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musical (3)

CBG saved my musical life

Posted by Nicolas Leray on November 3, 2013 at 4:29am

I can't live without music, and playing music has always been a huge part of my life.

 

5 years ago, a fight with 2 drunken guys changed a lot of things concerning my musical life. Despite the fact I punched them hard, one of them hit my left wrist with a big knife, cuting nerves and veins. I lost sensitivity in a part of my hand and two fingers often do what they want, the wound having decided I was no more their master. Well, we could say I have two fingers left, but when you've been a kind of local guitar hero, it can be hard to accept. In 2010, I tried to play again but no way. Fastening third and little finger, I could play some solos with the two others, when but no more bar chords. And playing some garage punk/pop/rock, I played a lot of bar chords. As I love delta blues, raw/punk blues, I tuned my guitars in open D ou G, but it didn't sound as I wanted. Demoralized, I sold my guitars (Les Paul, Danelectro), my amps (Marshall, Fender) and bought drums. I liked playing drums, but it wasn't "my" instrument, and you all know than playing an instrument which is not the instrument making you vibe deeply is not the same... I bought a cheap guitar and tried to play with 3 or 4 strings. It wasn't bad but the sound wasn't what I wanted and no one around me understood what I was trying to do. Once again I was demoralized... Then I discovered Seasick Steve and I was happy to see I wasn't the only guy to play with cheap guitar and few chords.

 

Then, searching more on the web, I discovered CBG.

And my life changed.

The flame, the spark are here again.

 

So, you'll excuse me when I sometimes yell "I LOVE CBG".

 

They saved my musical life. Or is it my life ?

Nick

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Kevin M. Kraft answers the question: Who were or are your main musical influences?

Posted by Kevin M. Kraft on October 29, 2019 at 10:30am

Q: Who were or are you main musical influences?

Kevin: Many would probably laugh at the vast array of music that I love and has influenced me. The British band The Electric Light Orchestra epitomizes my typical hybridizing of musical styles and genres, with Jeff Lynne's always reliably captivating slide guitar work sealing it for me. I learned a lot from Lynne and the band about songwriting and arranging and unusual vocals and symphony, even something as "trivial" as the drumbeats Bev Bevan used in their songs. Besides that, I would have to say John Denver was a huge influence. Don't laugh! That man was a fantastic songwriter and vocalist. I wept the day he died, because we lost a fine artist. How to write excellently crafted songs and melodies I learned listening to his music. I've been influenced by rock and roll artists more than blues artists, which may surprise some, given my passion for cigar box slide guitar. But I'll tell ya: I love the blues! I'm obsessed with slide and bottleneck guitar. Since I couldn't play lead guitar worth spit, due to having stupid fingers, I picked up slide guitar. Actually, the truth is, I was an insomniac for a lot of my life. A chronic one. Because of this, my fine motor skills, which I would have used to learn blistering slide guitar, was chronically challenged. I couldn't get my fingers to work the way I wanted, no matter how much I practiced. So, under the tutelage of Lynne, Dwayne Allman, Joe Walsh and other rock sliders' tracks, I picked up slide guitar--and did so like a fish to water. I can indeed play the Allman Brothers' "Statesboro Blues" riffs with him. I'm soaked with sweat and exhausted by the end, but I can do it! (laughs)

Vocally, John Denver, Sam Cook, Russ Taff, Sherman Andrus and Daryl Hall start a lengthy list of singers I reveled in.

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Kevin M. Kraft answers the question: When did you learn how to play the guitar?

Posted by Kevin M. Kraft on August 29, 2009 at 1:15am
Q: When did you learn to play the guitar?Kevin: That's a difficult question to answer, especially since we're over here at the Nation. I'll answer it in a few ways...I took a few lesson when I was about twelve or thirteen from a guy in town. I used a Hawaiian guitar strung with thick steel acoustic guitar strings! (laughs) Yeah, ultimately those strings destroyed that guitar! Anyway, after three lessons, the teacher just wasn't teaching me what I wanted to learn, so I slacked off on practicing enough that my mother ended the lesson. I learned on my own from there. I learned to play listening to John Denver records--but don't laugh! I think John Denver was a wonderful artist and teacher. I learned a lot about songwriting from him--his melodies were fantastic and chord progressions sensible. I later learned slide guitar, but at first I didn't know what it was. I saw steel pedal guitar on HEE HAW, an old country-oriented tv variety show that came on Saturday nights. But I didn't like country back then, and I didn't relate it to what I heard coming from, say, Jeff Lynne, of the Electric Light Orchestra, which was my favorite band and other rock musicians. I figured they just had the strings right up close to the fret board or something, but could never get my guitar to sound that way. It was much later, as an adult, that I caught a Bonnie Raitt concert on MTV and saw--"Ah-ha! That's how they do that!!!" I went out and bought a glass guitar slide and tortured many others learning how to play--and there's nothing worse than listening to someone LEARN how to play slide guitar! But I eventually grew to be very good, again listening to rock artists like Lynne, Joe Walsh and, of course, Dwayne Allman. In fact, I worked hard at mastering Allman's licks on "Statesboro Blues", which shows you how ambitious I was. Anyway, I mastered the slide, which was good, because I couldn't play lead worth spit. I must have been one of the first to introduce electric slide guitar as a lead instrument when I lead the worship service at church, much to everyone's surprise. I really blew them through the back doors. Some hated it, couldn't understand why I did it. Others loved thew sound. But I could never get the sound I wanted from any of the normal guitars I owned, even when I altered them. It wasn't until I stumbled upon cigar box guitars one day, while look for information on building guitars, that my world brightened. I saw some plans online, wondered if I could do it. I tried it, although I actually used an antique silverware box I bought for a dollar at a thrift store. I built myself a guitar, and from the first strum of the completed instrument, I knew I was home. Cigar box guitar became a major part of my life from that time on. I've built some for other people and now sell them to anyone wanting me to construct one for them. My favorite box so far is the COHIBA. I love its tone. Both slide guitar and using cigar box guitars almost exclusively now, as more methodology than style. It's simply the way I'd rather play and the sound I'd rather produce. I don't study a lot of blues artists, preferring rock and songs I just love. I just learn how to play them on the box.
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