American Songwriter » November/December 2008

BEHIND THE SONG: “Make It Easy On Yourself”

David Freeland — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:09:43 +0000

For many, “Make It Easy on Yourself” (1962) remains one of the most emblematic songs in the canon of Bacharach and David, a lush creation of orchestrated melodrama that points toward a new sophistication within 1960s pop music as a whole. For Bacharach, too, the creation of “Make It Easy” represented a pivotal moment: It was one of the first sessions upon which he was given freedom to produce (even if, on the original single’s label, he only received an “arranged by” credit). “Make It Easy on Yourself” Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David For many, “Make It Easy on Yourself” (1962) remains one of the most emblematic songs in the canon of Bacharach and David, a lush creation of orchestrated melodrama that points toward a new sophistication within 1960s pop music as a whole. For Bacharach, too, the creation of “Make It Easy” represented a pivotal moment: It was one of the first sessions upon which he was given freedom to produce (even if, on the original single’s label, he only received an “arranged by” credit). Although the 34-year-old Kansas City native had already gained success as a writer (with the Shirelles’ “Baby It’s You” and others), “Make It Easy on Yourself” could be said to have marked the real beginning of the distinctive Bacharach “sound.” With this breakthrough came the expected complement of hurt feelings and misunderstandings. Originally, the song had been intended for a young, classically-trained gospel singer, Marie Dionne Warrick, who had been working with Bacharach as a backup and demo singer. However, Florence Greenberg, the feisty owner of Warrick’s record company, Scepter, turned it down. Why Greenberg would have dismissed such a beautiful work is a mystery—perhaps she felt it was too great a departure from the teen “girl group” style that had put Scepter on the commercial map with the Shirelles. There is, however, a happy ending to this anecdote: when Warrick learned the song was no longer hers, she was reported to have slammed out of Bacharach’s office with a curt, “Don’t make me over, man!” That line became the centerpiece of Warrick’s first hit with Bacharach, 1962’s “Don’t Make Me Over,” and represented the start of one of the most famous musical partnerships in pop history—after a record label misprint identified Warrick as “Dionne Warwick.” In the meantime, however, “Make It Easy on Yourself” was given to Jerry Butler at Vee-Jay Records, the pioneering African-American owned label in Chicago. Working closely with Bacharach during the session (Vee-Jay’s A&R man, Calvin Carter, having stepped back from the controls), Butler fashioned a magnificent performance, using his soulful baritone to mine the lyrics’ heartbreak: “If you really love him, and there’s nothing I can do/Don’t try to spare my feelings, just tell me that we’re through.” Released in July of 1962, “Make It Easy on Yourself” rose to No. 18 r&b and No. 20 pop—not one of Butler’s loftier showings. But what the single lacked in chart action it made up for in influence: in fact, when a Vee-Jay boxed retrospective was released in 2007, “Make It Easy on Yourself” stood out as a glorious highlight. Of course, there have been other versions. Warwick’s original demo was included on her first album (Presenting…) for Scepter in 1963; and later, in 1970, she had a hit with the excellent re-recorded live version which appeared on her Very Dionne album. In 1965, The Walker Brothers, an American pop group recording in Great Britain, took it to the charts in a rendition nearly as beautiful as Butler’s, complete with a Phil Spector-styled “Wall of Sound” production courtesy of Dusty Springfield’s arranger, Ivor Raymonde. Bacharach’s own treatment of “Make It Easy on Yourself” arrived with his 1969 solo album bearing the same name. Sporting an arrangement more adventurous than those featured on the earlier, hit versions, the track is nonetheless marred by Bacharach’s oft-cited lack of vocal ability. But what may be the greatest treatment remains one of the least known. In 1977, Cissy Houston (Warwick’s aunt and mother to Whitney) included it on her self-titled album for Private Stock Records. Houston, a member of Bacharach’s original group of backing vocalists during his Scepter days, completely transforms the song, opening with a quiet spoken passage and working up to a series of increasingly dramatic peaks. Later she tosses off a string of melismatic runs and caps them with a pair of high notes that soar majestically over a bed of strings. It’s a stunning performance, one that embodies all of “Make It Easy on Yourself”’s —and Bacharach’s—transcendent potential.

Jane’s Addiction Unveil Rarities

Evan Schlansky — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:46:40 +0000

With a new Trent Reznor-produced album in the works, and a promised summer tour with Nine Inch Nails on the horizon, Perry Farrell and company have announced they will also release a new rarities box set, A Cabinet of Curiosities, on April 21st.

The set will contain unreleased demos from the band’s early years, unreleased live tracks, and a bevy of covers, including songs by the Grateful Dead, The Stooges, and Sly and the Family Stone. A DVD of the shocking 1989 Jane’s movie Soul Kiss, long out of print, will be included. Curiosities will be released by Rhino Records, who will also release beefed-up vinyl copies of Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual De Lo Habitual on Record Store Day, April 18th.

Reznor has said he was compelled to work with the band after learning of an L.A. club show where Jane’s brought the house down. Pitchfork has a number of videos from that evening. Watch them here.

Martin > Steve Earle M-21 Signature Guitar

Nick Worley — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:56:52 +0000

Steve Earle M-21 Signature Guitar" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/martin-m21-149x300.png" alt="Martin > Steve Earle M-21 Signature Guitar" width="99" height="200" />

Dubbed the "poor man's M", yet retailing at $4,299.00, the M-21 Steve Earle hardly seems like a poor man's anything. The guitar has a natural lightweight feel across your lap. Strum a G chord and it has that full ring you would expect from a Martin, which is a beautiful thing. LIST PRICE: $4,299.00
Website: MARTIN

Since the mid eighties, Steve Earle's name has been synonymous with troubadourian greatness in songcraft. The man has had his ups and downs and has no doubt played hundreds, if not thousands of acoustic guitars over the years. He's come a long way from the old days of "37 dollars and a jap guitar", so it's only fitting for Earle to get his very own signature model from the mother of all acoustic guitar makers, Martin and Company.

Following his relocation to New York, the hard-core troubadour hooked up with guitar guru Matt Umanov, who has 40 plus years of experience as a vintage guitar dealer, and was soon turned on to Martin's "M", or grand auditorium series. Dubbed the "poor man's M", yet retailing at $4,299.00, the M-21 Steve Earle hardly seems like a poor man's anything. However, considering it's still $2,200 bucks cheaper than Ben Harper's signature M guitar, and is a hell of a lot less ornate, we'll let that slide. While it has a simple look to it, the M-21 Steve Earle does feature fine solid tonewoods: Italian alpine spruce top; East Indian rosewood back, sides, headplate and fingerboard; and a mahogany neck.

The guitar has a natural lightweight feel across your lap. Strum a G chord and it has that full ring you would expect from a Martin, which is a beautiful thing. There is plenty of low end too, which is surprising for a smaller guitar. The action on the M-21 Steve Earle is such that it is easy to fret chords, unlike a Martin D-28. The Waverly nickel tuners make it easy to venture in and out of different tunings without going sour. I tuned the Low E string down to D and was pleased to hear that Deep, instantly familiar Drone found in so many of Mr. Earle's finest songs including the classic country rock anthem "Copperhead Road" and "Tennessee Blues" from his latest effort, Washington Square Serenade.

I really enjoyed playing this guitar for the brief time it was in my home and even did a little recording with it. As expected, it performed well in that area too. With its big sound, elegant curves, and understated visual beauty, Martin's M-21 Steve Earle is a highly impressive instrument. Don't let the "poor man's M" label fool you though; this is a serious, professional instrument and is priced as such. Those who can afford one will not be disappointed.

Interview: Steve Earle on Guitars

Davis Inman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:37:37 +0000

I started leaning towards Martins again for the first time since my teens because of being around bluegrass players and making The Mountain, so I bought several Martin dreadnoughts. But dreadnought-sized guitars were starting to kick my ass when I was playing the material on this record and basically I was back to doing two hours and fingerpicking every night.We got a chance to take Martin's new Steve Earle custom M-21 guitar for a spin in our November/December 2008 issue, (click here to read the review). We also got a chance to talk to Steve at length about various subjects. But mostly about guitars. We also hear he likes to talk about bonsai trees. Really.

But, truly, it was a pleasure speaking with Mr. Earle about his passion and knowledge of acoustic instruments.

So the M-21 story starts at Matt Umanov's shop in New York?
Well, Matt built this conversion on a complete basket case F7 that [David] Bromberg had, and he put a long scale neck on it, and he put a new top on it, so that basically all that was salvaged were the backs and sides. I moved to New York three years ago, and, ya know, if you pace too far in my living room you end of in Matt's shop.

I had just written and was beginning to record Washingston Square Serenade and the Bromberg guitar came in, Matt had one of them (there were a hundred of 'em), and I bought that. And that was the first M guitar that I owned.

I'm obviously associated with playing bigger guitars. There's a J-100 that was made in the mid-'80s in Nashville when Gibson first started making those jumbos like that again and Gibson was really starting to get their shit together again for guitar building and they were making really good acoustic guitars anyway. It started out in Nashville and then they moved to Montana and I played those guitars for a lot of years, some older ones but mostly they were newer guitars. I've always collected guitars. I kinda went through one collection, my drug habit ate an entire collection and I started over again mid '90s.

I started leaning towards Martins again for the first time since my teens because of being around bluegrass players and making The Mountain, so I bought several Martin dreadnoughts. But dreadnought-sized guitars were starting to kick my ass when I was playing the material on this record and basically I was back to doing two hours and fingerpicking every night. Triple-aughts didn't quite have the boom to them that I wanted when I was beating the shit out of 'em. And I really wasn't even cognizant of this M-sized guitar. All it is really is a quadruple-aught sized guitar.

And I've always had a thing for 21-style Martins. I've owned like two D-21s, one from the '50s, one from the '60s. And 21-style guitars are just plainly appointed rosewood guitars. They basically look like D-18s but are made of rosewood.

And you picked Indian rosewood for the back and sides?
We did because there virtually is no Brazilian rosewood and I dont feel really great about using it. We kinda need those rain forests in this hemisphere or we're gonna have trouble breathing. (laughs)

The only other thing that's different is I decided on the Italian top based on the Bromberg. And Italian and German spruce tops are essentially the same thing, they are spruce from the Alps, the distinction is political, not botanical. They aren't quite as deep, which I noticed also about the Bromberg guitar as compared to M sized guitars with sitka tops, they sounded a little deeper, and my theory and Matt's was that they sounded deeper than the sitka. Adirondacks and other options which I think sounds different, maybe a little deeper, but I'd never heard an M-sized guitar with an Adirondack top. So at the time we went with the German because it was a known quantity. Mostly Matt spec'd it out. I was lucky to have him walk me through the process.

I'm in New York now and I was just down at the shop. I'm always interested when one comes through the shop now because people are ordering them. [Martin] has sold like over sixty of them. We didn't limit the number, as long as people will order them we'll make them. They are hand-numbered but they are not limited. So there are basically two numbers, the standard Martin serial number and then they have a hand number and then of course the labels are signed by me and Matt.

So Matt has some at his shop right now?
Right now he's got the #32 guitar and I know that because it arrived and I got the #31 guitar and gave that to Ray Kennedy. I own the #1 and the #5.

Which one of those is the sunburst?
The sunburst is the #5. As far as I know there have been two sunburst guitars produced. And Matt sold the #7 sunburst. Mine is the amber sunburst, and they call it a "Chris Hillman sunburst" at Martin and we can't figure out why.

So Hillman played one like that at one point...?

My guess is that Chris did an artist model. At Martin they can tell you about a number and why they did something technically but with stuff like that the record-keeping gets a little dodgy. My guess is that Chris ordered a guitar based on a sunburst that he'd seen before and someone at Martin said "Oh, the Chris Hillman sunburst" so they're calling it that, informally, around Martin now. I orderd one of those guitars. Actually I bought a few of these guitars to give to people but when I saw that color I ordered a third guitar for myself just to complete the set. It's really pretty. [Editor's Note: The Amber burst will be also be used on the forthcoming Chris Hillman model.]

So are you Martin M-21 man all the way or are there other guitars you play?
There are guitars that I use but every night on shows I play an M-21 all the time. The 12-string I'm playing is a Taylor, Leo Kottke model, and I really like that just because it's built to be tuned to C# and it's really the only affordable guitar that's built to do that. I carry that and two M-21s and I'm playing a lot of National resonator guitars these days.

Yeah, I saw you play a resonator at Newport Folk Festival with the DJ.
That's a new 14-fret Model-O that they made for me. I've got a '37 but it's got the original cone in it and I got scared carrying it on the road. And National is making really good instruments these days.

Those old cones are tricky.
Yeah, they are. I promise you a TSA can crush the cone on a resonator guitar without ever knowing what they're doing. They can break bowling balls. It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen.

So you are using the M-21 live?
I'm using them in the studio too. They surprised me. They really seem to jump on tape. You don't spend a bunch of time EQ-ing boom out. Now there's sometimes I want them to boom. I do pick up a dreadnought for playing bluegrass with a microphone. For almost anything else I use the M guitar or something smaller. I mean I've got an 1880s-something size 1 Martin that I use a lot.

Yeah, a little parlor guitar?
Yeah, it's what people call a parlor guitar but I don't know what that means. Size 1 was the only size guitar there was! (laughs) The way Martin's sizing works is there's size 1 which is their original size. And a size 1 is two sizes smaller - and keep in mind what you're literally talking about is if you draw the circumference of the guitar and go up or down a size, it's like an inch, it's really less than an inch - than a double-aught guitar. And originally they went 1 through 5 and the higher the number the smaller the guitar. That Terz guitar, the baby Martin like Bobby Gentry and Marty Robbins played, that's a size 5 Martin. It's not a ¾ sized guitar, it's short scale, it's just a small-bodied, short-scaled guitar. 4's there were very few made. There were quite a few 3's made. 2's there were very few made. So we're talking mainly 5's, 3's, and 1's and then they made the 0 guitars, and they don't make single-aught guitars that I know of at the moment. They still make double-aught, and the triple-aught is a size up from that and then they stopped and jumped to the D guitars, the dreadnought. And the dreadnought guitars were started in 1918 and the biggest battleship made at that time was called dreadnought class.

What pickup do you have in the M-21?
It's a Fishman driving a Fishman aura system. I actually don't have images of my guitars yet. I haven't had time to image them. I'm using an image from the George Martin model M guitar, the M3M. And as long as images are the same size as your guitar it usually works just fine.

And in the studio...
In the studio I'm just sticking big large diaphragm microphones in front of a really good guitar.

And you are liking the M-21 for both live and studio applications?
Yeah, I am so far. I'm just starting a record. I just did the first recording with an M guitar, brand new still thinks its a tree, sunburst guitar, when i first got it. I was really surprised. We just did it because it was the guitar that was handy and Ray Kennedy and I were doing a mic shootout. I'm getting ready to record a whole record of Townes Van Zandt songs. And I was just getting my rig ready because I'll do a lot of the recording at home on my own rig and we were just shooting out several microphones and it just blew our mind the way that that guitar sounded. And I'll use the David Bromberg model because it's a little deeper sounding because it's older I've had it longer, it's pretty broken in.

Do you like to use older stuff in the studio?
I do to some extant. It depends on what's around. I kinda live in more than one place. I've got a lot of guitars. And also pulling out different guitars keeps you from getting bored.

And you just run over to Umanov's...
Well I've done that before too but that's like...you know, he sees me coming. I went down there this morning to get some coffee and came back with a banjo.

I used to talk to Zeke at the shop when I lived in New York...
Oh, I just left Zeke a few minutes ago. He's a really really good guitar player too.

He was showing me some Robert Johnson licks and I thought I knew 'em but he had them figured out a whole different way...
Yeah, as soon as this tour's over I'm gonna get him to show me how to do the Robert Johnson stuff. I can play the Robert Johnson stuff in standard tuning but he knows all the open G stuff. He's got it totally down.

Anthing else you'd like to mention about your guitar?
Naw, it was just really cool that it got done and it's such an honor to have your name in a Martin guitar and it's cool that Matt got to sign it too. I don't know who was more excited, me or Matt.

Sounds like it was a true joint effort.
Absolutely.

TAYLOR SWIFT: Elevating Teen Dreams into Art

Edd Hurt — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:01:35 +0000

Taylor Swift isn't precocious, cute or sweet, although she possesses a winning combination of vulnerability and toughness, which is one key to her immense success. The 18-year-old singer, songwriter and budding mogul doesn't exactly sing country, either. Taylor Swift isn't precocious, cute or sweet, although she possesses a winning combination of vulnerability and toughness, which is one key to her immense success. The 18-year-old singer, songwriter and budding mogul doesn't exactly sing country, either. She might have penned what sounds initially like a paean to Tim McGraw, but 2006's hit single "Tim McGraw" turns out to be about her own experience, with McGraw's music as the backdrop to a life that runs like an accelerated, time-lapse film of growth-where there was bare ground two seconds ago now teems with bright colors. Like most current music marketed to a country audience, Swift's 2006 self-titled debut was something else entirely. She is, in many ways, a classic singer/songwriter, the kind of artist who is driven to pick apart the quotidian. Still, her autobiographical impulses and her devotion to the everyday put her in line with any number of young country and Americana artists, even if Taylor Swift sounds slick enough for her to have snagged an opening slot on a recent Rascal Flatts tour. Still, Swift's teen-pop goes deep and gets ambivalent while hewing to the conventions of the well-made Nashville song. After all, what mainstream country or pop artist recording in Nashville has the luxury of experimenting? On her new album, Fearless, Swift doesn't break a lot of new ground musically, but her knack for conversational and slightly troubled lyrics remains intact. Like the best writers, she finds a way to open up her narratives, which makes her-deservedly-a poet of the teenage experience. In her best songs, however, she's something more. Fearless's title track takes time to note the "glow off the pavement" as she makes her way through another closely observed romantic dilemma. And part of Swift's poetry is the way she offers the image and then snaps it shut with the following line, "you walk me to the car." Swift seems to understand how a narrative song uses imagery to give us a glimpse into her state of mind, and to show how sharply she notices the world. A less commercial or skillful writer might have offered another image, but Swift phrases the line "you walk me to the car" in a very canny way. The image flows seamlessly into the action. She closes the book on that particular bit of emotion and advances her tale like the storyteller she is. For all that, Swift operates like an artist, right down to her obsession with writing. Discovered by future Big Machine Records executive Scott Borchetta at Nashville's famed songwriting temple the Bluebird Cafe singing a song she'd written when she was 14, Swift-born in 1989 and raised on a Christmas-tree farm in Wyomissing, Penn.-had already been writing at a furious clip. "The song, ‘Picture to Burn,' which was a Top 5 single for us, I wrote that when I was 14 and played it at that [Bluebird Cafe] showcase," Swift says. Most writers are born as well as made, and Swift proves it. "For me, I started out writing when I was 12. I learned three chords on a guitar and wrote my first song that night," she remembers. "I would write songs until my fingers bled, until my mother would make me leave my little computer room and come to dinner. I found something at that point that I absolutely couldn't put down." Moving with her family to Nashville, Swift quickly achieved the near-impossible: she landed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As she says, "I was the youngest person Sony had ever signed. And I walked into writers' session with writers that I knew were hit songwriters. I knew they were twice if not three times my age, and I knew they were going to have serious doubts about walking in and working with a 13-year-old. The first writers' sessions I got were due to my publisher pulling major favors." That might be true, but setting up younger writers with more experienced tunesmiths is a venerable Nashville tradition, and also, of course, a way of hedging one's bets. Swift might have been young, but she was determined to make the most of an opportunity most aspiring writers would envy. "I knew I couldn't let my publishers down, and I couldn't let this industry down," Swift says of those early writing sessions. "And I knew how people were going around talking about how there's this 14-year-old who had just lucked into a major publishing deal. So, before every single writing session, I'd walk in with 15 or 20 ideas, of songs that were almost finished. For me, I just wanted everyone to know I was serious about it, and that, yes, I was going to high school during the day. But while I was in school, every second of my free time was spent on thinking of ideas to bring to these co-writers." On Taylor Swift, she wrote most of the songs with Liz Rose. "She's one of my favorite co-writers," Swift says, "and she and I wrote eight of the songs on my first record, and I think three of the songs on my second record are ones I wrote with her. I felt so comfortable with her that sometimes I would bring in the craziest ideas. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. A case in point where it worked was when I brought in an idea called ‘Tim McGraw.' She looked at me like I was crazy, and then, as I kept on playing this idea for her, it sunk in. She got it." The result has since become famous-a real landmark of teen-pop and country crossover that doesn't sound in the least bit country. (On both her records, the pedal steel and banjo are merely signifiers. Musically, she operates strictly in mainstream pop, with a haze of indie indecision hanging over some of her chord changes.) Like many of the songs on Fearless, Taylor Swift's "Picture to Burn" has formal affinities with the work of Pavement or any number of ‘90s indie-rockers. It's a generational thing, and one gets the sense that Swift's music-and the rather anonymous backing of the studio pros she uses-is secondary. Swift, however, doesn't see it that way. "It's like a puzzle," she says of her efforts to marry music and lyrics. "If you get the code and the syncopation and the melody and the emotion just right, the words can absolutely bounce off the page. I love syncopation-the way you can take a chord structure and play it and lay a bunch of different melodies and lyrics on top of it. It's almost conversational. I like to write conversational songs because I can relate to them more." Writing with Big and Rich's John Rich for the new record, Swift turned out "That's The Way I Loved You." Here, the composition integrates music and lyrics in a completely natural and intelligent way. Unlike some of Swift's songs, which can sound like lyrics simply grafted onto a melody, "That's The Way I Loved You" binds together sound and sense. The experience of hanging out with Rich was something of an eye-opener for the young singer. "I went to write with him, and he's like a cartoon character," Swift laughs. "I say that in the best way possible. I went to meet him at a gas station near his house and he pulls up in this Bentley, this crazy-expensive car. He pulls up, rolls the window down-the window's completely blacked out--and I'm just, like, of course, John Rich drives that. He's got this bulldog named Frank Sinatra. Writing with him was so amazing, because I didn't know how it was gonna click." "That's The Way I Loved You," about the conflict of choosing between a perfect, amiable guy and the bad boy she still dreams about, contrasts slightly mechanical-sounding verses with a more relaxed chorus (she sings the verses as if she's slightly distracted, with an intentionally unnatural emphasis on certain words). Swift says that was intentional. "We wanted the verses to seem very robotic," she explains. "But then when you get to the chorus, the melody explodes. We wanted to reflect the lyrics of the song in the way the melody was." Swift talks about what she calls "a crazy, weird minor chord [Rich] came up with," and this reveals an aspect of her experience that seems strangely unformed. The chord, and its place in the song's harmonic progression, is pretty standard; The Beatles used it in "You Won't See Me" in 1965. Despite her undeniable talent, it's hard to shake the feeling that Swift is writing to formula a lot of the time, and that the formula excludes a lot of ideas that could be interesting, not to mention commercial. There's nothing particularly surprising about her choice of chord progression and rhythms, although this may be a byproduct of the Nashville practice of co-writing. Fearless does well with its readymade forms, however. In her hands, the standard pop song-already assembled and ready to use-becomes a vehicle for expressing her emotions. The casual "Hey Stephen" might be the best track on the record. With its nod to Phil Spector's girl-group productions in its drum intro, "Hey Stephen" stands as a first-rate pop song. Throughout Fearless, one marvels at Swift's precision as a writer of lyrics. When she sings the line, "repeating history and you've gotten sick of it," it's clear she is some kind of newfangled master of the colloquial. Swift is a pro, and she's still incredibly young. When she talks about becoming a mogul in the mold of Madonna or Dolly Parton, it's not hard to imagine. She's a realist who one day may find a way to overcome Music City's formulas. The pressure must be incredible, and she seems to take Nashville's peculiar, hot-house style of writing in perfect stride. "What you can learn from a co-write session is that it can be the best thing, if the ideas are flowing," she says. "If it's not right-well, there are days when it's not gonna work."

BOB DYLAN & HOHNER HARMONICAS: Sessions

Simon Malone — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:42:07 +0000

When you think of harmonica players in the last 50 years, a few come to mind, but none quite like Bob Dylan. The man pretty much codified a style for harmonica playing that all singer/songwriters have since become beholden to. And not only was Dylan a unique stylist on the instrument, but, especially early on, his long, searching, expressionistic harmonica interludes played perfect counterpoint to his fiery poetics.

And thus from the man who in a famous, off-handed remark called for the Newport Folk Festival audience in 1964 to "just throw up" [to the stage] any E harmonicas, comes the Bob Dylan Collection of hand-signed harmonicas from Hohner. For an artist known to innovate and change styles with practically every breath, Dylan has been uncharacteristically devoted to playing Hohner harmonicas through the years. And Hohner would certainly seem to be the ideal partner for such commitment; they possess the wonderful distinction of being one of the world's oldest musical instrument makers.

"It was not easy to achieve the standard that Bob Dylan represents. Among other things, we gold-plated the reed plate in order to achieve the specific sonic requirements," says Scott Emmerman of Hohner. The new harmonica has a decidedly louder projection with a thick, bright tone and, one imagines the increased volume and sonic variation will be ideal for Dylan, whose playing is all about expression.

For true aficionados of the harp and the man, Hohner is releasing a set of seven Marine Band harmonicas which have been played and hand-signed by Bob Dylan. This release is limited to 25 sets worldwide while an additional 100 harmonicas in the key of C, also hand-signed by Bob Dylan, will be available. (There will also be a regular collection of the set-of-seven, which is in the natural keys of C, G, D, F, A, B, and E, as well as single harmonicas available for individual purchase.)

Dylan's harmonica-playing grew out of his early folk singer sensibility, but his style has also evolved with his music. The harmonica has served Dylan as an emblem through his various styles: folk, folk rock, country-western, gospel, blues, to name just a few. In an interview with Emmerman, Dylan describes his early attraction to the instrument. "When I was performing solo in coffee houses...I got the approach from Woody Guthrie...it really gave a coffee house performer more variety to be able to keep the rhythm on guitar while playing the harp."

In the interview Dylan acknowledges the influence of Little Walter, although he notes that his own style is "a more chordal thing, as opposed to the single note style" of the great Chicago blues harmonica players. The way Little Walter locked in on the melody with Muddy's thin, emotive Telecaster slide guitar playing made for some of the best blues cuts of the era. You'd be hard-pressed to find comparable playing today; indeed, Dylan notes that there has been nary a harmonica player that has piqued his interest in recent years.

JANIS IAN: Custom

Simon Malone — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:55:00 +0000

I decided to go back to recording and performing around 1991 or 1992, and also that I wanted a guitar "my size." I'm very small - 4' 10" at best - and there were things I wanted to do as a guitarist that I just didn't have the finger length or hand size to accomplish.

How did the relationship with Santa Cruz Guitar Company begin?
I decided to go back to recording and performing around 1991 or 1992, and also that I wanted a guitar "my size." I'm very small - 4' 10" at best - and there were things I wanted to do as a guitarist that I just didn't have the finger length or hand size to accomplish. I started looking around for someone who'd agree to make me a truly custom guitar. I began with Martin, because I'd grown up on Martins, but no one there felt there was any market for a "girl's guitar." Chet Atkins himself set me up with the Gibson folks, who basically said the same - there was no market for small guitars. In desperation, I called my old friend Lloyd Baggs - a guitar he'd made for me in 1975 was the closest I'd seen to what I wanted. He, in turn, recommended Richard Hoover and Santa Cruz as an up-and-coming wonderful luthier and company.

Richard couldn't afford to make the guitar for nothing, and I couldn't afford his normal pricing. We settled on him paying the labor costs, and me paying for the molds, the wood, etc. When he finished the first prototype, he asked if he could bring it to NAMM with him as a curiosity. I said sure, and astonishingly enough, on his return he called to say they had a bunch of people wanted to order it, could they go into production?!
I agreed, with one proviso - the guitar had to have my name on the headstock. To my knowledge, up until that date there were no signature acoustic guitars for any females; I think the only woman with one at that point (1992, I think) was Bonnie Raitt with Fender. I think...

The guitar has a very interesting body - "parlor-sized" with a cutaway. What guitars/types of guitars have you played over the years that helped define what you wanted in a signature edition guitar?
As I noted above, I grew up playing a Martin - my father's 1937 D-18. I firmly believe there are two types of acoustic guitarists in this world - Martin necks, and Gibson necks. I'm a Martin neck person, so that was a big piece. The cutaway was obvious; I needed access to the higher frets for solo work. I told Richard I wanted the fingerboard to feel, and play, like my Gibson Les Paul - extra wide jumbo frets and very, very low action.

How were decisions made about the guitar? Was picking the shape, wood, appointments, etc. a collaborative effort? For example, I love the Rude Girl neck inlays...which is surely a Janis Ian touch.
Hah! I honestly don't remember which of us came up with that - I knew I wanted the fingerboard to look cool, but not overdone. Originally, we spoke about putting my logo on the headstock, but there wasn't room - and it really would have looked awful. The shape was pretty much Richard's; we went through a lot of discussions about depth and bracing, and in particular the saddle/bridge. I kept emphasizing that I wanted as low an action as possible - an electric guitar action - so the arch had to be small. The choice of rosewood and spruce was pretty obvious to both of us - and I wanted the guitars black, to differentiate them from all the other acoustics on the market. Richard came up with two dye possibilities, one lacquered and one matte. I've owned both over the years, but I personally prefer the matte. The only other things I really remember discussing and tweaking a lot were: the tuners. Finding black ones, at the time, was near impossible, and we went through several makers before we found ones that would hold up. The bridge/saddle - there was a bunch of adjusting done on that over the first few years. The pickup...of course, a Baggs, but what kind? I wound up with the LB6X, even though I've prototyped almost all of Lloyd's others, because it just likes my fingers and those guitars.

You play a very thoughtful finger-style guitar. Who have been some of your influences for guitar playing?
Oh, thanks! Thoughtful... huh. I'd never have put it that way. How nice. I wish I could say they were X and Y and Z, but really I've never listened to much solo guitar playing. I came to the Charlie Christian/Django/Chet worlds pretty late. I learned, at first, from the Weaver's and Leadbelly songbooks, at camp, where a lot of counselors showed me tricks. When I got home, I slowed down Baez and Odetta records and copied them. I think part of the cleanliness of my playing is my piano background, and part of it's also that I just don't like sloppiness unless it's intentional sloppiness.

You currently reside in Nashville, Tenn., which is a great place to live for a songwriter. Have you taken under your wing any up-and-coming songwriters in town? Is there anyone in particular who has made an impression on you? What advice would you give to aspiring Nashville songwriters?
I love being in Nashville; they took me in when no one else wanted me, and I'll be forever grateful. That being said, honestly, I haven't been in town enough lately to know any up and comers. I'm just now catching up with people a generation or two younger than me, like Gretchen Peters and Tony Arata. As far as advice... same as I'd give anyone. If you can do anything else with your life, do it. This is the business of failure, and you'll fail a hundred times or more for every tiny success. Trust no one. Trust your instincts. If you do something that goes against them, and it stiffs, you'll be forever unhappy. If you go with them, and it stiffs, at least you'll have produced something you still like. Last, but far from least, remember to take joy in what you do. It's too easy, in this world, to only think business. We become writers and players and singers because it brings us joy. Don't lose that!

You started writing songs very early in your life, which seems to be the mark of a true natural at the craft. What initially inspired you to start to write songs and what has continued to inspire you throughout your career? Has this inspiration changed?
Huh. I've never thought about that. I know my acting teacher, Stella Adler, used to say "There are three things you can't play. You can't play young, you can't play sexy, and you can't play talented. You are, or you're not." I think writers are born writers.

As to inspiration. Heck. Beats me. I just like writing.

You've just released your autobiography Society's Child this summer. How was going about writing autobiographical prose different from songwriting?
Mmm, kittens and puppies? Apples and oranges? Both are mammals or fruits, both are alive, both propagate - beyond that, not much in common, really. But as I have said often, writing is writing. My years writing articles on deadline for The Advocate and Performing Songwriter stood me in good stead - I knew how to research, how to parse and punctuate, how to tell a story. That really helps.

Your lyrics stand up as poetry in their own right. When you write, what tends to come first: idea, melody, chords, lyrics, etc.?
Ah, no offense, but poetry is a completely different art/craft. I don't write poetry at all; I write songs. They depend on musical meter, quite different from poetry. That being said, it all depends. No hard and fast rules about how it comes, except that fortunately for me, the starts of songs usually come to mind with lyric, melody, and chords all at once. Thank God...

One of your most enduring songs "At Seventeen" does a great job capturing the emotion of a teenager. If you were to write a song today called "At Fifty-Seven," how would it sound?
I wouldn't write it, and I can't even begin to envision it. You couldn't possibly write a song resembling "At 17" about your fifties; it just wouldn't make sense. Even the format wouldn't work. I would hope I've moved on, as a writer, to discuss things that make sense to people in my age group - the death of a parent, like in "I Hear You Sing Again." The need to be grateful, like in "Joy." I would hope that as I've matured, the music has matured - not necessarily better or worse, but more mature.

ALESIS > M1Active 320 USB Speakers

Chris Loocke — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:44:34 +0000

M1Active 320 USB Speakers" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/m-1_320_front-4x6rgb2-300x225.jpg" alt="ALESIS > M1Active 320 USB Speakers" width="200" height="150" />

Alesis has introduced the M1Active 320 USB Speakers, a competitively priced semi-pro speaker system. These are plug and play speakers, meaning you do not have to have any drivers or special software to use them. Simply plug them in and they will blast sound with ease. You can also use the speaker's other inputs to record line-level sources to the PC or Mac. Let's face it, studio monitors are ridiculously expensive, but you usually get what you pay for. These tiny speakers are an exception to the rule. They are inexpensive and offer an incredible range of frequency (lacks some highs) and lots of sound for the price.

When I test speakers there is one album that always offers the best palette for comparison: Steely Dan's Aja. This gloriously engineered gem was recorded so perfectly that you can instantly tell the difference between two speaker systems. I started the song and immediately found that every nuance and color can be distinguished from subtle snare drum ghost notes to the attack on an auxiliary hand drum. The speakers also have a bass boost switch if you need a little more low-end. This made me feel as though I was sitting in the recording console watching Walter Becker and Donald Fagen record the album. Also, I listened to some un-mixed tracks of my own. I put these up against a pair of M-Audio speakers priced about the same, and the Alesis speakers were noticeably more crisp, clear and true sounding. My tracks sounded a little more jumbled and muddy on the M-Audio speakers. This can present a problem when mixing because you think the track sounds better than it really does. When listening to my guitar parts on the Alesis I immediately discovered my EQ problem in the mix. Not bad for $99!

Whether you are in your home studio engineering the next big thing, or just jamming away to your favorite tunes, I feel that you will get superb results from these affordable speakers. These are definitely not high-end speakers, but will make a great addition to any home studio.

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L.R. BAGGS > Baggs Acoustic Reference Amplifier

Marshall Alexander — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:06:28 +0000

Baggs Acoustic Reference Amplifier" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lrbaggs-200x300.jpg" alt="L.R. BAGGS > Baggs Acoustic Reference Amplifier" width="133" height="200" />

The biggest problem with finding an acceptable acoustic amp, is finding one that actually amplifies the true acoustics of an instrument without diminishing the quality of the tone. More often than not, a great acoustic guitar will lose its brilliance when plugged into an insufficient amp; not so with the new L.R. Baggs Acoustic Reference Amplifier. LIST PRICE: $1,599.00
WEBSITE: L.R. Baggs

The two Para DI channels employ 100 percent circuitry, include parallel effects loops, spring reverb, and a Garrett Null notchfilter for feedback. The easily adjustable tone knobs found on the top of the amp allow you to find that perfect blend of richness and natural beauty.

The standout feature of this amp is the new L.R. Baggs patented honeycomb loudspeaker that delivers 140 degree wide full sound range. The clarity of this amplifier is unmatchable. The L.R. Baggs A-REF amp simply does an outstanding job of amplifying an acoustic instrument without distorting the natural sound. For the quality of this amplifier, the price is well matched- a solid purchase in my opinion.

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DANELECTRO > Dano ’63

Simon Malone — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:02:44 +0000

Dano ’63" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/danelectro-200x300.jpg" alt="DANELECTRO > Dano ’63" width="133" height="200" />

Nat Daniel had an idea. Electric guitars were all about the neck. To cut costs for the Silvertone guitars his company, Danelectro, started making for Sears in 1963, he used the cheapest body he could find: masonite! But for the fingerboard he used rosewood...and, ahhh, how it is sweet!LIST PRICE: $299.00
WEBSITE: DANELECTRO

Fans of the 1960s Silvertone 1457L model will be pleased with the Dano ‘63. They've recreated the famous "lipstick" pickups, known for that twang. The guitar is lightweight, with a maple neck and handsome rosewood fingerboard. Even unplugged the guitar has a surprising bounce and jingle. Plug it in and you get a thin, punk-y tone for the bridge pick-up. The middle position combines the two lipsticks, which are linked in series (thus doubling the output for a fatter tone), all the while holding onto the distinctive twang.

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