Koch Marshall Trio, featuring Greg Koch, the profoundly talented journeyman guitarist who has legendarily made >4,000 guitar demo videos for Wildwood Music (search on youtube and be amazed; within guitar circles, he is held in awe).
Love this instrumental track - Koch’s son is on drums. This song is literally the first time they have met and are playing together. I just heard Greg interviewed and shared how his son had been telling him he needed to meet this organ player, so they finally got together and had the recorder on. Boom.
Yeah, I’m still taking lessons, focusing mainly on the blues for the past year. I really like Ford’s phrasing, and he tends to keep things in a pretty tight box, throwing in some surprises along the way.
Greg Koch is the quintessential guitarist’s guitarist - I wonder how many non-guitarists have even heard of him? Whether he’s actually the result of a genetic experiment involving Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton is open to speculation, but he does admit to worshiping both.
That long-standing tradition of guitarists displaying their instruments in group portraits is being upheld here, but it always seemed a bit anti-egalitarian to me. I wonder if it’s the record execs who insist on it?
I believe his nickname for his 6’6” self is “Mansquatch” ;). He’s so smart and verbal - he tells great stories and articulates his approach so well. On this interview I mentioned, he discusses how a Tele is his ideal because he “can treat it like a farm animal.” He speaks in ways we guitarist immediately grasp about tone and playability.
And his technique is so catholic (as in universal) and rich in musicality. Yeah, but I would assume most folks don’t know him, so I thought I’d share
Yeah, I’ve seen that video. I get his basic point: Hendrix had a lot of slop in his playing, and if you look at players who grew up in his shadow, you might see them as “better” because they emulate his Hendrix moves more precisely, etc. His point is that they need to value the slop of innovation!
I’ll never forget an early 90’s edition of Guitar Player (or similar guitar fanzine) where Reb Beach (of Winger!) was asked whom his favorite guitar player of all time was and he had replied “Jimi Hendrix”.
He was then asked if Hendrix were alive today, what would you like to say to him?
His answer was “Dude! Tune yer guitar!”…:dubious:
Seriously, the guitar player from Winger…offering advice to Hendrix…I thought it was one of the funniest things I’d ever read.
Believe me, I get it - Winger is frikkin’ Winger. But Reb Beach is a perfect example of what I mean. He’s a total gunslinger with jazz, rock, blues and hardcore technical chops. He joined Winger to make a buck, just like drummer Rod Morgenstern from the Dixie Dregs, a deeply respected set of musicians.
So from a guitarists standpoint, Beach is right - but damn. And also not fair because Jimi innovated whammy tricks without the benefit of a locking whammy. To quote Koch above, Jimi uses his whammy like a farm animal, and original Strat trems are a bitch to keep in tune if you do that. Beach is a locking whammy guy.
Hey, all their live stuff is from the Milwaukee area!
I’ll pop up there this summer, if they’re playing Summerfest or TosaFest or “South of Kinnickinnick But Not Quite Cudahy Yet” Fest, or whatever else they’ve got going.
Tasty guitar over a kickass B3… glad someone’s still cranking it out.
I’m going to be a dissenting opinion here. While I love the blues, and clearly these are some extremely talented musicians, this track doesn’t do it for me. It feels very generic, and by-the-book. This is what I’d expect to hear if I searched “blues music” in a stock music library. I’m not hearing any passion or soul in this. Again, clearly very talented musicians, but this particular track doesn’t inspire me to seek out any of their other works.
I don’t mean to just come in here and threadshit; people who are much more knowledgable than me on music have already contributed to the thread, and I am happy to hear arguments against my point of view!
If you listen to it from the beginning, instead of the “needle drop” location the recording goes to, it’s a nice recording with some room to breathe. Very tasteful guitar. But where it started playing was right where the organ was soloing, much too brashly in my opinion. The guy has good chops, but the song has to build up organically when you’re listening to it.
No worries. We’re debating B3 blues; that means we’re listening to B3 blues. I have no problem with preferences within that context. Even though you’re wrong
I just went back and listened. I think what I love about it from an inside-baseball standpoint, is that on the first few passes through the standard blues progression, Greg’s playing is so controlled. He’s using tight little phrases, really varying up how much thumbflesh he’s using in his picking hand to impart a little Billy Gibbons pinch to the tone - make it sound more vocal. And then, about a minute in, he starts copping little pedal-steel licks. He’s imparting little stings of vibrato to emulate that tone.
All that just oozes excellence in his craft. And, in light of what he described, this is literally the first time he met the organ player. Put in that context, you can hear Greg using simple phrases to feel out the situation, start to get comfortable, and then branch out. Very cool to have that context.
Oh I get it…I knew Beach was a strong session guy with excellent chops. But no matter whom you are, you meet the late, great electric innovator and THAT’S what you’re going to say to him? In this age of locking trems, digitization, rack mounted effects, compression, 128-track recording…?
dradful! Nice to see you. Now, what did I offer too much information about? Lemme know.
In the meantime, check out that new thread I started on two chord songs. My draddy sense must’ve been tingling when I started it so you could come on by and offer your thoughts.
