'Six Strings' Documentary Needs Six Stories

The movie "It Might Get Loud" featured three rock superstars but there's another documentary in the works that will give lesser-known guitarists -- maybe even the likes of you and me -- a chance to talk about guitar love.

"Six Strings" is being put together by British-based writer-director James Smith and he's looking for six people with compelling stories about how the guitar has effected their lives.

From Smith's website: "I am searching for six guitarists from around the world who have incredible stories to tell. They will form part of the documentary and may have the opportunity to contribute to the music within the film. I am looking to find passionate people who maybe have developed a unique playing style or have an incredible story to tell about guitar music -- how it transformed or changed their lives and more about the mystique and influence of the instrument -- the more extraordinary, heart rending or radical, the better!"

You can make your case in a 100-word statement on the website and include a supporting video.

Note that there are no requirements for guitar proficiency. I've submitted my story but if chosen for the film, I'm going to have Bad Blake do all my stunt work. Also, I'd like to call my segment of the movie "Hopefully, It Might Get Quiet."

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 3

That's very inspirational, Ozzy, but I've just learned that last month I was personally responsible for a 22 percent nationwide increase in saxophone sales.

Cats and Skunks

T-Bone Burnett recently discussed the making of "Crazy Heart" in an interview with NPR and said that even though Jeff Bridges isn't a professional musician, he was able to pull off the role because he has an innate musical sense.

"One person could sit down at a piano and hit three notes and it sounds like a cat on the keys," Burnett said. "Another person could sit down at the piano and play the same three notes and it sounds like music. Jeff is one of the latter people."

I have only one thing to say to that: Meow ...

My criteria for a good song have changed. Now, a "good" song is one that I can play. How else could I explain my newfound appreciation for "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. It was a goofy Shel Silverstein novelty song that was played incessantly on the radio in 1973 and lost its charm after about the second listening. Now, however, it's a staple of my repertoire.

(Historical note: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show did eventually make the cover of Rolling Stone in March 1973. And, yes, that eye patch is legit. The lead singer lost an eye in a car crash.)

Lately I've also been enjoying playing another novelty song from the '70s (I think it's very important to be up-to-date with my song selections) -- "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright III, who's probably better known these days as the father of Rufus Wainwright. It's very simple, which is more than enough to put it on my personal hit parade.

There was a theory going around at the time that Wainwright wrote the song as a metaphor for the Nixon presidency but when he was asked about that by an interviewer, he said: "Well, OK, but for me it was just about a dead skunk lying there in the highway."




South x Southwest

Newly Discovered Band

Willie & the Hand Jivers

Band of Birds

First it was videos of cats that could play better than me. Now it's birds.

French artist Celest Boursier-Mougenot assembled these avian guitar heroes -- 40 zebra finches -- in a room as part of an exhibition featuring aleatoric music (that's music that's created at random). In the past, Boursier-Mougenot has made music by hooking up harmonicas to 13 vacuum cleaners and by floating bowls and glasses in inflatable kiddie pools and letting them clink at will.

The Hummingbird's Tale

This Hummingbird is a keeper, I've decided (thanks again, Rico!).

Gibson started making Hummingbirds in 1960 and with the big fret-marker inlays and distinctive pickguard, they caught a lot of eyes and developed a big following. They have always had a great reputation and, depending on the year and materials, some of them get pretty expensive.

Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris are known Hummingbirders and if you think that, and the hummingbird-butterfly-trumpet-vine motif on the pickguard make the Hummingbird a "girl's guitar," take it up with the dangerous gentleman on the left, who's been playing a Hummingbird on the Stones' accoustic numbers since the late '60s.

As for the particular Hummingbird in my possession, Rico bought it in 1976 when he was a couple of years out of college. At the time he was living with four other guys in what he describes as a derelict mansion set on 4 acres in downtown Atlanta.

The inhabitants of this den of hippie depravity called it the Nairobi Corral for reasons that have been forgotten. I suspect the decor featured lots of neon beer signs, beaded curtains, cinder-block bookshelves and multiple black lights. There probably were many stacks of record albums but I bet only the Allman Brothers' "Eat a Peach" and "Fillmore East" ever actually made it to the turntable.

History tells us that the Nairobi Corral was the scene of many late-night, hours-long guitar pulls involving Rico on the Hummingbird and a couple of his housemates, with set lists that included lots of Gram Parsons (a Hummingbird guy himself), Byrds (remember "Chestnut Mare"?) and blues jams. Rico says he became a pretty decent rhythm player and played steadily for 2 1/2 years before getting busy with other pursuits that required him to pack up the Hummingbird and move to Birmingham, Miami, New York, Cairo, Madrid, Mexico City, Los Angeles and finally Bakersfield.

And now the Hummingbird is out of retirement and in my protective custody. After its tune-up at Stancill's, I've been polishing it up as best I can. Next time the strings are off I'm going to spiff up the fretboard and the nickel tuners. There are cracks in the finish but I don't mind since I have a few cracks in my finish, too.

I probably won't be able to recreate this guitar's heyday in a derelict Atlanta mansion but I do have plenty of Allman Brothers and am fully capable of setting up cinder-block bookshelves. And I intend to name my first album "Live From the Nairobi Corral."

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 2

I've had several fights with guitars, Billy G, and it's always me who ends up taking the ass-whoopin'. Maybe I should fight a mandolin.

Name the Imaginary Band

Let's get interactive. I've had a list of potential band names in a column on the right side for quite a while, all in anticipation of making my debut on "Austin City Limits" in 2019. Considering all the work I have to do, 2019 is not so far off now and I need some help in picking a name for the band. Thus, the poll on the right (or you can write in a name in the Comments section of this post).

All the nominees are highly appropriate, dignified and very professional. Any choice would look great in the search window of the iTunes store. You can pick any three names and voting doesn't end until Feb. 28 but there's really no rush since this band will never exist.

(The Supernatural Country Rockin' Galoots name is borrowed from the Michael Murphey song "Cosmic Cowboy.")

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 1

So, Jimbo, what you're saying is that I'm an inept, irredeemable bumbler with inconsistent work habits, huh? Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Doubly Troubled

I've been doing this a lot lately -- trying to play two guitars simultaneously. Since I'm not even very good with one guitar, I guess that means I'm twice as bad with two at once.

I'm trying to compare the sounds of the newly arrived Hummingbird and the incumbent Alvarez. I don't really try to play them in the manner pictured above, though. Instead, I play a little something on one and then switch guitars as quickly as possible and play it on the other. This method isn't much more effective than playing them together.

Since I don't have much experience with many guitars, I'm not going to be very articulate or detailed in comparing the sounds of the two. They're both dreadnought styles and to my unschooled ear the Hummingbird definitely has a meatier, deeper sound than the Alvarez. If I really could play them simultaneously, I'm sure they'd complement each other nicely.

A Mild Case of GAS

The arrival of the Gibson Hummingbird means that I now have three members in my little guitar family. That’s really a very modest number but some might see it as a developing case of what’s known as GAS -- guitar acquisition syndrome, a psychological disorder in which the sufferer is compelled to amass as many guitars as possible.

Having three guitars is nothing so don’t worry about me. I’m OK. I can quit anytime I want. Really. If nothing else, having two kids on the verge of college is enough to keep me from spending too much on guitars. Still, veteran players tell me it’s good to have a solid rationalization on hand for each guitar so you can make a strong case for why you can’t get rid of them.

My rationalizations are based on sentiment. I could never part with the Hummingbird because a friend gave it to me in a wonderful act of generosity. I’ll always keep the Alvarez because it was my very first guitar. As for the Telecaster, it was my first electric.

I’ve been warned that some people, most likely a spouse, are going to ask, most likely in a sarcastic manner, what they consider to be a pertinent question: Just how many guitars do you need?

The correct answer is: All of them.

Santa Claus Lives in Bakersfield

To misquote Neil Armstrong, the Hummingbird has landed.

In this case, it was a Gibson Hummingbird and it landed this week on a guitar stand in my home -- a New Year's gift from Rico, the proprietor of the Bakersfield Observed blog, which chronicles all the various comings and goings in the town that gave us Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Rico has been a dear amigo for a long time and very supportive of my efforts to learn how to work a guitar, as well as write about it, and now he's passed along his post-college guitar to me. I'm considering it a long-time loan and nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I ask only a couple of things," Rico wrote me. "You play the hell out of it and treat it well. You clean it up and take a photo and send it to me once you've done so. And you play like Skydog."

I think that's actually six things but I told him most of those conditions were dead-solid certainties. However, I said, it might take an eternity or two before I could live up to Skydog, aka Duane Allman (did I mention that Rico is an ol' Georgia boy and thereby devoted to the classic Allman Brothers lineup?). After boxing up the Hummingbird in Bakersfield and entrusting it to the people at the UPS store, Rico returned to his car and the radio was playing the Allmans' "One Way Out." Maybe that was an omen that I will be playing like Skydog someday.

Once the Hummingbird had made the flight from one coast to the other I was only able to play it for a bit (for historical purposes, the first song I played on it was the Stones' "Shine a Light") before dropping it off at Stancill's Guitar Studio for a setup, cleanup, new strings, an oil change, a new set of spark plugs and general rehabbing. As Rico had advised me, the guitar had been set aside for quite a while (these pictures are "before" pictures) and was dusty and dirty, which is not a problem because the same has often been said of me.

Much more later on the Hummingbird once I get a chance to crank it up and do some research.

Bad Blake = Good Movie

If I may get all Roger Ebert here for a moment, I'm going to strongly recommend the movie "Crazy Heart."

Jeff Bridges, who's a pretty decent musician as well as a great actor, may have acted, picked, sang, drank and puked his way to an Oscar with his portrayal of a broke-down country singer named Bad Blake. Bridges' character is part Waylon, part Merle, part Kristofferson, part Stephen Bruton and completely dissolute. Bridges' voice won't blow you away but as best as I could tell he was doing all his own guitar playing and it was pretty decent.

The movie is worth the price of admission for the soundtrack alone. Most of the original songs were written by T-Bone Burnett ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?," "Cold Mountain" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood"), along with Bruton, who died of cancer not long after the movie was finished.

Bruton also gets credit for suggesting lots of authentic touches for Bad Blake (the experienced roaddog knows to take a plastic milk jug so you don't have to make restroom stops).

You could say that the music for this movie started taking shape in the late '70s when Bridges, Bruton, Burnett and Kristofferson were working together on "Heaven's Gate" and would get together and jam when their shooting day was done.

I was pleased to see that Bad Blake uses a Kyser capo, the official capo of the Play a Little Guitar blog.

Steel This guitar

If you want to see some creative, eye-catching guitars, check out the work of California luthier James Trussart on the left and right, as well as on his website. Most are made of steel that he either engraves or lets rust to get just the right look and styled after the Telecaster and the Les Paul. They weight about 8 pounds, which is about the norm for an electric guitar, and prices start at around $4,000.

Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton and Sonny Landreth are among those who play a Trussart, which reviews say have a big, twangy sound. Trussart is a Frenchman who used to play fiddle for Cajun singer Zachary Richard and wired.com has more on him here and here.

Dancing with the iPod

Sometimes it seems like I don't listen to any music made after 1985 but in the first random play session of the new year the iPod disgorged a couple of contemporary acts. I just can't figure out how they got on my iPod. The kids must have put them on.

• "Young Westley," David Bromberg
• "The Trouble With Loving Today," Asleep at the Wheel
• "A Child Called It," Buckcherry
• "New Shoes," Paolo Nuttini
• "The Odd Couple," Gnarls Barkley
• "Lemon Squeezing Daddy," the Sultans
• "World so Full," Jon Dee Graham
• "Loving Cup," Rolling Stones
• "Summer in the City," Joe Cocker
• "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," Willie Nelson
• "Be Honest With Me," Etta James
• "The Worst," Rolling Stones
• "Paradise," Alex Chilton

Another Year of Guitar

If playing the guitar can be compared to a trip around the world, I've only managed to get a few blocks from home in two years. And while I haven't gone very far, I'm still really enjoying the trip and looking forward to what's ahead.

Since the year is ending, I guess I should assess what I've accomplished and what I haven't in the past year with the guitar, as well as in this space.

• For starters, I didn't quit my day job and take up music full time. This is not a case of me deferring a dream. This is a case of me not wanting to starve to death.

• I managed to go the whole year without teaching anyone a single thing about the guitar, either in person or through this blog. I offered to show my daughter some chords but she declined. However, a friend mentioned that he was interested in starting guitar and I said I'd be glad to let him check out my guitars to get an idea of what he's in for. I also told him I'd teach him everything I knew if he had a spare 10 minutes.

• I have not used this space to review any effects pedals so if you want to know about the new Provalve 2 thingy from Lovepedal and its dual channels and true bypass, you'll have to read somewhere else. I also have not discussed adjusting truss rods. Nothing here more technical than the semi-annual string-changing session.

• I must have entered 30 guitar-giveaway contests -- either on magazine or manufactuers' websites -- in the past year and didn't win so much as a guitar pick in any of them. I did, however, manage to acquire several dozen picks through other methods and I love each and every one of them.

Maybe that's an oversimplification of how my second year of guitar went. In general, I made a great deal of progress and I expect to build on that. Still, I'm just a simple chord-strummer but that's OK with me. Besides, if I get too proficient, it would destroy the whole premise of this blog.