gatorgabe

Very nice, thank you ... and you? Just thought people would be interested in knowing about these killer bands ... I only just heard of them this morning, but the music is killer. Hope you get the chance to check it out as well.

I was surfing for some new music this morning and found this article that features four killer up and coming bands. I've heard of Mikal Blue, but the other three are new to me. But the music from all of them is pretty cool, and the article includes free MP3 downloads ... I just put them all on my iPod. Check it out ... If you haven't yet heard of these bands, you will soon enough. http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...orthgettingtok/

Beginning April 4 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Hank Williams, Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd have scheduled 20 dates across the United States. In 2007, their Rowdy Frynds tour sold more than 180,000 tickets and grossed $10.9 million, according to Pollstar, and this installment promises to be rowdier than ever. “Our following of fans fit together perfectly,” said ............................... Please read the rest of this article and see a complete list of concert dates here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...0Hank%20Willia/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Here are 10—well, more than that, actually—of the wickedest all-time wizards of the Flying V guitar. 1. Albert King (1923-1992): This blues giant from Indianola, Mississippi, is so identified with the Flying V that there’s one etched on his gravestone in a little cemetery near Forrest City, Arkansas. When King got his 1958 korina V, the lefty flipped it upside down so the low E string was on the bottom. That reverse stringing plus his southpaw status allowed him to easily pull down rather than push up to bend notes. He also had a penchant for low tuning and an unhurried approach to soloing. That all added up to the signature sound behind such hits as “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which Cream covered, “I’ll Play the Blues for You,” “Crosscut Saw,” and “As the Years Go Passing By.” 2. Lonnie Mack (1941- ): Mack and his Bigsby-outfitted ’58 Flying V arguably made the first blues-rock recording, the 1962 instrumental “Memphis.” Some musicologists cite this session as the birth of the hybrid genre since Mack’s interpretation of the Chuck Berry tune set a pentatonic melody to a smackdown roadhouse rhythm. However, it’s just as .................................................. ......................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...e%20Flying%20V/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Willie Nelson Turns 75 This Year. Time to Retire? Not a Chance. This year, Willie Nelson is celebrating his 75th birthday with a bang. On April 1, Legacy Recordings will release One Hell of a Ride, a four-disc box set containing no less than 100 classic songs including "Night Life," "Funny How Time Slips Away," and "Crazy," plus his definitive covers of "Stardust" and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." The tracklist reaches as far back to Nelson's very first recordings in 1954 for KBOP radio in Texas, when his famous ponytails were mere sprouts. The box set will be followed by #1s, a single-disc compilation packed with Nelson's pop and country hits. The album hits stores on April 29, the day before .............................................. Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...75%20This%20Ye/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have announced a summer tour, with Steve Winwood set to open. Tickets for the tour will go on sale February 4, the day after the Heartbreakers perform at the Super Bowl. Check out all the cities and dates here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...20Winwood%20An/ Thanks checking this out ... !

A very cool article on some of country music's legendary Gibson instruments .... Plenty of musicians have day jobs, but Bill Lloyd’s is sweeter than most. The power-pop singer-songwriter and ex-member of the late ’80s country-rock duo Foster & Lloyd spends his nine-to-fives at downtown Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where he’s stringed instrument curator. That makes the guitarist caretaker of a collection of 400 axes—108 of them Gibsons. Some, like Maybelle Carter’s Gibson L-5, Bill Monroe’s Gibson F-5 mandolin, and Jimmie Rodgers’ Martin 0-18 acoustic guitar, are part of the fabric of country music. They were played on the genre’s bedrock recordings. Others are rare birds, like a 1924 Gibson mandola, a beefy relative of the mandolin that’s tuned like a viola (C-D-G-A) and was made by the company’s master builder Lloyd Loar, who also designed Monroe’s F-5. And some are simply beautiful works of art, like the stunning mother-of-pearl- and Bakelite-decorated Gibson J-200 acoustic that songwriter. ...................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Feat...test%20Gibsons/ Thanks for checking this out ...!

Yeah, you read the headline right. For more on this story, go here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...%20Def%20Leppa/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Here's a cool article on the just-announced 2008 Coachella line-up ... enjoy! The Hits, Misses, and Head-Scratchers of This Year’s Coachella Line-up Having impressed hardcore music fans with previous reunion coups such as the Pixies, Jane’s Addiction, and the Stooges, there was a whiff of disappointment about the just-revealed line-up for this year’s Coachella Festival. It’s impressive to see freshly reunited ’90s alternative radio hit-makers like the Verve, Portishead, and the Breeders on the bill, but their presence seems a little underwhelming when measured against last year’s comeback kids—Rage Against the Machine and the Jesus & Mary Chain, who trotted out insufferably hot guest vocalist Scarlett Johansson. As great as it’s going to be to watch ............................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...d%20Head%2DScr/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

The Hits, Misses, and Head-Scratchers of This Year’s Coachella Line-up Having impressed hardcore music fans with previous reunion coups such as the Pixies, Jane’s Addiction, and the Stooges, there was a whiff of disappointment about the just-revealed line-up for this year’s Coachella Festival. It’s impressive to see freshly reunited ’90s alternative radio hit-makers like the Verve, Portishead, and the Breeders on the bill, but their presence seems a little underwhelming when measured against last year’s comeback kids—Rage Against the Machine and the Jesus & Mary Chain, who trotted out insufferably hot guest vocalist Scarlett Johansson. As great as it’s going to be to watch ............................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...d%20Head%2DScr/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Open and Alternate Tunings: What They Are and Why Page, Iommi, Grohl, and Slash All Use Them Albeit imperceptible to the untrained ear, many of the best guitarists have eschewed standard tunings and forged their own style by using open or alternate tunings—alternate tunings being deviations from standard tuning’s tried-and-true EADGBE; open tunings being any tuning which forms a full chord when all open strings are strummed together. An accepted compromise, standard tuning sets up fingering positions on the six-string guitar that let us play a little of just about anything in any key relatively easily, but it doesn’t by any means offer the easiest and most logical means of achieving more specific stylistic ends, which is where alternate tunings rule the day. The real magic of open or alternate tunings is that they ................................. Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Feat...0Tunings_%20Wh/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Some great information on recording guitars ... Last installment we examined a few basic one-mic techniques for recording acoustic guitar. This week, let’s investigate some more involved multi-mic techniques. As with recording guitar amps, you can often achieve a broader, more multi-dimensional sound from an acoustic by carefully positioning more than one microphone. Be aware, however, that two mics are not always better than one: in some cases you might want the straightforward, less harmonically saturated (less “frequency range-dominating,” if you will) sound of just a single microphone, when you want to have a driving acoustic rhythm guitar part in a busy mix where other sounds are more prominent, for example. With that in mind, if you want to coax the richest, deepest, most “in-the-room” acoustic guitar sounds onto your recording, you will often turn to two mics to do it. Here are some techniques to try out: Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...g%20%20%282%29/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

check out the news/rumor here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...20in%20Septemb/

If you haven't seen this yet, you don't know what you're missing ... check it out here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...20Snoop%20Dogg/

Report: New Guns N’ Roses Album ‘Was Finished Before Christmas’ Yesterday, Classic Rock magazine reported on a recent chat with Axl Rose’s manager Beta Lebeis. She revealed that production on Guns N’ Roses’ long-anticipated sixth album, Chinese Democracy, was completed before Christmas. “Everybody knows that,” said Lebeis, who has worked with Rose for 15 years. Furthering speculation that the marketing of the album ................................. Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Ne...20Roses%20Albu/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Singer-Songwriter Grayson Capps: “There Are No Straight Lines in New Orleans” (Free MP3!) There are two main forces that drove Grayson Capps to become a singer-songwriter. One was his interest in acting, the other his fascination with prophet figures. While studying theater at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Alabama native came under the influences of a professor who, in Capps’ words, believed that “the real live theater of today, outside the big cities, is rock and roll.” Capps fully embraced that notion. “I was in a band called the House Levelers,” he explains, “which was actually a bunch of actors acting like musicians. We didn’t know how to play a damn thing, but we knew how to put on a show. It became a question of, do I want to do soap operas, or go .................................................. ........... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...Grayson%20Capp/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

The Early Years of Van Halen: A Paper Route, a High School Essay, and a Couple of Lucky Breaks It took a decade of false starts, misfires, and acrimony, but David Lee Roth’s return to Van Halen after a 22-year absence was not only a dream come true for many faithful fans, but it produced a blockbuster tour that began in September of ’07 and is still rolling on, scheduled out as far as April ’08. It’s now been 30 years since Van Halen’s Warner Bros. debut became a breakthrough commercial success. Considered one of the most wildly influential hard rock albums ever, Van Halen has inspired many a critic to compare guitarist Eddie Van Halen—aged 22 at the time of its release—to Jimi Hendrix in terms of his immediate and enduring impact on guitar playing. But like many a vaunted overnight success story, Van Halen’s was a long time coming. Having emigrated to California from ......................................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Feat...20Van%20Halen_/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Check this out ... Journey finds a new singer!! Journey’s Remarkable Quest for a New Lead Singer: Check Out the Videos! It defied logic when ’80s rock band Journey recently offered the job of vocalist to Arnel Pineda, a 40-year-old father of three from the Philippines’ Quezon City. Frontman for a Filipino rock and cover band called the Zoo, Pineda had played little more than dimly lit small- and medium-sized rock clubs in his homeland when he received the phone call that made him Journey’s third singer since original vocalist Steve Perry left in the late ’90s. Impressed by footage of Pineda performing Journey covers on YouTube, longstanding Journey guitarist Neal Schon contacted Pineda in August of ’07 and .......................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...%20Quest%20for/ Thanks for checking this out .. !

New artist Kate Nash is stirring it up ... Looks aren't everything! (or are they?!?) English pop newcomer Kate Nash’s debut LP, story goes, came in a rush of attention. The 20-year-old singer/songwriter grabbed a record deal after issuing only a debut single, then hurriedly piled Made of Bricks’ songs together by scrambling through notebooks. The result is an endearingly quirky and hook-filled album that’s garnering press nationwide. The fact that Nash’s songs were born of teenaged journal scribblings is something you hear straight away, though that sensibility is the larger part of what makes Made of Bricks as oddly compelling as it is. It’s a youthful record, certainly, and an easily relatable one, Nash dealing up unpretentious word tumbles that come off alternately like LiveJournal ramblings and .......................................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...eeky%20Teenage/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Five New Blues Guitar Releases to Blow Your Mind (Free MP3 Downloads!) some of the best new blues guitar records out at the moment ... check it out ... Few sounds express musical passion better than the cry of a bent guitar string sustaining a single note. It can tickle the spine like the howl of a lone wolf on a dark prairie, and seem just as chilling and lonesome. In the world of blues guitar, how that note is squeezed is one of the qualities that distinguish the alpha wolves from the rest of the pack. And new albums by Ronnie Earl, Joe Bonamassa, Luther Allison, and Mike Welch, all masters of the modern blues fretboard, capture their distinctive voices at full bay. There’s also a notable wild card entry by modern chitlin circuit king Bobby Rush that’s the most raw and playful blues album to come out of Mississippi in a decade. Here’s the .................................................................. Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...tar%20Releases/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Here's a cool look back on the most classic Hendrix album ... Jimi Hendrix secured his throne in psychedelic rock’s Olympus with the completion of Electric Ladyland. The double album was the final and brightest jewel in the acid-and-paisley-era trilogy he’d begun in 1967 with his debut full-length Are You Experienced and the next year’s Axis: Bold As Love. For Hendrix, it was a triumph over considerable obstacles. His band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was falling apart, and the studio he envisioned, where he intended to record the album, was plagued with construction and cost troubles. (His Electric Lady Studios was finally completed several months before his death in 1970.) The Experience’s hectic concert schedule made the Electric Ladyland sessions at New York City’s Record Plant sporadic. And then, there was Hendrix’s drug intake, which by ......................................................................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...%20Hendrix%5Fs/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Here's an article about today's announced merger between Gibson Guitar and TC Group ... Gibson Guitar, the world's premier musical instrument manufacturer and leader in music technology and TC Group, leaders in professional audio, have announced that they are planning to merge. The announcement was made at the NAMM 2008 show in Anaheim, California by both Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and CEO of TC Group, Anders Fauerskov. The TC Group, headquartered in Risskov, Denmark, develops and manufactures first class audio products that provide lasting user value for audio professionals and musicians. The company has a number of premium brands of pro audio technology and produces amplifiers, speakers, digital processors, guitar pedals and other pro audio and MI products. TC Group's customers include top musical artists, world class recording studios, television and radio/TV stations, prominent theatres, commercial installations, and home entertainment. "This merger will ...................................... please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...C%20Group%20to/ Thanks for checking this out ....

Against Me! Wonder Why So Many People Are Against Them By all accounts, 2007 was pretty kind to Gainesville, Florida punk act Against Me!, and despite some naysayers, the coming year’s not looking any worse. After spending the past decade pounding out the beats in sweaty basements and DIY venues, Against Me!’s major-label debut, New Wave, was heralded as the best album of the year by Spin. Touring relentlessly behind the album, they converted an influx of new fans by sharing the bill with a diverse roster of bands ranging from Fake Problems and Mastodon to Green Day and Foo Fighters. “On our last European Tour we played in a room where they feed cows, so we played on troughs with troughs on each side of us,” explains frontman Tom Gabel. “It was almost like a catwalk or whatever—and we made ................................ Please check out the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Feat...hy%20So%20Many/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

Here's a cool article on Dion's latest release ... Born to Cry: The Deep, Unlikely Blues of the Great Dion DiMucci In some ways Dion DiMucci’s career has come full circle. Few knew, but back when the legendary singer was scoring hits like "Teenager in Love" and "The Wanderer" in the late ’50s and early ’60s, he was also nurturing a secret love of country blues. In fact, upon first hearing the music of Robert Johnson, in 1959, Dion says he "recognized intuitively that these blues guys were backroad poet geniuses." Flash forward nearly four decades, and the rock and roll pioneer has himself fully embraced roots music traditions. First, in 2006, he released a stripped-to-the-bones country blues album titled Bronx in Blue. Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Dion brought empathy to classics by the likes of Willie Dixon, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and yes, Robert Johnson. He also tossed in a couple of worthy blues originals. Dion's latest CD is a more than worthy follow-up. Titled Son of Skip James, the disc cuts a wider swath, stylistically, than Bronx in Blue—but not by much. At the outer fringes are a swing-jazz version of Chuck Berry's "Nadine" and an .......................................... Please check out the rest of this article here ... http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...p%2C%20Unlikel/ Thanks for checking this out ... !

A pretty cool article on DBT's much anticipated new album ... Drive-By Truckers Forge on with New Album in the Wake of a Tough Year The past year has been a tumultuous one for Drive-By Truckers. First, in a protracted ordeal, the band parted ways with guitarist Jason Isbell, who now seems on track for a successful solo career. Then, in early summer, the group had to assuage the apprehensions of soul legend Bettye LaVette, with whom they had been teamed as a backing band for the singer’s latest album. Happily, though, the year concluded on a positive note for the Athens, Georgia-based Truckers. Having been released to great fanfare, the LaVette album went on to ................................... Please read the rest of this article here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Fe...rge%20on%20wit/ Thanks for checking this out ... !