John Martyn: We Couldn't Love You More.

You will be missed.

I am incredibly thankful that I was introduced to the music of John Martyn. Music producer Jim Tullio introduced me to his music, and, to my bottomless gratitude, the man himself.

I was in Jim's studio late one night back in high school (a good friend had an internship with Jim and I was merely tagging along, trying to soak up some knowledge) and the phone rang. Jim talked to whomever was on the line for a minute and then said into the phone, "Hang on, there's someone here that wants to talk to you," and then he handed the phone to me. Perpelexed, i took the phone and was greeted by the deep and gregarious Scottish burr of John Martyn himself. I can't remember what I said- probably nothing of much import. But the moment was thrilling- I was talking to John Martyn! All the way from London! (Or somewhere)!

Thank you Jim, for the literally once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And John, I think I can speak for myself, Dave and Bobby when I say: thank you for the music, every glorious note of it.



(Sorry, but the really good performance of this tune on YouTube has embedding disabled.)

Semi-Finalist in Mike Pinder's Songwars

Tom Browning Is My Guitar Hero

If you're anything like me, you have an insatiable appetite for information. This has led me to follow, oh, about 200 blogs in my Google Reader. A couple of those blogs follow the music scene in Louisville, KY, my hometown. Even though I recognize very few of the bands and venues these days, every once in a while something will pop up that sends me careening down memory lane.

Well, this morning, I happened across this post on "Backseat Sandbar," about the 'ville's very own "Merry Pranksters" band. They've been playing a Sunday gig every week for TWENTY TWO years, a truly epic accomplishment.

But what really caught my eye is the gentleman at the far left of the photo above. His name is Tom Browning, and he taught me how to play the guitar (or, in his defense, perhaps I should say he did everything he could to teach me how to play the guitar!). I guess I was about 14 or 15 when I first began taking lessons from Tom, in the unbelievably tiny back room of the music store where he worked (man, I wish I could remember the name of that music store).

I think Tom gave up pretty quickly teaching me the fundamentals of music- chords, notes, scales and such, because my method of learning guitar was to bring in a (cassette tape of a) song I wanted to learn (usually something a beginner had absolutely no business attempting, like the multiple, entwined guitar lines of "The Song Remains The Same"). Then, I would sit back and watch Tom listen to the tune once, twang a string or two, hit "stop" on the cassette player, and then proceed to play the holy shit out of the tune. No matter what the tune was, he could play it.

Perhaps more amazing, when Tom played his acoustic guitar, it seemed like he could make it sound like anything. If he was chugging through a meaty Zeppelin riff, the guitar sounded thick and heavy, almost electrified. If he was playing a flamenco passage (I remember wanting to learn The Doors' "Spanish Caravan") his beat-up acoustic sounded for all the world like the classical guitar of a flamenco master. To this day I can hear Tom in my mind, playing that descending Fender Rhodes line from "Riders On The Storm." (for some reason, I was always trying to learn songs with little to no guitar in them. See Hubbard, Freddie, below for confirmation of this pattern) Anyways, somehow, when Tom played it, his acoustic chimed and rang out like he was tickling the ivories on a vintage electric piano. I swear I could even hear the Leslie speaker.

My lessons with Tom only lasted for a year or so. Soon I would leave Kentucky for the bright lights of big city Chicago. But Tom, to you I offer my most sincere and heartfelt thanks for helping me discover and nurture what has become a lifelong love of music...even though I still can't play "The Song Remains The Same."

This aint no obit: Keep rockin' Tom!

The Wedding Singer

No, I'm not sad- I'm concentrating!

I was saying the other day that there are few things in life more gratifying for a musician than to have someone else learn/play one's songs. One of those "few things" is being asked to play in the wedding of one's dear, dear friends. A couple summers ago, I was asked to compose and play a tune in a beautiful, beachfront wedding (perhaps I'll share that tune in the future) and just this past summer, Dave and Lauren asked me to play the James Taylor chestnut, "Something In The Way She Moves" at their absolutely incredible wedding in France. Needless to say, I had a blast learning and playing the tune...and traveling to France to perform it in the wedding!

What Dave and Lo didn't know until very recently was that Lo's uncle was putting together a wedding video, and that I had recorded the tune in the studio for that very purpose (with thanks, once again, to Steve Shirk at Shirk Music!). I recorded this the same day I recorded "Oh It's Festival Time!" Not bad for four hours' work.

I will admit, it was hard keeping it a secret. Usually, Dave is one of the first people that hears my recorded work (Bob is usually right there in the studio with me). But in this case, I had to bide my time, and now that the wedding video has been wrapped, I can share with you my version of "Something In The Way She Moves." I hope you like it.

To download, right-click and 'Save Target As' (Internet Explorer) or 'Save Link As' (Firefox): Something In The Way She Moves

There's A First Time For Everything...

...in this case, it's the first-ever Waystation-related Facebook status update:

Doug is a long-time friend, fan, guitar hero and Soundboard Master, and I was happy to honor his request for some pointers regarding how to play our tune "Atlas." Really, there are few things more gratifying and flattering to a musician than to have someone want to learn their tune.

Now, I suppose a "real" musician might have responded to Doug's request with sheet music. That's not my style (or part of my skill-set) so I made this video instead:



Any other requests?

I'll Probably Regret This...

...what am I saying? No I won't. Having friends and fans on Facebook is awesome- they have all the best, and worst, photos. Thanks Carrie!

Custom

Reading about the new Eddie Van Halen custom geetar got me wondering: other than a secret JBC compartment, what features might your dream guitar have, Dave? Bob? What would you call your custom "axe?" (Gah, I hate that term.)

Mine, of course, would have little lights on the neck which would allow me to play solos- and this is totally unprecedented- outside the usual pentatonic scale. A man can dream.