Al Perkins had originally agreed to record one track, ‘Memphis Moon’, to be produced by Dave Maughan at his studio in the West End, subject to checking the lyrics. (Al is a deeply religious man and understandably wanted to be sure that there was nothing offensive or inappropriate in our song.)

We were more than a little curious to see what gear Al would bring to the session. It turned out to be a vintage Fender Champ lap steel (or lap guitar), a pedal steel guitar and a Risson amplifier. Risson Amplifiers is a small US company whose combo amplifiers are highly regarded and sought after. Al Perkins’ pedal steel guitar had been purchased second had from Eric Snowball’s shop (we think).

There were lessons to be learned already. Nothing too fancy, an old lap steel guitar, second hand pedal steel and a small valve combo. What Al Perkins recorded with them was simply remarkable.

‘Memphis Moon’ is of Jim’s songs and includes the line ‘Check out some old slide guitar in a darkened room’. That was what we were about to do! Al Perkins music just ‘took our breath away’; a beautiful lap steel guitar part, reminiscent of Santo and Johnny in places, great taste and tone but never intrusive. The interplay with Danny’s Fender Strat part was perfect. Listening back, it is sometimes hard to tell who is doing what!

That’s the key, musicianship learned during the countless Al Perkins recording sessions. Playing for the song, respect for the other players on the tracks, understated but ready and well able to step into the spotlight when required. That Al Perkins gave us the same respect and showed us the same courtesy as had The Eagles, Stephen Stills, Gram Parsons and too many more to mention was a revelation and humbling experience for us.

You can only imagine our delight when, shortly after hearing the playback, Al Perkins asked “You got anything else?’ What followed was the first of two pedal steel guitar overdubs.

The song ‘Rules Of Life’ had Al playing the finest Nashville style pedal steel, leaving gaps for the lyrics then decorating the chorus with beautiful harmonics. Jim used to play pedal steel and knows just how hard it is. There was no doubt that we were listening to a master at work.

“You got anything else?” came through the monitors again. “Sure”, we replied and Danny’s tune ‘The Heel’ was cued up. Al coasted through this bluegrass workout with ease, adding harmonics and short lines, always leaving room for the melody. Then a blistering section which had us laughing with joy in the control room.

Last up was the song ‘Catch Your Death’ for which Al Perkins switched back to his Fender lap steel guitar. He listened through and on the second listen added a simple slide motif, which is remarkable in that it only appears eight times in a song that lasts 5 minutes and 28 seconds. Al then added a slightly distorted steel guitar section to a three-instrument solo (12-string Rickenbacker, Telecaster and steel taking 8 bars in turn). It was perfect! We were in ‘Hillbilly Heaven’. Al Perkins and Dave Maughan had a system going! The only things added were a little ‘dirt’ which Al added on his Risson amplifier and a small amount of reverb.

And that was it! The session was over. The great Al Perkins had paid us the ultimate compliment and played on our record! “You got anything else?” Anytime!

Related posts:

1. Al Perkins records with Diesel Therapy
2. Lap steel guitar resurgence?
3. Update – October 2010

There was a raft of British instrumental guitar hits at the time: ‘Chariot’ by Rhet Stoller, ‘Saturday Night At The Duck Pond’ by The Cougars and many more. The most famous guitar instrumental music ever to chart in the UK would have to be that of The Shadows. ‘Apache’, their first number one hit from 1960, featured an echo drenched Stratocaster sound that inspired millions of imitators. Not me though! I was much more interested in American players: James Burton’s twanging telecaster on Ricky Nelson’s ‘Hello Mary Lou’ or ‘Fools Rush In’, Buck Owens and Don Rich twanging their way through ‘Tiger By The Tail’ on matching sparkle Telecasters. That was then though! What of today?

The feral twang of Telecasters can, of course, still be heard courtesy of Brad Paisley, Brent Mason, et al. However the music I listen to now is predominantly acoustic. For me the acoustic dexterity of Tony Rice, the Dobro excellence of Jerry Douglas and the sweet harmony of contemporary Bluegrass acoustic music have replaced the Tele Twang of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

In the mainstream Rock arena much is made of the continuing popularity of the guitar. I find it overblown and old hat, much of the record company output simply an attempt to reinflate the markets with ‘new’ artists. There are areas where guitar instrumental music continues to flourish without the media attention heaped on Rock players. The Classical, Jazz, Acoustic, Folk labels keep the more discerning customers happy with regular new releases and great back catalogues.

It isn’t likely that we will see a return to the charts of guitar instrumental music though! Not as long as we have albums by groups of ‘Singing Fishermen’, ‘Shepherds’ and ‘Buddhist Monks’ competing with the auto tuned dross of ‘Cheryl’ and the Saturday night crowd for a share of the ever-dwindling market.

Bring back Duane Eddy!

No related posts.

Let us make it very clear from the outset we’re giving the pirate sites a wide berth here. You’ll find plenty out there for sure but you’ll also find downloadable FREE country music here. We’re putting up some of our own tracks which are either out-takes or songs which time outran us between The Turf House and our forthcoming album. We felt that the songs were too good for the trashcan and deserved a hearing. We’d be pleased to have any feedback on what you’ve heard here.

So, to market !!!

The first grouping we’d categorise as ‘straightforward shopping’ sites. Websites which categorise and list their offerings by artist, by album and by individual tracks. Their internal search box will take you to what you’re looking for and albums or individual tracks can be added to a basket, paid for and downloaded. MP3 Downloads sections of their overall websites are fairly typical in this respect. Albums can be ‘customer reviewed’ in just the same way as ‘physical’ purchases and tags can be added to the album or artist so that customers can browse over similar material. Key sites here are Amazon, iTunes and CD Baby.

A minor variation of this would include sites like Last.fm and MySpace where you can pick up on that website’s ‘hot’ recommendations or featured artists or search independently. Once you choose and elect to buy you’ll be given a link to download from Amazon, iTunes or similar.

We also note sites that operate their own ‘gift card’ schemes, always worth consideration for Christmas, birthdays and all other celebrations. Digital cards top-up cards may be bought with groceries! Check out HMV, iTunes and mp3Walmart.

Next up, a grouping we’d categorise as ‘music club’ or ‘subscription’ sites. You sign up to create an account (no difference there, then) but the supplier offers a bundled package. An example would be Rhapsody’s “All the music you want. Just 10 bucks a month.” There are similar offers from Napster and eMusic. One or two sites may require that you set up your account before you can start to browse, so word of mouth recommendation may help here. For the ‘heavy user’, buying in bulk from these sites may be the better bargain.

Another grouping would include sites that offer ‘music plus.’ facilities. Shockhound sells fashion, posters and ‘merchandise’, plays music videos and has forums in addition to MP3s. Spotify offers a free download application which will organise your downloads in an ordered library as well as being a pretty slick download tool in its own right. Zune feature films & Xbox games in addition to music. Ovi (Nokia’s) is self-evidently targeted at the mobile phone market.

Last up we’ve had a look at the niche market sites. The ones where you’ll find the really obscure stuff that aligns with your personal genres whether they are alt country, bluegrass instrumental or whatever. GreatIndieMusic is a good example. These sites have been the saviour of new Classical music production. Check out HDtracks for a comprehensive resume. Not all music downloads are in MP3 format. Higher quality, uncompressed formats, such as FLAC, can be downloaded too.

The available range of music download sites is as varied as there are musical tastes and it’s evident that no ‘one size fits all’. Happy listening!

No related posts.

The Country music of today sounds nothing like the country music I grew up with. Is that a bad thing? No, I’m sure its not. However as one gets older and maybe more critical then younger, more current music is an easy target. I remember being unimpressed with Alternative Comedy on TV but a visit to the Comedy Store in London changed all that. I realised that younger people had their own agenda, didn’t find Tommy Cooper funny at all and probably were a lot more outrageous in their perceptions than I had ever allow myself to be.

That young players would seek out a collective name under which to operate doesn’t surprise me at all. Alt Country is, after all, just the new term for Country Rock; by definition a title suggesting The Eagles, Poco, Gram Parsons, The Submarine Band, etc. All well past their sell by dates if we were to believe the Music media.

An Alt Country movement does exist in America where tales of Tequila highways and motels abound, where Country is a huge selling genre anyway. I can understand a reluctance to be part of the Nashville machine. In some ways its no better than our own X factor nonsense; big hats, formulaic songs, great players playing the same licks on every album. Alt. Country does at least eschew these industry obsessions, going for an altogether more natural look, harder round the edges, more rock influenced, psychedelic even. A return to the Flying Burrito Brothers mission statement. Bluegrass, Western swing, Country Rock, Alt Country… mmm. It sits ok with me.

Oh go on then! I like it.

No related posts.

Shortly before an appearance at Porters in Tynemouth, Danny approached Al about the possibility of playing on some of our new songs currently being recorded at Dave Maughan’s studio in Newcastle. Luckily for us Al agreed to listen to the songs and on Friday morning we picked him up from Colin and Celia’s house in Tynemouth and took him along with his pedal steel, lap steel and amp to the studio. What was to follow was one of the best musical experiences we have ever had.

After setting up and tuning everything he started the session by playing lap steel on “Memphis Moon”. This was done in the style of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk”, using harmonics and delay/reverb with astonishing taste and awareness. There is a line in the song “Check out some old slide guitar in a darkened room”. When Jim wrote that line he didn’t imagine that the slide would be played by one of our favourite session guitarists. What can we say?

Next up was “The Heel” a new guitar tune by Danny and named after a mountain in Scotland. Al played pedal steel on this up-tempo number and had us rolling around laughing at the sheer skill, tone and humour in his playing. Al plays with a lot of soul, not wasting notes, just complementing, underlining the songs. He can rip it up with the best of them though; witness his solo in “The Heel”.

We had finished the song “Rules of Life” some time ago. Adding pedal steel to the mix gave it an authenticity we love.

Finally Al added some delicious lap steel to “Catch Your Death” including a growling solo section. Watching him work was an education. For three and a half hours he sat in Dave’s tiny live room at his pedal steel, listening intently to everything. Not just to himself but also to our own guitar tracks, using the lyrics as markers for licks and fills.

Al Perkins is a Southern Gentleman, a man of God and a consummate musician. We thank him with all our hearts for playing on our tunes. We will never forget the day “Nashville” came to Newcastle. Special thanks to Colin and Celia, Ian and Carol at Smart Choice Music, Dave Maughan and his partner Gillian.

Related posts:

1. Al Perkins Steel Guitar Session
2. Danny is performing with Al Perkins 8th July
3. Diesel Therapy @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton 8/8/2010

A traditional bluegrass tune, recorded by many of the greats including Doc Watson, Clarence White, Tony Rice.

Related posts:

1. Clarence White B Bender Telecaster – How Does He Do That?

The Only Needle I Ever Turned To!

Lyrics D. Holmes (copyright control)

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Acoustic Guitar: Jim; Weissenborn Guitar: Jim; Acoustic Guitars: Jim (Santa Cruz) & Danny (Martin 000-28LD); Lead Vocal: Jim; Backing Vocals: Jim, Danny, Chris

Mid-Album Blues

Vocals: Jim; Backing Vocals: Jim, Chris, Dave Maughan; Lap Steel (Melobar Teleratt): Danny;

Related posts:

1. Al Perkins Steel Guitar Session
2. Update – October 2010