A Simply Awesome Honor

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of being the logistical guru of the Old School Guitar Heroes Blues Festival, as well as act as the event's emcee. It was a ball and the event was simply amazing (see monmouthblues.com for more info and photos). The night wrapped up with an ad hoc set featuring Charlie Hayes, Joe Price, Brian Daw and Joel Flemming. They were smoking! My "moment in the spotlight" came after their set, when I got to close down the fest by playing five songs on the Rivoli stage. I played both a normal acoustic (in standard tuning) and my single-cone chrome resonator (tuned to open D). It was really a dream come true to hear the screams of the crowd. What an awesome day!

Sounding Good!

I stopped by Arthur Fowler's house today to drop off some Blues Fest marketing swag and got to hear Fred Dixon practice a few songs for next week's Old School Guitar Heroes Blues Fest. Fred will be joined onstage by Arthur, his two sons and Josh playing congas. They take us from jazz to deep blues. It'll be a great set!

Festival Less Than Two Weeks Away!

The Old School Guitar Heroes Blues Festival is less than two weeks away! I've been working frantically to get the word out via posters, press releases, the web and local radio. This week, the Rivoli now sports the Blues Fest on the marquee. It was put up a few weeks ago, but the freak storm that hit our area blew the letters down less than two hours after they were put up!

Festival Posters

We're nearing the final month before the Old School Guitar Heroes Blues Festival and posters were sent to the printer today. In a few days, we'll distribute the posters locally, as well as tickets for purchase. If you don't have your tickets yet, grab them online or where you see the posters!

Blues Zombie

For the past few weeks, our younger daughter has been studying the great drawing videos of Monster by Mail, the summer work of an artist who will create a custom zombie image for you. The videos are great fun to watch (with songs provided by unsigned independent bands). One thing lead to another, and I had to try my own hand at a "blues zombie"... enjoy!

Emotional Connection

List night, I was listening to Fred Dixon play some old, mournful blues, and I was totally captivated. Sure, the guitar was there, but it was clearly in the background. It was Fred’s voice that carried the song.

That got me to thinking… I have some recordings of some amazing blues guitar players and amazing singers, but not all of them hook me like Fred did last night. On the other hand, I have some recordings of some pretty rough-around-the-edges singers and guitar players that are totally mesmerizing.

So what’s the hook? I don’t think it’s a mystery—even the American Idol mentors and judges harp on it—the hook is emotion that flows from the performer to the audience.

In the blues, I think that the emotional connection may be even more essential (than in other musical forms), since the context of the song often centers around a raw and emotionally challenging experience. Within that context, success in a performance occurs when the performer can break down that suspension of disbelief in the listener and get the audience to believe that the pain (either from a bent guitar note or a raspy line of verse) is real for the performer.

MoMo Blues at MVBF

Last weekend, the IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival roared into LeClaire Park in Davenport, Iowa for three days of non-stop blues. Each year, I look forward to the event... not for seeing acts I know about, but for hearing blues performers that I've never heard-of before.

The festival takes place across two stages (a main bandshell and a "tent stage"). For me, the tent stage always showcases the most unique "old school" performers, and the closeness of the crowd make the experience more intimate.

This year, we attacked the blues festival with t-shirts in hand to advertise the upcoming Old School Guitar Heroes festival in Monmouth. We gave most away during the Catfish Keith show, and had a great conversation with Catfish after the show.

Sounds Great!

Last night, I took the Harmony/DeAarmond rig out to Dannys and played a short set of Lightnin' tunes (Baby Please Don't Go, Trouble in Mind, Goin' Down Slow) and the sound was great! The guitar was tuned a half-step down and plugged right into the PA system. We got a clean, loud sound with just a hint of retro overdrive. Hot dog!

Arthur Fowler played a fine set as well, culminating in an amazing acoustic version of Voodoo Child that garnered shrieks from the crowd. Man, he can play!

Ready for Prime Time?

I tested the new setup (Harmony 000 and DeArmond 210) against a Lightnin' Arhoolie CD from the late 1960s, and the sound match was nearly spot on... loud, almost electric sounding, with a hint of overdrive.

I took the setup over to Brian Daw of Daw Violins (www.dawviolins.com), and he was able to lower the action on the Harmony a touch, reglue the bridge (so he could put some heavier strings on it), and he rewired the DeArmond with new cabling and a strap-jack in the body.

The next test will be bringing it out to play in public, which I think I'll do at Danny's tonight.

We Have the Pick Up!

I was able to grab a DeArmond pickup on eBay. I think it's a 210 of the newer ilk (from the late 1960s), based on the lowered B string pole piece (below the plasic cover). It looks like it's been rewired at least once, but quite some time ago.

Last night, I put it in the Harmony guitar and did a quick test, running it through my PA system directly. It has a very nice, meaty and loud sound with a little built-in over drive that sounds nice. I'll need to do some sound tests against a few CDs, but I think we may have close to a good set up.

We Have the First Piece of the Puzzle!

The first piece of the experiment has been secured! While “on camera” Lightnin’ would play a Gibson, there are reports that he also played a Harmony guitar during a number of recording sessions. While vintage Gibson guitars are out of my reach (too cashy!), Harmony guitars from the period are much more affordable (and probably not as collectable).

After trying with a number of auctions, I finally nabbed a vintage 000-sized Harmony acoustic. It may need a little work, but the price makes it a great guitar to experiment on. I should receive it in a few days, so I’ll keep you posted.

DeArmond Pickup

It looks like one of the types of pickups that was certainly in use by Lightnin' in the early and mid 1960s was a DeArmond sound hole pickup. They have a very distinctive look and can be plainly seen in a number of Lightnin' photos as well as some filmed performances.

There is some great info on this pickup over at LittleBrotherBlues.com.

From several sources, it seems like some of Lightnin's recordings and performances featured him plugging this pickup directly into the PA system, rather than into an amplifier.

I've done some checking and several of these pickups can be found on eBay. I'm bidding on one now, so we'll see if I can nab it.

Which Sound is the Goal?

Lightnin’ Hopkins was the most recorded of all of the “classic era” blues artists, and his volume of work showcases a myriad of sounds. The Blues Masters CD, one of the best starting points for an appreciation of Lightnin’s music, features remastered recordings from a number of sources. Listen to the CD and you’ll hear his guitar sounding like an electric on one track, a clean acoustic on another and a very tinny, treble-heavy old guitar on another.

Obviously the variation comes from the different acoustics Lightnin’ used, plus different electronics as well as a variety of amplifying approaches and studio set ups. So what is the sound we are after on our quest?

Gibson J-50?

Doing a little image searching, the guitar Lightnin' uses on a number of performances in the Vestapol DVD appears to be a Gibson J-50. Doing a little more digging, I see that it could also be a J-45 as well. Both sported the funky pickguard you can see here and both were in use in the mid 1960s.

Lightnin's guitars (at least the ones we can see on DVDs and images from recording sessions) had sound-hole pickups during the 1960s. The Gibson in the DVD looks to have a single coil pickup mounted with a chrome mounting saddle.

Which Guitar?

A quick scan of the Lightnin' Hopkins images on the web shows a variety of guitars (most of which are hard to ID). On a Vestapol "Rare Performances" DVD, Lightnin' plays a Gibson acoustic guitar (not sure which model--I'll do some digging). From some preliminary research I've done, it seems like he might not have been all to particular about either the guitar or the tuning, at times playing a rented guitar or one provided to him by the studio.

So a key question to answer: Which guitar can emulate the Lightnin' sound?

A Quest!

During the last few weeks, Charlie Hayes (my guitar instructor) and I have been studying some of the mid-60s recordings of Lightnin' Hopkins. We always wrestle with getting the tuning on our guitars right (usually a half-step, more or less, down) so we can decode the sound.

But Lightnin' has some very unique sounds coming out of his amplified acoustic guitar. Charlie suggested that I do some research to see if we can determine what types of guitars he played, as well as what sort of electronics he used--to see if we could try to create an instrument that sounds close to his mid-60s sound. Just what I love...a Quest!