Portable Didgideroo Imported From Japan

This is my new digideroo, Digzy. She just came home today.

I'm impressed by the seller.

Now to watch and try learning a ton of Youtube video on learning to play. 

The didgideroo is a truly ancient instrument in its original form. The Alpine horn is very similar and also ancient.

These instruments possess a strong meditative quality when played well.

Wish me luck.

Dan

12-Bar Blues Riff I'm Learning...

I'm trying to get this down, and Rosie is cooperating a lot better than my fingers! Lol.

I plan on working on this for the next month or so - and it'll be a bit different than in the vid, because I naturally strum with my right thumb instead of picking. I've got one heck of a callus on the left corner of my right thumb, and it's only getting more so. I also tend to grow out the left corner of that thumbnail so that I can pick with it when I need to.

Here's the lesson:



And here is Rosie with my little First Act MA-104 4-watt practice amp:

I'm Really Enjoying The New Theme...

I love the blues, so the new theme I just finished here on 66 Sax is hitting me just right.

I love the starfield background, and I've tweaked the fonts and colors to go with a "blues night club" kind of feel.

In that spirit, here's a really classic blues number from the year I was born in, 1962. I only discovered this amazing artist this past month, which really shocks me. I give you the amazing Barbara Lynn, who was so far ahead of her time:

Some Sweet Old Soul-Blues Fusion:



I first heard this song last year, but had no idea who sang it. I listen to a lot of blues and soul on Sirius XM radio. Love those sounds.

I heard this again just yesterday, and got the chance to look it up on Google. It turns out to be a very rare bird indeed - Ms. Barbara Lynn, who was a female lead vocalist and lead guitarist, and songwriter in the 1960's.

I love this song. To me, Barbara Lynn's voice is as smooth as butter half-an-hour out of the 'fridge. I want to practice a baritone version of this song and sing it for karaoke.

For now, let's just enjoy some righteous ear candy.

Dan

Made-In-Mexico Vs. USA Standard Stratocaster

Phillip, I want to thank you for this vid. I bought a MIM Strat a few years ago because it was what I could afford. I absolutely love my little red "Rosalita". (Yeah, I named my guitar after the gal in the Springsteen song)



Rosy cost me $350 with a stand, hard case, Crate 25W amp, cable, tuner, picks, and extra set of strings included. While I want to support American labor, I work for a living, and I just couldn't shell out the 2 grand that all the US gear would've cost me.

Rosie plays like a dream, and in a kind of mystical fashion, holds her tune for a year at a time. I'm serious, I can check her with the tuner and she never budges except for a tiny tweak on the 2nd string once in awhile. I'm using Fender Super Bullet strings and have never used a whammy bar with this guitar, even though I have it.

Hats off to those guitar makers in - I believe - Esmerelda, Mexico, because they allowed me to get a guitar I could only have dreamed of otherwise. It even makes me feel better knowing that many of them play guitar as well. Now, if only I could play as good as the guitar I love! I have a lifetime to work on that.

FYI, I did spring for a Roland Cube 40XL amp a little later, and that thing is fantastic.

Most evenings, I just use a little 4-Watt MA-104 from Toy-R-Us for simple practice, however.

 It's nothing to carry and keeps my fingers on the strings. The thing is the size of a hardcover book. I can run that in my garage at 2am and bother not a soul.

This newly discovered 1,100-year-old song reshapes what we know about European music

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/this-newly-discovered-1100-year-old-song-reshapes-what-we-know-about-european-music/

What did ancient Babylonian songs sound like? Something like this

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/what-did-ancient-babylonian-songs-sound-like-something-like-this/

Jimmy And The Bones (Lyrics)

(MP3 Audio)

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

So they went out Halloween night,
Trickin' all the candy in sight.

Jimmy found a pretty little witch,
To pick up every stitch.

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

She gave her wand a flick,
Flew him home on his broomstick.

She put him in her pot,
But the spell got too hot.

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

Jimmy and The Bones,
Had a Halloween candy jones.

Daddy Warlock got off the first shot,
They buried Jimmy in a backwoods plot.

Now Jimmy is the bones,
No more Halloween candy jones.

Now Jimmy is the bones,
No more Halloween candy jones.

Now every Halloween night,
That witch won't take flight.

She stands over a patch in the backwood,
Crying over nothing good.

Now Jimmy is the bones,
No more Halloween candy jones.

Now Jimmy is the bones,
No more Halloween candy jones.

© 10/28/2014 

Daniel A. Stafford

On Watching Sonic Highways Reminisce on The D.C. Punk Scene Tonight...

I loved that "DIY and if you love it, go with it" ethos. It reminds me of Madison, WI on so many levels. Being that near such a big university, there was never anything I thought I couldn't do.

Ok, maybe I'm never going to be good enough to play a 5k crowd, let alone 50k, but who gives a shit? If you love it, you do it what you can, when you can, how you can. You be creative and wild and woolly and just go with it.

I'm not great at music. But I love it. I can make some horrible noise and some OK noise. I can do my own album art. I can record stuff on a laptop and make CD's if I feel like it.

One of my best friends in high school exemplifies that. He embraces weird, funky, and comedic with a sheer determination and subterranean genius that no ine can deny after they dig in and listen. (Art Paul, that's you.)

So I loved tonight's Sonic Highways for its spirit.

Rock on,

Dan