This year’s batch of live concert DVD releases was more about quality than quantity. While there weren’t dozens of releases from the bands we love like last year, the DVDs that did come out make up for the lack of numbers. For this week’s B List, I continue a long-standing tradition of detailing my favorite concert DVDs of the year. I’ve included a taste of these releases, except the Avett’s DVD, so you can get a feel for these outstanding videos.
If 2009 was indeed the last year for the E Street Band, what a year it was. One of the highlights of ’09 for The Boss and his long-time backing band was a headlining set at London’s Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. London Calling contains 26 tracks from throughout Springsteen’s career as well as a few cool bonuses such as a memorizing version of The River from Glastonbury. As you’ve probably inferred from the title, the DVD contains a scorching cover of London Calling by The Clash that starts this release out right.
Lenny is the tenth and final track on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1983 debut album Texas Flood. The song’s title is a tribute to SRV’s wife Lenora Bailey.
Jeff Kitts sums up this tune very well in the book Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Like any master musician, Vaughan was just as comfortable with slow, delicate ballads as he was with barn burners. Vaughan composed the beautiful ballad, “Lenny,” for his first wife, and recorded it on Texas Flood. “Lenny” is very Hendrix influenced; it’s sort of a cross between “Little Wing” and “Angel,” two of Hendrix’s greatest ballads.
The Contestants:
The Bridge: The Bridge guitarist Cris Jacobs leads the band through this relatively to-the-point rendition. Source: 2-28-2007
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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan covers Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes backed by an all-star band featuring Chaka Khan, Maria McKee, Rosemary Butler, Omar Hakim, Arnold McCuller, Hiram Bullock, David Sanborn and Van Dyke Parks for an episode of NBC’s Night Music back in 1988…
Once again it’s time for a special guest to take the reigns of the B List. This week, guitar-maker Andrew Olson of AO Guitarsdiscusses his favorite axes of all-time. AO Guitars makes high-quality instruments for the discerning musician…
This article first ran on January 10, but we liked it so much we’re running it again while we get up to speed this morning after seein’ Wilco last night.
I am a full-on guitar addict — there’s no denying it, and I’m okay with that. It’s cool, however, because my job is guitars. By that rationale, if your work is also your addiction, you win as far as I’m concerned. So when I got the call from Master Scotty B to do this killer column on my top 10 Favorite Guitars, I thought it was going to be a piece o’ cake. The problem is, I’ve been in love with so many guitars over the years that picking 10 is damn near impossible.
I tried to compile actual players’ guitars for this list, as opposed to off-the-wall axes, because they have that certain mojo that gets you fired up and ready to do the power-slide across the stage, ala Pete Townshend or Jables. The ordering is also debatable — depending on what I’m currently listening to, any of these guitars cold be at the top of the list, but the top four (being handmade, one-of-a-kind guitars) really stand out to me due to their inspirations on me and the building of my guitars. Enjoy, and go hug a guitar. Read on for Andrew’s Top 10…
The music industry hit a low point during the 1980s when nearly every band the record labels threw at us focused more on style than substance, makeup over music. Bands like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Culture Club were more interested in selling their merchandise than concert tickets. The problem for those trendy bands is that once the trend was over, so were their careers.
Live touring bands didn’t have the same problem because they grew their fanbases organically. People that were into Stevie Ray Vaughan really liked his music and weren’t just interesting in buying a “Stevie Say Relax” T-shirt. This week we’ve got an all-new edition of Grousing The Aisles featuring four tremendous shows from the ’80s that have recently surfaced on the torrent sites.
Since it seems so patently obvious to do so, we haven’t doused too much praise upon Miles Davis in our one-year existence, but we certainly recognize the legendary trumpet player’s contributions to both rock and jazz. Not only did Miles create incredible music, he also had a knack for discovering extremely talented musicians. One of those finds was John Scofield, who toured with Davis from 1983-87. Recently we came across a crispy Miles Davis recording from 1984 that features both Scofield and future Rolling Stones bass player Darryl Jones.
Miles was playing an accessible brand of jazz during the ’84 tour, but there were still plenty of mind-blowing improvisations each night. Scofield sounds great throughout the show, but the standout performer on this boot is Darryl Jones. Jones does a nice job of holding things down, while Scofield, Davis and keyboard player Robert Irving go nuts during a nasty version of Jean Pierre. Also of note are funky Miles/Scofield jam sessions in Code MD and Star People. Even Miles’ cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time sounds terrific on this awe-inspiring recording thanks to Jones’ beautiful fills. We highly recommend this one for even the most casual of jazz fans. Read on for three more great GTA downloads…
