below you can listen to a live version the GOAT’s version, which is great:

https://youtu.be/QSx6x9VXQn0

And then there was the King of Blues, Robert Johnson, who took the tune and changed the lyrics as well as the title to Traveling Riverside Blues:

https://youtu.be/XrExBI7PtLc

As I said earlier, the version I am working on was arranged by Stef Grossman on the DVD pictured on the left. It’s is a double disc collection with bottleneck slide tunes arranged in either Open D or Open G tunings.

I play slide tunes exclusively on my National Resonators, with an NRP Steel body tuned to Open G and a Wooden Reso-Rocket kept in Open D. Frankly, I would play more plain old fingerpicking tunes on my Nationals, but the string play is set so high off the fretboard, I stick to bottleneck tunes. The Nationals are real cheese graters.

I actually like the Open D tuning more as well as the wooden bodied resonator, so that combination gets most of my attention. In fact, I came within a whisker recently of selling my NRP.

I am very fond of Grossman’s arrangements, his teaching style and his accessible tablature, though his formatting of tab takes some getting used to. Typical tab coding uses a horizontal line to represent a string, while Grossman uses the space between the lines, which is a bit disorienting to those who first see it. While preparing this blog entry, I was delighted to find a fantastic live performance of Roll and Tumble Blues performed live by Stef Grossman along with the inestimable Keb Mo:

I’ve been working on Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues in Open D now for a few days, and as I write, I just completed a good practice on the piece. Earlier today I recorded myself and posted it below via Vimeo… it’s rough and the phrasing is just taking form so this is a work in progress… but that’s ok… music for me takes time and effort, and this recording will be an archived stepping stone along the way. You may also notice that this arrangement uses a different opening riff to establish the tune’s groove. Grossman decided to incorporate what he defined as the Fred McDowell/Furry Lewis riff approach to the tune, which gives it a bit of a different flavor, as opposed to the Hambone Newbern/Robert Johnson groove most commonly employed. You can click below to hear Furry Lewis’s version:

My latest version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues. I swamp it up a bit:

As I said earlier, country blues tunes were originally performed on acoustic instruments in solo form; however, when the technology became available the tunes were often adapted to electric guitars and played in accompaniment with a band. Here’s a great example of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ with electric guitar. Obviously, the above shown recording by Bob Dylan’s band was an electrified version, but R.L. Burnsides below captures better the early conversion of country blues to electric guitar with a band. It’s fantastic!

Rollin’ and Tumblin‘ was one of those country blues tunes that became a foundational rock and roll tune emerging in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Below is a recording of Johnny Winter’s energetic and rocking version of the tune which is a classic:

The tune continues to live on… here’s a another rocking version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ by the Lovell sisters, known more commonly as Larkin Poe… when you listen you can see Johnny Winter’s fingerprints all over the sister’s version!

Thanks for looking in… leave a comment or follow me… is anyone out there?

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Open Mic Night and the Allure of Playing Country Blues Roots Music…

The scene at Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls during the early stages of Open Mic Night… Hosts Rick Vanderwall and Bill Guernsey…

It’s been two months since I played at Open Mic night at Cup of Joe, located in downtown Cedar Falls, IA… I missed the last one to attend a Wilco concert in Cedar Rapids.

Wilco playing at the Paramount in Cedar Rapids, IA

The Wilco show was a lot of fun and it was a treat seeing Nels Cline play guitar, as he is one of the top players in the country. The venue in which Wilco played was also quite marvelous. It was an ornately restored old downtown theater with marvelous acoustics.

Nevertheless, I was glad to be back at the Cup again with a chance to perform in a small intimate setting… I am clearly not a headline performer… instead, the specter of performing in front of people really motivates me to work at the craft of playing guitar!

Me and my Taylor Solid Body Custom Walnut, with a newly replaced neck…

In the above image, you can see I was delighted to be back. This is me posing before the coffee counter just before my performance… Call my performance costume, ” old man cool-eclectic.” 😁

It was a big night for me because I was going to play publicly, for the first time, Stefan Grossman’s arrangement of A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson… this piece is epic in length and requires a reasonable amount of finger-style skill to pull it off so for me at least it marked a stage of development along my guitar playing journey…

I’d been working on the Lonnie Johnson piece for weeks and weeks and though I’ve pretty much mastered it, it is still difficult for me to play it flawlessly even alone at home, so playing it publicly was going to be quite an adventure for me, but I was looking forward to seeing how well I could do.

A year ago, my fingers would sometime disassociate themselves from my brain on pieces of music much simpler than the Lonnie Johnson charts, so I set a high bar for myself.

Taylor T5z Pro Ltd; Molasses Burst…

I actually began working on the Lonnie Johnson piece using my newest guitar, shown above, the Taylor T5z Pro, which is an acoustic/electric hybrid that sounds great whatever you play on it, but especially nice when playing old finger-style country blues; however, at the last moment I decided to play that night on my Taylor Solid Body Custom, which you can see me holding above. After playing the T5z for weeks on end, I think I just needed a change of pace. I am holding the Solid Body in the photo at the top of this article. It is a lovely instrument and plays like butter… While the T5z plays beautifully too, it is bit more demanding than the Solid Body, and that is probably why I made the last moment switch…

I’ve written before on this weblog about finger-style blues and why I am so dedicated to that genre:

  1. It’s a musical style that can be played strictly instrumentally or accompanied by singing. In instrumental form, the music holds up on its own, so it is suitable for a single guitar player to perform without accompaniment. Since I have no interest in being in a band, this genre is perfect for me.
  2. Country blues pieces span from the elegantly simple to the moderately complex and there are available lots of charts and educational videos from which to learn, so it is a great genre to develop playing chops, which can be very satisfying.
  3. While there is a very active global community of country blues players, they are still diminutive in size compared to other musical genres, so it is a smaller fairly supportive group of players.
  4. As a baby boomer, I grew up with early rock ‘n roll and this music serves as its foundation. Country blues are THE essential roots of much of the popular music that I grew up with. My experience is that audiences are not exposed to country blues that often but like it when they hear it. Much more interesting than the millionth cover of Moondance they’ve heard before.
  5. While players use picks or strum through country blues, the really authentic way to play it is with the fingers. Finger-style playing is way too cool… just sayin’

As testament to the roots nature of country blues, I am embedding a link through the photo of classic bluesman Charlie Patton on the right. It leads to an interesting blog article that gives a nice comparative sampling of rock music to its original country blues form. The blog is called Please Kill Me… This is what is cool… Click on Charlie Patton and then come back!

Grant and me at Bob’s Guitars, our favorite hang out…

As is typical for me, I signed up to play first. There are actually only 6 15 minute slots available for open mic wannabes, so I usually get to the shop about 45 minutes before Rick and Bill, the hosts arrive and when they do I hit the sign-up sheet promptly. My friend Grant is almost always there too and he signs up to play second. In fact, we are hoping to play a full set on our own at the Cup some time in the near future!

That particular night I played in the following order:

  • A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson in Drop D tuning… (Stefan Grossman) – I did ok… shanked some into the rough, but pulled it off… at Open Mic it would be too challenging to record myself; however, I do have a decent sampling of Lonnie Johnson that I made at home, which is embedded below. Note that I am playing the T5z.
  • Spoonful in Drop D tuning… (Charlie Patton, arranged by Stefan Grossman) a briefer and lighter tune to cleanse the palette after the heavy low down Lonnie Johnson piece…
  • Cocaine Blues… (traditional, arranged by Stefan Grossman) a favorite of mine and the rare tune I have completely memorized… breezed through it… a crowd favorite too… a lovely, complex finger-style tune that stays at home in the top three frets… relaxing and also cleansing to play…
  • Police and a Sergeant… (Robert Wilkins, rearranged by Catfish Keith) I love this piece and it’s a great way to end the set. It’s very meaningful to me because I took a lesson with Catfish Keith to work on it! Last time I played it at the Cup, I pretty much lost my way and unravelled, though I got through it somehow… The other night I played it clean as country water…

Below you can see a photo that my wife took of me playing… it’s been post processed and posterized a bit to make it more fun… Note that I am for the first time performing with my iPad and foot pedal for page turning…

It was a great night closed out by the Jacobs playing some jazzed-up seasonal tunes!

The Jacobs knocking out jazzy holiday tunes…

Thanks also to my friend Grant for the call out at the end of my set! He played a fine set too!

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More than just frets and strings… or Jacob makes a house call…

Gretsch Silver Falcon, my first electric axe…

When I purchased my first electric guitar I was really not sure what I was doing. I’d played only acoustic guitars for years and decided to dip my toes in the electric waters, so I googled around looking for the best acoustic to electric transition guitar, and as a result decided to acquire a Gibson ES 335.

I remember marching into my local shop and asking to see their ES 335’s and was informed immediately that the store did not carry new Gibson’s in their inventory. There were some used Les Pauls hanging on the hooks but no ES 335’s. Ever mindful of making a sale, the store guy stuck a Gretsch Silver Falcon in my hands, which was a semi-hollow bodied guitar sort of like the ES 335. I fumbled around comparing it to a Fender Strat and a Les Paul and eventually purchased the Silver Falcon, which was a big heavy guitar. Because it was so big and heavy, I suffered some buyer’s remorse when I got it home. I also felt like a poseur playing such an iconic guitar with so little experience.

El Dorado Fancy-Pants guitar strap

To cope with massiveness of the guitar, I went shopping for a strap that would mitigate the weight of the instrument and I ended up purchasing a rather lavish and pricey hand tooled leather strap with a sheep skin cushioned shoulder pad. It was pretty cool and included a cowboy-belt buckle up front! If you click on the image to the right you will connect with El Dorado, the strap’s manufacturer. I subsequently bought a very cool snakeskin strap from El Dorado that I use with my resonator guitars.

Taylor T3B

I never did bond with that Gretsch guitar and eventually traded it in for for a guitar reminiscent of a Gibson 335, that being a Taylor T3B, which suited my sensibilities much more and I remain very fond of that guitar. I added two other electric guitars to my stable since then and will typically pick an electric up to play more often than an acoustic guitar nowadays. It is important to note that the sound I prefer from an electric guitar is more acoustic sounding the then often over-driven, distorted sounds frequently used in rock and roll.

The El Dorado strap I bought does not work with my electric guitars so after it hung in my closet for months I had a brilliant idea. I would barter the strap for some in-house guitar set-up consultations with Jacob Lampman who works at my local shop. Jacob, who works the floor, teaches lessons, and plays all over town is a local treasure and he agreed with the deal!

My music space with left to right a Taylor Solid Body Custom, a Taylor T3B Custom, and a Taylor T5z Pro. Note the pedal board and the Fender Princeton Reverb (Black Face) Amp.

So last Thursday evening Jacob arrived at my home for my first consultation. We’ve planned on three visits in total… In preparation I set up my music space and pulled out all three of my electric guitars. In the end we only worked on the Taylor T3B as it takes quite a bit of time to set up a proper tone palette for a particular guitar! Perhaps it will be easier when we do the other two… I don’t know for sure…

After Nettie, Jacob and I consumed a pot of Chili that I had previously prepared, along with cheese curds and Egg Nog that Jacob brought along, we went down to the music space and began the program.

Jacob running the T3 through its paces.

Jacob began the process by running the T3 through its paces. It is important to note that I play finger-style country blues so the tonal set-up we created was done within that musical context. Jacob, having heard me play in the guitar store and at open mic night from time to time was aware of my musical predilections.

Jacob plays a Gibson ES 335 so I was curious how he thought the Taylor T3 compared. He was very complimentary of the tone palette and playability. You will note that I replaced the original high definition pick-ups with vintage Alnico ones for the rounder/warmer sound that appeals to me for the country blues. He pointed out that the T3’s neck was considerably wider than the ES 335, which is actually a good thing for finger-style players like me. He did say, however, that the individual pick-up volume controls on the ES 335 was a feature that was not available on the Taylor, and it was a trait he frequently used when he played.

Jacob set out immediately after playing for a bit to adjust the dual layered tone controls that are on the Taylor. In sum, he suggested that I had the high tones boosted too much, which caused the guitar to “scream out that it was electric!” Instead, it was his philosophy to boost the low mid-tones to pull out the real beauty of the guitar’s combined of wood and pick-up construction. Given the challenges I have with hearing (yes… I use hearing aids) I suspect that I boosted the high tones to compensate for my incapacities; however, after playing the guitar the way Jacob recommended I have come to appreciate the mid-tone sensibility he suggested. In fact, the tone set-up of the guitar may have been the most important thing I learned that night!

Further, where I’ve been predisposed to use the warmer sounding neck pick up, Jacob recommended using both pick ups simultaneously to broaden the sound palette of the the instrument.

After guitar tone and pick-up set up we moved onto the amp and pedals. Jacob recommended setting the amp tone controls to a mid setting of 5. At my request we lowered the controls to barely audible for the amp reverb controls because I create tone modulations through my pedal board instead. I like this arrangement because my pedal board is portable and I frequently take it to performance settings, whereas the amp is more cumbersome to move around.

Here are the recommendations that Jacob made regarding how to deploy me pedals with the T3, within the context of the type of music I play

  • Do not use the Octave Pedal with this guitar. Jacob did not like the octave effect on the T3. I intend to reserve judgement on this recommendation because I don’t think Jacob used it properly.
  • Set the JangleBox compressor for constant use. Jacob recommended leaving the toggle at “dark” setting to avoid enhancing the high tones too much.
  • Deploy the Mesa Boogie Tone Burst to fatten the sound a bit, but avoid the more aggressive overdrive offered by the Mesa Boogie Flux Drive.
  • Under another MOST IMPORTANT recommendations, Jacob believes the plate reverb is a much more suitable setting for the Boss Reverb than the more overpowering hall setting I was using. Jacob, pretty much, recommended leaving the reverb on all the time, as he set it up.
  • Jacob convinced me to use the tape degradation feature on the MXR Echoplex Delay. I had avoided that feature because I thought it muddied the sound of the delay but Jacob was adamant that it was the coolest effect and we set it to “slurp-up” the sound a bit, as he described it.
  • Finally, we fine tuned the Vibrato, Tremolo and Chorus pedals for the T3. Of course, they are to be used independently of each other, not in combination i.e. one or the other but not together. The depth and time controls were set at Jacob’s recommendation though I pushed to limit the intensity of vibrato effects below Jacob’s preference level because too much vibrato makes me a bit seasick!

Below I am attaching the raw notes written in my hurried chicken-scratch for the pedal settings recommended by Jacob, if you’re interested in the finer details:

All in all, it was a great fun for me to have Jacob over for his consultation. Next time, after a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs we might tackle the Taylor Solid Body!

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A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson – or why and how to film yourself playing guitar

I can think of three basic reasons to film yourself playing guitar:

  1. It’s really informative to film yourself playing and then to study your technique, sound, and musicality. This can be a somewhat painful experience but one that leads to deep learning if you can fight through your feelings about lack of perfection.
  2. In many respects performing in front of the camera is similar to playing live before an audience. The nervousness, stage fright, fighting for concentration are similar and the more your do it, the easier it becomes.
  3. Filming yourself and posting it on social media is a way to communicate to your friends, family and perhaps general public about your level of development with the musical instrument.

Another important element is how to film yourself so that you look reasonably professional and the video recording captures the fidelity of the sound as closely as possible.

For a while I was filming with my iPhone leaning against a music stand or some other piece of furniture that was reasonably close to my performance space, but that gave mixed results both in my appearance and sound. For example, I run the risk of looking like a turtle when the camera shoots me from below.

I do own a professional caliber DSLR (Nikon D810) with an external mic which actually does a good job, particularly when someone is behind the camera managing it, but it tends to hunt focus in and out when left to its own devices on a tripod. In addition, it is a lot of trouble to pull out and set up and then to transfer the files to my MacBook. Secondly I have a mid-sized Brittany dog dashing around the house and don’t want my expensive rig knocked over by her occasional oafishness.

Just within the past few days I’ve established a reasonable filming set-up that allows me to make a modestly more professional film of my playing:

On the left is the front end of the camera that faces the subject and on the right is the screen view of the scene to be filmed…

The foundational set up consists of a Gitzo tripod and a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head upon which my DSLR is usually mounted. Both of these items are several years old and have been used extensively in my prior photographic pursuits… What’s new in this arrangement is a recently acquired Really Right Stuff phone clamp that is mountable on the original ball head. The phone clamp is flexible in size and is capable of firmly holding my rather large iPhone 11 Pro Max. Finally a Shure MV-88 microphone is mounted on the iPhone via the charging port (a lightning connector) allowing a high fidelity capture of the guitar’s sound coming from the amp. I think I got a sweetheart deal for the mic during Cyber-Monday. The MV-88 is pointed in the general direction of my Fender Princeton Reverb amp.

The raw video was AirDropped from my phone to my MacBook where it was edited in iMovie. The edits included clipping off some wasted time at the beginning of the film when I was settling myself in, some cropping of the scene, adjustment of the color to give an old time sepia sensibility to the video, and finally a sound fade and black out at the end. The film was then uploaded to my free Vimeo site and next embedded in my WordPress blog.

I am playing Stef Grossman’s piece entitled A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson which is comprised of Lonnie Johnson inspired riffs, licks, runs and bends. Lonnie Johnson was a highly respected and lauded blues guitarist in the 1920’s. Though I’ve been laboring to learn this piece for weeks, it’s a work in progress; still, I hope to play it reasonably well during Open Mic night a couple of weeks from this writing.

Finally, I played this piece on a Taylor T5z Pro and ran the signal through a Boss Octave, Jangle Box compressor, an MRX EchoPlex Delay and finished through a Boss Reverb.

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Muddy Waters Style on Bottleneck Slide

Because of holiday travel it’s been a while since I posted on my blog… I actually have some longer blog ideas that I am percolating, but this morning I was inspired to write a relatively brief commentary about the artistry of Muddy Waters on bottleneck slide and how it influences my approach to playing.

National NRP B Resonator Guitar

The inspiration was a combination of me pulling out and practicing a Charlie Patton tune on my National NRP, a guitar that I’ve neglected for far too long, combined with stumbling across a Muddy Waters video I had posted on Facebook a year ago.

Before I go further, I must note that there are a many extraordinarily influential and skillful blues players that established the foundation for this marvelous genre; however, I personally do not believe there is anyone who matches, let alone, exceeds the importance of McKinley Morganfield, more commonly referred to as Muddy Waters (1913-1983).

Following you can see a great example of a Muddy Waters performance of the classic tune Honey Bee using bottleneck slide on an electric guitar and below the embed I will offer some observations about his style of play with a slide.

  • In the case of this video, Mr. Waters is playing an electric guitar. He owned an array of electrics and acoustics. In the case of this video I think he’s playing a Fender Telecaster, which he frequently favored. He can be seen playing slide on an array of acoustic and electric guitar in still images and videos; however, I cannot find any documentation that he played a resonator. I like to play slide on a National resonator because it’s set up to do so with high string action and it evokes the old classic Delta sound that I like.
  • Similar to Muddy Waters I like to keep the slide on my little finger because it frees up my other fingers up to fret the strings, which I find most natural. The ring finger is also a common place to wear a slide, but I never felt comfortable using it at that location. There are no hard fast rules where to place the slide. You can see people using a slide on the index finger too. Nevertheless, small and ring fingers are most common.
Left to right: nickel-coated brass, brass, long ceramic, short ceramic, long ebony wood
  • There are a variety of materials that can be used to slide across the strings of a guitar, examples from my collection can be seen in the above photograph. Commonly used slides can be metal, glass, ceramic, and even ebony wood, which Taylor Guitars recently brought onto the market. One of the earliest references to county blues slide playing indicated that the guitarist used a pocket knife as a slide. Accomplished slide player Duane Allman supposedly used a glass Coricidin pill bottle.
  • It appears in the Muddy Waters video that he’s using a short metal slide that resides above the middle knuckle of his little finger. The above knuckle location allows him to bend his small finger as much as 90 degrees to play the slide, which is exactly how I like to do it too. Other players cover the entire finger with the slide and must bend at the wrist to engage the slide, which I find very uncomfortable, so like Muddy I ride my slide above the middle knuckle of the little finger.
  • I like a metal slide too that is a bit on the small side so that it is not ungainly feeling when located above the middle knuckle of the small finger. The two “tone dome” metal slides shown above on the left are my favorites.
  • The occasional problem I find with the smallish slide is that some tunes call for a full across six string slide, which is pretty much impossible with a small slide, so on occasion when I play a six string slide tune like Charlie Patton’s Spoonful I will use the longer ceramic slide that I own. Sometimes I will use the longer wood slide but it creates a somewhat undesirable muted sound.
  • Finally, it is difficult for me to observe from the video how tightly Muddy Waters likes the fit of the slide on his small finger. Personally, I favor a relatively firm fit, so that if I hold my finger down toward the floor the slide will not drop off my finger from gravitational pull. Other players don’t seem to mind a loose fit, but not me. Because my fingers are relatively small, I must do some alteration to the interior of the slide to “tighten” it up, and as can be seen in the photograph above I like to line the interior of the slide with a nice “grippy” moleskin that adheres with pressure sensitive adhesive. A good pair of tweezers will help do the job.
I usually play the Tone Dome backwards to get more string to string coverage…
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Local Treasures… Limited Edition Comics…

As I sit here with snow outside and temperature in the sub-teens in mid-November, I again consider why I would possibly want to retire in Iowa… the winters are so long and brutal, which leads again to a series I am writing about local treasures or reasons to remain in the Cedar Valley for the rest of my life…

For this piece to make sense we must go back into the past to my childhood… it was then that I developed a life long love of the comic books that spoke to adventure and fantasy… Funnies like Archie and Jughead were not for me… give me War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Superman, Batman, Spiderman and so on…

I have no doubt that my current reading habits, which are prolific and my sense for what the Western canon of great literature is, was informed by Classics Illustrated Comic Books. This is not just true for me but a whole generation of other boomer kids were informed by Classics Illustrated.

It was not just fine literature distilled into accessible comic form that I read… I also studied DC, and later as I became more discriminating, Marvel comic books like a Talmudic scholar trying to understand the inner lives of Super Heroes and Villains and the macro-world in which they existed.

Back in my youth, the little towns in North Carolina did not have full featured comic book stores, but instead a twirling rack upon which the monthly released comics were mounted. The beginning of the month always had the best stuff, including, in order of purchase Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Captain America, and later in the month when I became a bit more desperate, The Hulk, Thor, The X-men and finally when I had no other choice, Dr. Strange. Back then, comics were only 12 cents a pop and it was easy to scrounge up a dime and 2 pennies when required!

I raised my two sons to read comic books and to this day they are still huge fans. On the other hand, my daughters showed little interest in comics and occupied themselves with other matters.

What made it so easy getting access to comic books for my boys was the proximity to one of the best comic book stores in the known universe and that is Cedar Falls’ own Limited Edition Comics located on College Hill.

The best part of the store is the man who owns and manages the enterprise, Rob Rogers II. There is probably no one in the known universe who has such encyclopedic knowledge of comics, graphic novels, associated films and, believe it or not, he even functions at a higher level when it come to all things Star Wars. In fact, he owns enough Star Wars memorabilia and costuming to open a museum, which he has, on occasion, contemplated doing so. In addition, he is incredibly nice, helpful and accessible. Besides, he resembles Wolverine and everyone in my family loves Rob!

The shop is replete with weekly releases and collected “trades” from the entire universe of comics and graphic novels. Spanning from the items that kids can safely read to the darker more adult publications. In addition, there is an extensive collection of comic/graphic novel/star wars figurines. The above splash panel is a photograph of the small lead figurines Rob sold me to display back in the days I had an office at the University. There’s also lots of other objects of desire including magic cards and other table gaming appurtenances.

I saved the best for last… In addition to the aforementioned comic book/graphic novel/star wars etc. business, under the Nom de Guerre, Wild Hair Salon, Rob will give you the best haircut in town, which is an essential element in anyone’s survival kit! His mom, Char, is also frequently at another chair in the shop cutting away at someone’s head. Getting a haircut at Rob’s is always an adventure. Besides getting caught up on all things Super Heroes and Star Wars with Rob, who is the consummate insider, there is also a steady stream of comic book fans who stream in during the haircut, adding their own two bits of wisdom and who generally leave with a pile of comics that’ve been accumulating in their personal pull boxes kept for them by Rob.

Rob’s Limited Editions Comics/Wild Hair Salon is truly a local treasure. I actually think the place is fascinating enough to serve as a back drop for one of those idiosyncratic fun movies! Go visit Rob… You’ll love it…

Me in the chair with Rob gesticulating in the background using scissors to cut my hair and not his Adamantium claws…
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Local Treasures… Milkbox Bakery…

I was born in New York City, but came of age in Southeastern U.S., spending the most time in North Carolina and Virginia through my middle passages; however through some simple twists of fate I am now a Midwesterner, having lived in Cedar Falls, IA longer than anywhere else in my life.

My dog Nike looking dolefully at the early winters cape in IA…

Compared to the Southeast, the summers in Iowa are sublime; however, the winters here are long and brutal… hateful… I just read we are ranked 11th worst state for harshness of winters. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve fallen on my rear end because of ice, but it’s been too many times.

Now that I am retired, the natural question is do I want to remain in Iowa to muddle through what is essentially six months of winter, with an almost non-existent Springtime? While the winters here present a compelling reason to leave, there are strong arguments to stay. Iowa is ranked one of the top states for retirement primarily because of low cost of living and access to great medical services with Mayo Clinic being just less than two hours drive from here. I love the non-pretentiousness of Iowans too and there is such a thing as Iowa “nice.”

Another important thing to consider are the roots that I’ve sunk into my community during the course of 20+ years and that is to what I will speak to in a series of blog articles that I refer to as local treasures which focus on the small business enterprises that make Cedar Falls/Waterloo a special place to reside.

Located on College Avenue at the “Hill” adjacent to the University…

I’ll begin this series by referencing one of my favorite locations in town and that is Milkbox Bakery which is by definition a local treasure. Owned and operated by Andrea Geary, it is an old world, artisanal bakery specializing in breads and pastries; however, they do offer some meal worthy creations, such as Avocado bread and killer homemade soups!

an excellent place to hang out…

As I mentioned earlier, I lived in New York long enough as a child to appreciate that city for its fine breads and pastries. In fact, those New York creations are the standard by which I measure all others and Milkbox measures up big-time! The bakery holds its own with European breads too, which is no small accomplishment. Andrea has spoiled my family… we will no longer eat loaf bread unless she’s baked it and there’s nowhere in the midwest that bakes a better bagel! Yes… that is true, and I am an aficionado of such things.

I have great admiration for Andrea as she is the creator, heart and soul of this wonderful local treasure! She does it all…

the author and super-baker Andrea Geary in her domain…

So when I am feeling a bit of cabin fever during our long, cold winters, I am sure that one of the best options in town is to get a coffee (free-trade) and hang out at Milkbox Bakery for a bit. If you’re lucky, you may even have a chance to chat with Andrea when she emerges from the bakery where she does her magic. Oh yes… and when I leave I’ll be sure to have a fresh loaf of “Rustic White” bread and a bag of bagels…

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Trouble no more… Paper charts are gone…

A couple of weeks ago, I had the great good fortune of spending some time in the Evanston/Chicago area with two of my college frat brothers. It had been 8 years or so since we last gathered and was great fun. We are all retired or semi-retired and are coincidentally afflicted by some of the same age-onset challenges, including remembering where we left our keys, walking across the house to do something and forgetting what it was, or trying to remember the actor’s name who played Mick in the Rocky films… I used to fret about memory loss until I realized during my visit that we all experience the same phenomena, so I’ll just have to accept it and go with the flow!

  • Me and Widi
  • Me and Maish

I only mention our common memory issues as a lead-in to the challenges I face with my major retirement avocation, which is guitar playing.

Country Blues Tunes I am currently playing

I’ve been playing country blues tunes for the past three and a half years and have accumulated a substantial body of work. Sadly, try as I might, I simply cannot memorize them all and find it most effective to have the chart in front of me while I play.

So, for most of my practices, guitar lessons, and public performances I am surrounded by paper charts, ranging from a single to four plus pages in length. When moving from tune to tune, I can be found shuffling through a massive sheaf of paper, which can be seen in the accompanying photograph.

By the way, my music charts come almost exclusively from training DVD’s offered by Happy Traum’s Homespun and Stef Grossman’s Guitar Workshop. The charts are in PDF form, downloadable from the DVD. Typically standard notation and, most importantly to me, tablature are given on printable charts.

Recent performance at Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls, Iowa…

The massive sheaf of charts I’ve accumulated becomes a problem if I want to travel with my guitar(s), or when I perform, which is mostly at the local coffee shop open mic night. As you can see from associated photograph, I am typically hidden behind a music stand and overflowing charts, which separate me from the audience and that is not an ideal performance mode for someone like me who likes to interact with the crowd. And, why perform finger-style if nobody can see your hands at work on the guitar?

forScore home page…

My wife Nettie concurred with me that getting out from behind the music stand would be a good thing when I perform. She notices it when photographing a performance.

So, I did some research and discovered that there were iOS apps available for storing, presenting and scrolling through musical charts and one of the most popular among musicians was forScore which is downloadable for $15. forScore can be used with an iPhone and/or an iPad. (the app works on other platforms too, but for better or worse, I happily exist in the middle of Apple world!)

forScore is capable of storing piles of charts and those charts can be organized in a number of logical ways based on your choices. Bookmarks can be assigned to your favorite tunes for quick access and setlists cutting across your entire collection of charts can be conjured up for a performance.

iPad and forScore software mounted with Hercules mic stand holder…

While I own the larger sized iPhone it is still not large enough for me to feel comfortable reading a chart, so I opted to use an iPad which can be adapted to a mic stand with a holder, which in my case was made by Hercules.

It took me the better part of two days to get all my music on board the iPad and to organize it. It helped that there are multiple Youtube videos available by people who’ve developed expertise with this app. I’ve yet to annotate the electronic charts but intend to do so. I used annotations frequently when noting on which finger to begin a slide!

Firefly PageFlip on floor beneath iPad

Finally, it would break the continuity of playing a tune to have to release the guitar with one of my hands and slide a finger across the iPad screen to transition to the next page of the chart. Consequently, a necessary adjunct to this paper-replacement project was a foot-activated pedal to advance the chart page. The iPad and the forScore app work well with the bluetoothed Firefly PageFlip, so I acquired one and it gets the job done. It does take some adjustment getting used to advancing and reversing the chart pages with my foot while I am playing.

I just completed this project yesterday so I do have an experiential learning curve to travel through in the short term before I feel entirely comfortable with this new system when used either at home or in front of an audience. Nevertheless, I have high hopes for the benefits of getting out from under all that paper. Below is a shot of me on my first night of practice with the completed set up… It went reasonably well…

Thanks for any comments you wish to leave below: