Every time I walk onstage with Ty it’s a blast – what a fun cat to work with, not to mention his being a most excellent guitarist and vocalist (who sings true to pitch!) – www.tyengland.com. Last week’s show found us on stage supporting country music legend George Jones (www.georgejones.com) – this just a couple of days after his induction into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. The sold out show was a lot of fun and ably produced/powered by David Qualls Sound.
…for the Summer Stage Blues. When you book an outdoor summer festival, you never know what kind of stage & sound system you’re going to get. This past week’s was… suspect; and not the hippest thing I’d ever seen. It was very hot that day and we were in a steel-cage-death-match of a metal can stage – it was a lot like being in a oven. At least the music was good: www.ricktoops.com. Al Garcia on drums was laying it down – holy crap, what a sweet groove. (and dig his somewhat unique set up)
After assorted delays, stops & starts and an insanely busy spring gig schedule, the bV has arrived! I’m happy to present to you the (new) bV Overdrive:
This OD shares the same circuit as the previous Flat Five (clean boost > throaty, singing solo tones); the only difference being that these will be regularly available for purchase (as opposed to special order/wait) and a new paint job. A hip thing about the clean boost ability is it’s voice – the sound appears to be flat in general, yet the mids/low-mids are enhanced just enough to round out thinner sounding/twangy guitars – or perfect to use for a solo tone, even if the volume is @ unity. Good stuff.
Custom built ’63 Pre with a (sweet) sweepable, low pass filter:
Two of these were built for very special customers: through one’s hands pass many cool things, through the other’s hands pass many cool notes.
The Terry Allen Band (www.myspace.com/terryallenband07) is a Country/Western act stemming from the north Texas area – they have a huge fan base and play across Texas as well as into the surrounding states – they enjoy mucho radio play and generally tear it up on stage. This past week I worked with these cats in Abilene (www.abilenetx.com – ~150 miles west of Dallas) at Southern Nights Saloon/Dancehall – huge crowd!
Chicken Pickin’!
Last night was Rick Toops’ CD release party (www.ricktoops.com) – I was happy to be part of it – the drummer, bassist, sax man and 2nd vocalist I’d not met before (always a tricky situation on stage) – everyone was extremely cool and all were great musicians – it was very cool to meet some new cats as well as being a joy to play this set. Rick’s new platter, 2PS, is available at CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/RickToops) – groove-based soul/pop at its finest.
Here’s Rick laying down:
“Funny thing happened on the way to the sheet music…”
Wonder what ’Applause’ means in Italian?
I feel extremely fortunate to be able to work in a wide variety of musical situations – each of these disparate jobs allow me to flex very different musical muscles:
01 May – Motown Spectacular: The Coasters, The Platters & The Marvelettes – Lucky Star Casino – Show time 8pm – www.luckystarcasino.org – This date features versatile powerhouse drummer Mike McCraw: www.mikemccraw.com – tickets: www.zooamp.com
04 May – Rick Toops (soulful pop/rock) – CD Release Party – Belle Isle Brewery – 9pm – www.ricktoops.com - www.belleislerestaurant.com
07 May – Ty England (Country/Western) – TBA – www.tyengland.com
xx May – The Recliners – NOTICE – Recliners gig has been postponed/rescheduled – stay tuned. Instead:
08 May – Terry Allen Band (Country/Western) – Southern Nights Dancehall & Saloon – Abilene, Texas – 10pm – www.terryallenband.com, www.myspace.com/terryallenband07, www.myspace.com/southernnightsdancehall
15 May – Banana Seat (Disco/R&B) – Point After Club – OKC – 9pm – www.bananaseat.com
22 May - Ty England - (Country/Western) – Aubrey, TX - TBA – www.tyengland.com
?? - DATE MOVED - TBA - Logan Walker and the Jazz Guys – Lawton, OK – 2pm (Logan is a fantastic Tenor cat – extremely rich music history, an extremely gracious cat and general beautiful person) – this is a straight ahead, Real Book quartet date – I’m very much looking forward to working with him again.
29 May – The Recliners (Rock) – Dan McGuiness Pub – Moore, OK – 9.30pm – www.reclinersband.com – www.danmcguinnesspub.com/moore
www.ricktoops.com – Rick is a very talented singer and keyboard player – his new CD 2PS is available here: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RickToops - great stuff all ’round.
This past week I got the opportunity to perform a set with him – dig the bass/drums duo on the clip!
For this gig I was using my 1983 Fuji Gen Gakki ’62 RI Fender Strat > ’76 RI Dyna Comp (with various circuit modifications!) > the new GtrWrks bV Overdrive > Malekko E600B analog delay > 1966 Fender Bassman which is loaded into a custom JD Newell solid pine 2×12 combo cab (open back) loaded with Reverend All-Tones (love these speakers!).
The Strat features a Callaham bridge w/steel block; Seymour Duncan pickups (B: Hot Rails; M: Classic Stack Plus; N: Lil 59); DiMarzio custom pots; Raw Vintage trem springs; Late ’70s vintage NOS solid/hand turned brass knobs, switch and trem arm tips from Kahler. Of course, as you well know, there’s a significant amount of tone to be added via knob material… uh… or something like that.
This is a very short live clip of one of the tunes from Rick’s new record:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7375208/19286955?v=7375208
