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You got an LTD for that price? deal of the century, congratulations!

Man, sure hasn't taken this year long. Jeff Beck, Wayne Shorter and now David Lindley. His work with Jackson Browne was so melodic and tasteful. I heard some of his music with El Rayo X. He had the gift of making traditional tones rock. Great player, he will be missed. RIP.

Thanks Larryz.

Hi All Well it didn't take 2023 long, did it. I truly wish everyone an amazing year. That said, last week I got news that the bass player from my former band in New York, the Lost Gurus, is no longer with us. Dana was a consummate musician. He played the bass like a real bass player, rather than 'I should have been a guitar player'. He was also a multicultural instrumentalist, having studied and performing on Indian tablas and sarod. His teacher was a student of legend Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. I was just getting around to posting about it. Then we lost Jeff Beck. I didn't make any specific new year resolutions. But judging from the last few years, I have an Idea for a T-shirt. 'Time doesn't brake for high hopes'.

I found out this morning, had to soldier through a day of putting on a happy face at work. It was really hard. Back in the day I had both 'Blow by Blow' and the next collection 'Wired' on vinyl. 'Blow by Blow' had Jeff's immortal version of 'Cause We've Ended as Lovers', written by Stevie Wonder. To this day, I have no idea if Stevie ever recorded it. In fact I don't even know if it has lyrics. Jeff's version was so definitive, it didn't occur to me to look further. I've mentioned this before-a few years before the pandemic, I saw his performance at Tokyo International Forum. I think there's a recording out there. It was a month after G3 came to town, with John Petrucci as guest. The G3 show had some fabulous guitar playing. Mr. Beck was simply on another level. I wasn't aware of 'licks' or 'riffs'. I didn't make mental notes. His playing was not about technique. it was about expression. it was like watching one person play an orchestra. Totally mesmerizing. Music will never be the same.

Merry Christmas! I usually post this a little earlier. I've been kind of MIA around here lately.... who applauded? I will find you... Well anyway-I usually like to get the bad news out of the way first. In January I got covid. I was out of work for a week-and coughing my head off for a month and a half. I was sure I was going to damage my singing voice. I was supposed to get assistance so I could stay indoors and keep quarantine. It either never arrived or was insufficient. I usually carry two wallets. In August, the one with all my important cards went missing. One of them was my bank cash card. I couldn't access my funds for two weeks. Among other things, that meant I couldn't pay rent. The case was sent to a collection company. I was threatened with eviction. I have parted ways with no less than five different people on social media, one of them I had literally just met. It took one one chat to say, that-s it-see ya. Another is a fellow performer, we've done both live and video together. I got unfriended, unfollowed. I suppose the good news is mostly about the future. Our third independent film is in the last stages of post-production. I've been told I'm the star-whatever. It's taken us four years to get to this point, I just want to see what it looks like. I have started to put together vol. 3 of my very own event, we are shooting for March 2023. Everyone I contacted wants to perform, we're looking at like four hours of performances. This morning I called to wish my brother Merry Christmas. We were talking about health, and I brought up my martial arts training. He told me something I did not know. I think I mentioned before that, one of my uncles plays big band jazz in Minneapolis. His wife has been a Tai Chi instructor for like, 40 years. She has had some big-name students, including some guy named Pat Metheny. It's little surprises like that which keep me waking up in the morning. How was 2022? one thing for sure-if you're around to read this, it could have been worse. |Cheers and happy holidays.

I've played 'Steady On' for years on acoustic, most recently at my own event in 2021. 'Sunny Came Home' is a catchy song but musically I'll take 'Another Round of Blues' any day, it's deceptively simple sounding but in fact there's a lot going on in the arrangement, vocally and musically. She sang on Suzanne Vega's song 'Book of Dreams', a lovely song with an eye-catching video that got good airplay on MTV. There's one of her songs-can't think of it offhand but it's got a classic lyric- 'You're like a salmon you've got one mission..' I don't think it was just her age, she is stunningly talented but not 'pretty' in the conventional sense. That can be a problem in video land.

Well the whole band stuck me as about as organic as a PET bottle, but they were photogenic and not without talent. Furthermore their work ethic, shared by other talented but very manufactured bands like Winger, made sense to me and I was already kind of doing it buit not formally. One, have fun but work out. Keep in shape, stay healthy. Two, your fans are your living. No hitting on audience members-or fellow performers for that matter. There are some notorious scofflaws- Three, cover your butt legally. Spending more time in court than touring is just stupid.

Well this evening I was reminded that Miranda Lambert is pretty freakin good- I liked 'If I was a Cowboy'. Recently, Dust. I mean the youtube channel, sci fi short films. Quality is variable and some are not in English, but always interesting. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dust+sci+fi+short+film

<iframe width="776" height="437" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J-_Z8e6W7SQ" title="Ramsey Lewis ft EWF- Hot Dawgit (1974)" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hey all Thanks to Caevan for tech assistance. IMO this is the piece-'song' or 'tune' doesn't do it justice-that sent my brain into orbit. https://youtu.be/jKnKGJK6cxk Now that I think of it. 'Hot Dawgit' was fabulous too.

I know this is semi OT but it hits kind of hard. He was such a master player and composer, back in my schoool days I was blown away by his explorations. I'm not going to get speechy, just have a listen to 'The In Crowd' and 'Sun Goddess'

Hi Well I may have mentioned before, that I've been a member of tokyo BEERS-those letters stand for something like Beer Education, Entertainment and Research, I forgot-since it started over ten years ago. At that time it was about beer events, promotional events and such, Also tastings-all of us wrre traveling more then and we would bring back samples from our travels. I spent a couple days in Brussels around Christmas with some friends, it was fun. I have tried Westveleteren in Tokyo-it's not supposed to be sold commercially. The abbey is accessible only by car. We had people from various countries talk about their beer scene and would try a few samples. We had beer from Palestine once, and Morocco makes Stork, but only for export or at hotels. As the laws changed in Japan-home brewing used to be illegal and it's still illegal to do it for profit-the focus of our gatherings also changed. We moved from a basement next to Tokyo station, to an outdoor park. People started bringing their own beer. Some of these guys know their stuff inside out, one friend works at a craft brewery. My situation changed too, I couldn't travel as much so I focused on food. People used to bring chips and rice crackers. I started making real food. I try to make something from a different country each time, or an original recipe. We usually have 2-300 people. It's twice a year, once for cherry blossom time and once for fall foliage. It got so popular that a few commercial craft breweries, like Green Flash, donated kegs, for the advertising value. Of course the virus slammed the brakes on the big gatherings, but a couple weeks ago we had a mini-gathering with a small group. One of the guys brought a lovely couple of samples from his home country, Estonia. A photo is included. We're hoping to be able to go back to the big gatherings in fall, have to wait and see.

Overall I liked AIC better than either Nirvana or Pearl Jam and maybe second only to Soundgarden. Very dark but tasteful songwriting, arranging and chops-those drums on 'No Excuses'.

My situation is more about getting things I don't have-unfortunately. I got the guitars I have so I wouldn't think there was one I should have instead-so far that's worked perfectly. No interest in selling.

I think this is a case where it's a coincidence-and not just cause I love both.

The riffs from `ETI` and Walk This Way` instantly remind me of each other.

Hey BA, welcome back! I haven`t been around much lately either but having fun with your soc media posts-all the best.

Love BOC, saw them live twice. We almost got kicked out the second time, my friends had no patience for opening act The Dictators. Never got to see Soft White Underbelly sadly. `ETI` and `Walk This Way` from Aerosmith-I don`t know which came first but, glad there were no legal issues.

Love The Bangles! `Eternal Flame` is in junior high school textbooks in Japan. One of these days I want to cover `Walking Down Your Street`. That said-and not passing judgement at all, we`ve all been there-in the 80s I was gigging pretty regularly. A bandmate of mine told me he was working at a music store in southern CA, I guess this would have been early 80s. Then one day in walks-The Bangles, the whole group. I guess they were on a safarii for instruments. The main thing he remembered was the guitarist-Vicki Peterson I suppose-saw one she liked. She wanted to try it but, er...didn`t know how to tune it. Both of us agreed,that takes away nothing from their success, which was well-deserved.

Welcome Vetecho43. I got a Seagull used for around $600-plus a tradein for a cedar top one that sounded great but had insane string tension-and if I never get another acoustic I won't mind. Great value but play first. Same for Yamaha. I'm not familiar with Zager, sorry. I generally don't advise buying guitars online, except for one major point-the shops in your area have what they have. They are going to stock the makers that people look at and say, well I heard of them, they must be good. There days, there are guitars out there that will blow your mind, and most people never heard of them. Buying a guitar online, waiting for it, hoping nothing goes wrong with the mail, getting it, finding out it's not for you and returning it-is a headache. But if it's 'the one'-debate over. Heck, I got on a freakin international flight to get 'the one'. In any case, best of luck whatever you choose.

Thanks Kuru, I'll put out one or two other brushfires and then try it out.

I found a Focusrite Scarlett used at one of the local shops. I've been hesitating a bit, since I'm running Linux Mint-technically nothing is supported. I have plugins downloaded, ready to make some music. I don't want to start everything up and find out I can't do anything.

Always liked them among the 'Southern Rock' genre-tight, solid arrangements and no eternal guitar solos haha. Didn't they cover 'Dreams' by the Allman Bros? nicely done.