| Paul McCartney's first guitar on sale
For 100,000 The guitar that Paul McCartney learnt how to play his first chords on is being auctioned and is expected to fetch 100,000. The seller of the Rex acoustic guitar is McCartney's friend Ian James from his schooldays at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. In a signed letter accompanying the item, the former Beatle writes: "The above guitar belonging to my old school pal Ian James was the first guitar I ever held. It was also the guitar on which I learnt my first chords." Ian James taught the 15-year-old McCartney the chords that would later impress John Lennon enough to let him join his band The Quarrymen. "Paul and I hung around together after school," James said. "We both had an interest in rock 'n' roll and I would show him a few chords. I remember one day he told me he'd written a song and I thought 'Blimey, that's hard'." Ian James and McCartney lost touch for 28 years, but were then reunited in 1991 at a Wings concert.
Concert review: Kinks' Ray Davies shows he still really got it
Even as Ray Davies blasted through a jumpy version of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone," at the Warfield on Thursday night, one couldn't help but wonder where Davies had gone the past couple decades. Outside of making the news a couple years ago for getting shot in the leg while trying to corral a purse-snatcher in his adopted hometown of New Orleans, Davies looked like he'd eased into retirement. If he's been missing, it certainly wasn't because he couldn't rock anymore. Surely one of rock's most underrated all-time greats, the former leader of the Kinks is back with solo record "Other People's Lives," and a tour this year. At 62, he still has plenty of energy, both on-stage and in his new material -- much of which he played Thursday, mixing well with Kinks' nuggets.
Old rock rolls nicely on iPod
My son bought an iPod several months ago. Since that time, we have revisited some of the greatest songs to rock, crank, schmooze and snooze the music scene of the last four decades. On his current playlist are artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong and Lenny Kravitz, Steve Perry and Brad Arnold. If you don't know who Brad Arnold is, just ask the folks in Escatawpa, about 3 Doors Down. Lots of things happen when middle-aged mamas and daddies listen to the music of their youth. One of the more remarkable results is their children are forced to endure lots of air guitar solos and sad attempts at dancing. .
HD-35 Nancy Wilson "Heart" Signature Edition Guitar
Much of the credit for the beauty and tone of the Martin HD-35 Nancy Wilson Signature Edition guitar goes to Wilson herself, who collaborated closely with Martin on the design. A rare combination of premium solid tonewoods gives the HD-35 Nancy Wilson Signature Edition distinctive tonal character. The top of beautiful Engelmann spruce - a tree that grows in the Northwest, where Heart got its start - combines with forward-shifted scalloped braces for full, powerful tone. The sides and the three-piece back wings are East Indian rosewood, while the center wedge is "heart" bubinga, a beautiful and unusually hard African tonewood that provides outstanding projection. A Pisces fish Yin Yang design is inlaid in rare pink heart abalone, mother of pearl and red composite beneath the Old Style "C.F.
|
