This, found at TexasPlayboys.net, is from a 1983 GP Mag article by Buddy McPeters.

Barnard was a loud guitarist who had an overdriven tube sound decades before it became widely popular with rock guitarists. His main guitar, a blond Epiphone Emperor arch-top (occasionally Junior used a Gibson ES-150), was dubbed “*my young radio station,” because it had so many wires and controls added on. Although Barnard first electrified his instrument with a DeArmond pickup, he later added another unit from a steel guitar. The two pickups were wired out of phase, and each was amplified through a separate channel. (Junior used both a Fender Pro with a 15″ speaker and an Epiphone amplifier.) In addition, Barnard employed a volume pedal, for which he probably got the idea from steel guitarists such as McAuliffe and Boggs. “In those days in the Wills band,” Shamblin remembers, “you never knew when you’d get a solo. Bob would just point his fiddle bow at you and say, ‘Take it away.’ Junior didn’t have time to turn the volume up, so you can see that the pedal was a time-saving device.”

heh heh..”Barnard was a loud guitarist who had an overdriven tube sound”. If Junior wasn’t the first electric player, he was certainly one of the first and it sounds like he got the hang of it pretty quick.

Here are the Texas Playboys doing “Goodbye Liza Jane” and featuring a neat solo by Junior.

As always, swing over to the side bar and press pause on the music player before playing the YouTube.

Jack -

The last few days I noticed some problems with your site and your site feed, all related to the older problems. I’ve been speaking to LinkSky today and they found a couple things wrong, but the root of the problem had to do with a Google Bot and a Yahoo Slurp Bot that have been slamming the hell out of not just your site, but all the WordPress sites that are on the same server you’re on. The result is that it has overloaded the server, which in turn overloaded the feed. This can also cause your site to look like it is what’s called a Spam Site (one reason one of your readers is apparantly blocked from accessing your site).

LinkSky is throttling the bots and sending an official notification to Yahoo that they will be blocking their Yahoo Slurp Bot until they stop it from slamming their servers. It’s causing problems everywhere.

Anywhere, LinkSky is going to move your site, tonight, to a newer, larger server. They feel it will handle your increase in traffic and posting a lot better than the server you’re on.

Keep an eye out for any possible glitches. You might ask your readers to report any glitches, too.

Who would haver ever thought that something called a “Slurp Bot” could cause a problem.

Anyway, I got another email that informed me that I’m now on a new server that’s way better than the old server and there was even a cheery “Congratulations!”

Not quite like Ed McMahon showing up at the Winnebago with a check but, I’ll gladly take it today.

Maybe, some of the issues people have been having with my site will now be resolved. Most will not as they refer to content and general tone but, tech stuff.

Carry on and keep an eye out for those “Slurp Bots”.

schadenfreude

Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.

Ahhhh….that makes sense.

Here are a few recent Schadenfreude articles on the web.

From the NY Times, “Waiting for Schadenfreude”.

From Op Ed News, “Schadenfreude, Zeitgeist and a sizzling Triumph TR8”. (Woah! Schadenfreude and Zeitgeist!)

From The Economist, “European Schadenfreude over the ills of American capitalism does not signify a dramatic move away from the free market”. (Lots of Schadenfreude at The Economist, by the way.)

From The Globe and Mail, “Schadenfreude in motion”.

From Newsweek, “Shades of Schadenfreude”.

EMI Music Publishing will license lyrics from classic songs in its more than 1.3 million song catalog to a clothing line operated by the 545-unit UK-based retailer Sainsbury. The merchant’s Tu Clothing division, which is featured in 281 of the chain’s store’s, is launching a new collection for men, woman and children and will feature words from classic songs such as “My Girl,” “ABC,” “(Theme From) The Monkees,” Wild Thing,” and “Dancing In The Street.”

“(Theme From) The Monkees”!!?? Hunh?

“Classic songs are part of the fabric of everybody’s lives, and we’re delighted that people will now be able to wear their favorite songs through this deal,” said EMI’s head of media licensing Steve Hills said in a statement.

The fabric of everybody’s lives…these marketing cats are just too clever.

Lyrics as fashion statement…people get that marketable instant recognition when they hear the words in the musical context. But, they don’t carry the same weight standing alone. Great lyrics often make for crappy poetry. Will they work as fashion? Will people buy this stuff?

“The people at Sainsbury’s and Tu Clothing really understand the importance of music and its legacy, and we’re looking forward to bringing lyrics to life through what will hopefully be a long partnership.”

Well, it’s just more of the, trying to cash in on something that was created previously, sort of stuff that is rampant. That doesn’t mean I’m against it. Probably be some songwriters somewhere, that haven’t taken a buy out, that will be making a buck.

Plus, we can play the “What lyric would you like to see on a garment?” game.

My choice would be yellow lettering on a shiny, purple, wife-beater sleeveless T that has this emblazoned on the front…

Since you’ve gone it’s a losing battle
Stampeding cattle
They rattle the walls

Rick Danko was always a snappy dresser.

As always, make sure you are buttoned correctly then, press pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

This just in….

The Cubs Still Suck!

I was driving home from the gig last night and I was listening to the ESPN Radio, Some guy kept saying; “This has happened two years in a row!”

Ahh….no ESPN Radio guy…this has now happened 100 YEARS IN A ROW!

Photo found at the Cubs Suck Club. Visit the link to find a load of info on how and why and who else says that the Cubs suck and, while you are there, join the club.

I was sorting through some stuff this morning and found a batch of old demos. In doing so, I ran across a couple of curiosities that I thought I would put up here.

I will get to that but first, I feel that I must hip you to…..

The Demo Philosophy and All-Purpose Disclaimer

When I demo something it is always for the sole purpose of demonstrating a musical idea to somebody. I am, in no way, trying to execute a recording for any type of release or product. All demo music ideas are in an embryonic stage and subject to change and/or development. Therefore, I do not spend time on editing or clever mixing pursuits. I could spend hours cleaning and polishing then, end up changing the thing drastically and all of that would be time wasted. So, in short, these demos are recorded poorly and mistakes are left in.

The first thing is a little solo slide acoustic piece. I recorded this late one night and, if memory is correct, I wrote it the day before. I had just purchased a new brass slide that turned my finger green so, I called this song “Greenfinger”. It’s a fingerpicked solo thing in D tuning. The guitar that I had close by was a cheapo Alvarez and it wasn’t well suited for holding the tuning. I remember I had to do it in one take because, I tried doing a punch-in on an earlier version and it didn’t work well with me playing and recording at the same time. So, there are a couple of flubs and lots of string clacking but, I listened to it this morning and didn’t mind all of that. Click here for “Greenfinger”.

This second one is a sort of a Robin Trower type riff. It’s not a complete piece of music. I originally intended to write words and all of that but, it’s one of those things that I would never be able to do a credible vocal on. So, I’m putting it up here in case anybody wants to take a crack at writing a lyric and the best deal would be to find someone who could sing on this sort of thing too (doesn’t have to be the same person). The demo is me on guitar, bass and tapping away on a cheap drum machine. Here is a link for the “RT type thing”.

Nothing serious here, feel free to listen and/or download. If you want to take a shot at writing on the second one, feel free to slice and dice.

I would be honored to be the nominee of the Fondue Party.

Now accepting suggestions for a V.P.; must be vetted.

It’s all a bunch of scrambling; clutching at straws. People are all trying to position themselves to get a piece of a pie that is not big enough to feed the party.

This, from PcMag, is the bit I keep seeing about Pandora founder Tim Westergren and internet radio.

I spoke via e-mail with Pandora founder Tim Westergren, who told me that Internet radio stations such as Pandora had been contesting a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision from March 2007 that dramatically increased the royalties Internet radio stations were forced to pay. He pointed out that Pandora would, under the CRB rules, have to hand over $18 million of its expected $25 million 2008 revenue to cover royalty fees—a price that could force the company out of business.

Now, Tim seems to be a good guy and Pandora is promoting music; that’s a good thing. This makes it look, once again, like the music industry or musicians are greedy and they are efforting to stop the development of this emerging industry by demanding $18 million of the $25 million. The truth is that $25 million sounds like a lot but, in this context, it isn’t. Pandora has around 35 million users.

35 million people tuning in to what is an advertising supported business and the ad revenue is $25 million. It doesn’t cut it. Traditional radio is dying and internet radio is part of what is picking up the slack but, like all web based advertiser supported endeavors, the ad revenue is inefficient compared to the traditional counterpart.

This piece from the Telegraph is entitled “Apple iTunes closure threat averted” (once again, we must save this emerging revenue stream).

Eddy Cue, vice president of Apple iTunes, had told the Copyright Royalty Board that if iTunes was forced to absorb any increase in the royalty rates, “the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all”.

Apple said that it was “pleased” by last night’s decision, which guarantees that the royalty rate for songs purchased online will remain at 9.1c per track for the next five years.

You aren’t going to win a popularity contest by jumping Eddy Cue’s and iTune’s asses because, once again, they are actually promoting music and making some money right? The reality is that the money iTunes brings in to the music industry is a far cry from being a drop in the bucket of the revenue decrease. Paid downloads are not replacing traditional physical sales and, they won’t. Unpaid downloads already have.

And then we have this Featured Artist’s Coalition that includes a batch of established artists who have benefitted from the traditional music business. From the Coalition’s charter…

We believe that all music artistes should control their destiny because ultimately it is their art and endeavours that create the pleasure and emotion enjoyed by so many…

… So we will campaign for laws, regulations, business practices and policies that protect artists’ rights.

We will stand up for all artists by engaging with government, music and technology companies, and collection societies. We will argue for fair play and will expose unfair practices.

Laws, regulations, business practices and policies; blah blah blahhhhhhh…..

Here’s the thing; what has happened to the music industry isn’t technological. The reason that the music business went down is cultural. People, in mass, decided that they did not want to pay for music. People, in mass, have decided that the value of music is nil.

Like any mass movement, people were frustrated with the status quo.

There are two critical results of the failure of the music industry.

1. The small players have been hit harder than the big players.
2. Creativity has suffered.

Radiohead, Madonna and Motley Crue are still in business but, not one artist, of the many that I know personally, that were selling 5-10,000 CDs every release 6-8 years ago, is. The names that carry mass appeal and have branding legs are in the game but, the underground/alternative, which is also necessary to force creativity, is not viable.

All of the news, in the past few weeks, about the Copyright Royalty Board, the saving of emerging industries and Pollyannic proclamations is nothing more than what is left of the establishment fighting for crumbs that fell from the all you can eat buffet.

Check your weapons at the door and wrap your mind around this deceptively simple match-up.

Van Morrison or Delbert McClinton?

As the mind, so the man; bondage or liberation is all in your own mind.

I read that before I went walking today. It’s a Hindu saying, I think. I’m sure there are similar things found elsewhere but, that is pretty succinct. Actually, the first part is a very complete thought.

As the mind, so the man.

As I go deeper in to thinking about that, through the day, it occurs to me that really all one can possibly control is how the mind reacts to outside situations. But, if you can control how the mind deals with what comes it’s way, the nature of what comes may change.