I love music and if you are reading this you probably do too. As a music lover I have devoured many television music programs over the years.
How about the Midnight Special? When I was in late grade school or junior high, I distinctly remember one particular episode I saw while my family was visiting my grandmother in North Dakota. David Bowie was performing that week and I was entranced watching him. I recall my grandmother making me promise her I would never grow long hair like David Bowie. Like many rebellious teenagers, I did grow my hair to about the length of Bowie’s hair but later developed a preference for shorter hair.
Do you remember Don Kirscher’s Rock Concert? I do, I watched it on many a Saturday night. Of course, I still to this day tape Saturday Night Live to hear a couple of songs from groups although I’ll admit I don’t recognize most of the musical acts on the show these days—but I still watch them.
There are many other musical programs that have come and went over the years but they all pale in comparison to the show I think is the best musical program in America: Austin City Limits (ACL) on the PBS network. I have either watched or taped most of the programs over the past 15 years. I can’t say all the musical acts have played music that I love but I can say I that the program has opened my eyes—and ears—to many outstanding musicians. A few of my favorite performances over the past couple of years have been: Ray Davies, the Pixies, Ryan Adams, and R.E.M. I count among my favorites some musicians who I was not familiar with but came to absolutely love through their ACL performances including most recently Aimee Mann. I had heard of Aimee Mann before but was not familiar with her music at all. As I listened to “Freeway” and “Looking for Nothing” I was spellbound by her lyrics and voice—really. Listen to her lyrics… “another chocolate Easter bunny hollowed out by your talk.” Brilliant. I felt the same way the first time I saw Alejandro Escovedo singing “Put You Down” on the program a couple years ago.
I visited Austin two years ago in the heat of a Texas summer in August during my attendance at a national regulator conference. Once I checked into the hotel I immediately went to talk to the concierge about sites that I should see. She directed me to the bat caves (which are actually cool), the capitol, and other popular Austin sites. Finally I said, “OK, what I really want to see is the Austin City Limits stage.” With raised eyebrows, she directed me to the spot on the map and circled it in red. I was off…
After a hike to the UT-Austin campus I finally found the building, heck maybe I could get a t-shirt in the gift shop I thought. After encountering many locked doors I was able to enter the building as a young student exited through a doorway. I was in the house…but had no idea where I was going. However, I was determined to see that stage, and step on it at any cost. After numerous dead ends (Spinal Tap-type missteps to the stage in Cleveland) I finally found a person walking the halls and asked for directions to the ACL stage. She laughed and reminded me that it was Sunday and everything was closed. I left disappointed but stopped by to see the Capitol on the way back to the hotel. I like political things, but I sure did want to see that stage. As a consolation of sorts I was able to follow my map down to the river to see thousands of bats come out to feed that night a dusk (you do need to see this if you are ever in Austin at dusk).
Nonetheless—and back to the point, I want to reiterate that if you love music you should tune into the program each week on your PBS station. You may access the schedule, previous episodes, and extended interviews at: http://www.pbs.org/klru/austin/
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Jeff Wirtzfeld / Blog
"Never Give Up" Producer's Notes from Allan Bumgartner, Galvanized Music Studio
I used my Epiphone Jack Casady signature bass plugged directly into the Tascam board. I used compression and performed EQ in the computer. Mike Nichols' guitar was recorded in stereo. Amp #1 (left) is a recent Vox AC-4 head through a late 1960's Celestion greenback speaker. Amp #2 (right) is a modified Epiphone Valve Jr. going through a late 1970's white label Celestion speaker. Each amp is miked with one Shure SM-57 mike and one AKG D1000E on a T-bar, with the mike stand centered on the speaker. The microphones are placed one pinky's distance off the grill on the speaker cabinet. The mikes are plugged into the Tascam board with no EQ. The guitars are processed with on-computer based reverb and other effects. No EQ or compression, though. Additionally, no extreme left-right-left type panning was used on the lead guitar Jeff Wirtzfeld played through a 1990's Fender M-80 stereo chorus amp with upgraded Celestion speakers. The chorus effect was set pretty wide and pretty fast. Each speaker on the amp was miked with a Sennheiser E609 model microphone (one old, one newer) in the center of the speaker. Each mike is placed one pinky's distance away from the speaker grill. Both mikes are run into the Tascam board with no EQ. Jeff Battershill is playing a 1980's Tama Swingstar drum kit with upgraded Gibralter hardware and Sabian Pro cymbals. It is miked with a CAD 7-piece drum mike set. The drums are miked from the top. The overheads are two Crown CM-700 condensers. The kick drum mike is miked with a Shure Beta 52 and the exclusive Galvanized Music L-1 kick drum mike. The two CAD condensers and the two Crowns are preamped through Behringer and Nady tube preamps, respectively. The remainder of the drum mikes went through a different Tascam board than mentioned above, with each mike separeately EQ'd. The drums are further processed with compression, EQ and reverb in the computer. Jeff Wirtzfeld’s and Chazz Warriner’s vocals were recorded with an AKG C3000 mike through a different Behringer preamp than that mentioned above. Jeff Battershill's vocals were recorded through the same preamp as I used on Jeff Wirtzfeld’s vocals but through a Behringer B-1 microphone. The music is captured on any of three M-Audio Delta 1010 A-D converters with CuBase 4.0 software. The computer is a duo-core P4 running 64-bit with 8 gigs of RAM. I use a two monitor setup while recording.
-Allan
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The Best Music Program in America is...
I love music and if you are reading this you probably do too. As a music lover I have devoured many television music programs over the years.
How about the Midnight Special? When I was in late grade school or junior high, I distinctly remember one particular episode I saw while my family was visiting my grandmother in North Dakota. David Bowie was performing that week and I was entranced watching him. I recall my grandmother making me promise her I would never grow long hair like David Bowie. Like many rebellious teenagers, I did grow my hair to about the length of Bowie’s hair but later developed a preference for shorter hair.
Do you remember Don Kirscher’s Rock Concert? I do, I watched it on many a Saturday night. Of course, I still to this day tape Saturday Night Live to hear a couple of songs from groups although I’ll admit I don’t recognize most of the musical acts on the show these days—but I still watch them.
There are many other musical programs that have come and went over the years but they all pale in comparison to the show I think is the best musical program in America: Austin City Limits (ACL) on the PBS network. I have either watched or taped most of the programs over the past 15 years. I can’t say all the musical acts have played music that I love but I can say I that the program has opened my eyes—and ears—to many outstanding musicians. A few of my favorite performances over the past couple of years have been: Ray Davies, the Pixies, Ryan Adams, and R.E.M. I count among my favorites some musicians who I was not familiar with but came to absolutely love through their ACL performances including most recently Aimee Mann. I had heard of Aimee Mann before but was not familiar with her music at all. As I listened to “Freeway” and “Looking for Nothing” I was spellbound by her lyrics and voice—really. Listen to her lyrics… “another chocolate Easter bunny hollowed out by your talk.” Brilliant. I felt the same way the first time I saw Alejandro Escovedo singing “Put You Down” on the program a couple years ago.
I visited Austin two years ago in the heat of a Texas summer in August during my attendance at a national regulator conference. Once I checked into the hotel I immediately went to talk to the concierge about sites that I should see. She directed me to the bat caves (which are actually cool), the capitol, and other popular Austin sites. Finally I said, “OK, what I really want to see is the Austin City Limits stage.” With raised eyebrows, she directed me to the spot on the map and circled it in red. I was off…
After a hike to the UT-Austin campus I finally found the building, heck maybe I could get a t-shirt in the gift shop I thought. After encountering many locked doors I was able to enter the building as a young student exited through a doorway. I was in the house…but had no idea where I was going. However, I was determined to see that stage, and step on it at any cost. After numerous dead ends (Spinal Tap-type missteps to the stage in Cleveland) I finally found a person walking the halls and asked for directions to the ACL stage. She laughed and reminded me that it was Sunday and everything was closed. I left disappointed but stopped by to see the Capitol on the way back to the hotel. I like political things, but I sure did want to see that stage. As a consolation of sorts I was able to follow my map down to the river to see thousands of bats come out to feed that night a dusk (you do need to see this if you are ever in Austin at dusk).
Nonetheless—and back to the point, I want to reiterate that if you love music you should tune into the program each week on your PBS station. You may access the schedule, previous episodes, and extended interviews at: http://www.pbs.org/klru/austin/
Reply
Look Here for More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Acoustic Guitars
I'm a member of The Acoustic Guitar Forum. If you like acoustic guitars you should be too (it's free). I've learned a lot from the members of this forum and they discuss everything you have ever wanted to know about acoustic guitars, from body styles, to capos, to pick material--all in great detail sometimes.
There are three forums there I check in on regularly: 1) General Acoustic Guitar Discussion (includes all makes/models of acoustic guitars), 2) The Taylor Guitar Forum (specifically for Taylors), and 3) the AGF Classifieds. I enjoy seeing the wide variety of guitars members have for sale and I've learned a lot about the value of certain guitars.
Follow this link to see the forum:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/index.php
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Why I Love the Fender Telecaster
I was recently talking with my friend Allan about my '52 Butterscotch Telecaster Reissue. He's a Stratocaster fan, and as a tribute, owns a few of them. We both agree that Strats are much more versatile and much more precise in terms of intonation and sound (I have the three-piece saddle) and really are great for recording. Now, I have a Strat too that I really like and it is spot on in terms of sound but there is just an economy of design in a Tele that just draws me to play the thing repeatedly.
After giving it some thought, I've pinpointed the appeal of a Telecaster to me: simplicity. I think it appeals to me because I have simple tastes.
Virtually unchanged over 50 years, a piece of wood with one switch and two knobs is all you get on the Tele (yes, I know there are fancier variations). I like that. Of course Telemasters like Roy Buchanan and James Burton can get a seemlingly endless array of sounds from those simple components. For me the Tele is simple, a bit unsophisticated, and it can be hard to tame, but when I get it right, I've usually got an unique electric guitar sound that I love.
I recall playing the Tele one evening with my friend Dave, who plays a Strat. I let out a loud opening chord to a song and said, "Wow, that was a bit loud and raw." Dave looked at my Telecaster, smiled and said, "yup, I like it, it's just like Rock and Roll itself."
Here is a wiki link for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecaster
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Guitars and Tonewoods
Here is a link to an article at Taylor Guitars (I love my Taylor 710ce!). It is the best explanation I've seen on the effect of body shape (the guitar, not yours) and wood on your guitar tone.
http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/features/woods/
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