The "marquee" outside The Cellar, in San Clemente, CA

I’m playing some gigs again this month with Laguna Slim and Satin Blue. Those shows are always a hoot. Three guys show up, lock in; general revelry ensues. If you’re going to be in the neighborhood, I hope you can stop by and check us out.

The gig in Temecula should be fun. Since it’s a bit of a hike for me, I’ve conspired with the missus to make a weekend of it; hit a few wineries while we’re down there. We’re even contemplating bringing Tha Phoobs (Lucille’s would be tantamount to Dog Heaven, I’m sure, but we’ll leave her in the hotel room for the gig).

I’ll also try to squeeze in an open jam or two. If you’re a blues-lover in or around Orange County, be sure to stop in and participate. I guarantee you’ll have fun!

Subscribe: RSS | iCal

Sam Maghett – better known as Magic Sam – is one of the great unsung heroes of Chicago blues. His distinctive style bridged the gap between the classic, stripped down sound of Chicago blues and the more polished R&B sounds of the 1960s. The result was an energetic and charismatic style that was unforgettable.

With the exception of his outstanding rendition of “Sweet Home Chicago,” Magic Sam’s songs aren’t that well known, comparatively speaking. This can work to your advantage at jams and open-mics, as you’ll be able to inject some relatively fresh material when it’s your turn to call the tune. And Sam’s songs are fodder for outstanding jamming!

Sadly, Magic Sam died of a heart attack in 1969 when he was only 32 years old; which explains why he never gained the acclaim of some of his contemporaries. He only released two official recordings in his short lifetime.

As mentioned in my “Essential Blues” entry, Magic Sam’s “West Side Soul” is a classic and, if you don’t have it in your collection, you’re missing out. Go get it! Listen to it in the car on the way to work; listen to it in between classes; listen to it while you’re cooking dinner. Fill the house with the sounds of Magic Sam! Absorb his energetic style and think of ways to incorporate it into your own playing.

Not convinced? Check out this classic footage on Youtube:

Yes, that is Magic Sam. He just happens to be playing Earl Hooker’s guitar in the video.

To get that classic Magic Sam sound, set your electric guitar (single coil or humbucker, it doesn’t matter) on the bridge pickup and put a good amount of reverb on your amp. Go for a clean sound here; stomp those distortion pedals off! If you’ve got a delay pedal, you might want to set it up so that it “slaps back”. A little dab’ll do ya. When you hit the mutted strings, you should get that “chick-chick” sound: just like you hear at the beginning of Sam’s classic “I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)” (which is Sam’s rendition of John Lee Hooker’s classic “Boogie Chillun’”).

Of course, the real sound comes from your hands, your head, and your heart. As far as the notes are concerned, try playing your trusty minor pentatonic box, but incorporate the major third, the flat five, the sixth, and the ninth into your phrasing. Think T-Bone Walker-meets-Chuck Berry. This box, in the key of A, should get you in the right neighborhood:

Your standard minor pentatonic box, in the key of A, augmented with the major 3rd, flat 5, 6th, and 9th notes

Try it while playing along to “I Don’t Want No Woman,” “I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie),” and “Mama Talk To Your Daughter”.

At your next jam, bring some Magic to the party by calling some of these numbers:

• Sweet Home Chicago
• Mama Talk To Your Daughter
• Lookin’ Good!
• I Don’t Want No Woman
• I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)

Good luck, to you. If you’d You can learn more about Magic Sam over at Wikipedia.

This here’s the Gypsy Moth: a Martin parlor guitar, model 5-16GT; also referred to as a “size 5 guitar” or a “terz guitar”. They call it a terz because the guitar was originally intended to be tuned up a minor third (three half-steps) from standard tuning — so the low E string would actually be a G — but it sounds pretty good no matter how you  tune it.

In the middle photo, you can see that she’s quite a bit smaller than the more common “jumbo” guitar size (in this case, a Gibson J-45). This makes her an ideal travel companion, as she fits neatly in the overhead compartment of most commercial airliners. As such, she’s been with me to Puerto Rico, Florida, Northern California, out on sailboats, and around to parties at friends’ houses all over Southern California. A true companion.

I picked her up in 2006 from the Guitar Shoppe in Laguna Beach, CA. Good bunch of folks, there, and a great place to check out, if you’re ever in the area.

The Blue Girl adventure continues. As posted on TDPRI earlier today:

So I contacted the Guitar Shoppe and sent them photos. They’ve told me they can’t fix it, due to the polyurethane finish; the best they can do is seal it and prevent further damage.

They said that the only real “repair” option would be to strip the body and repaint it. Otherwise, I could do some kind of patch, but — to quote Bonasera — “Now she will never be beautiful.”

They recommended I go to a guy up the road a ways (a guy named Bernie Hefner) who does this kind of work. I’ve read good and bad about his work, though. I’m kind of dubious.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice about doing a repair? The wood’s fine. It’s just the paint that has cracked (all the way to the wood).

Advice is appreciated. I fear, however, that I am hosed.

I left a message with Hefner. We’ll see how it goes from here…

So, it’s closing time at the homestead last night. I’ve got my blue-skinned beauty, and a glass of water in each hand; heading for the stairs to put the blue girl to bed, then jump in the sack with the missus. I get two steps away from the carpet and the back of the strap just lets go… Tele meets hardwood, with a bone-chilling crack-and-clatter.

Now, in addition to a chunk out of the floor in our entryway, I’ve got this:

Damage to the finish of my Blue Girl Tele. If looking at car wrecks is your thing, click for a hi-res view...

*Sigh*

It’s just a thing. A possession. At least it didn’t drop on the cat. Or my foot. The ding in the floor’s not that noticeable. But…

BWAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

That kind of damage is totally fixable, right? RIGHT???

Here’s a little track I recorded this morning prior to leaving for work. Something to test out my newly installed FourTrack iPhone app. It works pretty good!

The song was recorded with my little Martin “Size 5″ parlor guitar. A move inspired by the mystery-unidentified-possibly-Carribean-guitar-player photo that @DaveGrossBlues and @rootnotemusic have been inquiring about over on yonder Twitter. I’ll post a picture of it sometime, but, for now, audio will have to suffice:

As for the song it’s gibberish; something I made up off the top of my head. But it gets the point across.

Next, I’ll have to try the multitracking features of the app.

Stay tuned…

For practicing at living-room-approved volumes, this little amp is the perfect solution: Great all-tube tone in a flexible package. It’s got a built-in attenuator, so you can switch between 4, 1, and 1/4 watts (for REALLY quiet playing). It’s got a 10″ Celestion speaker and looks good enough that P’ doesn’t mind it sitting out where company might see it.

VOX AC4TV 4 watt, all-tube amplifier

The only thing this amp was missing was reverb, so I bought a little Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano pedal and stuck it on the back. Now it’s got everything you could ask for from a little amp. I’ve even been bringing it to cafe gigs where the proprietor wants us to keep the volume down. It sounds great!

The reverb pedal is held onto the back with heavy-duty Velcro

Buy the VOX AC4TV Amplifier Combo at Amazon

The "marquee" outside The Cellar, in San Clemente, CA

Strange gig tonight. Strange, but fun.

We started the evening playing to an empty room. Not one patron. Just Stan, Dave, myself, and the Cellar staff. We had the usual request to keep the volume to an absolute minimum, and in an empty room, that’s a tall order.

I found that my 4 watt VOX is the perfect amp for this place. I think I’m going to save the Blues Jr. for jams and larger venues. The master volume knob on the Blues Jr. is just too sensitive for ultra-low volumes — the difference between “just a hair below 2″ and “2″ is the difference between a whisper and a attention-starved-megaphone-toting four-year-old. So it’s the VOX for the Cellar.

P’ came out tonight with Julie and Gary, which was nice. Always good to have friends providing moral support. Even more surprising was the brief appearance by Dan, a photographer friend of mine from work. He dropped in with his son Ryan, shot some photos, and then took off to do whatever else he had planned for the evening. Thanks for the pics, Dan! I’ll post them shortly.

Played the usual stuff. Stan tried “Third Rate Romance” again; I just didn’t have the rhythm down, but I managed to get the solo. Dave played his two tunes. I was having trouble on the solos tonight: Right-hand technique issues. I’d go to hit a string and miss, or find the pick in the wrong place. I need to practice. Standing up, no less. More on that later, though.

This was my first time playing the Blue Girl with her new pickups (Bill Lawrence Keystones). Sounded great! Especially during the third set of the evening, when the place was full and we were able to turn up a bit. Sparkly! I think I’m going to bring her along to the next one; give the Tootsie Roll a break.

During one of the breaks, I asked Dave how business was. He mentioned that he had a private part gig with Stan on Saturday night, then sort of blanched. “Oops, I guess I shouldn’t be telling you about it.”

C’mon Dave, you don’t have to worry about that political shit. Not with me, anyway. I know where I stand. I’m strictly B-list; the guy you call when the guys you really like can’t make the gig. I’m fine with that. I get to play, get some experience, and get better. And I am getting better. Every night.

Which brings up this weeks goals. Overall I want to focus on three things:

1. Playing solid rhythm while singing: I’m still shaky in this area. My rhythm playing needs to be automatic while singing. I can do this with basic shuffles, but jump numbers, rhumbas, etc. require me to think. If I’m thinking about what my hands are doing, I ain’t singing good. And I’m not playing well either.
2. Improved accuracy with my right-hand technique: Gotta quit missing those notes during leads! There’s no way to address this issue other than practice. And practice. And practice some more.
3. Improved confidence during solos: Hit it, or quit it! I need to be less tentative while playing leads. My goal for next week is to play more from instinct, and think less about what I’m doing. “Make it sound good,” is my mantra. Who cares if I’m targeting the third, or playing in different positions, or starting this solo the same way I started the last one. Turn it up and turn it loose!

We played longer than usual tonight, ’til maybe 10:20 or so. As we were going into our “night’s end” number to wrap up the evening, a classy looking couple got up and started dancing. Better late than never, I guess.

No gig at the Cellar next week. We’ll pick it back up on the 15th.

Hope to see you there!

…

The Gig

Satin Blue @ The Cellar Wine and Cheese Bar
Thursday, October 1, 2009; 7pm-10pm
San Clemente, CA

Gear

Blue Girl, VOX AC4TV, Holy Grail Nano Reverb

Songs of Note

Ain’t That Loving You Baby, Blue Valentine, Good Lover, Wait On Time, Third Rate Romance (Stan singing), Too Late, Move It On Over

The Tootsie Roll is a stock 2001 Gibson ES-355 with gold hardware. The only guitar I own that has humbuckers. She sounds great and works well in a jump blues environment (especially for Hollywood Fats stuff). She gets her name from the “trans brown” finish that looks a lot like a Tootsie Roll Pop. The tones are equally tasty!

Buy the Gibson ES-335 Electric Guitar at Amazon

“Blue Girl” is a 1996 40th anniversary American Standard Telecaster. She’s loaded with Bill Lawrence “Keystone” pickups and sounds wonderful. Rosewood fretboards on a Tele are one of my favorite combinations. A little heavy, but the playability of the neck more than makes up for it.