"What Used To Be New"

Well, guys, there's been a lot happening since the last update. I've been recording a bunch over the last few months with two of the best rhythm sections ever, SRV's Double Trouble and Buddy Miles and Billy Cox of the Band of Gypsys fame.

Last August, I was down in Austin, Texas for nine days recording 22 songs with Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon; we did about 10 Stevie tunes, plus Albert King, Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy and some other stuff. It was a pretty intensive work load--we had eighteen songs in the can by the end of the third day! I brought over 100 pages of written transcriptions with me, which I attempted to sight-read while we were recording. Ouch! They were calling me the "sundial," because I'd be facing west at the beginning of the song, and northeast by the end of the song. We had a bunch of singers come in, such as Malford Milligan, W.C. Clark and Albert Collins, plus the incomparable Riley Osborne on keyboards. That guy is a killer player and a great guy. We recorded at Wire Recording on S. Lamar, owned and operated by Stuart Sullivan, a great guy and an amazing engineer.

On September 8th, I went to San Diego to play a tribute to Hendrix show with the Band of Gypsys, Double Trouble, Mike McCready, Andy Summers, Kenny Olson, Eric Gales and others. It was really something--we played in front of 35,000 people and opened for the Black Crowes. It was a great, great day and led to this...

Last week I was in the studio for three days with Band of Gypsys and engineer/producer Eddie Kramer. We were at Clinton Studios on 46th and 10th in NYC--Bob Dylan was upstairs, but I never got to see him. We rented some great vintage gear--100-watt plexi and metal-front Marshall heads, with basket-weave bottoms. Hey, the slant-face was red! Also, I used my old Uni-Vibe and '66 Clyde McCoy Vox wah plus a nice vintage red Fuzz Face. The only problem was that the Fuzz Face began transmitting a Spanish radio station at about 1000 decibels, and when we tried switching to a new Fuzz face and a Matt Wells Five O'Clock Shadow, they all transmitted the radio station wonderfully. So, we got a hold of a Line 6 distortion modeler, set it on "Facial Fuzz" and it worked great--it sounded very convincing. We recorded "Machine Gun" and "Power of Soul," and I had a horseshoe-shaped collection of music stands around me, covered in sheet music. Reading transcriptions of feedback noises is a little silly, though--forget it! But it was really more to just get the structure right, and the sections to reflect the original as closely as possible.

Billy and Buddy were great--there's been talk of doing some things together, like a record or a small tour, but we'll have to wait and see what happens. Guitar World's Brad Tolinski, Greg DiBenedetto and Alan Paul Came down to the studio, and GW will be doing a piece on the session and the overall concept.

What's Really New