While the world is waiting for the Super Bowl to begin, I am perusing YouTube… watching classic videos from my guitar heroes. What a great way to pass the time!

Most of you know that I am a huge fan of Ronnie Earl and when I came across this rare clip of his impromptu rendition of “Amazing Grace” (played while sitting on the church steps) it seemed appropriate to share with the readers of the BUZZ on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

ENJOY THE VIDEO!

I am not a big fan of country music (sorry… it reminds me of my ex-wife) but I am a HUGE fan of Jeff Bridges. Some of that comes from being a childhood fan of his father Lloyd (remember Sea Hunt?) and the rest comes from simply liking Jeff as an actor.

In Crazy Heart, Jeff plays the role of Bad Blake who is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times.

View the official trailer by [CLICKING HERE].

The movie has expanded coverage nationally after being nominated for 3 Academy Awards. This weekend it will open in over 450 new cities… CLICK HERE for more info.

THE GUITAR
STARRING: Saffron Burrows
DIRECTOR: Amy Redford
STUDIO: Lightning Media
RATING: R (nudity, language)

A doomed woman discovers her creative spirit during a final fling with life in this independent drama.

Melody Wilder (Saffron Burrows) is already having a bad day when she visits her doctor about a troubling lump in her throat — her boyfriend has left her, and she’s lost her job. However, this news pales in comparison to what her doctor has to say: the lump is an inoperable cancer, and Melody has only a short time to live.

Throwing caution to the wind, Melody rents a huge, luxurious apartment and furnishes it in high style, putting her purchases on a handful of credit cards she won’t be around to pay off. Melody also permits herself affairs with a few of the deliverymen who have become regular visitors to her loft, but she spends most her days alone, enjoying the trappings of wealth as she ponders what little future she has left.

One day, Melody makes an impulse purchase, a red electric guitar that looks like one she wanted as a girl. While Melody isn’t schooled on the instrument, she begins teaching herself to work out chord patterns and melody lines, and in the last chapter of her life discovers a way to give voice to the pain and confusion she’s buried within her.

Written by Amos Poe, and based on a real story, this beautifully realized parable, “The Guitar,” speaks volumes about living.

[CLICK HERE] to view the movie trailer.

All too often it takes a life-altering event to spur us to act on our dreams. The Guitar is a very moving story about living life and living it to the fullest. This movie was both inspirational and motivational and I recommend it highly to all (adult) guitarists. -GuitarDaddy

I admit, I watched the Grammy’s last night. All 3-1/2 hours of it.

There were many parts that I really enjoyed, many parts that I used for grabbing another beer and many parts that were perfect for bathroom breaks.

But there was one part that was clearly the highlight of the evening for guitar players.

It was when Jeff Beck played a note-for-note rendition of “How High The Moon” on a Les Paul in honor of the man himself. Watch the video – then click through to YouTube and read the comments. People loved the throw-back to the 50’s.

Of course, Jeff was not alone… he was joined on stage by Imelda May who sizzled her way into the hearts of everyone who listened as the next best thing to Mary Ford herself.

I was a beautiful thing to watch. Even more entertaining than Lady Gaga and Pink… at least for us guitar players!

P.S. I’m just not used to seeing Jeff Beck without a Strat…

Jason Mraz has spent the past thirteen years performing everywhere from southern California coffee shops to stadiums with his Taylor guitars.

Along the way, Mraz has released three studio albums, several EP’s and live albums including the recently released Beautiful Mess – Live on Earth DVD/CD. Mraz’s live shows have garnered critical acclaim around the world and his albums have earned multiple Grammy® nominations. Late last year, his hit single, “I’m Yours”, set a music industry record for the most weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. In early December, Mraz visited the Taylor factory to meet with the company’s design team and to complete work on his own Taylor model, the Jason Mraz Signature Model (JMSM).

The JMSM is based on Mraz’s go-to guitar, a Taylor nylon-string NS72ce, a guitar he says “nurtured a whole album’s worth of songs” and in performances, “gave me a way to communicate with the audience without a guitar standing in my way. It felt like it was part of me, it was a part of the energy that I wanted to put out there.” Crafted from a back and sides of Indian rosewood and a top of Western Red cedar, the JMSM includes key design touches provided by Mraz. The fretboard inlay, in Mexican cypress, features the phrase “Be Love” set below a design that features a triangle within a circle, which mirrors a forearm tattoo he got in July 2009. “I choose this symbol simply because I want to be whole in mind, body and soul,” he explains. “I think that’s a divine trinity there. What is ‘Be Love’ but cutting out the middle man.

You don’t have to have a certain someone to be loved. You don’t have to have certain conditions to have love in your life. You can just be love. So, it’s basically a practice of unconditional love, a practice of unabashed generosity.”

There’s a really cool project underway that when complete, will result in a guitar music (and player) documentary film.

The project involves a global search for six guitar players who have a story to tell about themselves, their guitar, their music, or better yet… all of those subjects combined.

James Smith, the Director & Writer of “Six Strings” says this:

“I am a film director and writer based in London, UK and am making a documentary film called SIX STRINGS about one of my passions: guitar music. My aim is to deliver a superb film and with the help of my production team, market it to film festivals around the world.

James Smith, Director and Writer

[CLICK HERE] to be re-directed to the official web site.

The commercial says: “it’s not just a phone, it’s a collector’s item.”

[Video]

The myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition is available for $179.99 with a new two-year T-Mobile agreement.

I will admit, it’s pretty cool!

Jason Bonham, Glenn Hughes, Derek Sherinian and Joe Bonamassa have formed a new super group calling themselves Black Country.

They are in the studio NOW with legendary producer Kevin Shirley.

My initial thought was… “is Joe breaking up the current band?”  Joe responded to that question on his own forum saying “…My solo band has about 140 shows booked this year.. So the answer is nothing will happen with my current lineup.  It means a bit more work for me but I am very happy with the way everything is going on…”

Shirley made the announcement on his website:

“So there it is folks – the cat is out the bag! This is Black Country.

The songs are all original and what a lineup. They are all the very best players in the world, for my money!”

Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner) is a totally unique drummer and a supreme, yet oh-so-tasty powerhouse. Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper) is super versatile, and is playing mostly overdriven Hammond organ in this ensemble and is the color on the palette. Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze) plays bass and sings with a range VERY, VERY few can even get close to, and Joe Bonamassa, perhaps the best Blues guitarist around, plays hard riffing guitar as well as adding his signature vocals alongside Glenn.

“You’ll just have to wait – we’re planning to get this out late summer, and it’s promising to be phenomenal!”, said Shirley.

Well Kevin… we can hardly wait!

(note: the photo is a compilation courtesy of GuitarDaddy and TheGuitarBuzz.com and is NOT an official band photo…)

This morning started out as just another day at the office…  I had a full backlog of “to-do’s” that were all part of playing catch-up after a busy NAMM week.  But along about 10am the mailman arrived and neatly camouflaged in a brown bubble envelope was a promotional copy of Joe Bonamassa’s BLACK ROCK CD.

CANCEL ALL APPOINTMENTS!

BLACK ROCK was recorded at, and named for, Black Rock Studios in Santorini, Greece.

“With this album, we wanted to explore a “world feeling”, and this was the inspiration behind going to record in Greece and using some of the best Greek musicians to add a little flavor to a couple of the tracks.  But it’s by no means a “world” album.  We wanted Joe’s usual youthful and energetic tones to play alongside the worldly vibes of the Greek bouzouki and clarino,” said Kevin Shirley, producer (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zepplin and most recently “The Ballad of John Henry”).

Bonamassa added: “It’s the kind of record Kevin and I wanted to make.  We needed to rock again a bit like on my first album”.  And rocking is exactly what they did.

Joe scored big-time when he signed up blues legend B.B. King for a duet on a rendition of “Night Life” whigh originally appeared on King’s 1967 album, “Blues is King”.

Other tracks include Jeff Beck’s “Spanish Boots”, Leonard Cohen’s poetic “Bird on a Wire” (which I have had on auto-repeat for about an hour…), Otis Rush’s “Three Times A Fool”, Bobby Parker’s “Steal Your Heart Away”, Blind Boy Fuller’s “Baby, You Gotta Change Your Mind”, John Hiatt’s “I Know A Place” and James Clark’s “Look Over Yonder’s Wall” as well as the Bonamassa originals “Quarryman’s Lament”, “When The Fire Hits The Sea”, Wandering Earth”, “Athens to Anthens” and “Blue and Evil”.

Joe Bonamassa has been on quite a roll over the past 2 years with the release of the double CD “Live From Nowhere in Particular”, followed by “The Ballad of John Henry” and then the double DVD “Live From the Royal Albert Hall”.  He was named “Best Blues Guitarist” in Guitar Player Magazine’s 2009 Readers Choice Awards for the 3rd consecutive year and recently awarded the “Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award” at the U.K.’s prestigious Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.  Guitar World Magazine dubbed Bonamassa “The Blues Rock Titan” and finally… (demonstrating the true measure of musical success in the 21st Century), his single “Lonesome Road Blues” is a part of Guitar Hero V’s New Blues Masters Track Pack!

Even with all of that, Joe is not taking a break.  BLACK ROCK demonstrates truly ground-breaking territory for the young blues legend by integrating international sounds with sizzling blues and good old fiery rock n’ roll.

BLACK ROCK will be in stores on March 23, 2010 and you won’t want to miss it!

I was roaming the isles at NAMM and came across a demonstration for what quickly became a must-have electric guitar application for my iTouch.

The PRS JAM AMP combines a great-sounding guitar amp simulator, a backing track audio file player and a super-accurate tuner into an all-around first class application that allows me to jam along to backing tracks and slow down riffs and solos for optimal practice — all through my mobile device and the privacy of my headphones.

The PRS JAM AMP lets you load, loop and slow down audio clips for repeated practice of those tricky parts. Upload and play back popular riffs and songs in MP3, ACC (unprotected) or AIIF formats using the onboard web interface.

You can even adjust the tuning of your audio tracks to your guitar. For example, if the backing track was recorded in the key of C#… you can adjust the pitch upward by three tones and play along on your guitar in E!  That means any track can be played in your favorite key!

The amp application includes the standard tone controls as well as input boost, reverb and crunch (overdrive). There is even a slider to adjust for room size.

As far as I am concerned, this is the ultimate iPhone-iTouch application. I can walk around in my house with my Les Paul strapped on and my iTouch in my pocket. The optional (but required) Guitarbud cable that connects my iTouch to my Guitar and headphones is neatly tucked in my back pocket and I am jamming along (walking room-to-room) to a backing track — all the while listening to everything through my headphones.

The best part is…. I am playing LOUD… and my wife hears nothing!

Whether you’re practicing, recording your latest idea, or just killing time, true inspiration and killer tone is finally as close as your iPhone or iTouch.