Archive for March, 2006
You may not recognize her name, but you sure know her songs. Cindy Walker began her career in the late 1930s as a singer but soon discovered she had a gift for songwriting. When Gene Autry had hits with her compositions “Blue Canadian Rockies” and “Silver Spurs” she stopped singing and took up writing full time. Over the years she wrote for major stars like Bob Wills (”Cherokee Maiden”), Ernest Tubb (”Warm Red Wine”), Roy Orbison (”Dream Baby”), Webb Pierce (”I Don’t Care”), Spike Jones and the City Slickers (”Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow”) and Jim Reeves (”Anna Marie”) among many others. Her song “You Don’t Know Me” was a hit twice, once for Eddy Arnold and later for Ray Charles. Willie Nelson chose “You Don’t Know Me” as the title of the CD of Cindy Walker’s songs that he released earlier this month. She will be missed. –MJS
March 31st, 2006
Before dancehall, before reggae and before ska, there was mento, a rollicking banjo-driven music that developed in the Jamaican countryside in the late 19th century. Mentomusic.com is an excellent introduction to this nearly forgotten genre and includes loads of photos, discographies, sound clips and bios of the most famous players. From the various band photos, it looks like most players used a tenor banjo and from the clips, it’s obvious these guys were very inventive players and had come up with a style that was nothing like the pop and jazz banjo played in the US at the same time.-MJS
March 31st, 2006
Do I really have to tell you what they picked?-MJS
March 31st, 2006
The Vintage Guitar Info site has loads of information on how to date old guitars. Most of it is devoted to Gibsons and Fenders but there is some good stuff on Martin, Epiphone, National, Danelectro and Rickenbacker, among others. Along with the usual info on serial numbers and model designations, the site includes things like a photo essay detailing the innards of a 1954 Strat, an extensive article on Switchcraft switch tips and a good overview on how to date old electric gear by the source codes on the pots. This type of info is hard to come by, and in the past it was jealously guarded, so I’m glad to see it freely available.–MJS
March 31st, 2006
Brian Joseph Davis took ten records that have been banned in various places over the years, burned them and then tried to play them. Check out the results here.–MJS
March 30th, 2006
James Olson, who makes some of the most highly regarded guitars around, has a page of videos of some of his clients performing on his instruments. Normally I wouldn’t post about something like this, but as his clients include people like James Taylor, Leo Kottke, Phil Keaggy and David Wilcox, I thought I’d make an exception. Oh, and there’s a nice clip of Chet Atkins playing “Vincent” on a borrowed Olson.–MJS
March 30th, 2006
And you thought your measley old Martin 5k was rare. Bernunzio Vintage Instruments is currently offering an electric Rickenbacher soprano uke. I can’t imagine how a horseshoe pickup’d uke would sound with nylon strings (it looks like metal strings currently grace it), but it’s not like you’d take this out gigging anyhow. It’s an impossibly rare and wonderful piece of uke history that would look good on any uke fanatic’s wall. I know Santa Cruz luthier Tony Graziano built a Rick themed uke a while back and I’m sure it sounds better than the real thing, but the Bernunzio find is just too cool.
Some enterprising uke luthier should convince pickup winder Jason Lollar to make a few uke-sized horseshoe pickups. I bet there’s still hope for this maverick design in the uke world. -JV
March 28th, 2006
There’s zero fretted instrument content in this article, but it tells a fascinating tale about how vintage Shell oil drums are considered by players to make the best steel drums.-MJS (Thanks, Music Thing!)
March 27th, 2006
Djangology.net, Monterey Jacques’ Gypsy jazz blog, has a registry and gallery devoted to the guitars of Maurice Dupont. For those of you who don’t know, Maurice Dupont is one of France’s finest luthiers. Although he’s best known in America for his Selmer reproductions, Dupont also makes fine archtops, classical guitars, flattop steel strings and solid-body electrics.–MJS
March 27th, 2006
According to legend, Ed Sims used to charge the enemy while playing the banjo on the theory that no one would ever shoot a banjo player. Or did he?–MJS
March 27th, 2006
Previous Posts
You may not recognize her name, but you sure know her songs. Cindy Walker began her career in the late 1930s as a singer but soon discovered she had a gift for songwriting. When Gene Autry had hits with her compositions “Blue Canadian Rockies” and “Silver Spurs” she stopped singing and took up writing full time. Over the years she wrote for major stars like Bob Wills (”Cherokee Maiden”), Ernest Tubb (”Warm Red Wine”), Roy Orbison (”Dream Baby”), Webb Pierce (”I Don’t Care”), Spike Jones and the City Slickers (”Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow”) and Jim Reeves (”Anna Marie”) among many others. Her song “You Don’t Know Me” was a hit twice, once for Eddy Arnold and later for Ray Charles. Willie Nelson chose “You Don’t Know Me” as the title of the CD of Cindy Walker’s songs that he released earlier this month. She will be missed. –MJS
