Circle of Strings and Music

Before Gayle Swinehart retired and closed Strings Music in Glendora California, there used to be a monthly invite only, after hours, acoustic jam with some of the local professional and semiprofessional guitar players who frequented the store. You never knew who would show up.  Likewise, you never knew if it was simply going to be a fun evening of jamming or if something magical was going to happen. Although I had been invited to other locations to try and carry on the tradition, I had not attended the jam in well over a year. I am assuming that some of the other players stopped attending as well.  Ultimately, the jam fizzled.  Fast forward to last night. It was the kick start in a new location, Alosta Brewing Company, in Covina Califonia. This was the first time that most of us had seen each other since regular attender Alan Saltsman had passed away.  Needless to say, the night was filled with heavy hearts and warm memories.  When it was local blues icon Stan West’s turn to pick the tune it was evident that we were going to live large in the moment. He started the up slide on this 1920’s Dobro Resonator and we were taken up to the clouds on the back of Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”  Everyone took a turn soloing over the collective ensemble’s well wishes to Alan.  Yes, it was magical.  I am glad I decided to go.  Likewise, I am sad for the loss of a beautiful man and the missed opportunity to share the moment with some of our friends who jammed so many times with him.  Music really does bring us together.

Jamming With Jake Shimabukuro

I was flipping through an old book at the house the other day. These two pictures, which were unknown to me, fell out. It is me, Jake Shimabukuro, and Rashad Qasem with the GHS guitar club in 2007.  Jake had stopped by to talk with the GHS guitar club directly after appearing on the KLOS morning show with Mark and Brian in Los Angeles. He was a wonderfully kind young man. After answering student questions we jammed on his song, "Crosscurrent." I did not really know much about Jake at the time. Club president Rashad Qasem told me Jake was a really good player and he wanted to meet him. So I told him how to get in touch with his management company. That is one of the perks of being club president. You get to choose who you want to pursue for guest speakers at club meetings. Anyway, the club had hosted numerous famous guitar players over the years. However, we had never received so many requests for admission into a particular meeting. There were calls from all over California and Arizona to get in to see him. In hindsight it was a pretty special day. Jake has since gone on to worldwide acclaim as arguably the finest ukulele player on the planet! If you're interested in a little touch of what the students experienced on that day you can follow this link to see what happened on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JOJLhK1NOL8

www.chrisburgan.com

"Who will carry it on if we do not pass it on?"

Cramping during a performance

Howdy all,

I'm sure we have all gone through this at one time or another... Cramping!!! You know, when a muscle spasms to the point that you experience intense pain and can't use the named muscle. Well, this week my acoustic band, The Tannins, played a good sized plaza gig with an audience of around 500 consistent people in Claremont, California. It was a typical summer day on the far eastern edge of Los Angeles county. Temperatures were around 90* in direct sunlight. Set up was the normal 1 hour with a little time to grab a bite and something to drink before performing. Basically, everything was going the way it is supposed to. The show got off to a typical start. The band was settling in. Then it happened. I began cramping in my left hand at the start of the second of three sets. If you don't know, this is pretty debilitating to a guitar player!!! I had two hours of performing left and nothing to offset the spasms. So by force of will, some prior experience, and a little luck I managed to play through. I reconfigured some of my chord voicings on the fly, had to play with modified fingering, and even dropped out totally a couple of times... YIKES!!! For all of it, no one seemed to notice a drop off in my performance (I have not decided if that is a good thing or not). Hopefully, the people familiar with our music figured that I was just stretching out musically. Whatever the case, I was also reminded of how I should have taken the extra moment to carry some Gatorade and cramping tablets with me. I was traveling light and had not cramped in a long, long time during a performance. So, I left the extra weight at home. Frankly, I was just too lazy to pick it up when I left the house for this gig. Lesson learned. I was in so much pain the next day that I could barely move my left hand. So for all you players out there: Always carry back-up! You only need it when you need it...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Forgotten, But No Longer Forgotten

I was catching up with my great friend Tim Fullerton recently who reminded me that it has been 10 years since I started recording the "Love, Hope, Faith" CD. This particular CD is very significant to me on many personal levels. Among other things, it was the first true release since my band 541 Baseline called it a day. I fondly remember having the opportunity to work with producer Mark Schulman (best known as the drummer for Cher, Foreigner, and Pink), guitar legend Laurence Juber (the undisputed king of DADGAD tuning and former Paul McCartney and Wings guitarist), and consummate bassist Timothy Gaines of Stryper. And sadly, I will always remember how the first pressing of the disk arrived on the day that we buried my grandpa Graf. It was a crazy, turned upside down time full of fresh ideas, unclear direction, and emotional upheaval... Well, as Tim and I were talking it started me thinking about some of the tracks that did not make the final cut for the "Love, Hope, Faith" release. Specifically, two songs I wrote with Anna Nalick of "Breathe (2 A.M.)" fame. We had been working together in a couple of music projects. One was a rock outfit. We called ourselves Estrogen Rush (because the band had been rehearsing a bunch of songs by the band Rush while auditioning female lead singers for an originals project). That singer turned out to be Anna. The other was a series of acoustic songs in what would become the contemplative quiet style she is best known for. Let me tell you, she was fantastic in both formats. I wonder if she missed singing hard rock while touring the world as a singer / songwriter. Anyway, I had not thought about or listened to either of those tracks in years. Although I am not going to share them with you here today, know that they are out there... waiting to be revisited. For now, I will leave you with some of the music that did get released from what was a very, very eclectic time. All the best,
Chris
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chrisburgan

Winter NAMM 2013

I took a trip back in the 'ol time machine this weekend. It was Winter NAMM 2013 in Anaheim California. Jenn and I spent several days reconnecting with friends, former colleagues, and some forgotten memories that had long been put away.

Among the highlights were a series of great visits with Jimmy and Robin Dunn, Grover Jackson, Jon Gold, Oz Fox and Annie Lobert, Irene Kelly and Tim Gaines, Dan and Kim Lawrence, Glenn Matejzel, Jeff Freeman, Willie Houston, Trevor Tripoli, Che Zuro, Rick Salazar, Tom and Rick Seymour, Gerad Clarkson, and Jimmy Seville.

An unexpected surprise came when Jimmy, Robin, Jenn and I received an invite to the private Gypsy Jazz John Jorgensen Quartet concert by Dick and Claudia Hardwick. The evening was hosted by Rick Shubb (San Francisco graphic design legend turned capo guru). Both John and Rick were extremely gracious hosts to our entrance into the pre and post show green room. Likewise, another memorable moment came when Jenn and I saw a nice acoustic set by the up and coming Los Angeles based band King Washington. All along the way, we had a pretty great time mingling among the musical talent and sales masses...

Anyway, the thing that continues to amaze me is just how powerful music is to our collective humanity. It moves me, and our society, in ways that I can not explain. Music provides the soundtrack to some of the most significant times in my life (both good and bad).

So if you will forgive me this indulgence, I am going to put in some Stryper, re-live a moment, and pretend I am 17 again. By the way, Tim and Oz... you guys are still my heroes. And, I am proud to call you friends.

All the best,
Chris

Fun With "Film"

It seems like every time you settle into the new, bigger, better deal something newer, bigger, and better sets another standard. As I mentioned in another recent blog, these days when I travel beyond an easy day's drive to play music I tend to run my guitar signal through an iPad for an "amp and effects." Why not, right? It is light, convenient, sounds great, and above all, is easy to use. Line6 has already done most of the heavy lifting so that I don't have to.

In that vein, this week I'd like to turn the attention to my wife, Jennifer. She is a fantastic photographer. Now when I say photographer, it's understood that she knows how to capture images in both film and digital formats (as any true shutter hound should). But lately, she has primarily been exploring digital formats. In fact, she often focuses her own blog on test shooting specific digital photography / camera apps for the iPhone.

For those of you not in the know, there are dozens of digital camera / film simulators that can be downloaded from the app store. Just like my guitar amps and effects, Jennifer has all but eliminated carrying thousands of dollars of cameras, lenses, and film. Instead, most of the time she uses her iPhone. It is loaded with a multitude of virtual camera gear that quickly captures her images with the specific kind of look she is going for.

It is pretty impressive. The above photos are from a recent We Five concert in the Seattle, Washington area. For the top left and right images she used a Tinto 1884 lens simulator, with D-Type Plate film. For the bottom left she used a Lucifer VI and Claunch 72 Monochrome film. In between taking pictures she was seamlessly sending texts to her sister... pretty amazing.

You can check out what she is doing at: http://everythingjenni.blogspot.com

Viva Technology :)

All the best,
Chris

A Day Not Unlike Today

Jenn and I were driving through the rain drenched mountains above Santa Barbara today. We were doing what we usually do on long drives; that is, we spend a lot of time taking pictures and talking music. As I sat down to write this blog post, it suddenly dawned on me that the iPod shuffle never landed on one of my all time favorite guitarists, Michael Hedges. That is kind of strange actually. Not only do I have the complete Hedges catalogue loaded on my iPod, but I often think of him on days like this. You see, Michael died on a winding mountain road in a rain storm on a day not unlike today.
A quick blurb from Wikipedia states: "In late 1997, Hedges died at the age of 43 in a car accident along State Route 128 in Mendocino County, near Boonville (about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of San Francisco). According to his manager Hilleary Burgess, his car apparently skidded off a rain-slicked S-curve and down a 120-foot (37 m) cliff. Hedges was thrown from his car and appeared to have died nearly instantly. His body was found a few days afterward. After his death, his record Oracle won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album."
I know many of you don't have a clue who Hedges is in the context of "great" guitar players. Let me just say that he was a true game changer in regards to the instrument. Many a guitarist has come along and incorporated the "new way" of doing things that Michael brought to the table. In fact, some of the techniques he pioneered have become so commonplace in acoustic guitar circles that many of you will not even give it a second thought upon seeing this week's post. I would recommend that you put on your "remember when" glasses and take a trip back to the beginning of what Michael jokingly called "Heavy Mental." In my concerts I have often made thinly veiled references to this mindset by calling it "Guitar Geekery."
On an obvious personal note, my acoustic guitar playing life has NEVER been the same after seeing about 30 seconds of the following clip back in 1984. David Olivas and I were bored and scanning channels on the TV looking for something to watch. A random stop on PBS sent me on a now life long quest for the "new way of doing things." We were completely floored. I don't know if David remembers the exact moment, but I will never forget it. After the first 30 seconds, I took a hard turn toward first being an acoustic player... and then second an electric player. Enjoy :)
For more information on Michael Hedges: http://www.nomadland.com/
For more information on Christopher Burgan: http://www.chrisburgan.com