Side Roads Sounds Project

10/15/2023

I thought that I needed a lap steel (more affordable and portable for my wallet and my bad back and space-saving for my small living space!), but NOW I need THIS instrument! 🙂 🎶 (Maybe the smaller version of this instrument for me! Ha! That's right I've officially added it to my wishlist, right after: a John Petrucci 7-string guitar, hang drum, lap steel, hammered dulcimer, clarinet, violin and alto sax! 😃 Seriously. So, if anyone would care to donate an instrument to my musical bucket wishlist, I'm all in and I'm all ears! (Sorry, couldn't resist that one! 👂👂 😄)

Check out this video! Cool instrument, awesome artist, cool rendition of the song...

新年快樂！在此剛入手的多聲箏給大家帶來一首年味十足(。的前衛樂曲Playing God！ 之前發了一條博徵集大家想聽的翻奏，我敏銳地發現了幾位有識之士提到了Playing God。諸位仙品！Polyphia是我非常喜歡的前衛樂隊，但是他...

09/25/2023

Born in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Emily Remler (September 18, 1957 – May 4, 1990) began guitar at age ten. She listened to pop and rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter. At the Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, she listened to jazz guitarists Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis, Pat Martino, and Joe Pass.

Remler settled in New Orleans, where she played in blues and jazz clubs, working with bands such as Four Play and Little Queenie and the Percolators before beginning her recording career in 1981. She was praised by jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who referred to her as "the new superstar of guitar" and introduced her at the Concord Jazz Festival in 1978.

In a 1982 interview with People magazine, she said: "I may look like a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey, but inside I'm a 50-year-old, heavy-set black man with a big thumb, like Wes Montgomery."

Her first album as a band leader, Firefly, gained positive reviews, as did Take Two and Catwalk. She recorded Together with guitarist Larry Coryell. She participated in the Los Angeles version of Sophisticated Ladies from 1981 to 1982 and toured for several years with Astrud Gilberto. She also made two guitar instruction videos.

In 1985, she won Guitarist of the Year in Down Beat magazine's international poll, and performed in that year's guitar festival at Carnegie Hall. In 1988, she was artist in residence at Duquesne University and the next year received the Distinguished Alumni award from Berklee. Bob Moses, the drummer on Transitions and Catwalk, said, "Emily had that loose, relaxed feel. She swung harder and simpler. She didn't have to let you know that she was a virtuoso in the first five seconds."

Remler married Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander in 1981; the marriage ended in 1984. Thereafter, she had a brief relationship with Coryell following her first divorce.

Her first guitar was her brother's Gibson ES-330. She played a Borys B120 hollow-body electric towards the end of the 1980s. Her acoustic guitars included a 1984 Collectors Series Ovation and a nylon-string Korocusci classical guitar that she used for bossa nova.

When asked how she wanted to be remembered she remarked, "Good compositions, memorable guitar playing and my contributions as a woman in music...but the music is everything, and it has nothing to do with politics or the women's liberation movement."

Remler bore the scars of her longstanding opioid use disorder, which is believed to have contributed to her death. In May, 1990, she died of heart failure at the age of 32 at the Connells Point home of musician Ed Gaston, while on tour in Australia.

Remler is buried in Block 4, Row 2, Grave 18 (Section 2, Field of Ephron) at New Montefiore Cemetery, New York.

The album Just Friends: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler, Volume 1 (Justice Records JR #0502-2) was released in 1990, and Volume 2 (JR #0503-2) followed in 1991. Performers from these two albums included guitarists Herb Ellis, Leni Stern, Marty Ashby, and Steve Masakowski; bassists Eddie Gómez, Lincoln Goines, and Steve Bailey; drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith; pianists Bill O'Connell and David Benoit; and saxophonist Nelson Rangell, among others.

David Benoit wrote the song "6-String Poet", from his album Inner Motion (GRP, 1990), as a tribute to Remler.

The 1995 book Madame Jazz: Contemporary Women Instrumentalists by Leslie Gourse includes a posthumous chapter on Remler, based on interviews conducted while she was alive.

In 2002, West Coast guitarist Skip Heller recorded with his quartet a song called "Emily Remler" in her memory, released as track #5 on his record Homegoing (Innova Recordings).

Jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey's 2010 album A New Promise was a tribute to Emily Remler. Aged 18, Bailey first saw Remler perform, at the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in 1984 - she was inspired to take her own guitar studies. Bailey said "She paved the way for me. ... I really wanted to hear Emily's person in me when I played. It meant a lot to me to do this tribute and pay homage to her and to say thank you." On the album, Bailey collaborated with Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra and producer Marty Ashby on eight tracks, including three composed by Remler ("East to Wes", "Mocha Spice", and "Carenia").

Source: Wikipedia

09/14/2023

🔴 SEPTEMBER 13 1969
John Lennon & Yoko Ono flew to Canada to perform at the Rock & Roll Revival Show in Toronto, Canada. The band members Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White were put together so late that they had to rehearse on the plane from England. Also making an appearance at the concert were Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Bo Diddley, The Doors and Alice Cooper. Lennon later released his performance as the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album

09/14/2023

A pioneer...

🔴 SEPTEMBER 13 1982
After co-producing her previous release, Never For Ever, British singer-songwriter Kate Bush returns as sole producer with The Dreaming.
Bush - who first broke into the UK charts at #1 with her debut single, "Wuthering Heights," in 1978 - unleashes her unfettered creativity on the album. For her first outing as producer, she "wanted to try and create pictures with the sounds by using effects" by experimenting with different textures and voices, along with blending new technology (notably the new Fairlight CMI digital sampler) and traditional folk instruments.
The lead single, "Sat In Your Lap," features thundering percussion and shrieking vocals that draws comparison to Public Image Ltd.'s post-punk oddity "Flowers Of Romance." In contrast, "Night Of The Swallow" is a folk tune that employs members of the traditional Irish groups Planxty and The Chieftains, who bring uillean pipes, bagpipes and the mandolin-like bouzouki to the arrangement. The title track ditches Ireland for the Outback – with the help of Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo and a bird impersonator making sheep noises, it tells the story of Aboriginal Australians whose homelands were destroyed by uranium-seeking white Aussies.
Critics think the project is too experimental and will likely alienate her fanbase, but The Dreaming still manages a #3 entry on the UK charts. More importantly, it gives Bush the power to seize control over her career - a landmark move for any artist, but even more so for a female in the male-dominated industry. Over time, the album is highly regarded, not only as part of Kate's discography but as part of the pop music canon

09/04/2023

09/04/2023

🔴 THE SONG STEVIE NICKS WROTE TO "HAUNT" LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship was a rollercoaster that gifted the world with some timeless music. Unfortunately, it was ultimately a traumatic and scarring experience for both parties, which prompted Nicks to write a song in order to ” haunt” Lindsey Buckingham.
The two first crossed paths when they were teenagers at College and bonded over their shared love of music. The pair began performing with each other after Buckinham invited her to join his group Fritz. Together, the band supported artists like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix before moving on to pastures new.
With fresh ambition, the pair moved to Los Angeles and soon became romantically involved after forming Buckingham & Nicks. “I loved him before he was a millionaire. We were two kids out of Menlo-Atherton High School,” she later said in a television interview. “I loved him for all the right reasons. We did have a great relationship at first. I loved taking care of him and the house.”
However, that love-in didn’t last forever, and when the call came to join Fleetwood Mac, they were on the verge of splitting up. They decided to put their problems aside to boost their careers, but the couple struggled to remain on the same page, and it didn’t take long for the issues to arise once more.
“We were sailing along on the highest wave. It was OK for a while, until it wasn’t. At the end of 1976, that’s when it just blew up,” Nicks later told Billboard. It all started to fall apart just as they were making their opus, Rumours, and the album depicts the breakdown of their personal lives.
One song that didn’t make the album’s final cut is ‘Silver Springs’, which was replaced on the record’s final cut by ‘I Don’t Want To Know’, much to the frustration of Nicks. On the track, she tries to seek revenge upon Buckingham to haunt her former beau. In ‘Silver Springs’, Nicks sings: “I know I could’ve loved you, but you would not let me, I’ll follow you down ’til the sound of my voice will haunt you”.
“I wrote ‘Silver Springs’ about Lindsey. And we were in Maryland somewhere driving under a freeway sign that said Silver Springs, Maryland,” she once admitted. “And I loved the name…Silver Springs sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me. And ‘You could be my silver springs’, that’s just a whole symbolic thing of what you could have been to me.”
Meanwhile, in a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Nicks revealed she wanted Buckinham to suffer the same pain as her. She said: “It was me realizing that Lindsey was going to haunt me for the rest of my life, and he has.”
The song was eventually released as the B-side for ‘Go Your Own Way’, and even though they are no longer on speaking terms, ‘Silver Springs’ is concrete proof of how much Buckingham meant to Nicks once upon a time.

08/08/2023

Cool tool!

03/20/2023

Hmm-mm...sounds familiar.

Joni Mitchell: I used to call them, not knowing what a sus chord was myself, I called them chords of inquiry. They have a question mark in them. They’re sustained. Men don’t like them because they like resolution, just like they do in life.

Wayne Shorter said to me, “What are these chords? These are not guitar chords and these are not piano chords. What are these chords?” And then he said, “You realize some of them are sus chords.” And he went, “They create suspense. They’re suspensions. They’re unresolved, like a major is a positive statement. A minor is a tragic chord, right? The seventh is a kind of a bluesy chord. But a sus chord has a question mark in it. It lacks resolution.”

So the law, according to Wayne Shorter, who studied music and had a degree from Berklee College of Music, he said, “We were taught to never stay on a sus chord too long. Never ever go from a sus chord to a sus chord.”

I stay on sus chords a long time and go from sus chord to sus chord, and then by building that, because it builds tension, when you drop into a major chord, it’s like the major chord was never more major. It’s like a complementary colour — the sky just opens up.

I don’t really know the neck comprehensively, but as far as composing and finding unusual chordal colours and combinations, my system works for me very well. Except that when it comes to sitting down and playing with someone else and following their music, I’m handicapped in communicating with other musicians. I have to just play it, and they’ll say, “Oh yeah, now she’s going to a C. Here’s she’s going to a such and such.”

Joni Mitchell In Her Own Words by Malka Marom

Photography © Norman Seeff

03/03/2023

02/11/2023

Morrison, born George Ivan Morrison on August 31, 1945, playing in R&B band the Monarchs after leaving school at 15 years old, later starting the legendary group Them, for whom he wrote "Gloria", a song that's been covered umpteen-million times in the rock era by Patti Smith, U2, and the Doors among others. Them disbanded after a 1966 U.S. tour, at which point Morrison launched his solo career with "Brown-Eyed Girl", still his most famous song, and the 1967 album Blowin' Your Mind. Its follow-up, 1968's Astral Weeks, is generally agreed upon as his finest work, jazz-inflected and masterfully performed, even though it didn't generate any hit singles itself. Moondance, which came out in 1970, generated three hit songs: "Into the Mystic", "Caravan", and the title track. His Band and the Street Choir, released that same year, featured "Domino", another of his greatest hits.

Shop: https://www.wolfgangs.com/concert-and-band-photos/van-morrison/fine-art-print/CTR700522-01-24.html

The early '70s was his most productive period, and his releases at that time included Tupelo Honey and It's Too Late to Stop Now. After divorcing wife Janet Planet, his 1974 album Veedon Fleece was another career highlight, released during a five-year span in which he refused to tour due to overwhelming stage fright. In the '80s, Morrison toured to high fan approval and critical praise, and his music during that time took an especially spiritual turn. 1988's Irish Heartbeat was recorded with fellow Irish group the Chieftains, composed mostly of traditional Irish tunes with two Morrison originals (including the title track, which originally appeared on the oft-overlooked 1983 album Inarticulate Speech of the Heart). 1989's Avalon Sunset was a commercial success in the UK, featuring the hit "Whenever God Shines His Light", as well as "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You", which Rod Stewart made a hit a few years later in 1993.

In the '90s, Morrison's career ignited once more and duets with daughter Shana, shared eclectic elegance with jazz pianist and musical raconteur Mose Allison for Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison, and the eternally smooth influences of Ray Charles and Sinatra contributed to his warm, philosophical product. Even into the millennium, Morrison remains active, continuing to record and perform, though he's become notoriously even more crotchety in his older age. 2008's Keep It Simple was his first album composed entirely of originals since Back on Top came out in 1999. He released a new live recording in 2009: Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

01/23/2023

He said he would only sing "Imagine" in dire circumstances. Link in comments below 👇

01/21/2023

01/11/2023

09/15/2022

Despite the glutamate industry’s widely disseminated marketing material, practically every headache clinic in the U.S. lists MSG as a…

09/15/2022

Why is Ajinomoto trying so hard to keep transglutaminase unlabeled?

09/10/2022

There IS a link between glutamate from food additives like MSG, and diseases such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, stroke, autism, schizophrenia, depression, and many more. Please read this exceptional review by Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D. here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2020.1733016

08/21/2022

Awesome.

An arc harp dated to the 19th Dynasty (circa 1295-1186 BCE) of the New Kingdom. It is carved of sycamore wood and has 16 strings, probably resulting in a rich volume and reverberation of sound.

"... Harps were first used in Mesopotamia about 3000 BCE, but when first seen in Egypt in 2500 BCE, their shapes were uniquely Egyptian. Their construction was more complex than that of wind and percussion instruments, and some used more precious materials. King Ahmose had a harp made of ebony, gold, and silver, and Thutmose III commissioned 'a splendid harp wrought with silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, and every splendid costly stone.'"

― Lawergren, Bo, "Music," in Redford, Donald B., ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, New York, USA, pp. 450-454, 2001.

This piece is now in the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig (Basel Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection), Basel, Switzerland.

Photo (edited for size): Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig

08/05/2022

07/28/2022

05/07/2022