Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Fantastic stuff! I agree with you, I hear some Stevie Ray in there.

Thanks, Tomo. I don't really know him.
Sounds great! Nice singing too.
Great camera angles on his playing. The whole thing is really well done.
I just love the blues.
Kurt

Thank you Linda! Matt loves SRV a lot and Albert King, BB King... Albert Collings too!

Tomo

My pleasure Kurt! Good! Now you know one of my favorite blues guitar players! Yes! Matt is also a great singer! I love playing with Matt!

I will be in one of those Guitar Camp in FL next year! With Matt.

So happy to hear that! Me too!

Tomo

Thank you MarkM for sharing Ibanez artists! I love playing with Andy Timmons! Such a great guy!

Tomo

Hi Mark! How have you been? Gary Moore's "Still got the Blues" is the tune I always play for somebody when I want them to hear totally emotion-packed blues. These guys do a great job.

Ha. When I say "I play it for somebody", I mean I play the album for them so they can hear the tune from Gary Moore (not "I" play it. Lol).

Hahaha! Now you’re thinking like me! :)

Hi Linda!
Been thinking “deeply” about what you said earlier about albums, themes, listening habits.

I think when anyone plays a vinyl album, it’s damaged a little. I don’t know how long it takes to degrade quality to a point anyone would notice. I am sure someone here knows.

But I find myself thinking about the how we communicate with voyager spacecrafts, and how cds work.
Under the hood they use something like Huffman encoding to make sure they can rebuild the whole message from known received parts (voyagers) or oversampling (cds).

Imagining readers googling “Huffman encoding” but hard to understand unless you write out all the details…I think.

(Kurt when we were talking about Wikipedia to check sources I keep thinking to ask you: which version of “leaves of grass” is your favorite? And which was Walt’s favorite?)

Anyway, I don’t have vinyl. (Oh I can check out at the library I think just thought of that) But I have iTunes. But I changed the way I listen to iTunes.

Now I decide what I want to listen to and try to find an original source. (But I think they’re always digitally “remastering”)
Then I listen to the whole album, pretending I’m listening to vinyl.
Then I also don’t look at any of their suggestions (because I don’t want to be influenced by any algorithm) just word of (GW) mouth.

I listened to the new Jack Johnson song “Hold on to the light” on repeat then eventually I heard a carriage return or that sound when the needle reaches the end of the album and goes home.

After that I felt like, maybe I should pretend to get up and go out the needle at the beginning again.

Kurt, don’t worry about answering that.
I think there will always be inaccuracies with liner notes.

I think that is why sight reading is on your list (should be on mine too, it’s ok soon.).
Also why ear training is probably on your list (like the kind Linda can hear)

So you can rebuild the song to share with others. That’s pretty awesome.

Wikipedia is handy with the details, they rely on massively distributed truth authentication. But whose truth?

Wow! Capt Mark updates sound like song lyrics sometimes.
GW is awesome!
Kurt

Beautiful journey! You can write a few great songs!

Tomo

Whoa super cool Capt Mark!

Wondering if you can include some color from the water and land from those place you’re visiting in your next GW videos?

I always remember flying into Kauai and Kerala as a kid. Color of the water and vegetation were the same — gazillion shades of blue and green!

Also, there’s a good interview out there by Rick beato with Billy strings…he said he “get(s) tired of hearing my own sh!t”
Haha, I think that’s why we’re all here man. Same.

Sounds fantastic, Mark. Nice update!

I love Jimmy! Thanks so much Jeff.
I didn't know about this album.
He made a lot of recordings, starting in 1947 all the way up until he died in 1997.
Kurt

Duuuuude.
Felt this deeply. For real.

I keep thinking nothing is the constant stage of change.

Probably the same thing.
Haha.

Damn - that was strong.

Got goosebumps from that one.

Yes! Nice one Tomo!
We are lucky this was even recorded.
This is amazing debut of Robben Ford's family Blues band. Inspired by Butterfield and Bloomfield.
They named their band after their father, Charlie, who was a Country musician who went by the name of "Rocky Ford".
Kurt
The Charles Ford Band
*Robben Ford - Guitar, Vocals, Piano
*Mark Ford - Harmonica
*Patrick Ford - Drums
*Stanley Poplin - Bass

Patrick Ford recalled that album:
I think what made The Charles Ford Band unique was that we were four young white boys, (I was the oldest at 21 and Mark was the youngest at only 16), from a small town in Northern California, who just didn't know any better.

We came at this newly found blues music with an unbridled zeal and enthusiasm that was not affected by the usual restraints of what a blues band "should" be or should sound like.

The Charles Ford Band actually existed for less than a year and about four months after the band had broken up, Chris Strachwitz set up the sessions. I was back on the road with Charlie Musselwhite, Robben and Stan were working together, and Mark had dropped out of the scene. However, we all agreed that it would be a good idea to record something of the band.

With no rehearsal, and with both time and budgetary constraints, we went into a funky 8-track studio in San Francisco and cut the tracks in two quick sessions. Most were recorded in one take, "live," with no touchups. The Promise was recorded at In Your Ear in Palo Alto, Ca. on a home two-track machine and reveals a bit of the energy and enthusiasm that was the Charles Ford Band.
by Patrick Ford, 1991

Holy cow - that's a 16yo on harmonica!

Oh yeah, that's good.

My pleaure Kurt! This was one of my favorite albums from Robben Ford!
Another great example of "Dry Tone"

Tomo

Right on Jeffery.
I think I can hear those notes man.
Pretty beautiful.

Thank you Jeff! Those records are so great! Please enjoy!

Tomo

Yeah Tomo! This is important!
So much to explore and enjoy with Earl.
Like Bloomfield he didn't need to be in open tuning to play his slide.
Kurt

Incredible

Thank you Kurt! This guy..... very important for blues phrasing! Mike Bloomfield is so amazing too! He knew blues guitar so well!

Tomo

whoa! just heard a later version on
Talk to Your Daughter (1987),
Robben Ford today.

I didn't know it was from BB!

So cool!

Classic! Thank you Jeff!

Tomo

Thank you Jeff!
That's a new name!
I will look into Charlie Singleton.

Thanks Andy.That is awesome footage. Sam and Dave are amazing.
Sorry "The Colonel "passed away.
I'm lucky and got to see Steve once.
I know him mainly from my Otis Redding records.
And Booker T Christmas album :-)
I REALLY love Steve on this killer version of Soul Man.
Kurt

Thanks Andy.
Steve Cropper.

I went to my local jam night last night...

(actually got up and played!! it was awesome...i think i get it enough to practice the simplest exercises...felt that up there as my mind blanked haha. not as dramatic as i thought...haha...felt good...they're all bunny slopes man :))

...and the local band singer kept mentioning Steve Cropper. Big dude, long hair and goatee, such a funny guy, really cool.

Singer has an amazing voice, they played some classic rock...funny watching such big dudes hit the high notes...i think it was "take it to the limit"...there were more than a few Steve Cropper songs...when I closed my eyes though, i heard the spirit if those songs man.

Steve Cropper,
I never heard of him.
But I heard him all the time.
Haha.

Early childhood memories of trying to figure out America watching bandstand and the Soooooooooultrain on saturday afternoons, I remember hearing "sitting on the dock of the bay" in our country squire woody station wagon (that thing has a v8 lol), blue brothers as a teen, all the classic rock as i grew up...

Amazing how someone I didn't know influenced my life in such a beautiful way.

Here's to a life well spent.

Gotta pick up my guitar now, with joy.

Love that album too Jeff!
Three different individuals with their own awesome sound!
Pops Staples had a tremolo pedal if the amp available to him didn't!

Kurt
Sam Cooke’s guitarist Leroy Crume recalled: “When Pops came on the scene, he brought this little gadget you put on an amplifier—at the time they weren’t making amps with tremolos … People used to call it ‘Pop Staples and his nervous guitar.’” The effect was most likely a DeArmond 601 Tremolo unit, which became available in 1948."

I used a Strymon "Mobius" pedal on "Rotary" using the preset called "Slow Churn".
I also have a Boss Tremolo TR-2 pedal., a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp and a Boss Katana Mk-II amp head for some nervous Pops shake :-)

Kurt