The Death of the Electric Guitar

24 Jun 2017 1 Comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via The Washington Post) By Geoff Edgers June 22, 2017

The convention couldn’t sound less rock-and-roll — the National Association of Music Merchants Show. But when the doors open at the Anaheim Convention Center, people stream in to scour rows of Fenders, Les Pauls and the oddball, custom-built creations such as the 5-foot-4-inch mermaid guitar crafted of 15 kinds of wood.
Standing in the center of the biggest, six-string candy store in the United States, you can almost believe all is well within the guitar world.
Except if, like George Gruhn, you know better. The 71-year-old Nashville dealer has sold guitars to Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift. Walking through NAMM with Gruhn is like shadowing Bill Belichick at the NFL Scouting Combine. There is great love for the product and great skepticism. What others might see as a boom — the seemingly endless line of manufacturers showcasing instruments — Gruhn sees as two trains on a collision course.
“There are more makers now than ever before in the history of the instrument, but the market is not growing,” Gruhn says in a voice that flutters between a groan and a grumble. “I’m not all doomsday, but this — this is not sustainable.”

The numbers back him up. In the past decade, electric guitar sales have plummeted, from about 1.5 million sold annually to just over 1 million…

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.471017b5534a

Let’s Shine a Light on “The Midnight Special”

12 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via Culture Sonar) by John Visconti

Before MTV, VH1, or, for that matter, YouTube and Vevo, chances to watch footage of your favorite musicians in action were fairly rare. Sure, bands would occasionally pop up on The Dean Martin Show and Sonny & Cher or lip sync on American Bandstand or Soul Train, but one of the only showcases for live rock was NBC’s weekly late night series The Midnight Special (1973-81). While there are DVD compilations from the show, frustratingly no easy streaming of the entire series exists. Below are six videos — from the “Legendary Performances” DVD set — suggesting that someone needs to stream these shows in their entirety pronto. Who owns a DVD player nowadays?

Read more: http://www.culturesonar.com/midnight-special/

Tommy James’ Real-Life Story Makes “Vinyl” Look Tame

29 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via CultureSonar)

How would you feel if a mobster cheated you out of $30 million, and threatened your life in the process? “Grateful” might not be your top answer, but that’s how 60’s/70’s hitmaker Tommy James really feels. James enjoyed a career most anyone would envy. With his band, The Shondells, Tommy sold over 100 million records worldwide and enjoyed 32 Billboard Hot 100 charting hits, 23 gold singles and 9 platinum albums. His hits include “Crystal Blue Persuasion”; “Mony, Mony”; “I Think We’re Alone Now”; “Hanky Panky”; “Draggin’ The Line”; and “Sweet Cherry Wine.” His songs have been covered by major artists including Prince, Joan Jett, Billy Idol, Bruce Springsteen, Carlos Santana, REM, Kelly Clarkson, Dolly Parton, Boyz ll Men and even the Boston Pops.

But before all of that, there was Morris Levy and Roulette Records…

Read more and hear the podcast here: http://www.culturesonar.com/podcast/tommy-james-podcast/

Songs in the Key of Amy

26 Mar 2017 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in Best of the Blog, General Posts

(via Purple Clover) by Jess Tardy

The casting call found its way to me by email, a strange, urgent request from a booking agent who’d previously altogether ignored me. A beautiful young woman was planning her memorial service, he wrote. She was just weeks, if not days, from her death, and she wished for the story of her life to be told through a series of her favorite songs, and for those songs to be sung by an Eva Cassidy-ish singer.

I’d recently returned to Boston from a doomed stint in Nashville. A development deal with a major label went south, and I fled north with my hat in my hand. I joined a wedding band upon my return and was promptly fired for refusing to sing a Destiny’s Child cover. I sulked at a copyediting job by day and played a few divey gigs singing sad Dinah Washington songs by night. I was bummed out and broke, the subject of me and my tanked music career a sore one, my future a big, hazy question mark. Even 1,100 miles from Music Row, I felt surrounded by singer-songwriter types bent on making it, frenetically promoting shows and breathlessly extolling their latest recording projects. They made me tired. I didn’t see the point in singing, for fun or profit. I didn’t have the heart for it anymore.

When the agent offered me the memorial service performance, I took it anyway. It was a sad way to make rent, but beggars can’t be choosers. I assumed it would be just another weird, unfulfilling rent gig on my resume, like the time I sang the national anthem at a near-deserted horse track. Nothing I’d ever want to tell anyone about, and certainly not a game changer…

Read more: http://www.purpleclover.com/relationships/3849-songs-key-amy/

Aerosmith said no. Lynyrd Skynyrd said yes to the plane. It crashed killing 3 members

25 Mar 2017 1 Comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via The Vintage News)

The date of 20th October 1977 is remembered as one of the saddest moments in the music industry for the disaster that fell upon the rock band Lynyrd Skynrd.

A Convair CV-240 was chartered by the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from L&J Company of Addison, Texas and the jet ran out of fuel and crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi very close to the end of its flight from Greenville, South Carolina going towards Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The lead singer of the band Ronnie Van Zant, vocalist and guitarist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassier Gaines, and the managing crew including assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, died in the crash.

The pilot of the plane was Walter McCreary, who also perished along with his co-pilot Willian Gray; twenty other passengers, however, survived the crash.

On the day of the crash, a mere three days after the release of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Street Survivors, the band decided to charter a Convair CV-240.

The Convair CV-240 had been inspected by members of Aerosmith’s flight crew for possible use earlier in 1977, but was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards. Aerosmith’s assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing pilots McCreary and Gray passing a bottle of Jack Daniel’s back and forth while his father and he were inspecting the plane. Aerosmith’s touring family was also relieved because the band, specifically Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, had been trying to pressure their management into renting that specific plane –  Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith

However, it did not contain enough fuel for the entire journey and came down in South Carolina. The band was coming back from a performance at Greenville Memorial Auditorium, and members were on their way to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana…

Read more: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/27/aerosmith-said-no-lynyrd-skynyrd-said-yes-to-the-plane-it-crashed-killing-3-members/

Jon Anderson to play with Yes at Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

10 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

Jon Anderson will perform Roundabout onstage with Yes at their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April

(via Prog Magazine)

Jon Anderson will take to the stage and perform with Yes at their induction ceremony into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next month.

He’ll be honoured along with Steve Howe, Alan White, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford on April 7 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in New York.

Billboard report that they’ll play Roundabout and are also contemplating I’ve Seen All Good People and Owner Of A Lonely Heart.

Read more: http://teamrock.com/news/2017-03-09/jon-anderson-to-play-with-yes-at-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame

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