Norse Guitar Feeds

Since Eddie Van Halen’s death in 2020, his son Wolfgang Van Halen has remained adamant that he wants to carve out his own musical identity, and not lean on the enormous legacy left behind by his father.

So far, Wolfgang has released three studio albums with his band Mammoth: Mammoth (2021), Mammoth II (2023), and The End (2025). And while there’s numerous nods to Eddie throughout the catalogue – like Distance, the emotionally moving tribute on the first album, and Selfish, from the latest album, which Wolfgang jammed with Eddie before he died – Wolfgang has developed a sound very different from his father’s.

• READ MORE: “Makes me feel closer to Pop”: Watch Wolfgang Van Halen use Eddie’s Frankenstein guitar to record his new single

And he’s explained how it’s been a conscious decision to walk his own musical path on multiple occasions. “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy,” he said last year.

Now, Wolfgang’s uncle and Eddie’s brother and former Van Halen bandmate Alex Van Halen has expressed his “pride” in his nephew at being so determined to do his own thing.

“He’s very careful that he doesn’t want to be Ed Jr,” Alex says in a new interview with KazaGastão. “He was in a very tough spot, meaning he could have just continued with the Van Halen stuff, but he decided he was his own man.

“Everything that he’s done – I’m very proud of him, by the way. That’s probably not the right thing to say about an adult, he’s [35] years old! You shouldn’t be proud of an adult, right… That’s what you do to your children!

“He’s followed his own path,” Alex says. 

He goes on to explain how Wolfgang got the gig in Van Halen, and how it had nothing to do with “family influences”.

“Ed and I, as usual, were in the studio alone, because nobody else tolerated it, they’d rather be at the beach!” he says. “I’ve got news for you, you’ve gotta work for this shit.

“Nobody showed up, and one day Ed and I were playing and this bass comes in, and it had a nice feel to it. And behind the curtain it was Wolf… For the record we did call Mike [Michael Anthony, longtime Van Halen bassist], because we owed him that. We did call him, and he just didn’t answer.”

Meanwhile, Wolfgang isn’t blind to the massive legacy he carries with his name. In May last year, he said bearing the Van Halen name is a “fucking tightrope to walk, with the shadow I’m under and the expectations”.

Mammoth are on tour in 2026. For a full list of dates, head to their official website.

The post “He doesn’t want to be Ed Jr”: Why Alex Van Halen is “proud” that Wolfgang Van Halen doesn’t play his father’s music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The 1970s were a time when the great guitar heroes ruled the earth. Legendary 6-string warriors like Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Ritchie Blackmore regularly held tens of thousands of fans spellbound in arenas and stadiums across the United States and beyond.

Among those titans stood Robin Trower. His breakthrough album, 1974’s Bridge of Sighs, featuring the FM radio staple “Day of the Eagle,” transformed his power trio into one of the hottest live acts in rock. But it wasn’t just the virtuosity or the riffs that captivated listeners—it was his sound. Vast, emotional and velvety, it moved and churned like a rising tide enveloping the listener.

“We recorded Bridge of Sighs quick—in just a little over two weeks,” Trower recalls to Premier Guitar. “The guitar sound was my invention, but we were very lucky to get Geoff Emerick to engineer it. The studio was quite big, and Geoff just listened while he walked around the room and placed the mics where he thought things sounded best. There was no science—it was just him and his magic set of ears.”

At the time, Emerick was one of the most respected engineers in the world, having worked extensively with the Beatles, and his instinctive approach helped shape the immense, swirling guitar tone that became a defining element of Trower’s music.

The following year, that humungous sound arrived onstage in Stockholm.

On February 3, 1975, Trower, bassist-vocalist James Dewar, and drummer Bill Lordan stepped onto the stage of Stockholm Concert Hall to begin a European tour. The stately 1,770-seat venue—home of the Swedish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nobel Prize ceremonies—was designed for classical music, but its wood-paneled interior gave the trio’s sound an unusual warmth and clarity. What the band didn’t realize was that Swedish Radio was recording the entire performance on a state-of-the-art RKB-branded Nagra eight-track mobile recorder, capturing what would eventually become one of the most celebrated live guitar albums of the decade.

“We were very lucky that tape was rolling that night,” Trower says. “We were performing in a proper concert hall and it sounded fantastic, which inspired us to play in top form. It was very refreshing, because most of the time we were playing in these hockey arenas that sounded awful. We weren’t even aware that they were recording it.”

To Trower’s surprise, a few months later Swedish Radio sent the band a cassette of the broadcast. Like many European broadcasters at the time, the network routinely recorded touring rock acts for its archives. Hearing the power of the performance—and the unusually high quality of the recording—the decision was made to remix the tapes and release them as a live album.

The result surfaced a year later, in March 1976, as Robin Trower Live!, a record that arrived just as the guitarist’s career was reaching its commercial peak. Mixed by Trower and Emerick, the album cracked the Top 10 in the United States and became Trower’s biggest chart success in the U.K., confirming what concert audiences already knew: that the soft-spoken guitarist from Southend had quietly become one of the defining players of the decade.

But despite its reputation among fans, the original Live! album only told part of the story.

The Stockholm concert itself had been considerably reshaped to fit the limitations of a single LP. Of the twelve songs performed that night, only seven were selected for release. Even those tracks were re-sequenced, abandoning the original running order in favor of a set designed to deliver maximum impact across two vinyl sides. The result captured the spirit of the show—but not the full arc of the performance.

“We were very lucky that tape was rolling that night.”

Even the album’s artwork introduced a bit of theatrical sleight of hand. The cover image suggested Trower performing before a vast outdoor stadium crowd—a sea of heads stretching into the distance. In reality, the recording came from a comparatively intimate Scandinavian concert hall.

“It didn’t occur to me at the time,” Trower says when asked about the discrepancy. “There were no photos taken at the gig. The one they used was from a baseball stadium in San Francisco, I believe.”

If the cover leaned toward rock ’n’ roll illusion, the audio carried its own behind-the-scenes adjustments. During the mixing sessions at London’s AIR Studios, Emerick and Trower discovered that Dewar’s vocal microphone had captured substantial spill from the drums and amplifiers onstage, making it unusable. The solution was simple: Dewar re-recorded his vocal tracks in the studio.

“Jimmy sang it all again,” Trower explains matter-of-factly. “He polished it off in about an hour—just ran through it in real time.”

Nearly 50 years later, the new anniversary edition of Live! reveals the full picture for the first time. Remixed by Richard Whittaker from the original tapes, the restored edition presents the entire Stockholm performance exactly as it unfolded that evening—12 songs rather than seven, sequenced in their original order, with Trower’s onstage introductions and the audience’s reactions intact. What once felt like a highlight reel now plays like a complete musical journey.

The difference is striking. The pacing of the show suddenly makes sense. The opening salvo—“Day of the Eagle” followed by “Bridge of Sighs”—builds the atmosphere naturally before the trio moves into material from For Earth Below, which had not yet been released at the time of the concert. Later in the set, the delicate meditation of “Daydream” gives way to the explosive momentum of “Too Rolling Stoned,” a moment when the band shifts into near-punk velocity.

Listening now, what stands out most is the chemistry between the three musicians. Dewar’s bass lines provide both muscle and melody beneath his soulful vocals. Lordan’s drumming drives the music forward with power. And at the center stands Trower himself, shaping vast arcs of spacey atmosphere and psychedelic blues from his Stratocaster. Together, they created a sound that felt far larger than the trio format should allow. And on that winter night in Stockholm, the band was flying.

“If there’s any secret to my tone, it’s that all my guitars have relatively high action and heavier strings.”

So how exactly did Trower achieve that otherworldly sound?

“There was no magic amp or special guitar,” he says. “Almost everything I owned was pretty new. I just went to Manny’s, the legendary guitar shop in New York City, bought a 100-watt Super Lead Marshall, and listened to about six or eight Strats acoustically before settling on a black-and-white one with a maple neck.

“If there’s any secret to my tone, it’s that all my guitars have relatively high action and heavier strings. Back then I played in standard tuning and used .010-gauge strings. It’s all about getting the strings to ring acoustically, and that’s what translates into a great electric sound.”

Effects also played an important role in shaping Trower’s liquid tone. His signal chain typically included a Vox V846 wah, a Shin-ei Uni-Vibe, and a custom-made boost pedal that pushed the signal level before hitting his Marshall. The simple “clean boost” provided a lift for solos without drastically altering the guitar’s character, adding sustain, thickening the Strat’s midrange, and making the Uni-Vibe’s swirling modulation sound even more liquid.

Trower also kept his overall gain surprisingly restrained.

“I usually kept the volume around seven or eight,” he says. “You need to have a little head room. I’m not interested in having too much distortion. My goal is to keep the clarity of the notes and chords and maintain a clear midrange, which is very important to my sound. I tried to avoid creating any mush.”

While Trower is proud of the 50th anniversary edition of Live!, he’s not particularly nostalgic or inclined to dwell on the past. What’s remarkable is that he has continued releasing albums well into his late seventies and early eighties—something very few guitarists from the classic-rock era have managed. In the last decade alone, he has recorded eight albums, including Come and Find Me (2025) and the blistering concert set, One Moment in Time – Live in the USA (2026).

Still, if Trower tends to look forward rather than back, he has no hesitation when it comes to praising the musicians who helped shape his most celebrated work—especially bassist and singer Dewar, who died in 2002 at the age of 59. Dewar was far more than a supporting player in the trio. With his rich, soulful tenor and muscular bass lines, he provided the emotional center of the band’s sound, grounding Trower’s expansive guitar work with a voice that was equal parts blues grit and melodic warmth. Across seven studio albums—from Twice Removed from Yesterday through Victims of the Fury—Dewar emerged as one of the defining vocalists of the 1970s guitar era.

“I’ve always enjoyed the trio format. It forces me to cover a little more ground instrumentally, but in a way, the economy was our secret weapon.”

“I couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator than Jimmy,” Trower says. “He was warm, funny, and never sang a bad note. People always say he’s underrated, and I totally agree. But that probably wouldn’t have been the case if we’d been called the Jimmy Dewar Band,” he adds, with a wry shrug.

Alongside them was drummer Bill Lordan, whose disciplined yet powerful playing completed the chemistry of the group. Lordan, who had previously worked with Sly Stone, brought a precise sense of groove that allowed Trower’s expansive guitar phrasing to breathe, while still driving the music forward with authority. Together, the three musicians created a sound that felt far larger than the trio format might suggest.

For Trower, the stripped-down lineup was never a limitation—it was the very thing that made the band’s sound so powerful. “I’ve always enjoyed the trio format,” he says. “It forces me to cover a little more ground instrumentally, but in a way, the economy was our secret weapon. It was much easier to achieve definition and clarity with just three instruments and a vocal when you played in those big, boomy halls. It would be less of an issue today—the PA systems and monitors are so much better.”

That sense of space and definition is part of what gives Robin Trower Live! its enduring power. Unlike many live albums of the era, which relied on layers of overdubs or heavy post-production polish, the Stockholm recording captures a band operating with remarkable precision and restraint. The trio moves with the ease of musicians who had spent hundreds of nights refining the material onstage, allowing the songs to stretch and breathe without losing their focus.

Years later, Robert Fripp, the famously exacting guitarist of prog-rock pioneers King Crimson, offered a vivid assessment of Trower’s playing during that era. Fripp first encountered Trower while touring the United States in the early 1970s.

“I toured America in 1974 with Ten Years After top of the bill, King Crimson second, and Robin Trower bottom,” Fripp recalled in a 1996 essay penned for the liner notes to a Trower reissue. “The chart positions were the opposite: Ten Years After in the Billboard 160s, Crimson in the 60s, and Trower climbing remorselessly through the Top 20. Nearly every night I went out to listen to him. This was a man who hung himself on the details—the quality of sound, the nuances of each inflection and tearing bend, and the abandonment to the feel of the moment. He saved my life … and later, in England, he even gave me guitar lessons.

“He is one of the very few English guitarists that have mastered bends and wobbles,” Fripp continued. “Not only has he got inside them, with an instinctive knowing of their affective power, but they went to live inside his hands.”

Fripp’s admiration speaks to something many guitarists recognized at the time but rarely articulated so clearly. Trower’s playing was never about speed or flash. Instead, he built his style around touch—wide bends, patient vibrato, and an almost orchestral sense of space that allowed every note to bloom and hang in the air.

That sensibility is all over Robin Trower Live! Nearly half a century on, the sound Trower summoned from a Strat and a Marshall still feels otherworldly. It’s no wonder even Robert Fripp went looking for lessons.

For popstar Taylor Swift, buying back her master recordings was a top priority for six arduous years. However, other artists can’t wait to hand over the rights to their music – and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the latest band to sign on the dotted line, selling their entire catalogue for over $300 million.

Rumours of the Chilis selling their catalogue first arose last year, with sources telling Billboard that the rockers were allegedly seeking around $350 million. Now, The Hollywood Reporter reports that the band has finally made a deal with Warner Music Group, with the label paying over $300 million for all of the band’s master recordings.

• READ MORE: “I wake up every morning thinking about what’s on my pedalboard” Adam Granduciel on his love of effects and the next The War On Drugs album

The deal comes in the wake of Warner Music Group’s $1.2 billion joint venture with Bain Capital. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the label’s May revenue report revealed that $650 million had been spent on acquiring catalogues since setting up the joint venture – with around half seemingly being spent on the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalogue.

This isn’t the first time that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have cashed in on their back catalogue. In 2021, the band previously sold off their publishing rights to music investment firm, Recognition (previously called Hipgnosis) to the tune of $140 million.

For those confused as to how an artist can seemingly sell a song twice, think of a song in two parts: a recorded performance, and the ‘blueprint’ of the song itself (the melody, lyrics, chord structure etc). The new deal with Warner Music Group hands over the rights to the official recordings, meaning the label will profit from any further streaming, radio play or album sales.

On the other hand, the Recognition deal handed over the ‘blueprint’ of the song itself, meaning the company would profit through any new remixes, covers or samples taken from a Chilis track.

However, the publishing rights could potentially be acquired by Sony Music Group very soon. According to Bloomberg, Sony Music Group plans to acquire Recognition in a nearly $4 billion deal. The pricy deal would see the label earning the publishing rights to the catalogues of many high ticket artists, like Justin Bieber, Neil Young, and, of course, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In recent years, it’s becoming more familiar to see artists selling off their back catalogues and publishing rights. Most recently, David Lee Roth claimed he felt “rich” after selling his back catalogue in 2025. Elsewhere, Bruce Springsteen sold his masters and publishing rights to Sony Music for $500 million in 2021, while Genesis sold their publishing rights and master recordings to Concord Music for $300 million.

Others who have handed over their rights include Bob Dylan, who sold his entire catalogue to Universal Music Group in 2020 for $300 million, as well as Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham has even cashed in, selling the publishing rights to his catalogue to Recognition in 2021, just as the Red Hot Chili Peppers did.

The post Red Hot Chili Peppers sell music catalogue for $300m appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From flowers to bottles, music punters have been lobbing things onstage at artists for years. However, nowadays even approving fans have started throwing potentially dangerous things at the stars they adore; Eric Clapton recently stormed offstage at a gig after being struck with a flying object mid show.

Last Thursday (7 May), Clapton was struck by a flying vinyl record during a gig in Madrid’s Movistar Arena. A video of the incident shows Clapton smiling to himself as he walks offstage, before a vinyl whacks him in the chest. Despite the setlist showing that the rocker was set to return for a further encore, he opted to cut the show short, ending on pre-encore track Cocaine.

• READ MORE: “I wake up every morning thinking about what’s on my pedalboard” Adam Granduciel on his love of effects and the next The War On Drugs album

While the projectile wasn’t necessarily harmful, there’s been an alarming increase in fans throwing objects at musicians as of late. It’s no longer a case of giggling about sweaty boxers landing onstage beside you – now, performing onstage has become a game of dodging flying phones, vapes, and disposable cameras.

Very sad indeed. What kind of idiot does that? pic.twitter.com/0bNZ3wYFU7

— Pablo Rodríguez (@Paulhewsonrm) May 7, 2026

Previously, throwing things at artists has been associated with putting on a bad performance; Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine has gone on record in the past saying that, if you’re putting on a good show, you should be in the clear. However, that’s not the case any more.

It’s gotten to a point where some artists have started ejecting fans for throwing things at them onstage. Country singer Riley Green asked security to throw out a fan after he took his phone’s ‘airplane mode’ setting a little too literally, hitting Green in the face mid-performance.

@rabbitcar07

Riley Green hit with a phone in Melbourne! @Riley Green #rileygreen #melbourne #tough

♬ Gemini – So Lis

Despite Clapton deciding not to return for his encore in Madrid, it’s not put him off performing. The rocker is still in the swing of his European tour, before a grand Sandringham Estate gig is set to take place later this summer on 23 August. The gig will see him joined by the likes of Ronnie Wood and Andy Fairweather Low.

For more information on Clapton’s upcoming tour dates, check out his website.

The post Eric Clapton scraps encore in Madrid after being struck by a flying vinyl record appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

We’re always keeping an eye out for the best bargains on guitars, pedals, amps and more, and we’ve found some huge savings this week across retailers like Sweetwater and Guitar Center.

Kicking things off this May, we bring you huge savings on a PRS ($250 off, to be exact), a sweet deal on IK Multimedia’s popular AmpliTube software, as well as other guitars and gear with generous discounts. You can also check out our Deals page for more bargains.

• READ MORE: Marshall has unveiled its new mascot – and we’re a little scared

Let’s round up the highlights below…

PRS SE Custom 24 ($599)

Right now at Sweetwater, you can save $250 on a PRS SE Custom 24 model in Turquoise, with a striking flame maple top. This solidbody electric guitar puts all the character of the PRS Custom line into a more affordable instrument, and features a mahogany body and maple top with a more traditional “violin” body carve. It’s fitted with a pair of 85/15 S pickups, has a maple neck with a Wide Thin shape, and a rosewood fretboard with its famous bird inlays, of course.

Fender 70th Anniversary Vintera II Antigua Stratocaster ($909.99)

Guitar Center is saving you $350 on this unique Fender Vintera II Strat. This model is “loaded with classic Fender features from the golden age of the electric guitar”, as per the brand itself, including an alder body, U-shape maple neck, vintage-tall frets and a trio of 70th Anniversary Vintage-Style ’70s single-coil Strat pickups. Its Antigua finish gives it a truly special look.

IK Multimedia AmpliTube 5 MAX v2 software ($99.99)

For just under $100, you can get your hands on IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube software at Sweetwater, and this MAX version comes packed with over 430 gear models for you to experiment with. You can use it with your DAW or in standalone mode, and its library includes collections from Fender, Orange, Fulltone, Leslie, and Mesa/Boogie, as well as artist collections from Slash, Jimi Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell, Brian May, and Joe Satriani. Save $200 overall.

Line 6 POD Go Guitar Multi-Effects Processor ($509.99)

Line 6 may be stepping things up with its Helix Stadium range, but if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, you might want to check out its POD Go. This multi-effects processor offers a newly updated firmware with additional amps, cabs, effects and features, and has a large LCD screen, encoders and footswitches. You can save $90 on it via Sweetwater.

Fender Acoustic 100 Acoustic Guitar Combo Amplifier ($409.99)

Now reduced at Guitar Center, the Fender Acoustic 100 amplifier delivers “full, natural tone” for acoustic-electric guitars and vocals. It offers a unique plywood shell to complement the acoustic guitar’s form and voice, and features two channels designed for instrument or microphone use, each with effects like reverb, delay, and chorus. It offers handy Bluetooth connectivity for streaming audio.

The post Here are the best guitar deals I’ve found this week appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Kashus Culpepper had only stopped in for a beer and something to eat. But, like a lot of people before him, he left the Blue Front Café knowing a little more about the blues. Still in his duck hunting gear, he pulled up a seat at the venerable Bentonia, Mississippi juke joint and scarfed down a fried bologna sandwich while the music took hold. Soon, the old dude pulling licks from a guitar was asking him if he played. “I was like, ‘Yeah, a little bit,’” he says during a Zoom call, fresh from dialling up the 70s cool of Guitar.com’s cover shoot. “He’s like, ‘Let me show you something.’ He ended up doing this weird tuning and playing Amazing Grace in this crazy way.”

Culpepper took that tuning home with him and started writing In Her Eyes, a winding, enticing highlight from his debut album Act I. Its coiled riff wrapped around hot-blooded, conflicted lyrics tapping into classic blues staples: temptation, righteousness, all that good stuff. The song is emblematic of the way the Alabama native is able to turn a fresh kernel of wisdom into something that reflects deep-seated truths about who he is and where he comes from. “I have those experiences every day,” he says. “I’m learning so much about myself, and why I love music the way I do.”

Act I’s simmering melange of soul and rootsy country-rock emerged only five years on from Culpepper picking up a guitar in earnest for the first time, but it feels like the work of someone who’s been living between its notes his whole life. Which, in reality, he has. “I wanted to get the sound of all the artists I love, from the Allman Brothers to Aretha and Wilson Pickett,” he says. “I wanted to stay true to my roots. This is who I am.”

“Growing up, music was everything to me, the only thing that didn’t judge me”

Small Town Hero

Culpepper grew up in Alexander City, a small town close to a big lake in Tallapoosa County. Like so many other kids his age, he played football and wrestled in high school. But music was everywhere – his mother was big into gospel and R&B, while he spent his spare time chasing down the country songs that were ubiquitous in the deli or grocery store.

He sang in church a couple of times a week but, initially, he didn’t seek the spotlight. “We had so many people who had these amazing voices,” he recalls. “I’m doing this because my mom and my grandma want me to. Y’all can perform if y’all want to.”

That feeling would change thanks to an unusual set of circumstances. Culpepper’s road led away from Alex City, his time spent around the ER as a firefighter inspiring him to seek out a nursing qualification. In need of cash to pay for his tuition, he signed up for the US Navy and was posted overseas, winding up in a barracks in Rota, Spain as Covid-19 swept across the world.

“You go over there and you might buy a microwave or toaster – you don’t take it back with you,” he says. “When the next group comes in, there’s usually a room full of stuff. A lot of people try to get there as soon as they can, to get whatever they can.”

Left behind in the free-for-all when Culpepper arrived was a beater guitar. The pandemic was awfully quiet for long stretches, but maybe he could do something about that. With nothing to go on barring a few chords he’d picked up as a teenager, Culpepper opened a YouTube tutorial and set about learning some tunes.

“I realised music is so community-based and what it can do for a person,” he says. “Growing up, music was everything to me, the only thing that didn’t judge me. I didn’t have to be nobody else around it.”

“I wanted to stay true to my roots. This is who I am”

Heart Of The Action

Quickly, he became the rare person you’d be happy to see pull out an acoustic at a bonfire. He started taking requests, from Sturgill Simpson to Taylor Swift, and his weather-beaten voice, halfway between Bill Withers and Ray LaMontagne, began to resonate with people. The youngster who’d shunned attention in the choir was, all of a sudden, right at the heart of things when others needed him to be.

“I had these grown men and women in the service telling me it was dope,” he says. “I was just doing it because it made me feel good to be playing music, and I saw how it made people feel good.”

When he got out of the Navy in 2022, Culpepper found himself at a crossroads. Over time, he had started to doubt whether a career in nursing was a good fit. “I know how much they help people but I saw some bad stuff when I was in the fire department,” he observes. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can see that every other night for the rest of my life.’”

For the first time in a long time he didn’t have a plan. But he did have a guitar and access to the bars of the Gulf Coast, where someone with his voice and a handful of well-chosen covers can make bank. “I love people who do the cover band scene – they’re making great money,” he says. “They’re killing it.”

For a while, he had a good time doing it, too. Certainly, he had a better time than the Taylor 110 accompanying him. “I beat that guitar to death,” Culpepper says, on the cusp of laughter as he draws out each word. “The humidity was so bad, I sweat so much, and I play so hard. I was breaking strings every gig. It wasn’t the guitar’s fault. It was my fault. I was like, ‘Maybe I need to change my strings to a higher gauge, maybe I shouldn’t leave my guitar out in the sun while I’m on my break so it’ll rust.’ That was all on me.”

“With a guitar I really feel things. I play a lot harder than most”

Missing Ingredient

Besides the usual grind, Culpepper started earning better money by playing casinos and private events. But between each round of beery applause, it became clear that, in the same way nursing hadn’t been it, the bar scene wasn’t it either. “It wasn’t until I started writing songs in the middle of 2023 that I realised I love the creative side of it,” he says, that spark leading him to embrace both traditional and modern approaches to getting over.

Firstly, he moved to Nashville and started working with a producer, the Lone Bellow’s Brian Elmquist. Secondly, he opened a bunch of social media accounts and started posting covers and snippets of his own work, which bridged the gap between R&B, country and down-home rock with the ease of someone who came up steeped in these sounds.

“Brian told me it was a mix of a lot of things,” Culpepper says. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m not trying [to do that] – these are the melodies in my head.’”

By the end of the year his song After Me? had gone viral, its mix of barrel-chested passion and skipping hooks tapping into a guitar style that Culpepper had developed while crunching through cover sets. Immediately, there was something honest and unvarnished about him that people could grab hold of – here was someone playing songs that he thought might make another person feel better. “I’m a very emotion-driven type of guy, from singing to my personal life,” he says. “Also with a guitar – I really feel things. I play a lot harder than most.”

Culpepper was off and running in Nashville, writing with everyone from Natalie Hemby to Brent Cobb as the songs on Act I began to come together, and making his Grand Ole Opry debut in the winter of 2024. But he also felt the need to close a different loop.

To deliver an opening statement of intent, he needed to head back to Alabama. So, he rolled up with a Martin D-18 at Ivy Manor Studio in Muscle Shoals, where past glories of the Rolling Stones, the Staple Singers and Percy Sledge hung heavy in the air. “I never knew what they went through to make a record,” he admits. “I was learning the whole time.”

Culpepper’s openness in admitting all the things he doesn’t know is disarming – there’s no bluster to him, just a singer and guitarist who means it, whose songs resonate because they feel human, with all the excitement and hurt and mess that entails.

“I get this euphoric feeling when I listen to music at full volume,” he says. “When I started playing guitar, being able to play those songs for myself gave me an even bigger rush.” So, after so many years spent changing lanes, is he on the right track now, steering straight ahead as the speakers rattle? “I think so,” he says. “I’m still evolving – I’m having so much fun.”

Words: Huw Baines
Photography: Alanna Taylor
Styling: Lakelyn Pounders

The post “I play a lot harder than most.” Kashus Culpepper’s guitar is a lightning rod for feeling, community and the sounds of the American South appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.