|
|
New Recordings are the focus for 2011 play it again, in a world full of CD's, mp3 downloads, and more, we are surrounded by readily available music...and you can bet that 2XG wants to jump in there and make some noise too. We are proud of all our recordings, and encourage everyone to take a listen to all of them, but for 2011 we have plans to release a brand new live album and a brand new studio recorded album. Both are going to sounding crucial elements of the 2XG history. The live album is from 2010's Lakeport summer concert series. It was the best attended concert of the season, on Independence Day weekend, in the heat, BBQ and Ice Cream everywhere, and the lawn at library park became a huge, natural dancefloor. No doubt this is an intimate snapshot of Paul & Rich and the band doing their thing, in their element, at that very time and a good representative of their night after night sound and feel. The studio album, not yet begun since the writing of this article, will be a new collection mostly of original material from Paul & Rich. They will be digging into stories of the past, present, and future. In usual form they will be singing about Party Time, the Juke Joint Blues, and spreading a message of encouragement, self-confidence, and humor! And look for a killer backing band in the studio and 2XG will be working with the great bassist/musician Robert Watson who, since joining the band, was helped them to add more fire and passion to the song arrangements. stay tuned and keep on rockin'...
Greatest Christmas Present Ever! Soon it will be Christmas Day, that's the way the song goes. (photo: My Dad, Rich, and I, playing my old Harmony guitar. He's playing and older Gibson guitar that I got and fixed up for him.)
Let me tell you that one of the most memorable days in my life was the day I received the greatest Christmas present, greatest any present, that I've ever received. Christmas Eve, 1998, my Dad took me to the 5th St Pawn Shop in Santa Rosa, where we had previously observed some good guitars at great prices. This particular evening was special because the most beautiful guitar I'd ever seen was hanging there. An H-72 Harmony electric guitar. It was a light-sunburst, hollow-body, big square pearl inlays on the fretboard, fancy outlined f-cutouts, it was totally decorated and in good shape. As pretty as B.B. King's Lucille. Well, my Dad asked to take a look at it. He gave it to me to play with and inspect. It played so well and felt good, I loved it. Dad liked it too, just his style. He found a few blemishes and a minor crack on it, that was enough to haggle the salesman down $100 bucks to a price of $249. Dad looked at me and said, "it's all yours." Merry Christmas. I was thrilled! I knew that we were looking and shopping for my first electric guitar but I didn't know that I would be getting one that day. It has been the greatest present to me ever, and has given me countless hours of entertainment, a special outlet for creativity, fame and acclaim, and best of all money! It's is my profession now to play guitar. Joined by my Dad, the originator and my partner in crime. Happy Holidays to all you Dads out there and I hope you can find that special present for your children that will make them happy and inspire them to be the greatest that they can be. Paul's Guitar Improvising Tips
So you wanna jam??
You wanna run the fretboard?? You wanna be the next guitar hero?? So do I! But it is most likely that both of us are far from the latter status. Achieving the first two abilities may not be so hard. Here are a few things I do when soloing or improvising on guitar: -Know and use a lot of licks/riffs from your favorite guitar players. When I was first learning to play guitar, I would learn and memorize guitar parts of my favorite players on my favorite songs. That means I was copying all of B.B. King's guitar licks, on nearly every one of his recordings, the best that I could. I did this for many other guitar players like Albert Collins, Freddie King, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc... -From your "library" of learned riffs mix, match, alter, and blend them they way you think sounds good. Hopefully the audience will agree. -Know your scales. You can learn these from wikipedia "Jazz Scales." Use the scales that match the Harmony of your song. You might want to use some of those other notes in the scales that were not previously used by another player. -Try different rhythms, long notes, stops, and funk it up or straighten it out. -Take all the above mentioned ideas then improvise your own improvisation. If all else fails, you can light your guitar on fire like Hendrix; someone is bound to think that it's cool. Native Americans and the Blues
Hey 2XG fans,
an interesting idea, a lot of the African American slaves from New Orleans and all throughout the South would interact with the Native Americans. Sometimes the Native Americans, Indians, would house the Slaves who were trying to run away. Or, they would inter-marry. They would share music, especially the drum beats. A lot of Gospel music that has a driving drum beat with call and response chants sounds very similar to the Pow Wow and traditional songs of the Indians. So the Indians were right there with the birth of the Blues, influencing it. Blues is one of Americas first musical forms, they say it pre-dates Jazz. An it was truely american in that it shared the sound of the the first american people. 
|
|
