Well duh.
I have a Kay that was my mom’s back in the hippie days that I’ve been meaning to get around to restoring one of these years that would make the best slide guitar of all time…Hmmmm…
ETA - In that video he’s playing a 1958 Silvertone Artist. Rare as hens teeth those are.
I’ve done not much more than dabble at slide; I find the technique a bit baffling beyond really basic stuff.
What makes a guitar a good slide guitar? I’d guess one that you can raise the action really high, and that’s about it… ?
You don’t even need the action all that high if you can control your pressure well.
Old blues players used cheap Kays and Silvertones for practical reasons, they were cheap. But they also had a distinctive tone - bright, thin and a bit tinny - kinda like a resonator (Dobro-type) guitar - which can provide a great slide tone.
Trucks uses an SG because Duane Allman used one and you get great neck access and it sounds MUCH beefier vs. a Kay…
I’ll freely admit that I’m a horrible slide player, but I love it and have learned a few tricks. Any standard guitar is a good slide guitar, I’d skip trying to play slide on my old Jackson because the action is about as low as you can go, but the only time that action makes a big difference is on acoustics. I have a Fender acoustic that has an action that cannot be tamed that I like to play slide on.
Are you sure? You know a lot more about this than I do, but I thought it was a Danelectro. He mentions playing one here. ETA: Also mentions a Silvertone.
Trucks actually has very low action, but that’s probably not a good reference point. 
Those Kays, Harmony’s, Silvertones and a few others - they changed manufacturers and many used Danelectro to build their designs - or they just slapped their brand on a Danny design. I am pretty sure that Silvertone’s infamous guitar with amp-built-into-the-case(link to photo) was made by Danelectro…
Incestuous little bunch.
Oh - and I forgot to mention: I have given Super Session exactly 1 listen.
Good stuff! The remix version has the first few tracks without the horn section that had been added later. I like hearing both, but the tracks with the horn section sound a bit dated to me, simply because I associate that sound with Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago, both from back in the day.
Bloomfield - jeez, okay - I get it! Great player - very aggressive attack; you can really tell he cut his teeth in Chicago hanging out with the Muddy Water’s, Hubert Sumlin’s, Magic Sam’s, Buddy Guy’s and Otis Rush’s of the world - he digs in and makes each note count. His phrasing is wonderful - he never ventures far outside the blues idiom but, like Trucks with slide, keeps things sounding fresh.
Looking forward to digging in further…
I’m sure you’re aware that Al Kooper did the first Blood Sweat and Tears album, Child Is Father to the Man, which is excellent. I don’t care for the stuff they did when Michael Tilson Thomas joined up. (Yeah, I know that’s not the right name. I don’t care.)
Yep - I strongly recommend Kooper’s book *Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards *- he lays the whole BS&T story out…
<since I backed into this music late and am a book geek, I am often more well-read on a situation than I actually know the music - I can tell you a bunch of Bloomfield trivia even though I haven’t dug into his music until now…>
Oh, right, you mentioned that book upthread. Think I’ll pass – jargony talk about technique, etc., flies a good half mile above my head.
There shall be no knocking John Clayton Thomas.
nah - it ain’t like that at all. He makes *occasional *references to muso-stuff - it’s all dish!
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What it was like to be part of the Brill Building / 1650 Broadway songwriting club with Goffin / King, Lieber / Stoller, Sedaka, etc.
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How he stumbled / scammed his way into playing organ on Like a Rolling Stone
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BS&T and Super Session
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Working with George Harrison on the day that John Lennon was shot
Stuff like that. Even folks who don’t know Al Kooper but like this era of music and the artists would find the book an interesting read…
you do mean *David *Clayton Thomas, don’t you? Or am I being whooshed?
He took BS&T to…interesting places. When I was a kid I thought their version of **God Bless the Child **was oh-so-cool. Didn’t know any other version. I heard the real version by Billie Holiday some time later and was ashamed and embarrassed to have any feelings for the BS&T version. Sorry, but 'tis true.
And DCT is known to have been an asshat of legendary proportions - his case of *Lead Singer Syndrome *was unremitting and deep, apparently.
Caved this weekend and bought tickets for the show coming up in May. (I’m unemployed right now, and had to think long and hard. I got two freelance checks last week, though, and … well, he’s my husband. I need to support him.)
This will be the fourth time I’ve seen him – the first was him and Susan Tedeschi as separate bands (though each did a song or two with the other band); the second was just him, solid no-intermission show of about two and a half hours; the third time was last summer, front-row-center tickets for the combined Derek-and-Susan show, with Mike Mattison and some other guy as the opening act.
Woo hoo! dTb in 3 months and 6 days!
I’m sure you can find a way to rearrange the budget and it will be worth it, Twickster. Hopefully by May, you land another gig and the worry will be moot.
My wife and I both needed a ‘date night’ this weekend. We decided on a local Cajun seafood chain place because it was close and convenient. I had forgotten about it being Mardi Gras and the place was packed. However, there was a three-piece blues band playing, so we elbowed our way into the bar. I stood there and sipped on Maker’s Mark, admired my wife’s cleavage, and listened to some pretty good blues guitar. Not a bad evening, considered it was completely unplanned. The food was better than average, too. Crawfish etoufee and dirty rice.
At one point, the guitar man reached into his pocket. I thought about this thread and wondered, “Is he going for his slide?”. Sure enough, out comes his slide. He only played part of the one tune with it, but he was pretty decent with it. Good enought that I wish he had played more.
I’ve been debating weather to bump this thread or start a new one. Actually I‘ve been debating about whether or not I should even bring this up. It could end up costing me a bit of money. I’m putting it here because I’m mainly addressing it to those who have participated in this thread.
Because of this thread I’ve bought Super Session online in MP3 form and I’ve purchased the new Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi CDs. Considering my impulsiveness and the proximity of online purchasing this request holds the possibility of some serious wallet damage
So here’s my request. I’m interested in knowing the listening favorites of all of the previous responders to this thread. Whose music do you most like to listen to. I’m especially interested in understanding why.
My own tastes lean towards any journeyman guitar player with a strong blues background. I’m also a big fan of a good strong ballad performer.
My favorites in my library include Derek Trucks, Joe Bonamassa, Tommy Castro, and Leo Kotke for their guitar styles.
Susan Tedeschi, Delbert McClinton, Marc Selby (not very well known as a performer but an excellent songwriter) and Johnny Lang for their songwriting and/or voice.
So tell me Wordman, Tully Mars, Marley23, twickster and others - what music do you listen to besides your own? What music new or old can you not afford to lose?
As side information I own a few very inexpensive electric and acoustic guitars and whatever I can do on them is self taught. In my younger days I got by mostly either on my songwriting skills or as a rhythm player in an old style country band. Today my playing style and skill level can be described as “a cat running through a thorn bush while on fire”. Now that my kids or grown I hope to bring my skill level up to “can actually play a real song”.
Thanks again you guys (and star struck girl(s)) for participating in these threads
Aside from the Derek Trucks Band, my favorites include Howlin’ Wolf, Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Neil Young and the Allman Brothers.
The musical link between many of those bands (especially the Allmans) the dTb is obvious but I actually compare them to Radiohead in that they’re an adventurous band I trust. “Radiohead’s going to make more of a lush album with more guitars after dabbling in electronic stuff for years? Ok.” “The Trucks band’s going to follow up a heavily produced world music album with a Delaney and Bonnie type soul album? Cool.”
Talking Heads were also very inventive and a lot of fun. Neil Young tends to vacillate between two modes, but he sounds like himself no matter what he’s doing and I like that.
While Howlin’ Wolf’s boundaries was limited I think he’s the greatest singer I’ve ever heard. Nina Simone and Ray Charles also put their stamp on just about everything they did.
BD I am on a week-long road-warrior biz trip - but I may be able to grab a lttle downtime later today - either way I will chime in when I can.
Buy Truth by Jeff Beck and The Best of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac as a start. And hopefully Crotalus and others will chime in as well…