What I Have Been Listening to...

The Twinemen

The Twinemen are a Boston-based band made up of Dana Colley (saxophone / vocals), Billy Conway (percussion/ vocals) , formerly of Morphine, & Laurie Sargent, (lead singer / lead guitar) formerly of Face to Face.

Twinemen came to be after the death of Mark Sandman, lead singer and bassist of Morphine. After Mark's death they formed Orchestra Morphine, a nine
piece rollicking celebration of the work of Morphine. Laurie Sargent was one of the members. Twinemen came out of that collaboration.

A quote from their website: ""The beacon for creating these songs was to make music that couldn't be easily categorized," Conway points out. "I like the open-endedness of this group. We left the door open for any direction we wanted to take."

Twinetime (Hi-N-Dry Records), is their newest release.

Eric Johnson - Live in Texas, 1988

I have been a fan of Eric Johnson for many years, but found his last release, Bloom, to be ok, but nothing great.

I respect him as an artist, though, and enjoyed seeing him in concert a few years back. He is, in my opinion, much better in concert. He takes a few chances, and has tota control over his sound, switching back and forth between his amps to get that clean, chiming tones he is famous for and those heavenly violin-like lead tones.

This CD/DVD shows him a few years after Tones was released, playing on Austin City Limits. The playing on Trail of Tears is some of the best I have ever heard him play.

This release is worth checking out.

Sonny Landreth

I just got a CD by Sonny Landreth called "Grant Street". This is a live recording, showing him in all his Dumble-amp powered glory!

I recently was able to see Sonny in concert at the Cabooze bar. I was close enough to see how he does it. Of course, I am trying to learn how to play like that, but am having no real luck!

Sonny, born in 1951, is from Louisiana. His slide technique is extraordinary, as mentioned in his Wikipedia entry: "Landreth has developed a technique where he also frets notes and plays chords and chord fragments behind the slide while he plays. Landreth plays with the slide on his little finger, so that his other fingers have more room to fret behind the slide. He's also known for his unique right-hand technique, which involves tapping, slapping, and picking strings, using all of the fingers on his right hand."

He plays American Standard Stratocasters with special tuning hardware, which allows him to change the tunings with the flick of a switch. He uses many different open-chord tunings. I am awestruck on what he can do in open E, which is one of the most-used open tunings. His amps are all boutique, and he has been using a coveted Dumble amp, along with a Demeter. That would help explain his fantastic tone, although he would probably sound good on my cheap Classic 30, too.

Sonny has appeared on many other artists songs, such as Little Feat, Jimmy Buffett, John Hiatt, Waterline, John Mayall, Bobby Charles and The Goners. He has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Steve Conn, Gov't Mule, Mike Gordon, Bernie Worrell, and Buddy Guy, among others. Landreth was the opening act at Eric Clapton's 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, Illinois.

There are quite a few videos of Sonny on Youtube. If you are a fan of slide guitar, and of great guitar playing, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

Annelli Drecker

Annelli Drecker is probably not too well known in the United States. Her band, Bel Canto, had a minor hit way back in the early 1990's with the song "Shoulder to the Wheel", which is wen I first heard of her. Annelli is from Tromsų, Norway, a small city north of the Artic Circle. Tromsų bacame the hotbed of electronica music back in the late 80's, which is where Bel Canto started. The band consisted of three members: Anneli Drecker, Nils Johansen and Geir Jenssen.

Annelli went out as a solo artist, and has releases three CDs to date: Frolic (2005), How Can I Sleep With Your Voice In My Head (live album with a-ha) (2002) and Tundra (2000).

A quote from her website describes her incredible voice: "Anneli Drecker's beautiful, haunting and unique voice is sometimes compared to Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, though her range and vocal control is far superior. A more feminine Annie Lennox, is another fair comparison."

I have to agree, as I have been catching up on her career this past week. Now I love most types of music, from metal to new age to country but have s soft spot for singers of Anneli's caliber. I love the atmospheric sounds of Annelli's voice. I like the song "You Don't Have to Change" quite a bit, even if it is venturing into the "pop" arena.

Her website and MySpace page has a lot of links to her music and videos. Give her, and Bel Canto, a listen. A song of note: the remix of "My Emliy" by Lost Memories is very good.

Photo: Jan Alsaker

Eric Mongran

Where do guitarists like this come from? Eric Mongrain is just flat out amazing. He is a acoustic guitarist from Canada, who plays with a technique known as lap tapping, in which the player lays the guitar across their lap, and taps the strings on the fret board with both hands. Like Michael Hedges, he takes it to a new level of sophistication.

Eric has toured the world, and in 2007, played at the Montreal International Jazz Festival

From his wikipedia page: "On October 21st 2008, Erik Mongrain will launch worldwide his second album "Equilibrium" which has 9 new compositions. The title track from the album is an ode to the balance between humans and the planet. The album was recorded on July 2008 in "The Dragon Crossing studios", the personnal recording place of Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars), located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. On this new album, Mongrain is playing with musicians such as Michael Manring on fretless bass and Bill Plummer on synthesizers."

His Wikipedia page has much more information on this fantastic guitarist.

A Interesting Thread on Building a Telecaster Thinline

Here is a link to an amazing thread on the Telecaster Discussion Page. The poster is building two Thinlines, one for himself, the other for his neice. The guitars turned out beautifully!