Steven Van Zandt on the “five Crafts” of Rock and Roll
NEVER MIND THAT MORE PEOPLE around the world might know the face and the voice from his acting performances in hit TV shows such as The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, rock and roll is veritable lifeblood for Steven Van Zandt. From strutting stages as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, co-leading Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, and pursuing a sporadic yet trenchant solo career, Van Zandt has become a veritable compendium of the glories of the rock genre. He’s a member of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and an inductee himself), and DJ of the syndicated radio show, Underground Garage. So if you need a quick hit of the transformational properties of rock and roll—spiritually, sonically, philosophically—you need look no further than the guitarist, singer, songwriter, and all-around professor of rock who has plied his trade as “Little Steven” for going on five decades.
Putting this massive cache of street cred back between the grooves where it belongs, Little Steven’s new album, Soulfire [Wicked Cool/Big Machine/Ume], is simultaneously a celebration of the sound and style that has propelled his career, and a declaration of the enduring power of music. Recorded in his own New York City studio following a string of European dates—and backed by his 15-piece band, the Disciples of Soul— the album captures spirited re-workings of several of the most significant songs of Van Zandt’s career, along with some new material, and a few choice favorites from other artists.
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PRS
PREVIOUSLY PART OF PRS's Maryland-built guitar line, the SE NF3 was recently reissued in the company's offshore-produced SE series. The SE NF3 is so named for its Narrowfield Deep Dish (a.k.a. DD) \"S\" pickups. These unique PRS-design units have deeper bobbins to accommodate more windings and extra metal pieces between the magnets to yield a more powerful \"single-coil\" tone, while remaining noise-free because they are in fact humbuckers. A control set consisting of master volume, tone and a five-way blade switch allows the usual selections of bridge, middle and neck pickups by themselves and the neck-plus-middle and bridge-plus-middle combinations that allow the SE NF3 to veer into Strat-like territory in switch positions two and four.
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