Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
General Interest
Brent Hinds calls Mastodon a “s**t band with horrible humans” three months after his departure
There appears to be no lost love between Mastodon and their ex-guitarist Brent Hinds, who took to social media this week to describe his former group as a “shit band with horrible humans”.
The blunt remark arrived after Mastodon posted the cover of their 2014 album Once More ‘Round the Sun on Instagram, commemorating the record’s 11th anniversary.
A fan replied in the comments section, praising the song Halloween and adding that they would “definitely gonna miss B. Hinds.”
Hinds then responded: “I [won’t] miss being in a shit band with horrible humans.”
Credit: Mastodon/Instagram
The guitarist co-founded Mastodon in 2000 and spent 25 years with the band, sharing vocal duties with bassist Troy Sanders and contributing to all eight of their studio albums.
His departure was announced in March, just days before the band was due to perform at Tool’s Tool in the Sand festival in the Dominican Republic.
At the time, Mastodon described the exit as a mutual decision, writing: “We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavours.”
To honour their upcoming commitments, Mastodon initially brought in YouTuber and guitarist Ben Eller to fill Hinds’ spot.
More recently though, they’ve announced Canadian guitarist Nick Johnston as their new touring member for upcoming shows.
The band also assured fans then that all 2025 tour plans would continue as scheduled, and said they were “very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter.”
As of now, neither the band nor its members have publicly responded to Hinds’ remark. But if his Instagram comment is any indication, the split may have been far less cordial than the official statements let on.
View all of Mastodon’s upcoming live dates via their official website.
The post Brent Hinds calls Mastodon a “s**t band with horrible humans” three months after his departure appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“There was a drive, a presence – I helped guide him early on. He wanted me to help him not only learn guitar but arrange”: Godfather of ska, Ernest Ranglin, recalls working with a young Bob Marley
Taj Farrant explains how he got so good at guitar at 15 that Nuno Bettencourt called him “SRV and EVH reincarnated into one body”
The guitar world loves itself a prodigy. And in the social media age, it seems barely a month passes without some precociously talented young shredder setting the feed ablaze with their skills… but some are a little bit different.
In the last few years, there’s been one young guitarist whose skills have been blowing minds around the rock and blues community, and earning some serious fans along the way. No less than Nuno Bettencourt himself was so astounded: “It’s as if God was doing his weekly reincarnations, but on this day enjoying a bit of a drink [and] just to fuck with us convinced SRV and EVH to be reincarnated into one body. And just for fun he threw in Michael Jordan’s fingers.” The person he was talking about is a 15-year-old guitar phenom named Taj Farrant.
Farrant was born in Australia and made his first waves as a guitar player via an appearance on Australia’s Got Talent. From there his YouTube channel blew up and he has since moved to the United States, becoming the youngest person to ever be endorsed by Gibson, and sharing the stage with Carlos Santana and another guitarist who first gained attention as a very young man, Joe Bonamassa. His playing has been described as a tasteful mixture of shred and emotion in the vein of one of his idols, Gary Moore.
But how did this kid get to be so good at such a young age? Well, the answer is simple enough.
“I practised probably eight to nine hours a day from when I was like seven to when I was probably 13, 14,” Farrant explains. “I’ve cut back on practicing now because I am doing a lot more touring. But really, it was just a lot of practice with dad in my bedroom all those years.”
Image: Press
Putting In the Hours
Woodshedding guitar seemed to come quite naturally to young Taj from the moment he saw Angus Young take the stage at an AC/DC show that his father brought him to – that planted the desire to learn to play guitar, and he pursued it with all the fervor and ambition that kids normally display for certain sports of their liking. But while other kids were working on their footy skills, Farrant was in his room diligently getting better and better at the guitar.
It’s often been said that practice makes perfect, which often entails running scales until your fingers bleed. This is where, for many of us, those big dreams of becoming a great guitarist crash headfirst into a wall of reality. Let’s face it, running scales is boring. So how did Farrant overcome this common hurdle early on in his sonic journey?
To answer that, you have to get to know Taj Farrant. From the moment you start talking about guitar, either technique or nerdy gear-related stuff, Farrant’s face lights up – for him, playing the guitar was seldom a chore; it was a labor of love that he naturally threw himself into from a very young age.
Regarding playing those boring scales, Farrant explains that he would simply play them while watching television. This helped commit the scales to muscle memory and learn where each note lands on the fretboard, greatly aiding in sculpting a skill that many have lauded Farrant for – his ability to improvise when playing live.
Next Chapter
When he is not on tour, he has been busy recording a follow-up album to his blues chart-topping debut album, Chapter One. While we don’t know many details about the upcoming album, it promises to pick up where the debut left off, as the constant touring has only helped to sharpen his skills. Farrant did reveal that it would have several guest appearances from some pretty big names
“This next album is full of guests on pretty much every song,” he enthuses. “We’ve got Kingfish [Christone Ingram] for one, maybe Andy Timmons for another, Eric Steckel…” Based on those names it would seem that the album will be a powerful statement for the blues community, combining established blues artists as well as the exciting crop of young guitarists lending their talents to the storied genre.
Given his remarkable technical ability, it’s easy to assume that he ascribes to the “more is more” school of musicianship, but even at this young age, he’s worked out that more notes doesn’t always translate to more feeling.
“It’s cool when you can play a thousand notes,” he says. “But it’s way cooler when you can hold one note and it can captivate what all of those thousand notes could have done.”
Image: Press
One good exercise for those looking to hone their melodic skills would be to explore ways of interpreting the vocal melodies of a song on the guitar. This is something that Paul Gilbert has been doing for a while now and Taj Farrant has also been doing a lot when covering legends in his live shows.
“Sometimes with some of the Prince songs like Purple Rain or even some Gary Moore songs like Parisian Walkways I won’t sing them just out of respect because obviously it’s their song,” he affirms. “But I will still do what I love to do, which is the guitar part. I keep their iconic parts, but I still make it my own by interpreting the vocal parts.”
There is no question that Taj Farrant is one of the guitar talents in the blues-rock world, but it’s also clear that he has something beyond shredding – he can connect with people on an emotional level through his music. So if you’re really looking for the secret to his young success, it’s probably the best advice he can offer – find your feeling and let it flow through your fingers.
The post Taj Farrant explains how he got so good at guitar at 15 that Nuno Bettencourt called him “SRV and EVH reincarnated into one body” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram Announces New Album; Shares First Song
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram's highly-anticipated new album, Hard Road, is set to be released on September 26. The album will be available in various formats, including limited-edition vinyl. Kingfish will embark on a North American tour followed by shows in the EU and UK. Don't miss out on this epic "Hard Road Tour" experience!
Voodoo Charm - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
GRAMMY® Award-winning blues, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and R&B musician Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has unveiled his much-anticipated new album, Hard Road, arriving via his own Red Zero Records on Friday, September 26. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now. Hard Road will be offered in a wide range of formats, including digital, standard Green & White Swirl vinyl, and limited-edition of 500 Purple & Gold Swirl vinyl, available exclusively via the official Christone “Kingfish” Ingram webstore, 100 of these will include a special Golden Ticket insert that will give winners a pair of tickets to a Kingfish show of their choice.
Kingfish’s fourth collection and first new studio album since 2021’s GRAMMY® Award-winning 662, Hard Road is heralded by today’s premiere of the fiery first single, “Voodoo Charm,” available everywhere now.
“I’m definitely excited to drop the first track from Hard Road. ‘Voodoo Charm’ is a high-tempo one that I look forward to playing live, and I also think it will set the stage for what’s to come with my third studio album,” said Ingram. “I hope people dig it and have some real anticipation for what’s in store.”
Widely regarded as one of contemporary blues’ most dynamic live performers, Kingfish will celebrate Hard Road on an epic North American tour that includes headline dates, top-billed festival performances, and more with dates currently underway and then continuing through October. From there, Ingram will take “The Hard Road Tour” across the Atlantic for eagerly awaited shows in the EU and the UK, set to visit Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom through November. 2026 will then see Kingfish making headline appearances on both the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #44: Eastern Caribbean (January 24-31, 2026) and Jam Cruise 22 (February 7-12, 2026). For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.christonekingfishingram.com/kingfish-tour.
A native son of Clarksdale, Mississippi — a city steeped in blues history — Christone “Kingfish” Ingram stands at the crossroads of legacy and innovation, channeling the spirit of the Delta while fearlessly reshaping its future. His mastery of the guitar, steeped in the tones of B.B. King, Albert King, and Buddy Guy, first turned heads when he was still a teenager. But what sets Ingram apart is how he’s expanded the form, blending in funk, soul, hip-hop, pop, and jazz to create a modern blues fusion that resonates across generations and genres. 2019’s debut album, Kingfish, topped Billboard’s “Blues Albums” for an incredible 91 weeks and earned him his first GRAMMY® Award nomination, plus three Blues Music Awards, including “Album of the Year.” Kingfish followed up with 2021’s 662, titled after his Mississippi area code, which won both the GRAMMY® Award and Blues Music Award for “Best Contemporary Blues Album.” In 2023, the incendiary Live In London received yet another GRAMMY® Award nomination as well as his second Blues Music Award for “Album of the Year” and third consecutive triumph in the “Best Contemporary Blues Album.”
Now, with Hard Road, Kingfish reflects on a journey that’s taken him from local prodigy to global torchbearer for a new era of blues. Executive Produced by Ingram and Ric Whitney for Red Zero Records with production support from Patrick “Guitar Boy” Hayes, Nick Goldston, and Tom Hambridge, the album marks Kingfish’s most introspective and ambitious project thus far, lyrically, emotionally, sonically, and thematically. Songs such as “Bad Like Me” and “Nothin’ But Your Love” explore love, loss, identity, perseverance, and personal growth, but with a harder, emotionally rich edge to Ingram’s signature sound. As always, Kingfish’s renowned guitar work is both explosive and tender, a fusion of rock and R&B sensibilities with vulnerable, honest, resilient blues at its heart. A true statement of purpose from an artist who has already made history and is only getting started, Hard Road is infused with the wisdom of someone who’s lived through transformation, seen the world, and returned home changed.
“This record comes from real-life reflection,” says Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. “I’ve been balancing fame, heartbreak, love, and relationships while trying to stay grounded, touring, creating, and maturing. These songs are about owning my story. They’re about learning to see myself clearly and seeing others with more compassion. That’s changed the way I write, the way I play, and the way I live.”
For more information, please visit christonekingfishingram.com.
Tour Dates
JUNE
28 – Aspen, CO – JAS Aspen June Experience at Wheeler Opera House †
29 – Winter Park, CO – Blues from the Top †
JULY
3 – Montreal, CA – Festival International de Jazz de Montreal †
5 - Sioux City, IA - Saturday in the Park
7 - Scottsdale, AZ - Talking Stick Casino & Resort
8 – Green Bay, WI – The EPIC Event Center
9 – Minneapolis, MN – Pantages Theatre
10 – Sioux Falls, SD – Icon Lounge
12 – Deadwood, SD – Deadwood Blues Festival †
19 – Ottawa, ON – Ottawa Bluesfest †
25 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
27 - Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden
AUGUST
14 - Bloomington, IL - Castle Theatre
15 - 16 Evansville, IN - Mojo's
28 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
30 – Bremerton, WA – Kitsap Blues Music Festival †
SEPTEMBER
4 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
5 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
6 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
7 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
9 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
12 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theater
13 – Birmingham, AL – Iron City Bham
14 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
16 – Kansas City, MO – Knuckleheads
17 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory
19 – Chicago, IL – Park West
20 – Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall
21 - Pittsburgh, PA - Pittsburgh Int'l Jazz Fest
24 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
25 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
27 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
28 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony
OCTOBER
1 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
2 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
3 – Montreal, QC – Theatre Beanfield
4 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
8 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
9 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Hall (Mainstage)
10 – Memphis, TN – Overton Park Shell
16 - Los Angeles, CA - TBD changed to The Ford
18 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
19 – Napa, CA – Uptown Theatre
20 – Grass Valley, CA – Center for the Arts
24 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park
25-11/1 – San Diego, CA – Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #43: Sea of Cortez †
NOVEMBER
7 – Berlin, Germany – Columbia Theater
9 – Munich, Germany – Technikum
10 – Zurich, Switzerland – Kaufleuten
11 – Leverkusen, Germany – Leverkusener Jazztage
13 – Hamburg, Germany – Fabrik
14 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
16 – Paris, France – La Cigale
18 – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town
19 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
20 – Wolverhampton, UK – Wulfrun Hall
21 – Glasgow, UK – The Old Fruitmarket
23 – Leeds, UK – Stylus
DECEMBER
3 - Starksville, MS - Mississippi State University (Lyceum Series)
5 - Dallas, TX - Longhorn Ballroom
6 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theater
7 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
JANUARY 2026
24-31 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #44: Eastern Caribbean †
FEBRUARY 2026
7-12 – Port of Miami, FL – Jam Cruise 22 †
† FESTIVAL APPEARANCE
PRS Guitars Releases “Chleo” Limited Edition Herman Li’s Signature Model
Introducing the PRS Chleo Limited Edition, the signature model designed in collaboration with Herman Li. Featuring Fishman Fluence pickups, a sculpted body carve, and a Gotoh locking tremolo system, this guitar offers players versatility and precision craftsmanship. Only 200 pieces available in 2025.
Chleo Limited Edition | Herman Li Signature Model | PRS Guitars - YouTube
PRS Guitars today launched its first signature guitar with award-winning guitarist, songwriter, producer, and content creator Herman Li, best known for his work as one of the lead guitar players in the power metal band DragonForce. The model is called Chleo, named by Herman as a combination of the names of his children. Featuring several departures from traditional PRS designs, including Fishman Fluence powered pickups, a new sculpted body carve, and several other unique appointments, the Chleo Limited Edition exhibits PRS further spreading its wings. Available in Orchid Dusk and Charcoal Purple Burst, only 200 pieces will be made in 2025.
“With the PRS Chleo, I wanted to create a guitar that combined effortless playability, precision craftsmanship, and a versatile tonal range. It brings together modern innovation with timeless style, giving players the freedom to explore both classic sounds and new creative possibilities. The Chleo isn’t just a signature model — it’s a guitar built to inspire,” said Herman Li.
As a guitar player who is as dedicated to understanding his instrument as he is to continually refining his craft as a player, Li was a formidable partner in designing his signature PRS. At first glance, the Chleo is a seemingly dramatic departure from classic PRS design, but its craftsmanship and quality are wholly PRS. Featuring PRS’s tried-and-true combination of a mahogany back and figured maple top with a maple neck, the Chleo’s body shape and neck have been specially engineered for this model. The body has been modified in several ways from PRS’s traditional profile. Most notably, it is remarkably thin, making it light enough for high-energy stage performances and comfortable for longer gigs. The neck shape and neck joint were specially designed to be comfortable and fast, and with glow-in-the-dark side dots you’ll never lose your place. The neck is very thin front-to-back with a slightly taller playing surface and 20” fretboard radius, and the neck joint has added surface area to promote build integrity and tonal transfer. PRS’s trademark scoop has also been modified for ultimate access to the upper frets, and the last 4 frets are scalloped so players can dig into those notes with ease. If the Chleo wasn’t unmistakable already, its ebony fretboard features a unique “Eclipse Dragon” inlay pattern.
Li’s Signature Series Fishman Fluence pickups are at the heart of the PRS Chleo. These copper-free pickups use layered PCBs for consistent, noise-free performance. With three distinct voices and a versatile switching system, the guitar offers up to 13 unique tone combinations. From fat, aggressive rhythm tones to smooth, warm leads, soaring screams, and crystal-clear single-coil sounds, these pickups cover it all. The performance-friendly control layout makes it easy to switch between tones on the fly. Whether you’re using high-gain tube amps, solid-state rigs, modern amp modelers, or DAW plugins, the Chleo’s pickups are built to shine across any setup.
“This guitar represents a new evolution for PRS. We spent more than four years in research and development, working closely with Herman to get everything exactly right,” said PRS Guitars Director of New Products Engineering, Rob Carhart. “Partnering with Fishman for yet another project continues to be rewarding as well.”
Adding to the innovation is a Gotoh locking tremolo system, enhanced with a new custom PRS stabilizer. It delivers the expressive freedom of a fully floating tremolo, while offering the tuning stability that players love from fixed bridges, delivering confidence and control in any situation.
For more information, please visit prsguitars.com.
PRS Chleo Herman Li Signature Electric Guitar - Charcoal Purple Burst
PRS Guitars Releases “Chleo” Limited Edition Herman Li’s Signature Model
Introducing the PRS Chleo Limited Edition, the signature model designed in collaboration with Herman Li. Featuring Fishman Fluence pickups, a sculpted body carve, and a Gotoh locking tremolo system, this guitar offers players versatility and precision craftsmanship. Only 200 pieces available in 2025.
Chleo Limited Edition | Herman Li Signature Model | PRS Guitars - YouTube
PRS Guitars today launched its first signature guitar with award-winning guitarist, songwriter, producer, and content creator Herman Li, best known for his work as one of the lead guitar players in the power metal band DragonForce. The model is called Chleo, named by Herman as a combination of the names of his children. Featuring several departures from traditional PRS designs, including Fishman Fluence powered pickups, a new sculpted body carve, and several other unique appointments, the Chleo Limited Edition exhibits PRS further spreading its wings. Available in Orchid Dusk and Charcoal Purple Burst, only 200 pieces will be made in 2025.
“With the PRS Chleo, I wanted to create a guitar that combined effortless playability, precision craftsmanship, and a versatile tonal range. It brings together modern innovation with timeless style, giving players the freedom to explore both classic sounds and new creative possibilities. The Chleo isn’t just a signature model — it’s a guitar built to inspire,” said Herman Li.
As a guitar player who is as dedicated to understanding his instrument as he is to continually refining his craft as a player, Li was a formidable partner in designing his signature PRS. At first glance, the Chleo is a seemingly dramatic departure from classic PRS design, but its craftsmanship and quality are wholly PRS. Featuring PRS’s tried-and-true combination of a mahogany back and figured maple top with a maple neck, the Chleo’s body shape and neck have been specially engineered for this model. The body has been modified in several ways from PRS’s traditional profile. Most notably, it is remarkably thin, making it light enough for high-energy stage performances and comfortable for longer gigs. The neck shape and neck joint were specially designed to be comfortable and fast, and with glow-in-the-dark side dots you’ll never lose your place. The neck is very thin front-to-back with a slightly taller playing surface and 20” fretboard radius, and the neck joint has added surface area to promote build integrity and tonal transfer. PRS’s trademark scoop has also been modified for ultimate access to the upper frets, and the last 4 frets are scalloped so players can dig into those notes with ease. If the Chleo wasn’t unmistakable already, its ebony fretboard features a unique “Eclipse Dragon” inlay pattern.
Li’s Signature Series Fishman Fluence pickups are at the heart of the PRS Chleo. These copper-free pickups use layered PCBs for consistent, noise-free performance. With three distinct voices and a versatile switching system, the guitar offers up to 13 unique tone combinations. From fat, aggressive rhythm tones to smooth, warm leads, soaring screams, and crystal-clear single-coil sounds, these pickups cover it all. The performance-friendly control layout makes it easy to switch between tones on the fly. Whether you’re using high-gain tube amps, solid-state rigs, modern amp modelers, or DAW plugins, the Chleo’s pickups are built to shine across any setup.
“This guitar represents a new evolution for PRS. We spent more than four years in research and development, working closely with Herman to get everything exactly right,” said PRS Guitars Director of New Products Engineering, Rob Carhart. “Partnering with Fishman for yet another project continues to be rewarding as well.”
Adding to the innovation is a Gotoh locking tremolo system, enhanced with a new custom PRS stabilizer. It delivers the expressive freedom of a fully floating tremolo, while offering the tuning stability that players love from fixed bridges, delivering confidence and control in any situation.
For more information, please visit prsguitars.com.
PRS Chleo Herman Li Signature Electric Guitar - Charcoal Purple Burst
Podcast 506: Emma Harner
Meet Emma Harner, an incredibly talented artist from Nebraska who, unbelievably, has only been playing guitar since the pandemic.
Emma’s complex playing, a mix of math rock and acoustic fingerpicking, and arresting vocals have earned her over 200,000 followers on Instagram and accolades from numerous guitar heroes.
During our chat, we talk about her guitar journey, including her time at Berklee, working at Guitar Center, her favorite tuning, her love for Radiohead, why she won’t be covering Nick Drake or Adrianne Lenker any time soon, her new single, and so much more. It’s a great conversation and Emma’s first interview to date.
Follow Emma:
https://emmaharner.com
https://www.instagram.com/emmaharner/
https://substack.com/@emmaharner
Above photo: Sydney Tate
We are brought to you by:
Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com
(Use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first order)
Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com
Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).
https://fretboardsummit.org/ (August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago!)
https://www.fretboardjournal.com
The post Podcast 506: Emma Harner first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
“Got lucky with an exceptional hospital”: Bruce Springsteen guitarist undergoes emergency surgery on tour
With just three dates left of Bruce Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour, guitarist Steven Van Zandt has announced that he will be temporarily out of action in the wake of emergency appendix surgery.
The 74 year old E Street Band member underwent the emergency surgery in the Spanish city of San Sebastian, where Springsteen performed last night. Zandt, understandably, did not perform. “Got a sharp pain in my stomach, thought it was food poisoning, turned out to be appendicitis,” Zandt explains on Instagram.
- READ MORE: Learn how Martin guitars are shaped by the iconic musicians who play them in the 2025 Martin Journal
While the guitarist is resting up, he hopes to be back on stage soon. “Got lucky with an exceptional hospital in San Sebastian,” he continues. “Operation was a complete success and I’m hoping to get back on stage for at least one of the shows in Milan. Thank you all for all the good vibes. See you soon.”
The show in question would be the tour’s grand finale at the San Siro Stadium on 3 July. Alongside marking the end of the Land of Hope and Dreams tour, Zandt’s return to the stage will surely be another cause for celebration.
Springsteen’s tour has certainly been one for the history books. The singer sparked outrage in the White House due to a speech at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena on 14 May, leading him to release the cutting speech on an impromptu EP, Land of Hope and Dreams. He then changed the name of the entire tour too, just to cement his defiance.
“My home – the America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years – is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he explained at the Manchester show.
“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us,” he urged. “Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.” He then kicked into a triumphant performance of Land of Hope and Dreams.
Alongside the tour, Springsteen has also just released a mammoth, career-spanning boxset of seven previously unreleased records. Tracks II: The Lost Albums is rammed with Springsteen cuts recorded between 1983 and 2018, showing his full breadth as an artist across a span of 35 years.
The post “Got lucky with an exceptional hospital”: Bruce Springsteen guitarist undergoes emergency surgery on tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“My father was a big Pat Metheny fan – hearing him started to make me obsessed with the idea of playing music”: Berklee-educated and endorsed by Strandberg, meet Camilla Sperati – the fusion phenom hand-picked to open for Steve Vai
Sol Philcox-Littlefield Rig Rundown Guitar Gear Tour
Vintage Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretsches get the job done for one of Nashville’s veteran studio players.
Trusted session guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield, known for his work with Luke Combs, Tim McGraw, Kelsea Ballerini, and Elle King, among many others, was at Nashville’s FrontStage Studios for some recording work recently, and he invited PG’s John Bohlinger to get a look at all the tools he uses to cut a stellar country record.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Tax Treat
Philcox-Littlefield picked up this sweet 1967 Gibson ES-335 from Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville as a treat when he got his end-of-year tax return.
Butcher’s Choice
This 1962 Gibson SG, which has been refinished and “butchered to some degree,” isn’t super comfortable, so it pushes Philcox-Littlefield into less usual, more creative playing.
Also in the studio stable are a Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean, another SG loaded with P-90s, a Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Jerry Jones baritone, a Silvertone semi-hollowbody, and a Fender Jazzmaster, Telecaster, and Stratocaster.
Headcount
Philcox-Littlefield’s studio setup includes a cabinet of tube-amp heads hooked up to a Kahayan amp switcher, including a Fender Bassman, Fender Bandmaster, Marshall JCM800, Guytron GT100 F/V, and a Matchless DC-30. Also on the shelf is a Roland Chorus Echo RE-501.
Sol Philcox-Littlefield’s Pedalboard
Philcox-Littlefield’s studio board is packed with goodies. Along with a TC Electronic PolyTune 2, Dunlop volume pedal, Barn3 OXU Three switch, and a Line 6 HX Effects, there’s a Dr. Scientist Bitquest, Analog Man King of Tone, Nordland ODR-C, Greer Lightspeed, Bogner Ecstasy, Way Huge Swollen Pickle, Bondi Effects Squish As, Eventide H90, Strymon El Capistan, Jackson Audio/Silvertone Twin Trem, Electro-Harmonix POG III, Boss CE-2, Boss DC-2, Strymon Deco, and Strymon Mobius.
Eventide H90 Harmonizer Multi-effects Pedal
Jackson Audio/Silvertone Twin Trem
“Captures the spirit of 1960s flower power”: Fender Japan taps into the Summer of Love and revives an unconventional classic with new Blue Flower Series
“I get fingers pointed at me. I get told, ‘You’re the guy who tried to kill Randy Rhoads.’ I laugh it off. He needed to be with better people. How could our split ever be friendly?” Kelly Garni founded Quiet Riot – but it ended with shots fired
Simply Guitar review: simple isn’t always better
Note – there are two learning platforms called SimplyGuitar/Simply Guitar – this is a review of the smartphone app Simply Guitar made by Simply (formerly JoyTunes), not the web-based platform hosted at simplyguitar.com.
Given you’re here, you may have seen your fair share of adverts for ‘smart’ learning solutions across the various corners of the guitar internet. In particular, a few years ago, Simply Guitar and Yousician seemed locked in a battle to have the most ubiquitous and energetic video adverts – they’re less pervasive now, but for a while it was a running joke just how many you’d run into.
The, er, comedic tone of Simply Guitar’s ads no doubt helped cement them as memes, but beyond the yelling there are some serious promises being made in all of Simply Guitar’s marketing material about the platform’s teaching ability. So, let’s dive in and see if they’re kept.
Who is Simply Guitar for?
Simply Guitar is a smartphone-based learning app aimed at anyone who’s totally new to guitar and who might feel intimidated by more traditional learning paths. Like Yousician, a lot of Simply Guitar’s marketing lampoons YouTube video lessons as obnoxious and unfriendly to beginners. Regardless of the truth of that, it presents itself as an alternative, promising to make the guitar far more friendly and accessible with a mix of smart features and professionally-made video lessons.
Its beginner focus means there’s very little theory explored in the app, and it sticks to very simple tabs and chords, with almost no rhythm notation. Hence, If you have some basic theory knowledge from another instrument, or more than a year or so’s experience on the guitar, Simply Guitar’s approach may be too simplistic for you. It is also probably not for you for other reasons, no matter your skill level, but we’ll get on to that.
All Ages
As well as being a general “beginners” app, Simply Guitar is also vaguely pitched as “all ages”. There are a good amount of kid-friendly songs to play, including a few Disney tunes alongside a wide range of modern pop. While some learning platforms seem to forget the existence of music released after 1986, it’s refreshing to see artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Post Malone and Sia make a showing here… sort of. More on that later.
Some effort has been made to keep the tracks family-friendly, too. I don’t hear a single swear word across my time with the app (not counting the ones I say). Songs are sometimes tweaked to minimise adult themes – for instance Why Do You Only Call Me When You’re High has been bowdlerised to simply Why Do You Only Call Me, and the version of ooh la la by Run The Jewels ends before you’re told the four-letter verb you should do to the law. It is not, however, a completely sanitised experience: the full lyrics of Hurt are included, and a lot of racy classic rock tunes are left untouched in the lyrics department.
So, yes, a broad age pitch does mean inevitable compromise. For very young learners it’s definitely not the most engaging platform out there – I mean, just look at the Loog app’s colourful cast of characters and contrast them to Simply Guitar’s fairly bland tablature. Conversely if you’re above the age of 13 you’ll likely find the skits and bits within the video lessons – replete with comedy explosions and shouting – irritating rather than funny.
The Simply Guitar experience
The main loop of Simply Guitar is this: you select a course, and then go through a series of short training exercises, leading up to performing “full songs” (those quotes are foreshadowing) to cement each course’s ideas. Video lessons are interspersed throughout the courses, with a presenter popping up to explain and re-state different techniques, chords and strumming patterns as and when they’re needed.
The courses themselves are split into two paths – chords and lead. The chords path focuses on the skills needed for campfire strumming, while the lead course drills down on riffs and melodies. They occasionally convene for courses that cover both. Notably the whole app is pretty electric/acoustic agnostic – when I sign up, it asks me what kind of guitar I have, but this appears to impact nothing.
A given lesson goes over the finger positions of any relevant chords, and then gives you a chance to practice the upcoming chord changes, riffs and melodies. Here you’re actually playing the notes, with the app listening to check you’ve done so correctly. You can work through the initial chord changes and melodies at your own pace, before playing some of the parts in time to a generic drum track. You’ll then put it all together to play along to a song from the library.
For the sections where you’re playing along to music, the tabs/chords scroll across the screen and work on Guitar Hero rules – hit the right note or chord at roughly the right time, and you’ll get to keep going. If you completely mess up too many times in a row, the track rewinds a bit and makes you try again. You can’t proceed to the next lesson within the course until you get through each part without triggering this rewind. Things broadly stick to this formula across all of the app’s lessons.
I will start with a positive: the videos that are dotted throughout the lessons, despite an occasional reliance on cringey humour, are well-presented and clear. It’s always helpful to see a human demonstrate how to fret a chord rather than just look at a chart, and here there are some good visual enhancements used to make things obvious. The main video presenter is particularly good at slowly and patiently explaining the basic elements of guitar.
However, there will be long stretches where it’s just you and the open road of tablature – the stop-offs for the human-presented lessons are far less common in some courses. For these stretches, you’re left with the smart “instant feedback” system – the thing that listens to your playing and tells you how well you’re doing – as the main voice of authority. How well does that work?
Detection issues
From a purely technological standpoint, the detection is reasonably functional for single note lines. And boy, that’s a sentence with a lot of caveats. The app occasionally hears itself and registers a false positive – you can mitigate this with headphones, but this does mean you’re going to have a harder time hearing your own playing – and given there’s no desktop app, there’s not really an easy way to mix guitar and app audio through your headphones. Plus if you’re using one of those new-fangled phones that doesn’t have a headphone jack (IE, most of them), this might introduce a little bit of bluetooth latency without a dongle. And latency is the last thing Simply Guitar needs, for reasons we’ll explore in a moment.
None of that is ideal, but it’s the chord detection where the cracks really start to show. During a lesson, I lean away from my phone to cough. There’s a swoosh, a boop and a big animated tick. I’d apparently just coughed a perfect Fmaj7. I try whacking my (muted) strings. A perfect D major. A tuneless pickscrape? To Simply Guitar, an E minor.
In short – its chord detection is simply not really functional. You can play the wrong chord, drop your guitar, have a bin lorry go past the window – Simply Guitar often just can’t tell the difference. Rhythmically, it’s much more of an issue – when I sustain the same chord, Simply Guitar registers it as multiple strums. This means that there’s no real way for it to tell me whether I’m playing a strumming pattern correctly, as it registers my first strum as half of the entire pattern.
I ask Simply Guitar’s team about ways to mitigate this, and I am told to use a cleaner tone and a lower volume, with the phone not too close to my amp. But, this had all already been with a clean tone at standard home practice volume. It obviously gives me extreme pause as to the reliability of the whole system if it can’t tell the difference between a guitar and a coffee grinder.
Before these detection issues, Simply Guitar was coming across as a pretty basic but fairly harmless tool for beginners. But we now reach the point where the review score realises, Wile E Coyote-style, that it’s run off the cliff, and plummets. It will not be getting better from here.
Feedback on the feedback system
So, even in a world where Simply Guitar gets its detection working, the actual feedback system also needs a major overhaul to be an effective teaching tool. “Strum along to the songs you know and love, and receive real-time feedback to keep you on track,” Simply Guitar’s website says – but here’s the main drawback: the feedback is almost totally binary. You either hit the right note at sort of the right time, or you don’t. That’s as nuanced as it gets in the heat of the moment, and after the song ends, you’re just told how many notes/chords you missed.
Playing perfectly in time is, to Simply Guitar, just as good as playing an eighth-note behind the beat. There’s no “ok, good, great, perfect” scale for your timing as there is in Yousician. You’re given far too much leeway as to what counts as in time, and the app has absolutely no way to tell you to improve on this, or indeed on any particular aspect of your playing beyond just ‘general accuracy’. And it is measuring accuracy with a system that, at least in my experience, only sometimes works. You could progress through every lesson in Simply Guitar’s catalogue while developing absolutely no internal clock, playing everything wildly out of time – you’d still come out with a perfect score.
This is made worse by the fact there’s no actual rhythm notation, formal or informal, and the tabs are occasionally extremely simplified versions of a vocal performance. There’s no grid beyond bar lines, no time signature indicated, and how long a note is meant to be sustained for isn’t shown. When you’re playing a three-note version of a complex vocal melody, and a pair of eighth notes looks basically the same as a dotted eighth note next to a 16th note, the timing of what the app actually wants you to play is totally inscrutable.
Similarly, there’s no tempo control of the songs or lessons – at least, not on the version of the app I’m reviewing. When I ask Simply Guitar’s team about tempo adjustment, they send a screenshot that depicts a set of buttons that I do not have. It turns out that tempo control – as well as the ability to move around within a song – is iOS-exclusive.
Having such an essential feature locked to your operating system isn’t great. The team assures me that it’s being worked on, but at the moment one of the most vital aspects of learning music – playing something slowly and accurately before speeding it up to a more sensible tempo – is exclusive to those within the Apple ecosystem.
But hey, do you know what’s not iOS-exclusive? The metronome. Because there isn’t one. This exacerbates my concerns about the app’s loose approach to timing – if I could do one thing for my younger self guitar-wise, I would sling a metronome through that time portal, ideally at my own head, attached to a note that said “bloody well use this, you idiot.” 16 years after I started, I am still paying for the fact that I learnt to play via untimed guitar tabs without really ever bothering to keep an internal clock.
My point is, being early on in your playing journey does not mean you should ignore this stuff. Simplifying music to make it more accessible is a commendable goal – but not if it comes at the expense of the cornerstones of musical language. Not including a metronome in your learning app is like not teaching a new driver what a red light means, in case they get demotivated from learning how powerslide. You may be skipping straight to the exciting stuff, but it’ll likely introduce some problems down the line.
The song library
Now, maybe you don’t sign up for Simply Guitar for its technique-developing courses and video lessons. Maybe you’re drawn in by the oft-repeated promises of being able to learn your favourite songs quickly – to a degree where you’ll greatly impress your friends, if you believe the ads. The song list is great – it strikes a balance between guitar-driven classics, well-known contemporary pop and Disney earworms. But sadly, there are some pretty big barriers to Simply Guitar’s performance as an engaging and effective song-teaching tool.
Firstly, the library is effectively all cover versions, and a lot of them are slowed down quite noticeably – irreversibly so for Android users. The fact they’re covers isn’t in itself awful, but it’s not something Simply Guitar makes obvious in any of its marketing – the whole app is peppered with photos of the original artists, after all. The pitch is that you’ll enjoy learning guitar so much more when you can “strum along to the songs you know and love,” not strum along to a slowed-down, mildly unsettling Björk impression.
(Side note: the Björk song included is her cover of It’s Oh So Quiet, originally by Betty Hutton – but it isn’t the Björk original. So you’re listening to a cover of another cover, and seemingly reason that the song is listed as a Björk track not a Betty Hutton track is that the vocalist is doing their own version of Björk’s unique delivery and Icelandic accent. I cannot imagine any reason for this to have happened, but here we are.)
The inability to slow or speed the songs up on Android obviously throws a bit of a spanner in the works from a pure “learn a whole song” angle, and I do think it’s pretty unfair to have an Android user pay the same as an iOS user for a tool that’s less capable. But this isn’t the only barrier to learning songs using Simply Guitar – there’s also the awkward fact that Simply Guitar’s transcriptions often aren’t anything close to the actual guitar parts.
This manifests in a few ways. Firstly, all of the songs in the library are taken straight from the lessons they appear in, with no variable complexity to choose from. Unlike Yousician’s system where the same song is presented as multiple versions depending on your chosen level of difficulty, songs here are the level that they are – with only a few appearing multiple times across the courses.
Take Creep as an example. Its chord progression is evocative and easily recognisable – you, as a beginner, might want to use the guitar tuition tool you’ve just paid for to learn it. But because Simply Guitar uses Creep to demonstrate changing from E major to E minor in a very early lesson, you get a transposed version of the song that doesn’t indicate the strumming pattern, or include two of the four chords. Creep doesn’t come up again, so the app is incapable of teaching the rest of the song. “What the hell am I even doing here”, indeed.
Further down the chords path, strumming patterns are introduced. Despite using covers, Simply Guitar doesn’t modify the arrangements to reflect the guitar parts it wants you to play. While learning to play a Rihanna song with just open chords, you’re not hearing an acoustic version of the track. You’re instead playing along to a full pop arrangement, amongst which your strumming pattern gets more than a little lost. Combine this with Simply Guitar’s inability to accurately recognise the rhythm of a strumming pattern, it really starts to feel like it’d be better in basically every way to open up a free YouTube lesson for a campfire acoustic version of the song.
For the lead path, the melody transcriptions are often just barebones interpretations of the vocal line, even when the guitar part is likely what you came for. It is extremely strange to open up a lesson on The Thrill Is Gone, as part of “Lead Foundations III” only to not be taught that iconic opening lick. Instead you’re given a four-note version of the vocal melody. This may well be more instantly accessible to a complete beginner’s skill level, but is it really a sensible compromise when you have ostensibly signed up to learn the guitar?
When the transcription does cover guitar parts, they’re often simplified beyond recognition. Whole Lotta Love is a simple and iconic guitar riff, and a reasonably slowed-down version of it is definitely within the grasp of a beginner guitarist. But Simply Guitar transcribes it as follows:
It’s fair to say that if you play this as written in isolation, no one is going to recognise it as Whole Lotta Love. This simplification is ostensibly in service of the app’s beginner focus – but again, you’re still hearing the “real” riff as you try to sightread a different rhythm. I’d argue it would be simpler – and more rewarding – to teach the riff as played, even if it means using a slower version of it without the bends at first.
No shortcuts
I am trying to keep in mind that beginner-focus, of course, because it is obviously not a good idea to try and teach someone who’s just learned their very first chord a perfectly accurate version of the main riff to Sweet Home Alabama. However the complete disconnect between what you’re being asked to play and what you’re hearing is troubling, and made worse by some other major limitations with the platform. Namely: the complete lack of any mention of slides, bending, hammer-ons or pull-offs.
Simply Guitar’s team tells me the app is made for “novice players that are looking to master open chords, tab reading, strumming patterns, finger-picking and riffs,” hence these techniques are absent. But this seems like throwing an entire orphanage out with the bathwater – how are you going to “master” most of these categories without an understanding of basic guitar techniques, and how they’re commonly transcribed? Mastering riffs surely includes at least acknowledging the existence of the techniques used to play them.
There are courses here called things like “Fretboard Master”, promising to let you “take command of advanced guitar solos.” Let’s look at one of the lessons in that course – blues licks. Yes, there is a lesson on blues licks that makes no mention of bending, which is just such a bizarre thing to attempt. It uses Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning as its end point. You can hear the main riff being played, slides, bends, pull-offs and all – but the platform doesn’t support these, and so the riff is not transcribed accurately. You’re just left wondering why either a) why the lesson is ignoring half of the riff, or b) why what you’re playing just sounds wrong compared to the track.
You might hear the song and think, “oh, that sounds cool – I want to play like that” – and you can. Slides, pull-offs and bends are totally within a beginner’s grasp, especially someone who has proved they’re willing to invest time and money in learning to play. But in focusing entirely on being fun and accessible, Simply Guitar has perhaps sacrificed too many vital aspects of the instrument.
Further Accuracy issues
Sometimes, the transcription is as complex as the “real” song but still inaccurate. For instance – Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt. An acoustic guitar classic, which starts with the root and the fifth… or, according to Simply Guitar’s tab, an octave jump. But not according to the guitar you hear on the track, which plays the correct fifth interval. This is one of the most advanced tracks in the app, and is basically as complex as the “real” tab, so why the incorrect transcription, if it’s not to make it easier?
I asked Simply Guitar’s team why this change had been made, and they told me that sometimes the tabs will be different to the song you’re hearing on purpose – to avoid the app hearing itself and registering a false positive. From a technological standpoint, it’s a solution, I guess. From an educational standpoint, I don’t think it’s an acceptable one. I’d be more than a little concerned about the impact of this discrepancy on a player who’s developing that all-important feedback loop between their ear and their playing.
Pricing
A blog post by a Simply Guitar developer can perhaps shed some light on why these drastic limitations exist. The post describes how, in developing the first version of Simply Guitar, the team were struggling to surmount the technological challenges presented by strumming patterns. The solution chosen was this: ship the app without actually including them.
The blog post admits that strumming patterns are vital to actually learning the guitar, but the goal was to move fast, to get the app out there and generating revenue as quickly as possible. This isn’t a leak of some internal memo – this is freely shared as part of the development journey, despite the fact it indicates a little disregard for the quality of the teaching being provided. Strumming patterns have since been added to the app, but the approach arguably persists, given that, lest we forget, the app tries to teach you how to play blues licks without mentioning bending, a task akin to teaching you how to bake without ever explaining what dough is.
But by the time a beginner can figure out what’s missing from Simply Guitar, it’s too late. The lack of any real progression beyond the total basics might be reasonable if Simply Guitar was a one-off, affordable purchase that aimed to kickstart your playing. However, the app bills you annually by default, and in the US, it’s a total of $120 a year.
I think if there’s even the option to charge by the year, then we do have to consider at the very least a player who’s about to have their yearly subscription auto-renew. At that point, they’re about to be paying $240 for two years of guitar learning with a tool that doesn’t have a metronome, a fully functional detection system, tempo control if you’re using Android, accurate transcriptions, songs by the original artists pictured in the app or support for cornerstone guitar techniques. It is, simply put, a bad deal.
Simply Guitar Alternatives
There are plenty of alternatives to Simply Guitar out there, the main one being Yousician, which operates on very similar principles. While its subscription is a little more pricey, it at least has more nuanced timing feedback, a library of the original songs rather than covers, support for techniques beyond the very basics and a way to progress through various levels of difficulty as your playing improves. With that said, it still does rely on a rather informal approach to timing, but its ‘bouncing ball’ take on the Guitar Hero format is better than the spartan approach to rhythm Simply Guitar employs.
If reading this has understandably soured your thoughts on “smart” apps, you may of course want to look into something a little more analogue and straightforward. Guitar Tricks has some beginner courses while also allowing you to actually progress beyond the walled garden of techniques Simply Guitar places you in. Alternatively, there is an absolutely huge collection of beginner content out there on YouTube for free, most of which is far more comprehensive. Even if it’s not as clearly structured, it’s a much better way to learn the campfire acoustic versions of tracks that Simply Guitar has to offer.
Even Songsterr is a viable alternative to Simply Guitar – its free version has fairly accurate tabs for most of the popular guitar songs out there (although take none as gospel), and will teach you at least formal rhythm notation at the same time. Are community-sourced or AI-generated tabs always 100% dead on? Of course not, but Simply Guitar is also not a source of truth in this regard.
If you want to have real feedback on your playing, rather than just going through passive video lessons and/or a load of tabs, your best bet is realistically to get a teacher. I recently looked at Til, a great platform that lets you connect with real human teachers in one centralised place. While it is a good deal pricier than any of the above, the depth of feedback you will get is a universe beyond anything an app can provide by listening to your playing.
The post Simply Guitar review: simple isn’t always better appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Musician’s Friend just kicked off its 4th of July sale early, and I wasn't expecting to see a gigantic up to $850 off Music Man guitars
“By the end of it, I struggled a bit. I wasn’t able to be 100% myself playing, because I had to honor the gig, which I did”: Fusion virtuoso Alex Hutchings recalls the pressures of following in Guthrie Govan’s footsteps as Steven Wilson’s guitarist
“You can do anything with a Stratocaster”: Joe Bonamassa explains how to make any Fender Strat the “Swiss army knife of guitars” – and unlock Gibson-like Angus Young tones in the process
Behringer makes changes to its $69 Klon copy in the wake of pedal creator Bill Finnegan’s lawsuit
Review: Martin’s New D-28 and D-X2E Billy Strings Signature Models
“There was this Star Wars one going around a week or two ago…”: Metallica has a band member-only group chat for sending memes
It’s official: when Metallica aren’t knocking out hair-raising riffs, they’re sat watching funny cat videos. Well, not quite, but drummer Lars Ulrich has revealed that the legendary metal outfit have a group chat for exchanging memes and funny videos.
Speaking to Variety, Ulrich explains that the elusive Metallica group chat isn’t just filled with band secrets and new song ideas. Instead, it’s filled with jokes and fan-edits. “We have a band-only text thread that’s just for the four members, and there are definitely some fun things that we see in this day and age with everybody being so creative,” he explains.
Ulrich picks out a recent favourite of his: an Anakin Skywalker TikTok set to the sound of Metallica’s 1988 track, One.
“There was this Star Wars one going around a week or two ago which was really funny,” he recalls. “There are some conversations between Darth Vader and a whole thing that builds up, and then they’re talking about the dark side. Then all of a sudden it goes into ‘Darkness imprisoning me!’, that whole thing from One.”
@brethrenedits#ANAKIN X #METALLICA – One || insp: @street #starwars #edit #darthvader #obiwan #yoda #anakinskywalkeredit #fyp #viral #starwarsday #revengeofthesith #maythe4thbewithyou
“We love people’s creativity, and to see so many fans reinterpret our songs, whether it’s on guitar or drums or singing them,” Ulrich says. “[Some are even] taking them into different genres. Sometimes you mix a little AI in there and then something fun spits out.”
Of course, it’s hard to keep track of absolutely everything fans are posting online. “It’s a lot to keep track of because this happens hundreds, if not thousands, of times a day,” he admits. “But there are some fun ones that get into our band-only text thread for the four of us to enjoy and appreciate.”
Metallica have previously shared proof of their online presence. When Ulrich was unable to attend Download Festival in 2024, Ulrich acknowledged memes about him avoiding the festival because of its name – a jestful nod to Metallica’s lawsuit with Napster, a site that allowed users to ‘download’ MP3 files for free.
The drummer also revealed in a 2023 interview with Metal Hammer that he reads fan feedback online. “If you decide to go down into the comment sections, at least for me, you have to prepare yourself for not taking any of it overly personally,” he said. “You have to kind of remove yourself from it. But I’d like to challenge anybody in a band to say they don’t look at comments.”
“I mean, I’m not sitting up until four o’clock in the morning scrolling through every one,” he notes. “But when you haven’t put any music out in five or six years and you dump something like Lux Æterna on an unsuspecting world, you’re going to want to see what the feedback is.”
Metallica’s third documentary, Metallica Saved My Life recently made its debut on June 11 at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
The post “There was this Star Wars one going around a week or two ago…”: Metallica has a band member-only group chat for sending memes appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Tyler Bryant invites fan onstage – and he totally steals the show
Performing onstage with your hero is something out of teenage fantasy, but Tyler Bryant just made one fan’s dream a reality. After spotting the fan waiting in line outside, Bryant thought he’d invite him to perform with him – and the fan absolutely nailed it.
On 15 June, guitarist Matt Levulis travelled 300 miles to Albany’s Empire Live venue catch Bryant’s show with the Shakedown. Luckily, Bryant would hear about his long journey. “I was walking back from dinner and met this guy standing in line for the gig,” Bryant explains in an Instagram post. “He said he’d driven four hours from Buffalo to Albany with his homies to hear the Shakedown. [He] looked like a ripper to me.”
During the show, Bryant decided to see if Levulis truly was a “ripper”, offering him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I subtly asked him if he wanted to play during Drive Me Mad,” he writes. “He didn’t hesitate to climb over the barricade. Ripper indeed.”
Onstage, Bryant asserted the same judgement, explaining to the crowds that Levulis “looked like a badass guitar player, but I don’t know how this is gonna go”.
Despite cautioning the crowd, there was no need. Bryant was right – Levulis was a total “ripper”, knocking out slick riffs without a hitch. The performance was even kicked off with an ultra smooth guitar transfer in the midst of the track, with Bryant placing the strap over Levulis’ head before the fan instantly picked up where Bryant had left off.
Levulis’ profile asserts him as a “hat guy, Strat guy and rock’n’roller”. Though no hat was in sight at the Shakedown gig, he was trusted to wield Bryant’s shell pink ’60s-inspired Fender Strat, and embodied the essence of rock’n’roll.
Despite initially playing without a pick, Bryant soon hands him his own, essentially handing over the reigns to let Levilus take full control. With the right tool in his hand, Levilus absolutely shreds, stealing the spotlight for a glorious guitar solo.
“Thank you Tyler Bryant for the best night of my life,” Levilus reflects on his own Instagram post. “Unbelievable.”
The post Tyler Bryant invites fan onstage – and he totally steals the show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Pages
