The angel of shred

I'm always on the lookout for unknown talent on Youtube. You know, the type that can blow your socks off and make you desperately search for their videos in case you haven't subscribed to their channel or don't remember that you can check your Watch History and see their videos in the list. There are skilled guitar players and then there are phenoms. The former you can discover frequently, whereas the latter takes a bit more searching and discernment. Usually, even if you find technically skilled players who are way above average in their ability with the guitar, you rarely find people that can play a memorable tune with panache.

And so it was a treat (more like a jaw dropper) to discover, some months back, a lovely French girl that plays the guitar with the detachment of a Derek Trucks, but with the same intensity and an amazing mixture of skill and melodic (read rock) sense. Ladies and gentlemen, please check out Juliette Valduriez (http://www.youtube.com/user/JulietteVmusic). Though the last video she posted was around two years ago, and her debut original composition at that, and I wonder, like many of her numerous fans why she has stopped her world-changing work, the 14 videos that she currently has on her channel are testament to the fact that the world needs to welcome a modern day Rock Goddess (Orianthi fans might want to argue, but I'd suggest you check out Juliette's work first, and then compare).

Here's Juliette, lost in the music:

Juliette is all about the old masters: The Stooges, The Cure, Motörhead, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy...everyone's favourite rockers, in short. What's beautiful about this girl's performances are, a) most of her videos clock in at less than 2 minutes, or just barely toeing the 2-minute line, in duration, but they make a solid sonic impact, and b) her embellishments over originals are not only tasteful, they elevate them - check out the cover of Sia's 'Beathe Me'; I, like many others who watched this video, thought that lovely guitar solo was a cover of the one on the original song, only to listen to the original song and discover that it has no guitar solo! Take a couple more examples of flamboyant guitar playing that make the originals shine - guitar covers of The Beatles' 'I want you (She's so heavy)' and Floyd's 'The great gig in the sky'. The latter really moved me with the level of feel achieved in transposing Clare Torry's spine tinglingly-evocative wordless vocals onto six strings.

The number of views that Juliette's videos have received are testament to the appreciation her art has garnered from a rapt audience, as are the adulatory comments for each video. In fact, the best comment, which I still remember long after I read it goes, 'her rock sensibility is off the charts'. I couldn't agree more.

As tasteful as her playing is, equally good is her choice of equipment: a Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker and a Parker Fly guitar, to name two. Juliette's playing is worthy of the calibre of these instruments, and she belts out two of her best performances with each: a terrific, note-perfect "cover" (it's as good as the original) of Ozzy's 'Mr. Crowley' with the Melody Maker, and that rousing rendition of 'The great gig in the sky' with the Parker Fly.

On checking out her YouTube channel while writing this piece, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Juliette has recently added several new original compositions, which I can't wait to check out (yes, I started writing this piece and left it halfway so long ago I couldn't recognize it by title when I logged in to my blog; but the happy coincidence is that by referring to her channel so I could list the classic artists she's covered, I discovered that she's put up some new stuff. Serendipity indeed.).

Well, after some more web research, including checking out an interview she gave, I came to realize that those new compositions referred to above are actually snippets from her debut album, Terrarium (minus the debut single 'Lost Paradise', which remains that, a single, for now).

So don't miss experiencing some classy playing by this promising young French talent. Aural bliss guaranteed.

Over and out!

Spirit of going nowhere...

As I rarely keep track of time, I still am not sure exactly how long I've been playing the guitar. Its been 5 - 6 months now, I guess, and I've been playing the same songs over and over again. Yes, there's improvement, I sense an ease in playing that could only have come from consistent practice. Yet I feel that my present playing belies the callouses on the fingers of my left hand. Discolored patches of cracked skin decorate the tips of my fingers, yet I'm not hearing the tone or fluidity I want to. I don't know if I'm expecting something too soon, most likely I am, for I've read that it may take up to a year for somewhat decent playing of the chords, and if you've practiced the same in this period, scales and arpeggios. My whole regimen of guitar practice has been focussed mostly towards playing my favorite songs to know and practice chords and chord shifts. But now, after months of doing this, I feel jaded...

There's a constant conflict within me as to whether to continue playing the guitar or give it up. I love the co-ordination between my singing and the guitar notes, when they sound right, when I'm playing my songs. But in the absence of any more ambition than being able to play songs, I wonder if I've reached the end of this obsession. The guitar is a beautiful instrument, the notes produced by its strings have a beautiful effect...but all this has to be extracted by the player. Most people that have observed my playing seem to like it, mostly the fact that I've made a good bit of progress on the fuel of my enthusiasm alone. However, there's a lot more to playing guitar than showmanship, and I feel the emptiness flooding me...

What will it be? I give up considering.

Crossroads

Continuing my fascination with music, we focus this time on the Crossroads guitar festival hosted by The Dude on the guitar, Eric Clapton. This festival is a 3-day feast for the aural sense, and if there's anyone who completely disappears into his music, its Clapton, with his fiery blues rock solos that bring old gems to life in a suprisingly vivid manner. One only needs to view the YouTube video of his 'I shot the sheriff' solo to feel the same shivers as the audience must have felt that night when he blazed away on his psychedelically-colored beauty of a Strat as only he could. Of course, people have varied opinions on who's a guitar God and who's not, but I for one would like to stay away from such facetious comparisons. Now on to some scenes from this extravaganza. All you music lovers out there are missing something if you haven't watched this epic music event. Check it out, now.

Many of the guest artists at this festival have performed twice for Crossroads, in 2004 and 2007. These include blues stars like Doyle Bramhall II, Buddy Guy, B. B. King, et al, folk rockers like J. J. Cale & Vince Gill, and even present day stars such as John Mayer (if you look away from his pop-influenced music style, and tune in to his guitar playing, there's a pleasant surprise awaiting you). Clapton has ensured that this is indeed a motley crew, for we have 'The Soggybottom Boys' (the guys who sang that beautiful number, 'I am a man of constant sorrow' for George Clooney in 'O brother, where art thou?'), a blues artist who plays on a 13-stringed pedal steel guitar, from his Church of God days of playing the 'sacred steel' (Robert Randolph, stunning on this exotic-looking instrument). We also have a popular pastmaster that looks as if time has altered his senses somewhat for the worse, playing fluid rock solos and mouthing lines like 'This is for those who never had a song dedicated to them...what about those guys?' (The Eagles' Joe Walsh, as the audience cheers to the intro of 'Funk 49'). Sadly, Clapton himself doesn't quite participate in 2007 as much as he does in 2004, where he accompanies more than half the guests. So though its great to see legends like Buddy Guy with his showmanship intact, and B. B. King with a bawdy and full-spirited rendition of classics like 'Rock me, baby', Eric's presence is missed. The man has soaked himself to his hair ends in the blues, and hows how to mesh blues, jazz, and rock into one guitar solo seamlessly. For fans of this guitar superhero, I'd recommend his 1992 triple Grammy-winner 'Eric Clapton Unplugged', a collection of his famous hits (and those of his influences/idols, including Hendrix and Robert Johnson) in their acoustic version. Remember a sedate Kurt Cobain in a cafe, surrounded by a small rapt audience playing 'Man who sold the world?' Well, that's the spirit of the unplugged performance, and its a treat to watch Clapton go to the soul of the music without the distortion, delay, sustain, and other electric guitar effects that sometimes are used to distract you from an average tune. Clapton's about music and it shows in his performances.

However, this festival is a great place to discover artists you haven't heard of or haven't checked out yet. Take Doyle Bramhall II for instance. Maybe his left-handed playing has something to do with it, but his rendition of 'Rosie' and 'Outside woman blues' is terrific (check out his 'Queen of spades' solo too, it has the right blues pauses and build-up for a terrific blues performance). This guy is obviously steeped in blues traditions, and not every artist can affirm being taught by Stevie Ray Vaughan himself. Then, there's the masters of slide guitaring, Sonny Landreth and Derek Trucks. I hadn't heard of Landreth till I saw Crossroads, but he's perhaps too good for his audience, and a very innovative guitar player (check his Wikipedia entry for more). Derek Trucks, on the other hand, has gained some well-deserved prominence touring with the Allman Brothers band, rechristened Derek And The Dominoes, and playing alongside Clapton on many of his gigs too. Trucks is young and already an accomplished slide guitarist (check out his solo for 'Desdemona'). Here, he plays with wife Susan Tedeschi in her performance of 'Little by little'. Tedeschi is easy on the eyes as well as the ears, being a good example of another male fantasy, The Sexy Female Guitarist, as well has having rough-edged Janis Joplinesque vocals (her fans have always pointed this out), and the combination of Trucks' powerful and precise slide playing and Tedeschi's soaring voice is heady. We'd like to see more of the power couple in days to come.

This festival transports you back to a time when music was for it's own sake, and an artist merely an interpreter. I'm glad that today's easy means of promotion and distibution in virtual form was non-existent in those days, so people, the artists as well as the audience, maintained their focus on the only thing that really matters: music.

Clapton began Crossroads as a rehabilitation centre, and this festival is an extension of his humanitarian efforts, as the proceeds thereof go to the inmates at this center. Looking at Clapton and all the other greats, one feels a sense of impermanence, as if with the passing away of these greats, music as we love it is gone for good, and all we'll retain is CDs, DVDs, and media files of anthologies that are the only voice remaining of a great and inimitable past.

A new sound

Been listening to John Petrucci for a short while now. Been listening to his solo album, 'Suspended Animation', specifically. I keep playing 'Glasgow Kiss' in my mind again and again through the day, and its a melodic 7:48 minutes of bliss. The live performance of the song at G3 heightens the intensity, seeing John actually playing it. An Ibanez looks beautiful in his hands, specially the prototype with the Picasso-like color pattern that he used in his earlier days. He's the latest addition to my 'Fave Axemen' list that includes Gilmour, Knopfler, Satriani, Buckingham, Clapton, Page, Trucks...the list goes on. I started trying to play the guitar (the beauty above) about three months ago. I've learned some basic chords now, and I can play along to a few songs, though I need to refer to the lyrics and chords...trying to learn by ear, and its possible though guessing the right chords once doesn't mean you'll remember it automatically next time. As always, practise, practise, practise...

Its not easy to translate desire into action, and the guitar, especially the nylon-stringed classical that I borrowed from an ex-flatmate, can be really frustrating. But motivation is a strange thing, in that you can generate it anytime you want in any situation, if you believe in something without bothering about its feasibility. Many a times, I feel like putting the guitar away, and not think about playing it anymore. But I guess there's something beyond mere rationality that's spurring me, and part of it is the sound of this instrument.

Some may not think its a good idea for a beginner to pick up a classical rather than an acoustic, but the rationale (again, that anomalous word) behind it was that I should adapt myself to playing on a fretboard that seems magnified in height and width as compared to an acoustic, with enough gaps between the frets to make my fingers groan in unnatural stretches. This is supposed to make my fingers tough and flexible, and if I can consistently get clear sound from slippery nylon strings, the steel of an acoustic wouldn't bother me, nor would its smaller and more compact fretboard. I accepted this, but another reason for me to continue learning on a classical is the beautiful notes that emanate from its sound hole whenever you pluck or strum. The sound feels like the equivalent of playing a classical grand piano as compared to playing an electronic keyboard; there's something pure in it, something that engages you beyond the irritating sound of a chord not played correctly, or a wrong string plucked, or just a whining ringing instead of fluid strumming when you listen to your recorded playback.

Then the difference in sound when you strum with your thumb, your index finger, and a pic. So far, I feel more of a connection with the instrument when I fingerstyle. When you strum or pluck with your thumb, you get the most subtle sound from the guitar, and you get a good equivalent of the sound from playing with a pic when you use your index finger. When you use a pic, its more challenging. Due to not mastering the nylon strings yet, or managing chord-shifts well enough yet, my shortcomings are emphasized clearly in the background dissonance. Practice can get discouraging if you have to struggle too long and too hard to get rhythm. However, the results, and there will always be results if you really are keen on learning, are more than worth the efforts. As suggested in an ebook, one way of gaining a sub-conscious feel of the frets and change chords on time is to get a metronome and force yourself to play chords in sync with its beat. While not planning to purchase any equipment anytime soon, the simple act of understanding the feel of the guitar and making your playing more comfortable by making small changes in hand and finger positions, posture, experimenting with different strumming patterns, trying out different picks, all these beginner activities do bring a measure of satisfaction...

It requires a consistent flow of effort, energy, and commitment to get even a small degree of fluidity. I cool my frustrations with my playing by listening to the greats above, and every time, there's a fresh energy and intensity that I sense in their playing that encourages me to pick up my classical again. And I know this, even if I never learn how to play the guitar properly, I will always love the sound...

Echoes 2

Listening to Floyd again. As usual, its eerily beautiful. Roger Waters is in his element in 'Careful with that axe, Eugene!' as he screams, whispers, and emits animal cries to the accompaniment of dreamy music. 'A saucerful of secrets' is very 'Space Floyd', with an other-worldly composition, and Gilmour's wordless singing adding the final touch. Then comes the mad energy of 'One of these days', followed by the mystic litany of 'Set the controls for the heart of the sun'. Roger again shines in 'Set the controls...' with his understated vocals and the trippy lyrics taking you to a different dimension. This is followed by the wierdest song in the album, 'Mademoiselle Nobs', where Floyd's eccentricity reaches a zenith. In this song, Gilmour creates some Picasso-like music on the harmonica, followed by a dog/bitch (of the same breed as 'Lassie') howling in an apparent effort at singing into a mic held to its mouth by Wright. The animal seems to be in as much solemn mood as Floyd in its urge to add to the '...Pompeii' atmosphere. Of course, nothing rivals the opening credits of the album, a blank screen, with two very intimate sounds, breathing and heartbeats, following each other in a natural rhythm for 3 - 4 minutes, taking you inside yourself, to the core of life, before you blast into outer space in the shuttle taking off from the space center (the immediate next scene).

One senses a kind of other-worldly spirituality in Floyd’s music of the ‘…Pompeii’ time, like they are worshipping some pagan God with pagan music. Listen to ‘A saucerful of secrets’ if you wish to understand what I mean. Their music sometimes reminds me of religious chanting, each syllable in the chant expressing things better than any words will. You wouldn’t be remiss if you were caught swaying in a trance to Floyd’s music. In fact, when I saw the video of ‘One of these days’ on YouTube, I saw a comment posted underneath, saying, ‘This is the world’s first death metal song!’ Of course, I’ve yet to verify this, but I was pretty shocked when I read that. Take that for progressive!

‘One of these days’ has Nick Mason going into a demonic momentum with the drums, a precision that seems more machine-like than human. The music can only be described in two words: ‘Spaced Out’. The climax of the song is of course, the demonic voice screaming inside Nick Mason’s head, ‘One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces!’ For a moment, you expect to see pieces of your body neatly arranged next to you.

It was always dark in Pompeii due to the heavy clouds and the ground was dark with volcanic ash, but the darkest thing of all was Pink Floyd’s music.

Just read an iMDB comment stating, 'Pink Floyd were The Beatles of the 70s'. Not sure how Beatles fans would feel about that, but I fully agree. They are certainly among the greatest rock bands of all time. This, by the way, is a great opinion piece on the '10 best rock bands ever': www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4595384/

Don't miss 'Live at Pompeii'. Now set the controls for the heart of the sun!

Echoes

My favorite Pink Floyd song. I haven't heard a song with deeper atmosphere. Right from the mystic sounds at the beginning to the crescendo building up before the surreal lyrics sung by Gilmour and Wright, the song takes you down a certain valley beyond which there's another world quite alien from ours. This is space, and the Floyd are taking you on a trip to the unknown, filled with its strangeness and mystery, captured so well in the outer space sounds that form the beginning of 'Echoes 2'.

However, one cannot make this trip completely without joining the spaced out musicians at the sulphur spring-filled ruins of Pompeii. The video takes you on a journey into their mind, into 'coral caves' and 'labyrinths' filled with psychedelic light, where they are both, the albatross hanging motionless in the air, as well as the deep sea creatures that cannot rise above the coral caves and labyrinths, creatures that cannot 'move towards the light'.

The second verse shows an inclination towards the 'we're all one' philosophy, and so the stranger passing you on the street is you, though not your mirror image. You want to guide this person through your world, and in doing so, you want to 'understand the best you can' about yourself.

Floyd were called an acid band when they started out, and they acknowledge this 'distinction' wryly in the candid face-to-face they have with the director in this movie. David Gilmour, then an almost femininely good-looking youth, smiles dreamily at the camera and says, very casually, 'We've this image of being an acid band, and that that's the main influence of our music (I'm not quoting verbatim here, so those who've seen the movie, please don't rush to correct me), but we're not.' Then some more of the charming smile, and 'You can trust us.' This sounds so much like an ingenue playing her part to perfection that you admire it even as you want to laugh at the impishness in his eyes. And then you observe all these characters, so completely relaxed, sitting in a deli, ordering a typical English breakfast of ham, eggs, bacon, and whatnot, talking about their music, trends in the music industry, the rifts and patch-ups that have defined their relationship all these years, and you wonder if its possible that they are just regular people deep down, like you and me, and that the thing that sets them apart is their unequivocal dedication to their craft. Truly, when you've a purpose that defines your life, you need little else...

People have criticized Pink Floyd for going 'commercial' over the years, of stepping down to conventionality, of being like 'any other rock band'. It is to Pink Floyd's credit that their sound remains unique and original down to their last album, 'The Division Bell'. All their live tours have been tremendous successes, even though David Gilmour's voice acquires a tinge of exhaustion by 'The Delicate Sound Of Thunder'. But his trademark guitar solos remain the high point of all their concerts and even his live efforts. One has to see the video of 'On an island', the title track of his solo album by the same name, to know what I mean. And who can forget 'Marooned'? I think of it as my 'requiem' song; when I die, I want to be on an island filled with scenery and completely uninhabited, with the night just beginning to set, stars shining brightly in the sky and 'Marooned' (and all the best of Floyd) playing in a rich surround effect from the skies...

Bands may come and go, the tastes of generations in music may change over decades, but old-timers like Floyd will aways remain a standard to look up to, an inspiration. I do wish they had retained the madness of 'live at Pompeii' though, and I'd love to hear a present day version of 'I'm going to cut you into little pieces!'

The title of this blog is...

...from one of the most successful albums of Travis, my favorite alternative rock band. I love music, and this blog is an expression of this love.

Read on, fellow music lover...