238658923659

Chapter 13: Blues Rock: The Infusion of Ol’ Rock ’n’ Roll
251
In addition to the guys I highlight in this section, a few other young guns of
modern blues worth checking out include the hot-pickin’ Joe Bonamassa
(“Travelin’ South”), Kenny Wayne Shepherd (“Blue on Black”), and Henry
Garza of Los Lonely Boys (“Heaven”). Coincidentally, or not, all of them play
Fender Stratocasters, just like their blues-rock idols, Jimi Hendrix, Eric
Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
To make your Strat-style guitar sound extra soulful and get that funky “outof-phase”
tone, put your five-way pickup selector in the second or fourth
positions, which combines the middle pickup with either the neck or bridge
pickups. This sound is especially good for funk-styled chord grooves.
John Mayer, new kid on the blues block
Among the brightest lights of the new millennium is singer-songwriter John
Mayer, who fuses the best of Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan into a stunning
Strat style.
Listen to “Route 66” from the Cars soundtrack to hear this young picker play
a joyous blues solo and throw down a wad of chunky chord work.
Allmans Redux: Warren Haynes and
Derek Trucks, keepers of the flame
Over 35 years after their debut, the Allman Brothers are still a top concert
highlight, and the band’s guitarists — Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks —
have a huge part in the group’s success.
Haynes, who’s been in the band longer than Duane, is a wizard at both
straight soloing and the Duane Allman-style slide. To play slide like
Haynes, keep your guitar in standard tuning and transcribe all Duane’s
moves (who played in open E) into standard tuning.
Trucks, meanwhile, has taken bottleneck to a whole new dimension,
infusing it with bebop jazz influences from sax legend John Coltrane and
trumpeter Miles Davis. You can hear both Derek and Warren just tearin’
it up on “Firing Line” from the Allman Brothers album Hittin’ the Note. To
play like Trucks, you need to wear a slide and brush up on your bebop
vocabulary.
If you want to check out some info on Coltrane and Davis, get a copy of Jazz
For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Dirk Sutro (Wiley).
TEAM LinG