Laura Tate – I Must Be Dreaming | Album Review

Laura Tate – I Must Be Dreaming

Self Release

www.musicbylauratate.com

12 tracks / 40:37

Laura Tate has done quite a lot with her life, as she has forged successful careers as an actress and award-winning filmmaker, as well as being an advocate for educational and humanitarian causes. But if you are reading this you are probably most interested in her singing. She has an impressive voice and has not limited herself to just one genre; she is equally capable in singing rock, jazz, country, blues, or musical theatre.

This is fortunate for us, as her new album, I Must Be Dreaming, is a wonderful blend of cool American music, and a worthy tribute to the master songwriter, Mel Harker. Though Laura started out in Dallas and now lives near El Paso, she spent a good portion of her life in Los Angeles, where she became acquainted with Harker. She used some of his songs on her previous two albums, but this time she set aside all twelve of the tracks for his work, and it is awesome!

Tate took care of the vocals on this new release (of course), and she was joined in a Los Angeles studio by a fine crew that included Terry Wilson (guitars, bass, and drums), Billy Watts (guitar), Lee Thornberg (brass), Paulie Cerra (sax), David Fraser (harmonica), Lewis Stephens and Jeff Paris (keys), Karen Hammack (piano), Teresa James (backing vocals), and Wally Ingram (percussion). This is a huge crew, but they were needed to get all of the sounds that can be heard on I Must Be Dreaming.

The songs cover a lot of ground, but they are all have positive feel and the lyrics are clever with vivid imagery that draws the listener in. Though she chose material from Harker’s existing library of work, these songs all sound like they were put together with her voice in mind. It kicks off with a country Rocker, “Snake Tattoo,” and from then on no two songs sound the same. There is lounge jazz for the title track, a beautiful ballad (“If Ever Forever Should End”), a little “Cowboy Jazz,” and even the reggae/ska-inspired “Counting Up the Ways.” Besides these examples, there are bits and pieces of blues, rock, western swing and big band.

Throughout all of this, Laura maintains her cool and exerts an impressive vocal presence. She is able to sing brassy, sultry, and rocking sounds with no problem, and doing a country twang or bold blues is no problem at all. But this is not just the output of a talented voice - she is able to overlay heartfelt emotion, which moves her abilities to a higher plane. There are also no issues with hearing her, as the engineering and mixing are first rate; I have no complaints at all with this disc, which is a rare thing.

I Must Be Dreaming is a fun album, and Laura Tate has the chops to pull off all of these well-written songs. Check it out and hear it for yourself, and keep an eye on her website to see if she has any shows coming up!

Stewart-MacDonald Adjustable Toggle Switch Wrench Review

Howdy!

The toggle switch nut on Gibson Les Paul guitars can be a frustrating part to remove or install, despite the fact that it is super easy to get to. You see, since it is on the front of the guitar and so easy to see, Gibson wanted it to have a nice appearance. So they used a knurled ring to hold the switch in place, and there are no flats on which to fit a conventional wrench.

This means that most folks end up using a pair of pliers to get it loose, which can easily lead to a scratch in the finish or a chewed up nut. Plus, if you are really careful not to damage the nut when installing it, chances are good that it will not be tight enough and that it will loosen up over time.

There are special tools available, but they are made of plastic and strip out quickly. Fortunately, there is an answer to this problem. The marketplace for luthiers, Stewart-MacDonald, offers exactly the tool for the job: the adjustable toggle switch wrench.

This thing is made of metal with a plastic screwdriver-type handle. You can rotate the barrel around the wrench part so it fits snugly on the nut, and it does exactly what the company says it will do. You might think it is a waste of money to buy such a specialized tool that may not be used very often, but $17.71 is cheap insurance when working on your treasured guitars. Check out Stewart-MacDonald’s website for ordering details!

Mahalo!

Taylor T5z Custom Koa Acoustic Guitar Review

Hiya!

Since I am mostly a Martin guy, not a lot of Taylor guitars come through my studio, but every one I have played has been very nice, and the T5z Custom Koa is no exception. In fact, this is the nicest, easiest playing, and most versatile Taylor I have played to date.

The Taylor T5 guitars have been around for years, and they were the first really good production guitars that could be effectively played as an acoustic or an electric. And I do not mean just as an amplified acoustic guitar, either. You can play acoustic country and then plug and then plug it into a tube amp and get an incredible overdriven tone.

The T5z take this same design and presents it with a narrower body, heavier frets, and a 12-inch fretboard radius, which makes it play a bit more like a traditional electric guitar. The Custom is the top of the line (there are four models), and it comes with a beautiful AA figured Koa top.

The T5z is a good-looking guitar, and is chock full of high-quality components. There is five-ply binding on the Sapele body, and single-ply binding on the soundholes, pickup cavity, fretboard, and headstock. Though not my favorite look, the gold tuners, pickup cover, and strap buttons (two on the bottom!) do look pretty cool.

The neck is killer, and its 24 7/8-inch is a good compromise between electric and acoustic guitars. The neck itself is Sapele with an Ebony board, and there are 21 jumbo frets sunk into it. It plays a lot like my Les Paul, and though I am not a fan of glossy neck finishes, this one is not terribly sticky. There is a bone nut, which matches up nicely with the bone bridge saddle.

All of these parts are stuck together well, and the craftsmen at Taylor did a wonderful job of building this instrument. The frets are perfect, the poly finish is flawless, and I could not find a single thing to complain about, which is a rarity. The set-up out of the box was perfect, and despite its smaller body size, it has a great organic tone and surprising volume when it is unplugged.

When plugged in, this guitar can be a completely different animal. It does a good job with the usual amplified acoustic guitar sounds, but when pushed it can attain a true Les Paul crunch. This is thanks to the T5 electronics package, which includes three pickups: an underbridge acoustic body sensor, a concealed neck humbucker, and a visible bridge stacked humbucker. A five-way switch, one volume knob, and two tone controls control these pickups.

I ran the T5z through its paces with my Twin Reverb and my Fender Acoustasonic, and the folks at Taylor have truly done some magic with this design. It is a perfect hybrid of acoustic and electric, and if you could only have one guitar to do everything, this would have to be one of the best choices. It can sound like a Les Paul or a Strat (not such an accurate Tele sound though), and does a very good acoustic sound too. As an added bonus, it only weighs 5 pounds, 14 ounces, which is about half of what my log of a Les Paul.

As I said, the Taylor T5z is an incredible guitar, but you are going to pay dearly for all of this awesomeness. The list price on this guitar is $3798 with a street price of $2999 (which includes a really nice hard case). This is a lot of money and there is a lot of beautiful instruments at this price point. But, it holds it own, and should definitely be on your list if you are in the market for a versatile acoustic/electric guitar.

Mahalo!

Allen Toussaint: January 14, 1938 to November 10, 2015

Rest in peace, brother.

Blues Blast Magazine Album Review: Solomon King – Train

Hello!

This CD review was originally published in the June 12, 2014 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at www.bluesblastmagazine.com

Solomon King – Train

Self Release

www.solomonkingmusic.com

9 tracks / 31:34

There is nothing like a little mystery to keep things interesting, and everything about Solomon King is intriguing. He is cagey about his birth name and his personal history, but we know that he grew up around Detroit. As he passed through a number of bands, he took the logical route in Motown and became an autoworker for his day job. After the usual rounds of layoffs during the industry downturn of the 1970s he packed his guitar and left town, heading for a rosier future and the much better weather of Los Angeles.

In the City of Angels he continued to pursue his musical dreams, and in the mid-2000s he threw himself wholeheartedly into the blues, playing jams and working with artists who helped him hone his craft. In 2008 he adopted the Salomon King moniker, in honor of his Jewish heritage and as a shout out to all of the legendary bluesmen that used the King surname. That year he released his first album, Under the Sun, which was produced by Motown heavyweight Sylvester Rivers (Diana Ross, the Jacksons, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations…). This release was a home run that was nominated for a Grammy and had two of its songs used in the first season of the HBO’s series True Blood. Over the next few years he gigged like crazy, cut another album, and starred as Phil Spector in an independent film. Wow!

Train is King’s third album, and it is made up of nine original tracks that he had been playing in his live show for over a year. He did not mess with a good thing, and chose to use his gigging band in the studio. Solomon took care of the vocals and guitars, and was joined by Johann Frank on guitars, Steven Marshall behind the drum kit, Buddy Pierson on the Hammond B3, and Princeton Arnold on bass and backing vocals. He also tapped the talents of harp men Jimmy Powers and Glenn Doll, as well as backing vocals from Maxayn Lewis, Connie Jackson, Gaby Teran and Jorge Costa. King wrote all of the songs, and Jorge Costa produced, engineered and mixed this CD.

It is apparent that King is not trying to copy any of the artists that came before him, and this album has a unique and modern blues rock sound. This evident from the first track, “Baby Does Me Good,” which has a cool blend of slide guitar, thumping bass and sweet vocal harmonies over a Bo Diddley beat. King’s voice is a clear tenor on this song, but do not get used to this as his vocals sound different on every track.

After taking his voice down an octave for the blues rocker “Bad to Me,” Solomon approaches the baritone zone for the sexy “Coffee Song.” He is no Barry White (and who is?) but his inflections make the listener wonder where the double-entendres end and reality begins. This mellow tune features saucy backing vocals and tasteful harp work, making it a favorite from the album.

This is backed up by another standout track, “SLO Blues.” This one is set against a background of the super-tight pocket of Marshall and Arnold, with Pierson setting the mood with his rich work on the Hammond. King makes his voice a bit grittier for this blues ballad, and there are plenty of guitar fills as well as a heartfelt solo just past the two minute mark.

Solomon threw in a catchy country song midway through with the clever title, “Country Song.” He pokes fun at the usual stereotypes and clichés that can be found in the genre, and his wit shines through. As he says, these are “them songs you don’t forget,” and proves himself right by penning a catchy song that is easy to get stuck in the head.

The title track is the most out there song of the set, and “Train” has a gnarly driving drum beat with layers of out-of-phase and clean guitars, and lyrics that are sort of a combination of Tom Petty and Lou Reed. After this the album tapers off with the final song, “Blue Angel,” a pretty almost-country ballad that starts off with simple guitar and keyboard accompaniment. It builds with the addition of bass, drums and soft background vocals, allowing things to end on a positive note.

If there is anything to gripe about with Train, it would be that it is not very long. Most of the songs clock in at around three minutes, and the whole album only lasts 32 minutes. For the money it would be nice to get a few more tracks, or to expand a bit on the ones that were included. But, if this is all he had ready to go, it is better that he did not pollute nine very good songs with material that was not ready for prime time.

If that is the only thing to complain about, Solomon King did a fabulous job with Train. His songwriting and musicianship are certainly top-notch, and this ends up being an interesting album with a fresh sound. We can only hope that he sticks to his guns and keeps innovating, because the future of blues relies on souls such as him.

Mahalo!

D’Addario Planet Waves NS Micro Headstock Tuner

Aloha!

It has been awhile since I have reviewed one of the thousands of cheap little guitar headstock tuners that are on the market, so today we are going to take a look at the D’Addario Planet Waves NC Micro.

The NS Micro is the slightly smaller version of the NS Mini, which is a pretty good tuner. True to its name, it is small, measuring about 1 1.4 inches across. It is unobtrusive, and its padded clamp fit well on my Martins, Gibsons, and Fenders. So, pretty much it will fit anything.

It is easy to use, and there is no set-up needed unless you wish to change the reference pitch. There are only 5 buttons: power, mode (metronome or tuner), flip (in case you installed it upside down), and two cursor switches that will change pitch while in the tuner. That is it. If you cannot figure out how to use it then playing guitar will probably be too hard for you, so maybe you will need to find a new hobby.

The display is colorful and easy to read, and there should be no doubt as to whether notes are sharp or flat. I compared it to my Boss TU and my Peterson Strobostomp, and it appears to be accurate. The metronome function also works fine, though I am not sure it is the best idea to be staring at the headstock while practicing. I guess you could clip it to a music stand, though.

The NS Micro seems to be well built, and the flip switch along with the 360-degree swivel mean that you can pretty much stick it anywhere on the instrument and still be able to see the display. The CR2032 battery has not died on me yet, and fortunately this is a fairly common battery, as I know as I had to pick

The D’Addario Planet Waves NS Micro tuner is also a smoking deal, probably to keep pace with all of the cool tuner apps that are available now. You can pick one up for $10 (list price $34.70), and if you want a budget headstock tuner, this is probably the pick of the litter.

Mahalo!

2003 Fender Jaguar JG66-85 Electric Guitar Review

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a really neat guitar, a Japanese model JG66-85 Fender Jaguar that I found on the secondhand rack at the Komehyo store in Nagoya, Japan. This model is a 1966 re-issue that originally sold for 85,000 Yen (this is why they call it an JG-66-85). From outside appearances, it is a very faithful recreation of the original. This is an Q-prefix “Crafted in Japan” model, meaning it was built in around 2003. When this guitar was originally sold, the Yen was around 107 to the dollar, which equals approximately $794, which was a heck of a deal back then for such a great guitar.

This one has pretty sunburst poly finish over what looks like an alder body. In keeping with this color scheme, the factory chose to use a fairly garish red tortoiseshell guard. The 24-inch scale C-shaped neck is super-nice, with good frets (vintage thin wire) and a very pretty 7.25-inch radius rosewood fretboard. It has the traditional headstock with the proper logos and vintage-style inline tuners. The rest of the hardware includes the fairly terrible vintage-style floating bridge.

The electronics are the typical Jaguar fodder, which means they are complicated. There are two single coil pickups with oodles of switches and knobs to turn the pickups on and off, and to provide different lead and rhythm tones. Ick. The pickups are strong and the electronics do not have any unwanted extra noise. It plays, sounds and looks just like a Jaguar should.

Like most every Japanese-made Fender guitar I have played, it is very well made, with level frets and good neck pocket clearance. After a dozen years, there are some nicks and scratches, but little wear to the frets and fretboard wear. It has not been abused and would be a nice addition to the collection of someone who is just dying to have a Jag. I have it set up with 0.009s and it is a breeze to play – it is the perfect surf guitar!

These are a bit hard to find in the states, but Fender has other re-issue Jaguars that they are selling here. Try before you buy though, as Jaguars are not everybody’s cup of tea.

Mahalo!