Two days, Santana successfully performed in front of fans of all ages, in a jazz concert of 2011. "Remarkable Indonesia, Harmony One Nation Under" became the theme of the annual jazz concert, held at Jakarta International Expo, Kemayoran, Jakarta.

Friday through Saturday afternoon, queuing spectators packed the area of Jakarta International Expo, Kemayoran, Jakarta. to watch the inaugural concert of the legendary jazz musician that. Santana one of the main star in the Java Jazz 2011, managed to entertain the masses of various ages and across generations.

In a press conference Friday afternoon (4/3/11), which was brief, Santana, who wore a distinctive white hat and floral dress that reveals her happiness may appear to greet and entertain fans-Pengemar in Indonesia.

The success and satisfaction for the Java Jazz, including Peter F. Gontha the initiators of this jazz festival concert successfully menampilakan Santana, after several delays. Thanks to Santana, the Java Jazz 2011 tickets outside the show organizers predicted, has sold more than 10 thousand pieces per concert. Java Jazz also claim to have created a new record with a total overall tickets sold over 150 thousand shares. Ticket special and separate from daily admission tickets, to see the action stage, the legendary guitarist himself as much as 20 thousand more sold out sold out.

Friday night, 21:00 pm, the inaugural appearance of guitarist born July 20, 1947 a bloody US-Mexico was opened to the accompaniment of national anthem "Indonesia Raya" just a few minutes before Carlos Santana appears above panngung. The audience can not wait to see guitarist showed his guitar a beautiful action game. Message from the applause and screams hysterically for about five thousand spectators felt from the opening until the end of the concert.

The strains of guitar and music performed, such as "Black Magic Woman," "Jingo," "Oye Como Va," "Mary, Mary" and "Smooth", successfully shake up the fans. As usual, every intro song is played, the audience became hysterical. Seen a few among the crowd of spectators who crowded to dance and sing along to music santana. Thunderous applause broke out in every song was finished playing.

After an hour and a half Santana show, the audience still wanted santana play the songs that started it famous since 1966. The audience shouts, "We want more, more, Santana, ..." echoed in the room hall D2 Axis Hall.

Santana concert on the second day, the audience Saturday night was even crazier than the first day. Carlos santana, is scheduled to appear at 22:30 pm, but was delayed for 15 minutes. Outside, the high enthusiasm of the fans seemed to not want to miss one moment to witness the appearance of the musicians adored it.



Above the stage, Santana wearing a brown patterned shirt and wearing a blue striped cowboy hat held up his hands. Greetings and a warm smile thrown in his opening itu.konser this second appearance, a special greeting from santana, a few brief opening words "I dedicate this concert to women, this is for women. Because women who make us happy, enjoy it, "he said. The audience was boisterous and happy can not wait until the Mexican man was holding his guitar and started to warm up.

No less exciting than previous appearances, on the second day Santana appear more terrible and intense. The song "Mary, Mary"became a concert opener, followed by death liukan flowing guitar melody in the middle of pounding drums, bass shreds, and the wail of trumpets, a mainstay santana, for 1.5 hours in entertaining an audience of approximately more than 5000 people packed the hall at second day.

Complacency can be seen from expression Santana audience at the end, they hope Santana will hold a special concert next year.

Guitar hero Joe Satriani shredded his way through a blazing two hour set in New York last night, awing an audience for the second night in a row at the Best Buy Theater.

Despite harrowing, arctic winds that tore through the city streets, fans came out in droves to see the legendary ‘Satch.’ The guitarist is touring behind his newest album, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, and last night’s show demonstrated beyond question that the virtuoso, responsible for instructing players as reknown as Steve Vai and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, is as on top of his game as ever.

From the second Joe hit the stage, the underground Best Buy Theater was turned into a world of screaming guitars and otherworldly effects. Satriani is a master of not only rapid-fire playing, but riding a seemingly endless tone up and down the fretboard, diving with the whammy bar only to soar back up in ear-bursting squeals. Fans closest to the stage stared open-mouthed, simply in awe as they watched his fingers fly almost faster than the eye could follow. Virtually every song was instrumental, but unlike most of his rock contemporaries, Satriani fills every second of music with such original, exciting moments and emotion that there simply isn’t room for vocals even if he wanted.

The musician had great stage presence, never removing his green-tinted sunglasses as he strode about and bobbed his head back and forth, leaning back into the crunch of his backing band’s rhythm. The band, consisting of a drummer, keyboardist, bassist and rhythm guitarist, was tightly locked in with their frontman, blasting through tight beats and stopping on a dime, giving Satriani more than enough audio elbowroom to run wild all over their foundation, sounding as well as looking otherworldy as his guitar effects and arpeggio-filled tapping created a rich sonic tapestry.

The show went on for an impressive two straight hours, including a half dozen tracks from the new record which were received just as well as the classic material. Watch my video of new, ultra-catchy song Premonition on the left side of the page. While guitar noodling can get old after a while, Satriani never faltered, keeping things interesting by demonstrating his absolute mastery of the instrument. He broke out acoustic guitars, a harmonica, and engaged in a duel with his keyboardist, battling back and forth on riffs until the keyboardist was finally unable to match a particularly epic high note bent into an impossibly long, overdriven squeal. Later, Joe played the same game with the crowd, fans doing their best to imitate the guitar licks with their voices, but if one thing was proven last night, it’s that no one or instrument can truly match what Satriani does best.

Charmingly polite in his short stage banter between songs, Joe finally took the microphone to sing on the bluesy Big Bad Moon, letting loose with a smooth singing voice that really deserves to be heard more often. Fans, who were sitting for most of the show, finally rose to their feet, and crowded right up to the stage, hands outstretched as Satriani effortlessly blazed his way across every inch of fretboard. He then encored with fan favorites Crowd Chant and Summer Song, his lightening guitar magic as impressive as it was in the beginning of the concert.

Joe Satriani might not have radio hits or rabid fanclubs like other hard rock artists, but make no mistake: This is one of rock’s greatest players, and one of rock’s greatest writers as well. Words can’t truly relate the magic of witnessing Mr. Satriani in person, and fortunately he seems set to continue writing and touring for a long time to come, both solo as well as his roles in supergroup Chickenfoot and the vaunted G3 tours. But in the meantime, fans can check out plenty of video on Youtube, buy his latest record, and be sure that next time Joe comes to town, they are in the crowd and ready to surf with the alien.

Daniel Johns, lead vocalist and guitarist for Australia’s most popular rock-grunge group, Silverchair, met Ben Gillies (drums) and Chris Joannou (bass) before they were in their teens. By the time they reached 15, the trio made its mark “Down Under” as a major rock group. Today, Silverchair’s reputation is global.

Silverchair’s entry to rock stardom came early when they were 14 years old and headlined as the Innocent Criminals at local shows. Johns, Gillies and Joannou proved worthy when they won an Australian record demo competition with “Tomorrow” that helped land them a three-album record deal with Sony Music. The song sat at the top of the Australian singles charts for six weeks. The group re-recorded the track for U.S. consumption and it became one of the most played songs on U.S. rock stations during the ’90s.

The name Silverchair is a tribute that conjoins bits from the titles of songs by their two major musical influences, Nirvana and Australian alternative rock group You am I. They twisted Nirvana’s track “Sliver” to Silver and grabbed “chair” from You am I’s track “Berlin Chair.”

At the ripe old age of 15 the trio recorded their debut album, Frogstomp, catapaulting the lads’ CD to a number one hit in both Australia and New Zealand. With record sales reaching 2.5 million copies worldwide, Silverchair claimed a hefty fan base and a top ten hit in the U.S. Their reputation won them spots on tours with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blink-182. A second album, Freak Show was released in ’97 with three tracks, “Abuse Me,” “Cemetery,” and “Freak” jettisoning up to the top ten charts in Australia. The album went gold in the States.

Daniels vocals cut deep with lyrics that are sometimes uncomfortably personal. Wading through the trauma of anorexia he helped exorcise those demons by writing more songs for Silverchair’s third album, Neon Ballroom. Listen to the highly regarded “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” and you hear him achingly, painfully yearning to climb out of the wreckage.

And you’re my obsession
I love you to the bones
And Ana wrecks your life
Like an anorexia life

Later, Johns would suffer from the effects of reactive arthritis that was debilitating and proved to be another serious challenge for not only his musical career, but his life.

Released as a video in 1999, “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” was awarded the best video award by the Australian Recording Industry Association.

Daniel moved into producing when recording the group’s fourth album, Diorama. He worked with producer David Bottrill and the legendary Van Dyke Parks who added orchestral arrangements to a couple tracks. Upon release the album hit the Australian charts at the number one slot before going triple platinum.

Setting out briefly with Australian electronica musician Paul Mac, Johns and Mac put out an internet release, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rock EP and later collaborated with his wife, pop artist, Natalie Umbruglia on her album Counting Down the Days.

Silverchair disbanded for a short while so members could pursue their individual interests, then re-formed in 2004 to raise funds in support of the victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami that killed 230,000 people. After the show, the three were reinvigorated and decided to regroup as Silverchair.

In October 2007, Silverchair made Australian music history by adding several new ARIA awards to their band’s accomplishments, giving them a career total of nineteen awards, more than any other Australian artist in history, including AC/DC, Midnight Oil and others. The Newcastle trio’s 2007 awards included Album of the Year for Young Modern, Best Group, Best Rock Album (Young Modern), Single of the Year and Highest Selling Single for “Straight Lines.”

Thal first made a name for himself in the mid-’90s with his wildly creative solo albums and unorthodox techniques, and since 2006 he’s been one of three guitarists in Guns N’ Roses, performing on every track of 2008’s Chinese Democracy and criss-crossing the world with Axl and Co. While on tour with GN’R in Australia, Thal spoke exclusively to Gibson.com about how to make a career out of music.

He says the key is diversity. “You have to be able to multitask and be multi-faceted,” he says. “If you’re just going to be a guitar player that plays in a band, your options are going to be very limited. If you’re going to play in a band, you should also be able to teach what you know. If you record yourself, then record other people as well and get into the studio thing. If you’re taking care of a lot of the business for your band, maybe start doing it for other bands as well and get into that side of things.”

Thal advises being actively aware of the many different ways you can apply your various skills, and the ways they feed into each other. “You need to have as many avenues as you can at once, because while one thing is going slow, another thing is going better, and you put it all together and you can pay your bills,” he says. “Everything you do lends some assistance or makes you better at everything else.”

One of Thal's earliest music-related jobs was as a teacher, and it’s a career path he highly recommends. “I took lessons when I was a kid for a good eight steady years of just weekly lessons, very academic,” he says. “From there I started teaching out of the basement. Then I started teaching at a music store, and then in my early 20s I set up the music department at a private school. I was teaching music for children there, I set up a jazz band, a choir, music history… a whole music program for this private school. Right before that I was teaching at a music institute that a chain of guitar stores in New York had. At some point I worked my way up to teaching music production and guitar at an actual legitimate college in New York State.”

Thal believes that teaching others also can be an invaluable resource for your own playing, vastly increasing your repertoire and forcing you to think about the motives and outcomes of particular musical choices. “What happens is that everything you’re teaching, you’re also learning,” he says. “You’re learning songs that you can teach, so now suddenly you have a great repertoire if you want to join a cover band. Everything helps everything else.”

In fact, Thal says some of his solo tracks would not exist if not for their origins in giving guitar lessons. “Someone wanted to get into Latin chord progressions and I got into the whole I-II-V in harmonic minor thing in certain rhythms, and next thing you know it’s like, ‘Wow, this is a cool thing,’ and I ended up making a song out of it.”

When it comes time to work on a solo project, Thal pulls together all these skills, and as the owner of a professional studio, he’s uniquely placed to take advantage of the many luxuries this brings. “Having my own studio, I can afford studio time, obviously, because it’s my studio, and I can pay the bills of owning the studio by recording other people,” he says. “So by being an engineer, that allows you to record your own albums and gets you into production, and next thing you know, you’re a producer and you’re collaborating with other people that come in. Everything becomes this big web where everything is connected in some way, and the more things you do, the more depth it lends to every other aspect of what you do.”

The skills of deconstruction and adaptation that one develops as a teacher can also blend with studio nous in interesting and unexpected ways, including TV work. Thal explains: “There will be people for some TV show who don’t want to license the real song for something, and they’ll come to me and be like, ‘Can you make me a song that sounds like Mötley Crüe?’ and in five minutes I’ll bust something out in the studio and give it to them, and it’s an original song that's capturing the vibe of some other artist, and that right there, that’s another way that the studio and everything we’re talking about comes into play. And now you also have an income stream from the performance royalties of that piece of music. I did it for a sports team, I did it for some shows that have been on MTV once in a while.”

Thal says session work today is much different to the glory days of the ’70s and ’80s. “I could be wrong but I think reading music is less important now and it’s more about the ears,” he says, adding that producers are more likely to simply e-mail an artist an mp3 and ask them to come up with their own part, rather than provide sheet music or a chord chart. “If it’s a jazz thing they will give you a chart, but if it’s a rock thing they’ll just show you on the spot: ‘Alright, just go E to A and back to E.’ And as far as session playing, you have to be able to lock into a groove and have great timing. You have to have a good memory and be able to recall arrangements, or jot down your own little chart of weird hieroglyphics that only you understand, or you have to be able to read other peoples’ hieroglyphics.”

Across his entire career as a professional guitarist/teacher/songwriter/engineer/producer/composer, Thal has observed a simple set of rules for making yourself employable. “Number one, which will be funny coming from a guitarist in Guns N’ Roses, is don't be late! That was always my cardinal rule for everything,” he says. “In order to be on time you need to be early, then wait in your car for 15 minutes and walk in two minutes before whatever time you’re supposed to be there.

“Two: be someone that people want to work with, want to be in a room with and spend 10 hours with. Be relaxed, be calm, don’t cause the stressful vibe, just be cool and keep your intensity knob down a bit and just roll with things.

“Three: be overly prepared. If you just need to know the guitar part, make sure you know the other guitar part, too, and the vocals, and the bass, and the drum rhythm and where the accents are. Really know the song inside and out. Know more than you need to know, and be so prepared that you can bring more than is asked of you, if asked. Those three things matter the most: be on time, be cool, and be prepared. And that’s for anything.”

Serious fans of heavy metal shredding have had little to complain about this year. Between the numerous package tours featuring the guitar heroics of Megadeth's Chris Broderick, Ozzy Osbourne's Gus G. and countless others, arpeggios and sweeps have been gushing out of amps all summer like BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

But for true connoisseurs of six-string ferocity, the knife fight of the year will take place this autumn when Black Label Society's Zakk Wylde and Children of Bodom's Alexi Laiho face off on the Berzerkus tour package. While Wylde is something of a national treasure, Laiho is still a bit of a cult figure.

Born Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho, the guitarist recorded his first album with Children of Bodom in 1997 in Finland. Since then, he and his Nordic band have released six studio efforts, two live albums and an assortment of EPs and DVDs. Beginning as a death metal unit, Bodom rapidly discovered their own unique voice by mixing and matching elements of Scandinavian black metal, European progressive rock, American thrash and Eighties hair metal into a compelling blend of flat-out aggression, catchy choruses and instrumental virtuosity. Are You Dead Yet?, Blooddrunk and last year's album of cover songs Skeletons in the Closet established them as rising stars in America, and tours with the likes of Megadeth and Lamb of God sealed the deal.

Not surprisingly, Laiho, Bodom's vocalist and guitarist, has been singled out for attention. Looking like a trendy, young vampire, and shredding like a 21st century Randy Rhoads, Alexi mixes bluesy hard rock ferocity with dashes of Western classical harmony that rarely sounds fussy in the way that European metal often can. For example, on "If You Want Peace...Prepare for War" from 2005's Are You Dead Yet?, he takes most of what's good about the past 20 years of hard rock lead playing and condenses it into concise, violent blasts of sonic rock salt.

But as Laiho reveals when we sit down with him to discuss the upcoming Berzerkus tour, he's still growing as a guitarist. "I'm still hungry to play and improve," he says. "I still practice every day. I would never think, Okay, now I'm finally good enough."

Does that mean Laiho is pumped and primed to, er, "Finnish off" Zakk Wylde in the upcoming guitar slugfest?

"Zakk is one of the best, for sure," he says. "Everyone who was involved with Ozzy Osbourne were the guys I looked up to when I was learning to play. Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk were some of my biggest influences. Zakk's playing is just so over-the-top crazy, and he's a great singer, too."

Click here to read the full interview on GuitarWorld.com! 

Eric Clapton was voted the top guitar hero at this week's Guitar Nation Live show in London. The poll was taken at a booth hosted by instrument insurance company Allianz Musical Insurance.

"It's great to see that the U.K. still has a strong rock star tradition," Allianz's Claims Manager Robin Stagg told the press.

Two more U.K. natives, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, also made it into the top 5. The top 5 guitarists in the poll were Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Chuck Berry.

Clapton will have the opportunity to prove that he still deserves the title when he goes on tour in the U.K. next year. Slowhand will play shows in Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff before participating in a six-night residency at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Steve Vai Guitar Techniques provides an unprecedented opportunity for musicians from across the globe to take an "under the hood" look at the work of one of music's most influential guitarists, learn the secrets behind Steve's unique playing style, and incorporate Steve's techniques into their own playing. The Steve Vai Guitar Techniques online course builds upon the guitar curriculum that Berklee has been providing to students for decades. "What's fascinating to me is that the barriers to learning music directly from recognized experts - whether it's myself or the rest of Berklee's renowned guitar faculty - no longer exist with online music education," said Vai. "I'm intimately involved in creating this course, from the crafting of the lesson content, to providing hours of never-before-seen video, and even a dedicated live chat between myself and the online students. This truly is an evolution in the way to teach and learn guitar."

The program showcases an in-depth look at Steve's approach to the guitar through a 12-week online course which begins January 10, 2011. You can enroll in the program starting today & view an exclusive sneak peek lesson here!

The EMG crew has returned from The Black Label Bunker where we showed Zakk Wylde your amazing videos and our top 5 for him to choose from.  We are pleased to announce the grand prize winner, Preston Black of Alabama!  Congratulations to Preston and thank you all for the great videos, it was real tough narrowing them down to five.  Everyone who entered received a special limited edition Zakk Wylde Shred Challenge t-shirt. Check out the video of Zakk at The Bunker choosing the winner.

Yesterday, two of metal music's absolute giants, Rob Halford and Ozzy Osbourne, visited the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The ACC was packed with festive metal heads from all over Ontario. Every age group was represented, both those who have been there from the beginning, head banging to the early Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, and the younger kids, who probably just know about Mr. Osbourne from his MTV reality show, "The Osbournes." In any case, the hordes of heavy dudes and gals were in for one spectacular experience.
Halford's performance The audience at the ACC received Halford as the metal god that he is – cheering till their lungs were about to burst. The first few rows, kicked their chairs to the side, enabling them to stand up and head bang properly to Halford's pumping metal tunes. Right from the get go, old school full throttle heavy metal filled the ACC, energizing everyone from the front rows to those in the back, sitting just underneath the roof.
If anyone should be in doubt, Halford has been at the centre of heavy metal for about four decades. This was cemented in the second song on the evening's set-list, the one-song Halford biography “Made In Hell.” The crowd grew even more excited and the cheering turned into an inferno of metal roars. Rob continued with “Locked And Loaded.”

Old school heavy metal dudes wear their leather jacket with pride and so did Halford yesterday. However, he had to let go of it just before presenting his latest album “Made Of Metal,” due to the increasing temperature at the ACC. The album is in stores now and the title track is as head bang friendly as anything Mr. Halford has ever laid his hands on – and the crowd loved it.

Throughout Halford's set, you could definitely feel the love – thousands of metal heads' love for heavy metal music. At the end of his set, Halford articulated the atmosphere, “we love you metal heads. Thanks for keeping the metal faith.” The love was clearly mutual, as the fans reached out for their metal god, head banged and sang along throughout the entire show. All in all, an awesome show. Four decades of experience truly does make a difference. Make sure to check out Halford next time he's in town!



Ozzy Osbourne's performance
The Ozzy concert was kicked off with a brief and humorous film montage with Ozzy in key roles in popular movies and TV shows, such as “Avatar,” “Jersey Shore,” “The Hangover,” “Twilight” and (of course) “Iron Man.” In one of the most well received film clips, Ozzy, in the role as a street wise punk, got whipped verbally by Snooki from Jersey Shore, after telling her to “shut the fuck up.” Another clip  also spiked wide spread cheering. After opening his coat and flashing Bella Swan from the Twilight series, Ozzy told her, “fuck vampires, I'm the prince of darkness.”
The film montage served as a great appetizer for what the audience at the ACC had in store. Ozzy came running on stage and set the score right from the get-go: “the crazier you'll go tonight, the longer we play. Let the madness begin!” And so it did.

Ozzy himself added to the madness with non-stop jumping and running around on stage. It was tough not to get sucked into the energy field created by Ozzy and soon, thousands and thousands of metal heads were jumping with their fists high in the air. Ozzy didn't even take a few minutes to just stand around and catch his breath. When he needed to cool down, he nosedived into a bucket of water and then went on. The twenty first rows weren't allowed much rest either. If they chose to stand around for too long, Ozzy would blast them with a hose, spooling out litres of some weird looking foam substance.

Oh yes, and the music. Ozzy's fall tour has been put together in support of his latest album, “Scream.” However, the crowd at the ACC got back to back hits from very different points of the metal icon's career, including 5-10 of Black Sabbath's biggest hits. There was no particular highlight of the evening – the show was one long climax, thanks to Ozzy's impeccable performance. From stage, Ozzy yelled, “I'm still crazy after all these years. It's good to be crazy.” This metal music examiner will have to agree with the prince of darkness on that one – it surely worked well at the ACC yesterday night.

The concert lasted for much more than two hours and every minute was a memorable one. Summing it all up, the Ozzy show truly contained a little bit of everything - humour, craziness, high voltage energy, fireworks, foam guns and good old school heavy metal. Ozzy looked younger compared to his appearances over the past years. Thumbs up, high fives, fist bump and a “well done” from this metal music examiner.

Photo: Tom Pandi

1991, Nirvana recorded a performance for BBC TV music show Top Of The Pops in London. When asked to lip-sync ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ to a pre-recorded tape Kurt Cobain protests by singing in a low-pitched funny voice with the rest of the band not even trying to mime in-time to the track.

Programme Title: Top of the Pops
Broadcast Date/s: 11/28/91
Length: 4 Minutes
Notes: Kurt was apparently 'possessed' by the spirit of ex-Smiths singer Morrissey for this performance. The footage was also used in Live Tonight! Sold Out! and Kurt and Courtney. It has also been regularly repeated on BBC TV as well. The performance was recorded on 27th November, 1991.

Content: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Toronto, Canada

A plethora of Canada’s best rock and blues musicians are banding together in a benefit concert for well-loved, Canadian Guitar Hero, Frank Soda. Vancouver’s Soda, who is in Toronto for cancer surgery was a staple of the bar scene in the 1970’s as the front man for his band The Imps.

The diminutive guitarist was an early exponent of rock theatre, often performing with an exploding television set on his head. But it was Soda’s guitar work that made him a legendary performer on the Toronto bar circuit, including the Piccadilly Tube, where The Imps recorded their album, Live in the Tube. Influenced by the likes of Clapton, Beck, Page, and Hendrix, Soda’s skills with an electric guitar were out of all proportion to his short stature. Soda’s remarkable energy and charisma, fuelled his incendiary rock and blues solos, guaranteeing The Imps sold our houses, night after night. The Carpet Frogs’ front man, Nick Sinopoli, comments:

“Frank is a great musician and a helluva nice guy. He’s influenced so many guitarists and gave me my start. It’s only right that we do what we can to help him.”

The benefit concert will take place at the Rockpile on Sunday November 28th. Doors open at 6PM and the bands hit the stage at 7PM. Admission is $10.00 with all proceeds going to a fund to offset Frank Soda’s medical expenses.

Partial list of performers:
CONEY HATCH
WILD "T"
SCARPELLI
THE ANTLERS W/MIKE TILKA & TERRY WATKINSON
ROCKIZOID W/DENNIS DEMARCHI
RUSSELL "DWARF" GRAHAM
MICHAEL WHITE
THE HINGES
The EMCEE WILL BE MIKE MANDEL

The Rockpile is at 5555 Dundas Street West phone (416) 504-6699

Kid Rock’s best days in the rap-rock game are far behind him, though it is known that he can rock a mean turntable. It has been over a decade since Devil Without A Cause made Rock a late ’90s smash overnight, but subsequent releases like Cocky, Kid Rock, and Rock & Roll Jesus (*cough* pretentious *cough*) noted an evolution steering clearer of rap, furthering instead a penchant for Bob Seger impersonations. One could claim Rock is going the way of Jovi by pretending to be a country boy (from fucking Jersey?), complete with arena gigs where old ladies melt for a blond Kroeger, but I digress.
Born Free is the latest from our formerly bad-ass American; this is an album that tries so damned hard to be steady southern rock, coming shy of a respectable clone. First, let us get the positive points noted quick and painlessly.
Rock’s years of advancing toward something more mature seem to have finally paid off to some extent. Opening titular single “Born Free” is a powerful tune all around, being cribbed by TBS for its 2010 MLB coverage; Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo, and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench take the place of Rock’s typical Twisted Brown Trucker backing band (it pays to have friends when Kracker has screws loose); production by Rick Rubin yields more stripped-down bar band elements to yet another album in his oeuvre, indicating his and Rock’s cameo in the video for Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” wasn’t coincidence.
Songs like “Rock Bottom Blues” and “God Bless Saturday” are the biggest indicators that the Kid is hard at work trying to bring on a Silver Bullet 2.0. If it were anyone else, we’d mock the stuffing out of ‘em, but coming from Kid Rock, we know what to expect, and this is a big step up from crap like “All Summer Long”. The general mood about Born Free is to promote a feel-good summer vibe during this chilly time of year, a record to pop on and pop a top with friends over. Unfortunately, it’s as if Nickelback made an entire album of nothing but “This Afternoon” remixes. A little originality, please?
Two tracks off of Born Free include marketable and redeeming collaborations: a second tag-along by Sheryl Crow on “Collide”, and a double whammy by default country high-note Martina McBride and rapper T.I. on “Care”. It should be noted, while the Crow endeavor comes off pretty generic, “Care” is probably the best song on an effort that is otherwise strictly a series of bluesy tunes. Why? Everyone does their parts grandly, even guest pianist…Bob Seger.
Wait, what? Oh yeah, Bob Seger plays piano on a Kid Rock album, while the rap-rocker himself shamelessly copies him. Last fucking straw, Kid.
Rock forces his notes through a scratchy sandpaper straw and a pseudo-garage rock counting off before every other song on Born Free, instead of relaxing himself as proven in songs like “Only God Knows Why”; Rock is a glorified MC who sang over a Lynyrd Skynyrd/Warren Zevon loop and called it a “sample”. Can you say “blatant rip-off”? Kid Rock went from mindless indulgences like “Three Sheets To The Wind” and a guest spot on ICP’s debut release, to making songs that would be justifiable go-to filler in your local dive’s jukebox. The Double Deuce wouldn’t have been caught dead with this garbage; blind white boys play better rock music. Even the all-star band behind Rock was held back, like having Rex Harrison recite lines from American Pie — there’s only so much you can do.
In the end, it comes down to one fact alone – I would rather hear “Her Strut” over and over, right after pardoning “Shakedown”, than go through this forgery again. If not for Seger and company’s contributions, the raspy out-of-water element that is Kid Rock would have been completely lost. I like to think Seger did his pieces at gunpoint, in a separate room. Now, who’s taking bets on whether or not T.I.’s bit role should be considered community service? Does he get out of jail early for such generous behavior?

Smart phones are all the rage these days, but for many users, these devices aren't really about making telephone calls — the "apps" are what's important.
Novel apps bring more customers and can be the launching point for sales of spinoff products even when the app is free.
That's what led Gibson Guitar to team with Legacy Learning Systems — both are Nashville-based companies — to come up with a Gibson smart-phone app (short for application), first for the iPhone and this past week for the fast-growing Android mobile-phone operating system.
With the app called Gibson Learn and Master Guitar, beginners can teach themselves how to play the instrument with lessons on their smart phones. There are other resources on the app, as well, including a metronome and a guitar tuning aid — not to mention a direct link to Gibson's website.
The app was the idea of Legacy Learning Systems, whose main business is creating and producing compact disc- and DVD-based training programs, including one for the guitar.
Although the company already had a guitar course, founder and chief executive Gabriel Smith approached Gibson about an iPhone app that would feature Gibson guitars and tie in with a new Legacy guitar course.
"Gibson makes world-class instruments. and we make world-class instrument training," Smith said. "For them, we expose their brand to students as they're learning. For us, Gibson helps us put our brand in front of a lot more people."
The app is free, and available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and a variety of phones running the Android system. Those include the new 4G models from Sprint (the HTC EVO and Samsung Epic 4G) and the Motorola Droid X sold by Verizon Wireless, among others.

Free lessons are limited

On the EVO, the app opens a menu of options, including the beginner lessons in high-def video with instruction by the course's author, Steve Krenz.
The free lessons are limited, however, and intended to direct the serious student to Legacy's two regular
guitar courses, Smith said, The standard course, $149, has 10 DVDs and five CDs; the expanded course, $249, has 20 DVDs and five CDs.

Neil Young hosts Pearl Jam, Lucinda Williams, Kris Kristofferson, Elvis Costello, Billy Idol and others at one of the most historic of his annual benefits
The show had begun with Young singing “Sugar Mountain” and “Comes a Time.” Super abbreviated sets by Grizzly Bear and Modest Mouse followed, and then Jackson Browne and David Lindley took the stage. Their set featured “For Everyman,” “These Days” and a beautiful cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Brothers Under the Bridge.”


Lucinda Williams came out next, accompanied only by her guitarist, Doug Pettibone. Emmylou Harris surprised the crowd when she came out to accompany Williams on “Greenville,” as Harris did on the 1998 original.

Kris Kristofferson was scheduled to perform with Merle Haggard, but Haggard has cancelled his tour dates and other shows for health reasons.

Perhaps inspired by Young’s return to Buffalo Springfield, Bridge School vet Billy Idol devoted five tracks from his six-song set to the music of his Seventies punk band Generation X. While few in the crowd seemed to know any of these songs aside from “Dancing With Myself,” Idol and his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens played with such intensity that the crowd stayed on their feet for most of the set, with the finale, “Rebel Yell,” eliciting a huge response.

After Pearl Jam and Buffalo Springfield played, most of the evening’s performers came back out for a sloppy but fun “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Young and Vedder traded off vocals, while Stills and Jackson Browne helped out on guitar. Richie Furay clapped along, grinning hugely, clearly overjoyed to be back on a stage with his band mates after so many decades. If the Buffalo Springfield story ends after the second night of the Bridge School Benefit, it will be the perfect final chapter.

A diverse group of musicians are gathering Friday to honor a blues legend: David “Honeyboy” Edwards. At age 95, Edwards is the only living bluesman who played with Robert Johnson and he’s one of the only original delta blues singers around.

At the Reel Blues Fest at the House of Blues in Boston, “Honeyboy” will be joined by Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, jazz artist Grace Kelly, Mike Carabello of Santana and many others. The money raised by the concert will go to benefit musicians and first-time filmmakers who need health care.

Edwards has worked with most of history’s major blues musicians, from Muddy Waters to Charley Patton. He recently was honored with a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

A diverse group of musicians are gathering Friday to honor a blues legend: David “Honeyboy” Edwards. At age 95, Edwards is the only living bluesman who played with Robert Johnson and he’s one of the only original delta blues singers around.

At the Reel Blues Fest at the House of Blues in Boston, “Honeyboy” will be joined by Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, jazz artist Grace Kelly, Mike Carabello of Santana and many others. The money raised by the concert will go to benefit musicians and first-time filmmakers who need health care.

Edwards has worked with most of history’s major blues musicians, from Muddy Waters to Charley Patton. He recently was honored with a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

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