Cisco Robles Live from NAMM2010 at gig-fx

While at the gig-fx booth at NAMM2010 with HeXx Henderson we heard that Cisco Robles was going to be there as well. Catfish and I couldn’t resist hanging around and talking and listening to his set. We have a lot in common, Cisco and I. We were both born in NY in the same year. He has been playing nearly as long as I have. We’re both in California now and both playing the blues. I guess you can say I can relate to his path. A stunning guitar player, he plays a great set and is as knowledgeable as he is stylish in an interview with Frank Butler.

Click through for the videos!

He has been involved with gig-fx pedals since the beginning and has helped Jeff Purchon, Bruce Ritz and their team create some of the best effects pedals ever. It’s great to see an artist/sponsor relationship that works like this.

Robles uses these pedals every day, at live gigs and inside his shop “Electric Gentlemen Studios”  in Orange, CA. Since the beginning, he has been providing invaluable feedback from his own gigs and from a variety of world-class musicians at his studio. Playing with them and listening under the headphones and mixing it in — that is a view a manufacturer dreams of. As a player, Jeff has a leg up in creating great sound; as a tone designer he “gets it” that the people that use his stuff every day know, maybe better than he, just what his pedals can really do.

Jeff listened — not only to Cisco and his clients but other performers like Mick Thomson (#7, Slipknot), Adam Jones (Tool), Prince and Peter Frampton — and together they have created tones that let you play the music you love and have it sound like it does in our heads.

This is a two-part video series hosted on YouTube. Click through to the channel for more great videos.

In Part One Cisco tells you of his musical path, we hear a little of him playing and  he tells us all about the new line from gig-fx.

In Part Two we hear about his custom Renato Giordano guitar. Wait until you hear this thing; it is a thing of beauty. Cisco makes it sing for us playing a classic Hendrix cover. Unlike most of the guitar players there, Cisco brought his “band” with him in the form of his own studio backing tracks. They let him shine. His rendition of Little Wing is delightful and perfect to show off the guitar, the pedal tones and his love of the blues. As if that isn’t enough, we get a little real-life advice for working musicians. A great perspective on how to survive as a gigging musician in this economy and not lose your music, your passion or your goals.

Stay Tuned…

Oh I almost forgot, with another stunning BareFootMusicNews Exclusive at the end of the performance video there is a picture of me and Cisco.

Please note that of the thousands who attended NAMM 2010 Dan Grigor of BareFootMusicNews was the only other person… to wear the Purple Hat.

How cool is that? Come on, how cool is that? Check the BareFoot FotoBlog for more pics from the interview and give them a click. They get bigger!

Enjoy!

DanG