Reigning blues champ GARY CLARK JR. continues to wrestle with live-album anxiety on the new Live North America 2016—but if the sweet, soulful playing on the disc is any indication, he’s certainly well on his way to becoming a master stage performer.
BACK IN THE EARLY Sixties, the brilliantly eccentric jazz pianist Thelonious Monk created a list of what he thought every musician should know about gigging. It included often-amusing hints like, “You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?” and my favorite, “Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.”
But among the whimsical bits of advice was something quite profound. Monk said, “A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.” When he spoke those words, the pianist knew damn well he wasn’t offering guidance—he was throwing down the gauntlet.
It’s a challenge that stalks Gary Clark Jr.’s second concert album, Live North America 2016. Of all the major fourth generation blues shredders like Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks or John Mayer, Clark Jr. is the most preoccupied with getting down to the essentials. With each album he gets a little more economical and precise, often building solos to a climactic single note that he makes “as big as the world.”
Like Albert King, or even Kurt Cobain (who Clark Jr. surprisingly lists as an influence), the guitarist stays focused on the emotional impact of each note. While he is certainly capable of pouring on the flash, as exemplified by the album’s mesmerizing centerpiece, “When My Train Pulls In,” it’s the rawness of songs like “The Healing” and “Grinder” and “Our Love” that makes him an important musician.
We caught up with the Texan shortly before the release of his new live album, which will coincide with another career milestone. Clark Jr. has been tapped to play with Eric Clapton on the guitar legend’s upcoming 50th anniversary tour.
Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Guitar World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Guitar World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kittie - Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara Mcleod discuss the canadian metal powerhouse's unexpected rebirth — by fire!
Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod explain that making new music was “not on their bingo card” when the band regrouped in 2022 for a few festival appearances, preferring to think of the sets as more of a “final lap” than a new beginning. But drilling into old favorites — whether the nu-flavored teenage slams of 1999’s Spit or the more venomously groove-thrashed tunes of their late-’00s period — revealed that despite not having raged together in years, there was something undeniably special about Kittie’s musical connection. “Playing with these girls is like putting on an old pair of pants,” Lander says. “It’s very comfortable — and it looks good too.”
McKinley James - Why all you really need is a guitar, a drummer and some serious low-end six-string skills
Nashville-based blues rocker McKinley James came flying out of the gate in 2022 with his Dan Auerbachproduced EP, Still Standing By. His momentum screeched to a halt, however, when his keyboardist split, leaving only him and his drummer, Jason Smay (who also happens to be his father). “For a moment, I was like, ‘What are we going to do?” James says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, other bands have succeeded as a duo. Maybe we can, too.”
TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay
THE MID EIGHTIES was a golden age for digital delay, thanks to the proliferation of pro- and studio-quality rack effects units from Eventide, Korg, Lexicon, Roland and Yamaha.
Danelectro Doubleneck
WHEN I THINK back to the Seventies, the famously coined “Me” decade, it seems the only surefire way you could leave audiences awestruck was to strap on a doubleneck guitar.
CARLOS ALOMAR
The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) \"Fame\" with John Lennon
GEORGE TERRY
It turns out Eric Clapton's Seventies guitarist (and co-writer of \"Lay Down Sally\") also played on ABBA's \"Voulez-Vous.\" Below, he looks back on a decade-plus of E.C., Bee Gees, Diana Ross and more
FRANK MARINO
The Mahogany Rush frontman charts the band's Seventies lows and highs, plus SG's, pickups and how he was definitely not visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix
DEWAYNE "BLACKBYRD" MCKNIGHT
The jazz/funk/fusion veteran on his smooth segue from Herbie Hancock sideman to full-on Funkdaledic member -plus his '70s gear and what he learned from Shuggie Otis
PAT TRAVERS
The Canadian-born virtuoso discusses the rise and fall of the Pat Travers Band, witnessing the U.K. punk revolution and the riotous roots of \"Snortin' Whiskey\"
JOE PERRY
The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston
