Making a Diddley-Bow: Mounting the electronics

I had an old pickup that I wasn't using, and I planned on top-mounting it to the wood. Not really all that hard. To prep the wires I wrapped the part coming out of the pickup in heat-shrink tubing so that it was really strong, as this tends to be a really vulnerable spot on most pickups. No good having a dead one. To mount it, as to can see in the first picture I drilled a small hole with a brace and bit to feed the wire through. It's small enough diameter that the pickup will cover the hole.




To mount the jack, I flipped it over on it's side and drilled four larger holes with the brace and bit again, and used a hand chisel to clean up a bit. My plan wasn't to make a museum piece, rather to finish this before the kids got bored with the project and wandered off to play football. Cavity is large enough, we're finished here.




Ok, this old BIll Lawrence pickup is perfect for this- there are no pole-pieces to worry about, so no concerns about how the string passes over the pickup. And I simply enlarged the holes and screwed it down on to the wood, passing the wires through the hole in the cavity.



And, then finally, scavenged an odd bit of plastic and mounted the jack to the plate. Here's what it looked like when it was finished.

Making a Diddley-Bow: Stringing up

OK, here's a picture of the string running through the tail piece. I drilled an extra hole on a diagonal to run the string through it. Works great.






And here you can see I made a diagonal cut across the peg head to mount the tuner in the middle of the neck, so it pulls the string straight. I also added a small notch in both the bridge and the nut to hold the string in place.

Making a diddley-bow: all done

And here's the final product, with Noah giving it a road test. He's obviously a slide player from the Lowell George and Bonnie Raitt school- he preferes to play with a socket wrench. Me? I'll drain a bottle of Corona and use that.

How's it sound? Totally awesome. Really raunchy. Dog hates it. It's a winner.

In an inspired couple of days...

All the guitar parts to several songs are done. Finished. Re-recorded and perfected. There's a lot of work left to turn this into a finished CD, more singing and mixing. But the foundation is one I'm happy with now. That's what was eating at me with the earlier versions of things, there were just too many little nuances that I didn't like. After obsessing about this and working it to death, we not have a solid base to build up from. The songs that survived are:

Cold Falling Rain
Deeper and Deeper
Man in the Mirror
Sackcloth and Ashes
Stranger Blues
Worrying Stone
Water Rising Blues
Ball and Chain
One foot in front

I know you'll as about the breakdown of the guitars used here, so the official count is:

Regular Guitar? 1, but in an open tuning.
National? 1
Electric Lap Steel? 1
Lap Steel (Acoustic)? 6

Not one guitar in standard tuning anywhere to be found. Not from lack of material, mind you, those songs just have been left behind for a bit while things settle in. The survivors all hang together well. Not to worry, you'll hear all of them in Dundee.

All in all it's been an interesting process thus far, focusing on this with this kind of intensity. Three weeks to get a few guitar parts together seems like a whole lot of effort. But the reality is that I needed to get inside the songs and push them around a bit. Hit back. Songs are bullys, they like to force you in a direction that may not be right. I needed to push back, put some in time-out and reward the cooperative ones.

Phew. It'll be worth it in the end, I'm sure.

Seasick Steve?

TIme for some blues, this one will change your life. Thank the maker for YouTube.

Click here, and thank me later.

No really. This is a blues blog, and we haven't been talking about the music enough lately. So, trust me and head over to youtube and check this link out. I wouldn't waste your time and mine putting this here if it was crap. Come on, do you have any idea how long my honey-do list is? I'm lucky to get time to be on the computer at all, as long as my chore list is around the house these days.

So click the link.

And as an update: My amp is still trashed from the flood, I'm still recording, The band is playing next week at the Tunnels in Aberdeen and the Dundee Blues Bonanza is right around the corner.

Phew. All's well with the world. So see? You can click the link.

Air Travel and Security.....

My friend Gene sent me this, I have not a clue where it came from. Only shade for miles, and there's your flight home, ready to depart. Wonder if you could make it?


Kinda puts all those new TSA proceedures in perspective, no?

I google'd my name

And it turns out that I'm either a porn star, or someone using my EXACT name is one. That's a little odd, no? I mean, what are the odds of that. I thought all porn stars were named things like 'Long John' , and 'Thunder' and 'Lace'. This is really, really strange.

I hope my mother doesn't read this. If you do, it's really not me.

Dundee Blues Bonanza!

Hey all, just a couple of weeks till the Dundee Blues Bonanza.

Mark your calendars, we're playing with Time Aves on Saturday the 30th, and again

This week's special....

Want to book the band? Book us between now and the end of the month of June, and we'll throw in a workshop of your choice! Lap Steel, Slide Guitar- I have several 1 hour prepared workshopes ready to go that you can use as an extra marketing tool, or a chance to raise a little extra money.

But you need to move quickly. Operators are standing by. Email me at info@sonhenry.com

This is my kind of site

"Isn't it time people stopped fighting and learned to play 12 bar blues shuffles instead?"

That's a quote from the home page for BluesForPeace. Guitar lessons and videos, and a great idea- turning swords into Stratocasters. Bless yer hearts, guys. It's a great idea.

Here's the link-

http://www.bluesforpeace.com/

I love the airport. The Anchorage airport is still one of the few airports around where you can get close to the end of the runway and watch the planes land and take-off. Just like when I was a kid. It's a rush watching these big things head out or land with a screech.

Great picture, no? OK, it's not blues. Still cool, though.

Is it true? Starting from scratch?

Sort of.

I cleaned up and mixed down about 6 songs today. They're good, I'm not sure they're something that I want to turn into a formal CD release. So, a little more clean up this evening and I'll wrap them up and give copies to some friends and family.

And then start on the blues CD in the morning.

I suppose I had to get all this out of my system. The songs are good, but a little too autobiographical for comfort. Sorry, we're going back to country blues again. As much as I feel like I'm walking the same ground over and over again, I think I owe it to everyone to take a craftsman-like approach to the next CD, rather than spit them out like watermelon seeds simply because I can.

Sounds like a bad car commercial.....

I lied about mixing. I'm still recording.

Yeah, I know. I'm picky.

But there's a few songs I'm going to try this week and then mix on Friday. Going to keep working and then take the best of the songs and distill them down into a well-mixed compilation.

It won't be ready by the Blues Bonanza at this rate. Sorry. I'd rather you wait for something good than start thinking that I'm only creating quantity instead of quality. It'll be worth the wait. The votes from here from my sharpest critics are that this is shaping up to be a real solid release that'll open a door or two.

TIme to re-pot the National

Oh....

the pickups in my National Dynamic are microphonic. Time to pot them in wax. Normal wear and tear, these were not meant to be layed this loud, after all.

more rig adjustments.....

Spent more time tweeking the rig this weekend. It's a keeper.

I'm running a Weber 100 watt attenuator on the Marshall, which is one of the ones that works with resistors, and I think it's a good backup but I'm going to swap it for one of the ones that uses the reactive load in the form of an old speaker motor. According to a buddy of mine that has one, they're more natural sounding, and that's really my issue with the one I have, it's fine but it acts like a brick wall. So the upper dynamic range gets squashed.

But it's a minor point.

The reality is that the bulk of the tone is coming from the Pro Reverb, I'm a die-hard fender cat. But it's nice to have that extra something beefy to add to the mix. That Marshall is the thing. I know my blues-purist buddies are cringing. But hey, Jimmy Reed recorded with borrowed gear, so take a cleansing breath and trust me, it sounds like the bees knees.

And it's god because my old 100 watt Super Lead was wiped out in a flood a couple of weeks ago. Did I post about that? I can't remember. Oh, well, we had a plumbing fitting burst in my flat and it ran water into the back of my other amp. It's toasted. It's repairable, I suppose, once it dries out. Actually, I'm in no great hurry to plug it in after bailing almost a litre of water our of it. And in fairness, would you plug it in? We'll leave that for the folks at the Marshall Service Center.

the lap steel rig of doom

I had a chance to road test my new lap steel rig last night at Cafe Drummonds. Here's a photo to show you the new set up. On the right it's my trusty old Fender Pro Reverb, it's one that I've had forever. On the left is a 50 watt Marshall 2x12 combo. It's the old Lead/Bass model, and insane amp in it's own right. Yes, they're both on at the same time, sometimes.

What makes it work is the Radial ABY switcher that I added to my floor board, so I can jump between the two amps.

And, to keep the sound people happy, and keep a lid on the volume, I'm running a Weber (www.tedweber.com) attenuator on the Marshall, and a speaker silencer on the Pro, which knocks the power down to 20-25 watts each.

How's it sound? Like chocolate cake, nice and tasty....

Mixing tomorrow

It's true. I'm mixing what I have tomorrow.

Phew. Recording is hard work.

For no other reason than we need a photo here for a change. Too many words.


On of my favorite festivals of all time is the Talkeetna Blue Grass festival, a weekend in the mud camping hippy style, with basically non-stop music. About time for this one back home too. And just so we have a photo, here's one I found while cleaning up my computer- this one is me and my buddy John on-stage in Talkeetna at the Bluegrass Festival.

It's a great festival. And the best part is that there's a musicians camping area behind the stage where everyone hangs out (families too) for the weekend. It's a big communal bar-b-que and always a great chance to meet up with old friends, have a jam in the parking lot and a few beers.

Our last time there we closed the festival with a 1 am time slot. From that slot, we hold the record for noise complaints- 11 MILES away. Great combination of athmospheric conditions and a really honkng PA. It wasn't just me.

Ok, here's a shout out to all the friends back home- see you all in November for the benefit, OK?

That Muse again

I'm a real believer in following things to their natural conclusion, letting songs lead the way. And I've been writing and recording like a mad man for the last couple of weeks. What a surprise to hear all the songs together for the first time and realize what a diverse group of songs this collection is. We're covering the roadmap musically, in ways that reflect some of the travelling I've done. There's a tango, some old country blues, some really mellow old country and folk style songs.

Ok, for better or worse we're almost done. A few more things to clean up and we'll be ready to mix this bad boy.

It's funny, but I'm giving this one to some people I trust FIRST, so I can get a read on the range being too broad, or too mellow or too something. Not sure what that might be, but it's different.

I'm not having a crisis, by the way. I love all these songs. So there.

If life wasn't complicated enough

I bought a new amp today, it arrives on Thursday just in time to check the valves and head off to Cafe Drummonds for a gig.

What can I say? I love the tone of an old National Lap Steel through a Marshall, and now I own an old 50 watt model. Otta be a killa' me thinks, this new wee bit o' kit.

Festival Review from Blues in Britian Magazine

19th Burnley National Blues Festival
Easter Weekend, April 7th-9th, 207


Friday night roared to life with the Son Henry Band at the wheel- a prime example of bar band blues with Son's lap steel really ringing out on "Can't be Satisfied", "Anywhere she lays her head (That's my home)", and (deep breath) Voodoo Chile which featured some blistering slide playing with a great distorted tone. What really lingered though was a great version of Sam Cooke's "A change is gonna come" where the rhythm section dropped down a gear to allow more space for the sounds Son coaxed out of his lap steel. His version put me in mind of guitar players usually associated with the British folk tradition, Martin Carthy or John Renborn, say. Bringing it back home, indeed. Go see them, they'll get your motor runnin'.

Some reflections on the Globe Gig.

I've noticed that the more we rock out, the more CD's we sell. Hmmmm, so much for being a 'pure' blues band I guess. That extra bit of energy seems to play well with normal people.

I suppose it could be a bad, if you were a purist-type of guy. I know bands that are stuck in niches like 1955 jump blues, and that's great. After turning this around in my mind for the last few weeks my take on it is this- I'm a songwriter first, a performer second and a guitar player third. I can't force the songs to come out in a certain specific style, they come into this world fully-formed. Since that's what we take to a gig, well, that's what seems to define the sound. And so we're not an archivist or historical preservation society. It's modern blues, roots music if you prefer, that's a reflection of my life and the times we live in.

Sound like I've been thinking about this? I have. Carrying the label of a 'blues' musician means that I feel honor-bound to be playing blues, and as close to the bone as possible. Truth in advertising. With the new material we're headed off to be more like the 'Glenn Highway Blues' version of the band- more slide, more country blues style stuff and a little less of the lumpy shiffles.

At the end, it'll be what it will. Always follow the muse. Are we a pure blues band? Well, I'll let you decide what you think about that. With this post, I've officially beaten this one to death here.

The songs keep coming

Lord, help me, I'm never going to finish this disk.....

I've been playing with a latin-blues riff in G minor the last few days, and it turned into a full-blown song yesterday. I really like it, and that's a problem, because I want it on the new solo disk. What's a guy to do? Well, record it I guess. We are working against a deadline, because if I want this done by the Dundee Blues Bonanza I need to finish it up and have it ready to ship by Friday.

It'll be a horse-race.

Four songs are complete and I'm happy with them (Solitary Blues, Sackcloth and Ashes, Ball and Chain, Hole in my shoe). There's still a couple that I need to finish singing once my voice recovers from last night's gig at the Globe. And then there is that new one. All together it's a total of 15 songs, 4 done, and the best of the remaining ones will make it on the disk. We're sitting right at 16 minutes of material, and once we have about 35 solid minutes of music we'll be ina position to call it done. My goal is to finish them all and pick the best, and then make the rest of the songs available to the folks on my email list. I'l put them out on my MySpace page too.

We have 4 days to go at this, full-time, next week. We'll make it.

I must be mellowing in my old age...

I played some of the rough mixes for my toughest critic, yeah, my wife. She's always honest and usually right. She's a tough one though. Her comments? I'm getting mellower, that the songs I played for her were more folk than blues.

Well, that's ok, I didn't play all of it for her. Heh, heh, heh.

There's lots of blues, no worries. But, the songs in question are the ones I get asked about at my solo gigs these days. You guys like the blues stuff fine, I know. But that's not the ones that get requested at the CD table after the show is over.

It'll all end well. A couple more days of cleaning up the audio and then we'll finish the mixing and it's off to duplication before Dundee. Sleep? Later.

Finishing that solo record this week

Well, I spent the morning working on the final guitar tracks for a couple of the songs that go on the solo record. Tomorrow I'm off to the studio to sing a few parts, play one or two bits on the lap steel and then mix it all down. I'm working to get it ready in time for Dundee. Thought I'd have it by mid-June, but it's looking like it may slide a bit longer.

So, here's my question- would you rather have an EP, say, 20 minutes in length that you could bet cheap (something like 5 pounds), or a full length CD (more like 40-50 minutes) that would run you a full 10 pounds?

Just curious. Email or comments welcome.

Turning Comments back on

OK, we'll try this again. You can comment on posts again. Please feel free!

Last time it ended badly, people posting links for viagra and Malaysian time-shares, that 'My Dad as an oil minister and I need to move 20 million dollars, can I trust you?" email scam that is an insult to everyone's intelligence. Don't do any of that, you'll spoil it for the others.

And while we're on the subject: Don't run with scissors, never post drunk, don't make that face or it'll freeze like that, what part of 'NO' don't you understand?

There. I think that covers all the bases. Sorry about the rant, I feel better. And now you can comment about it! See? It's all for the best.

On the fine art of band directions

I'm tired, bored and under-challenged. Alienated, disgruntled (was I ever gruntled to begin with?) and feeling underwhelmed with all things music these days. And so I write more songs as a cure.

Had a great rehearsal last week where we started assembling some new songs. It's great to throw things at the guys cold because they either *click* and become band songs or the fall face down on the canvas and become solo-set songs. A couple of tunes took a dive last Wednesday, but one or two kept swinging. And now they're in chute to join the set list. Let's face it, they're not all good, some need to fade out. The keepers are *keepers*.

And hey, as much as I love playing in some of the more rock clubs in town, it's not good for our blues playing. They have a natural gravitational pull that takes us away from roots playing, towards that sticky patch of the road with a blues-rock lay-by. Lots of over-the-top stuff. I miss the hip, understated feel of a good blues gig, with all the space. Yeah, there I said it, the loud guy likes silence. After all, it's the spaces that make the groove.

So, today we're looking for a whole new shows worth of funky, swampy tunes with great grooves and hip changes, and insightful lyrics that tell life like it is. Gotta run, time to get away from the computer and get back to work!

New CDs

I ended up with a few new CDs this week. G'vt Mule, Ben Harper, Amos Lee and they're all interesting. But my favorite of the pile is the "Boomer's Story" by Ry Cooder. Monster guitar playing, lots of inspiration on that disk.

They're all good disks, but that Ry Cooder one is insanely good. And I guess I need to face up to the fact that I'm not very good at listening to Blues/Rock music.

back when I had shorter hair

What can I say? The boys all take after me.....

a blues singer's wife gets her turn...

Click here to read the whole story...

a blues singer's wife gets her turn...

Click here to read the whole story...

About the book

I have the next 2 weeks off to write. And write, and write.....

Since it's my birthday today.....

Yep, it's today.

I really don't want presents. I have lots of things, so I don't need more things. If you want to get something for me, how about this instead? Just do something nice for someone else, doesn't matter who it is or what you choose to do. That's what I want this year.

It's actually the second time that I've flipped this number on my calendar. I *thought* I had this birthday last year too. As it turned out I did the math wrong last year, and I didn't realize it until about a month ago- I woke up one morning like a shot after realizing that I'd slipped a digit. I broke in on my wife in the shower and asked here "HOW OLD AM I?". She had the number wrong too. So it's like getting a whole year to have over again, and I didn't need to be visited by 3 ghosts to do it either! So, take 2 on this year of my life. How cool is that? See? I really don't need a thing, I get a do-over!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. To my creator who''s kind enough to allow me to continue being here for another birthday, thanks! To my mother that had the courage to bring me into this world all those years ago, thanks! And to my dog that let me sleep in to almost 6:30 am on my birthday, well, we need to work on that a little.

Now, off to play with my kids.....

And then there's this one on the Dundee Blues Bonanza site, which means it's ALMOST BLUES BONANZA TIME! Yipee..

Forgot about this one. Do I really have such bony elbows?

Shetland Blues Festival

That's me then, all sorted for the Shetland Blues Festival this fall. See you there!

At that fork in the road....

At a fork in the road
just south of Mobile
standing in the shade
by an old cotton field
the signs on the road point east and south
but the signs on the road won't help me out
when I'm standing
standing by that fork in the road

it's not indecision that's holding me back
it's a fear of all the information that I lack
to make a proper choice when the road is unclear
in the absence of knowing I'll just stand right here
standing at the fork in the road

Copyright Son Henry, 2007, all rights reserved


So, obviously someone I know has a hard time with big decisions......

On this day....

It's getting obvious that I'm facing major changes in life this week, I think.

It's interesting that, for me, my self awareness comes from looking back at the music I'm writing. Since I've been focused on the 'solo' record lately and writing and recording like a man posessed, the songs are pretty personal. At a subconscious level that's probably because I don't need to run them through the filter of a band, get the tacit approval of other people that's required when a 'me' song becomes a 'band' song. The band songs tend to be pretty non-specific, impersonal ones about not-quite-true or embellished events.

The solo ones are a mirror.

What's interesting to me is that if I'm not aware of what's going on internally, all I need to do is look at the songs and I can find out. So if you were to ask me things like "Am I stressed out about X?" it's likely that I'd have a hard time giving you an honest answer. But, take a look through the song journal these days and I must be stressed out about change, leaving people behind, about the uncertain world we live in, and be looking for some kind of sense of continuity and security. It's all there in the songs this morning.

In otherwords, I'm my normal, deeply moody self. Except that I'm writing songs, lots of them. Most of them you won't ever hear, they're too personal. But some will escape from this prison of modesty if there's something universal in them.

No, I don't need a shrink. I have two- a black book of lyrics and an old six-string guitar. And so, off we go this week to record a few more songs, one or two of which may also make it onto the new record.

But don't worry. It's not a collection of depressing songs. Some of them are actually in major keys.

Hanging with Ray

I had a chance to spend some time with Ray Bonneville this week (www.raybonneville.com). Some of you in Aberdeen remember that Ray blew the roof off the music hall 2 years ago as Robert Cray's opener. He's a solo player with a really killer sense of rhythm- foot board, percussive guitar style, great harmonica playing; he's the whole package.

He's also a great guy and a certified road dog. I helped Ray load gear in to the Lemon Tree on Friday morning and then had a chance to sit and talk music for an hour or so. He was really a great help breaking down his guitar style for me (and it's still Chinese math for me), and some equipment. But it was his insights into songwriting that I really enjoyed. If you've heard his songs, you know that he can really put ideas together in a way that's like a painting, very Dylan-esque.

What can I say? A couple of great shows, and a chance to talk shop with a guy like that? Great weekend. Validates why I do this.

Solo CD update

Sang all Thursday morning. 8 songs ready to mix. A couple more to go, and then we're off to duplicate!

This says's it all

Flood waters risin up to my door.....

Arrrgh-

Had a plumber doing some work on the house yesterday for my landlord. He managed to drill a hole through a pipe and it leaked all night and day RIGHT DOWN THE BACK OF MY '73 MARSHALL SUPER LEAD. Its ruined.

It's not a drink-spill caliber flood. I drained 3 cups of water out of the amp this morning. 3 cups, and it was still dripping while I dried it off with a hair dryer. Speakers in the cabinet are soaked too.

Yeah, I know, it's not like I lost a finger, it's a 'thing' and it can be replaced. But I was really attached to that thing.

I need a hug. And a new amp. In that order.

New CD available at CdBaby

Finally, the new CD is available through CDbaby. It's a great place to check out the sound clips. Wann go listen? click here and then let me know what you think!

Spikedrivers at the Blue Lamp last night

Another great gig last night, thanks to Chris Simmonds!

My first time to see the Spikedrivers, and I'll go see them again. Interesting instrumentation, great originals and lots of stage presence. All in all a really enjoyable night. I'll post more later.....

Campbell Brothers on YouTube!

What can I say, sometimes you get something really great on youtube. Check out the Campbell Brother clip, these guys are awesome (and I'm not saying that case I'm from their neck of the woods)

Click Here!
And Here!

on the fine art of going local

Looks like we'll be here a while longer, so I'm going local.

It's a thing that happens when you've been somewhere long enough that you really start to put down roots. It's different for everyone, this week, for me it's swapping the power transformers in my amplifiers so I can run on 240 volts. As of this evening, I have converted two of them to run from the wall plug here. I'm sending the marshall is back to the marshall factory to get re-wired, and then we're done.

Funny how that works. The big thing for me was not needing a step-down transformer any more. That always seemed like a temporary thing. No longer, I'm a global kinda guy now, because the amp will run anywhere now, and I can go home one day and only re-solder one wire.

Phew.

"why so little music lately?", she asked

Because I always warned people that one day I was going to sit down and write a book. I'm finally doing it, at about the 12,000 word mark. Stay tuned.

Drummonds tomorrow as told by Chris Simmonds

Chris Simmonds, Aberdeen Promoter and all-around good blues guy had this to say about our gig tomorrow night at Cafe Drummonds in Aberdeen:

Fresh from their appearance on the main stage at Burnley, the very excellent Son Henry Band play one of their semi-regular Drummonds gigs. On the basis that this band gets better every time I see them they should be phenomenal tonight! The new Long Way Home CD is great and you can play the "How many guitars will Son play tonight" competition as well!! And with a supporting cast of Dean Stewart on bass; Les Taylor on drums it should be a rocking night here as well.

How many guitars? That sounds like a challenge of sorts. There's my new magnatone, and the old national, and my brown maggie. Hmmm. Anyone want to cut me in on the winnings?

Seriously, it'll be a great gig. The band is razor sharp and after a few days off is always ready to wail into the wee hours of the morning. I'm in the middle of repairing my amp (new speakers and a new 240 volt power transformer) and at the rate I'm going I'm going to be dragging my Marshall amp instead. That'll be fun.


See you there!

To that kid from youtube

Some 18 year old know-it-all on YouTube told me that I "need to take some guitar lessons from Derek Trucks", which makes as much sense as telling a keyboard player they need to take lessons from Paul Butterfield. That, and some other things that just ain't fit to print. On the off-chance you're reading this:

1. I own more than one CD, there are many other slide players in the world other than Derek Trucks. I don't expect you to understand, it requires an open mind.
2. You should post your own work on youtube, rather than illegal bootlegs of other peoples material.
3. Don't drink and type.

The 3rd one is the big one. I have nothing against anyone else that's 18, and any other new guitar players. This guy is an intellectual vomit stain on the world.

Solo CD track listing

OK, as of now, all that's left to do is sing everything and mix. I realize that this will mean *bupkis* to those of you that haven't seen a solo show in the last 3 months, but bear with me. All of the guitar and percussion parts are done for these songs:

Deeper and Deeper
Water Risin
Sackcloth and Ashes
Solitary blues
Luke's Black Cloud Blues
Hole in my shoe
Water worrying stone
Fork in the road
Man in the mirror
Ribbon of tar


So, there you go. Artwork is even done for this one too. All we need is a little singing, a little mixing and then it goes out the door to be ready for the June 15 launch, which will be at the Lemon Tree that afternoon and the Tunnels in the evening. There will be no escaping this one.....

Moorings Bar, Aberdeen tonight!

All-

The band is headlining a show at the Moorings Bar tonight. Our first gig there in fact.

If youre a Moorings regular, don't let the 'blues band' tag scare you away because this ain't your mothers blues band- unless she's a loud, hard living biker with a bad attitude and a larger than life alcohol tolerance. In that case bring her along......

About those other lap steels.....

In the last week I've had a bunch of questions abut my steel guitars, so here are some quick photos and some notes.

The first one is an old Magnatone, in mother-of-toiletseat brown. It's my favorite of the lot. These are generally frowned on by Steel players because they have a pretty raw tone. The pickup is more like a stratocaster pickup than a normal steel guitar, which means it not a powerful, but these have a great dynamic range and don't tend to feed back. This one is normally in Open D or Open G.






This one is a picture of a national dynamic- it looks like mine, I can't find a good picture of mine right now. It's a classic National- brand lap steel with the big pickup. This is a guitar on steroids, very powerful and sensitive enough to play 3 octaves up the neck. Normally tuned to Open E, Open E-minor and Open A. Sometimes tuned to an E-tuning that goes 1-5-6-1-3-5






This one is an old Supro Comet, circa 1950-something. It's the one I normally play on the legs when I have a gig where I can't or don't want to sit down. It's strung so I can tune it to basically anything froma low Open-C to an Open-A. Unreal that the strings don't break more....







Ok, this one you may have seen from time to time, it's an odd one- an Eddie Alkyrie 10-string, probably made by Epiphone in the 50's. It's tuned to an E13-type of tuning that I developed for this one. It gives me the intervals I need to play minor and major chords as well as some hip jazz chords with odd extensions.






And, finally, the one that started it all- this is the National New Yorker that my friend Boo Rody loaned me *years* ago to learn on. After all these years Boo gave me the chance to buy it and I jumped at the chance. It belonged to his mother who was a professional guitarist and steel player in the 1930's and 1940's. This is a really powerful sounding old guitar that shreds amps for breakfast- it's the one you hear on 'Heartache and Trouble', for example. This is the big-block Chevy of the bunch.

Oh, it does go to gigs, but only ones where I can keep my hands on it, so it doesn't tend to travel at all. Gotta see a show in Aberdeen to see this one....

more blues photos

The Lancashire Telegraph just posted a whole collection of photos from the Burnley Festival. To check them out click here

Off the subject of the blues

The US Mint is finally getting around to making the Alaska quarter-dollar as part of the series. Designs are good for the most part, but I like the one with the Musher and Denali best.

Sorry, it's an Alaskan thing, humor me.

Burnley Stage Photos!

Tony Winfield sent me some photos that he took at Burnley last weekend, and he's been gracious enough to allow me to share them with y'all. Thanks Tony!

Be sure and check out his web site of blues photographs at http://www.bluespics.co.uk and his myspace page

The artist with the Magnatone addiction

I'm sure that there is a cure for people with chronic tendencies to acquire instruments, and if there is please don't tell me about it. Yeah, ok, I have an unhealthy addiction to these Magnatone lap steels, they're cheap, lightweight and sound amazing. And they come in such great colors. Like this vomit-green one, for example, that is currently on it's way to me.

Ahh, the good life. It really did need a home where it'll be able to get out and make some noise and not hide behind a glass case in some industrialists home....

This just in from Burnley

Son Henry Band kicked the fun off at Burnley Mechanics with their raucous set of swing stomp and jazz blues which had the crowds jumping.

Here's the link: http://www.burnleytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2491049&SectionID=12

Les's Burney Photo Essay

Burnley Retrospective

Well, gang, I'm back home from the Burnley Festival. All in all our show went really well and we were well received. Also had a chance to meet HarpDog and JC from the the Blindman's Blues Forum, and saw but couldn't connect up with Houndog, so by my rough count that was 6 members of the forum all together (including me, Delius and Dino from my line up). If you're not a member, you should google the forum and check it out, it's a great 'place'.

We decided to take the train, save on gas. Great idea in principle, but with all the gear and lap steels I needed my suitcase weighed almost 100 lbs. Not very smart. But the ride down was really relaxing and gave us a chance to just hang out (which doesn't happen enough). Most of the way down we talked about the religion thread on the forum. That's odd coincidence number one- we have an ex --divinity student and an ex-religion and philosophy major in the band. I know that's so *not* blues band, we should have been talking abut wiskey and wimmen, but we were on a train so I think that evens things out.

Get to the train station in Burnley. No Taxi to be found. Two mile walk to the venue. Finally flag a cab big enough to get us there and a really nice Pakistani gentleman talks blues with us all the way to the hotel. So, you've got 3 Scots, an Alaskan and a Pakistani talking blues in England. Small world.

Hotel is nice, very English pub and all the other headliners are staying there too.

Quick shower and gear check and we're off to the theatre. Cabbie getting us there is the brother of the first cabbie and so, again, we talk blues all the way to the theatre. Line-check, sound check and off to the green room for some food. Oh, somehow I managed to get *so* much volume out of the Fender Twin they had for us that the sound guy complained he had me totally out of the mains. Arrrgh. Ok. Line check, sound check, turn down, second sound check and then off to the green room where we talked about the creation thread, Epigenetics, grid stability in 6L6 amps and wimmen. Ok, thats a little more blues band- gear and girls. The band is now acting 10 years younger.

Great gig. I love the tone of my old Magnatone lap steel blasting in a big theater and reflecting off the walls. It's a huge woody tone with a really large dynamic range for an electric instrument. We played two encores, and for the second one we played a lap-steel version of 'bring it on home to me' at a slow, teasing tempo. It was one of those soul-cleansing moments that reminds me of why I love to play music, sitting on the edge of the stage and bringing the band volume so low that I sould sing from the edge of the stage without a mic and hear the audience breathing. Any idea on how good a band you need to try that?

Done. Time to sell CDs and talk to folks. Met lots of nice people, business cards go flying out of my hands. We drag our tired selves off to the hotel. Yep, same cabbie, wants to know all about our show and were we staying around for Tommy Castro. Nope, as it turns out, we're recording. Too bad, I like Tommy Castro and haven't seen him in a few years.

It's at the hotel after midnight that things start to get interesting. Johnny Mastro and the band drifted into the hotel bar not long after we did, and we got to talking. Turns out that he's from my hometown in upstate new york 30 years ago. We went to college 10 miles from each other and I went to school with his older brother and sister- she was my ex-girlfriends running buddy. Turns out we know most of the same people. Talked with these guys almost until sun-up about things that Johnny and I had forgotten for years, all the people we'd not kept in touch with after graduation because we were different. A couple of blues-playing misfits in schools of career minded adults. Reassuring to run into someone that had the same experience. All this time I thought it was just me.

Over breakfast, Dave and I talk about the Archetypical journey of the modern hero, Carl Jung, Modern Psychology and the genome project. DIno is immersed in a book. Les is the quiet Beatle this morning. We take turns debating who gets to be Ringo and John. No one wants to be Paul.

Cab ride in the morning to the train station. Different cabbie. Too bad, this guy is grouchy. Lost my phone at the train station, but the guy that found it calls Dino and tells us he'll send it back in the post.

It's on the train that the beers, red bull and talk about women starts. And while we're waiting for a train I catch a reflection of the band in a window, and it hits me how much we look like a band. We're tired and unshaven. We're wearing a mix of stage clothes and street clothes, sunglasses and we're standing in a tight huddle on the platform talking in low voices, even though there is ample room to spread out. Strangers give us our space, but we can catch the stray eye puzzling over who exactly these guys are, what band is this anyway? But we're still taking about metaphysics, gear and women, though, and realizing we'll be able to include Dino in the conversation when he finishes his book in the next 5 minutes. He's lost in some fantasy world, different from ours. No matter, we've other long excursions coming up. This was an easy trip, by comparison.

But the trip was a reminder of how much I love playing music with these guys, and hey- I'd travel with these guys anywhere.

Burnley, ready or not!

Brace yourself, the band is on it's way to the Burnley National Blues Festival for our Friday night appearance. If you're going to the festival, expect a high-energy set for sure.

And, I always enjoy hanging out afterwards and talking shop, so look for me by the band's merchandise stall because that's where I'll be once we're finished. I usually bring my steel guitars along if you're curious about how they actually work- they are an odd breed of guitar.

And, if you're planning on staying home, well, you're going to miss all the fireworks! Off to pack, over and out for now. Hopefully we'll get some drummer-cam pictures for you to see the show from our perspective!

Solo CD release party, June 15

Talk about putting the cart before the horse. I know some of you think that waiting for my solo CD is like waiting for an Elvis sighting. So, to put my money where my mouth is, I schedled the release party at the Lemon Tree, Friday june 15 over lunch. I'll see if I can get an evening slot at a place like the Blue Lamp the same day.

Should get the recording finished the week after the Burnley Blues Festival, I have all the studio time booked- a solid week of recording. That should get it done. It's shaping up to be an interesting disk, with mostly lap acoustic. despite what I told Dave last week I think I am going to dust off my piano. Hmmm, some national steel too. arrgh- too much material. What a curse.

So, mark your calendars! And trust me, it'll be in the Lemon Tree Brochure (http://www.lemontree.org)

New CD Review on BluesMatters website

Scottish Music Reviewer Eric Scott had this to say about the new live CD:

This is the record of the annual benefit concert Son plays at in Anchorage, Alaska and it demonstrates that, like a good baseball pitcher, he has some truly ‘nasty stuff’ coming out of his lap steel guitar. Dark, mysterious and dirty in the lower registers, wicked and cutting up high, Mr. Henry remains a modern master of tone and shape- an unstoppable force at next weekend’s Burnley Blues Festival, for those of you within driving distance.

read the complete review here

From my buddy Bob Parsons

My friend Bob Parsons has been writing down road and gig stories, and sent this to me a few weeks ago. I'd forgotten most of this and had a good laugh reading this......

----------------------

I have been very privileged to play with some real ballsy players. Let me just embarrass a dude right here and now.

I played 3 years with Son Henry. He never missed a gig, although he was sick a couple of times. here's a side note — don't hang with that guy when he's doin Dayquil! As I lug my stuff to the gig, still keeping it to one trip, I look back on all the stuff Son packed into his Suburban to get him through the night. Tremendous committment to a certain sound that he needed. Sometimes he'd bring 400 pounds of gear. And the guy was so road-tested. He broke a string on his lap steel at Blues on the Green, kept talking to the crowd the whole time he found a new string and replaced the broken one. The bnd is vamping through all this and I got so caught up in watching this lesson in multi-tasking, I totally forgot to play anything to help him out. Then he looks back and says "Play something will ya, and help me out here!". Duh, oh yeah, that's right, I'm a musician...

Besides, being sick, playing, playing through crappy electricity, microphones emitting blue sparks (come on, how do you go back and put your lips back on a mic that just hit you so hard it burnt your pickups off your strat?) Son calls me from the hospital the day we are to cap off Ocean Fest. He's strapped to a gurny, can't move his head, because some kid smucked Son in the backside with an S-10 pickup going 50mph — and he's talking about MAYBE needing help with his gear that night!!! Geez Louise... what's your excuse!

CD Release Party: the Globe Inn, Thursday March 29th

Next stop the Globe Inn in Aberdeen. We're recording live AND releasing a new CD.

Drummer-Cam photos from Kemnay

A little photo essay from Les, a drummer-cam of last nightst gig in Kemnay. That the Son Henry Band, a monster talent like Bob Hall on the piano and a 125 friend and you've the makings for a party. And that's just what it was. I think I have the photos more or less in chronological order.

All in all an amazing gig. Bob Hall and Hillary Blythe played a great opening set of boogie woogie and some old blues classics and a couple of original tunes too. After a short break to let Donald the blues DJ work his magic it was all us, with Bob sitting in on the piano. Having Bob involved totally turned things on their ear in great ways- lots of off-the-cuff blues and boogie, a head-cutting session over a Slim Harpo selection. Phew.

OK, more of the same at the Globe in Aberdeen on Thursday, and then we're off to Turrif on Friday. Hopefully we'll see you there.

Live CDs are finally here...

Yep, here is the proof, and I have a stack of boxes to prove it as well. Finally, seems like this one has been a long time in the making!

Audio on myspace?

Do any of you actually download the stuff on myspace? I've got a bunch of unreleased live recordings that I'm thinking of putting out there, but don't really want to put the time into it if it's not something that y'all want.

on the fine art of friends and money.....

What a great way to loose a good friend. Shame too, I'd much rather have a house full of friends than a bank full of money. But it seems like a rule written in stone that if you end up loaning someone money you'll end up loosing a friend in the process.

Next time, I'm just going to call it a gift and not take anything but no for an answer. Too strange otherwise.

My father always used to say never sell your car to a friend, in the end you won't have either one , and I think that's sort of the message here too.

Globe Inn, March 29

This'll be the last gig in town before we head off to the Burnley Festival!

We're going to set up a little early so I can run y'all through some of the new solo material. It's really heavy on the lap-steel (acoustic that is), and so far the material has been well received.

I'll also be recording the band set, possibly as a CD release, more likely that it'll be some audio files we'll send to everyone on our mailing list. So, if you're a lurker but not on my mailing list there's a good reason to sign up, and it's as hard as clicking the link at the top of the page.

Oh- this gig is also the OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE of the new live CD too.......

Ribbon of the road

I asked my father, but he didn't know
how to choose between a woman and the open road


from "Ribbon of the road", recorded tonight.

The problem isn't having enough material for this solo record, it's clearly having a back-log of material that adds up to too much. What a good problem to have...

Recording, part 2

Yes, folks, we're recording in anger these days.

Spent several hours at Musical Vision yesterday recording some lap steel tracks and managed to finish two that I'm happy with:

1. Sackcloth and Ashes
2. Water and stone

And then, to make matters worse, was up to the wee hours of the morning working on guitar parts to

3. Mirror man
4. Born to roam

Tonight we're back at it, and we'll be finishing off

5. Fork in the road
6. Name for a number
7. The celebrated Mother in Law Blues

And then package everything off to sing and mix. Lots of this will come out on the next solor record, and the rest will be available for download on Snocap or myspace or something (not sure yet).

Ok, that's me done coming up for air in the middle of this creative frenzy. If you're waiting on me to return a phone call or something, I apologize. I'm focused and need this done. Man, I haven't even taken the trash out this week but that's probably something I can't let slide much longer.....

Peace!

Bob Hall, Son Henry in Kemnay, March 23

Need a great excuse to get a little out of Aberdeen? Here it is, then!

On March 23rd we'll be playing a gig with British Blues Piano legen Bob Hall in the Fetternear Hall in Kemnay (see the map). The night will start with a relaxed set from Bob Hall and Hilary Blythe performing lots of great piano based blues. From there we'll drag Bob into the middle of my band and play a few hours of classic Chicago Blues for danging into the wee hours of the morning.

It's an honor for us to support someone of Bob's caliber. If you were at the opening of the Dundee Blues Bonanza last year when Bob sat in with us, you remember that this is a dynamic combination. You'll hear lots of new material, stuff that I've never taken to a gig yet, but with this line-up it's going to be something else.

Seating is limited, so send me an email at info@sonhenry.com to reserve seats.

See you there!

New Band Photos

We had some new pictures taken and I've redone the web site to show you the WHOLE band. Click here to see the image! More pictures to follow after the Globe Gig!

Day one results

Well, a few very productive hours in the studio today. All the guitar parts for:

Stranger Blues
Hole in my soul
Long way Home
Bound to ride that train
one foot in front
solitary blues

are done. Some harp, singing and percussion and these are all finished! Going to take a break from this for a bit, though. Need to spend a little time editing the lyrics to these songs so they're really sharp.

Recording Tomorrow!

Hey y'all

Work on the long-promised solo CD resumes tomorrow (Thursday) when I take that old National of mine into the Musical Vision Studio here in Aberdeen. I've made a list of the songs that need to be recorded and it's grown really long, but since tomorrow is the first day in this studio I imagine we'll try for getting three complete songs down and be sure to really get a feel for the place. But, if it goes well, there'll be a whole bunch of stuff coming out this year.

As a surprise, I'll be taking my new Stella guitar with me as well- it's an old, cheap plywood guitar that Billy Allardyce found on Ebay. It's got a classic sound for the old-school blues, it's something about the plywood top and old dirt from some grandmother's attic. No matter, I've got a tune or two for it, and if we're rolling tomorrow it'll get it's air time!

Really, there's no way to release all this music on CD, there's just too much of it, so I'm looking into the option of taking bunches of it straight to digital distribution. Tunes, Tune Tribe and a couple of other outlets and by-pass the CD process completely. Some will probably end up as free downloads on MySpace too.

OK, I'll check in tomorrow night, let you know how it all turned out. In the meantime, happy Valentine's Day!

Son

back in the studio

Well, it had to happen!

Starting Thursday I'll be back in the studio for some more recording, but this time I'll be finishing up that solo disk I've been working on forever. It's going to be an interesting mix of some tunes on the National, a bunch of acoustic and electric lap steel and some songs on the straight guitar. I'm anticipating that the songs will stand by themselves without the need for over-dubbed parts, but in all honesty being in the studio is like having a really big box of crayons to play with- might be hard to avoid the temptation to fill things out a bit. There's one or two songs that would really benefit from a little bass and drums too, so we'll see.

We've started the 'organization' process- slicing up the material that I want to record into easy to manage groups. For example, recording all the songs on the national in one pass (even though they won't end up on the disk like that), preening the guitar parts and the lyrics and generally making sure that the first set of songs are ready to be put under the microscope. It's an interesting process, and truthfully, sometimes these songs just don't measure up. Needless to say we'll record more than will appear on the final disk.

So, fingers crossed! I'll let you know how this goes....

Horns?

It's true.


We've added Ken Shorten on trumpet and David Hair on misc. saxophones. They've both got years of experience and can play their backsides off. They really make the sound of this band bigger than I'd ever believed possible!

Not sure when the first gig wil be, we're scrambling to get tunes together. Could be as early as the end of next month....

on the fine are of kicking ass....

What a great band I've got. It's not every night that you open for Jimi Hendrix. I mean,even if it's a tribute band, the crowd expectations are really high and not a lot of people go to see the support act. It's like being the dishwasher or something.

But with nothing to loose, these guys just corked one off. Amazing. Crowd of people pressed to the edge of the stage, digging it. Wow. Awesome all the way around.

I'm obviously wiped out, it's late and I need to crash. So rather than babble on incoherently, let's just leave it at this. Way to go guys!

Don't believe it's a small world?

Then you need to get to a Lemon Tree gig somewhere. Because there you can hear an Alaskan guitarist, mixed by a lassie from Scotland, and sit at the same table with a painter born in Bethel Alaska, a few folks from Shetland Islands, a Scottish Lap-steel maker and an assortment of folks from England and France.

Home Page Updates!

Well, I'm not a web developer, but sometimes I sure feel more like a web guy than a guitar player. But, all griping aside, I did some updates to my homepage at www.sonhenry.com.

Schedule page, recordings, news- lots of new stuff to crow on about. Take a look!

Burnley National Blues Festival

The brochure is out, take a look!

Click here

Supporting Hendrix and Rob Tognoni

Check it out- Saturday February 3rd at the Lemon Tree supporting the Hendrix tribute band, and the following Sunday afternoon opening for Rob Tognoni. Going to be a busy weekend!

http://www.lemontree.org for advanced tickets to the hendrix show!

See ya!

Glad I don't need to worry about hitting anything this big on the way home from a gig, but I must admit that this picture makes me more thana little homesick. Look at all that snow! Great ski season right now...