And now Simon stood in Max's former place at The Beer Garden and Max sat behind him trying to organize his haphazard collection of instruments on a little table beside him, getting ready to support and weave some fashion of melodies and harmonies behind Simon's music. And the infuriating thing was, he would. He would without even knowing what he did. more »

But Eric has been dragging me into the twanging whining pain filled reality of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That would be Jason Isbell. I used to think Drive By Truckers were a bunch of Lynyrd Skynyrd wantabees. And so what if they are? They had been around for five years before they brought Jason Isbell in as a third guitarist. He was a brilliant young man who came riding into and through the band straight out of school and three years, creative differences, and an ex-wife later, Drive By Truckers is still Drive By Truckers and Jason Isbell is a solo artist. more »

I'm not talking about the eight year old who says, "I don't want to do scales and arpeggios anymore, Dad. I don't get them." And Dad shrugs, because he doesn't get them either and the kid never looks at another instrument. more »

The amp I use is an old and small 1970s guitar amp. It is not a tube amp but it is extremely powerful. If you plug a Fender into it you can get a real vintage sound. It also provides some really nice volume/reverb based distortion effects for the harp. But to get really clean vocals through that amp you have to set input volume at low, master volume at high, bass and reverb to 0 and jack the treble up to full. more »

If you are a musician, whether you play harmonica, guitar, trumpet, piano, or any other instrument, there are just some things you have to know. And understanding this stuff may not help you as a musician, but it will give you such a rush. more »

I figured, well, I can play it, so I can understand it. Right? WRONG! Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian. I put the harmonica in my mouth and I end up playing in all these modes, but I can barely understand it and certainly couldn't explain it easily. It is a lot like Dan Grigor says. In the Pentatonic Blues you only use five notes, and they all sound good, so as long as you are in rhythm it doesn't matter what note you play. more »