Candleblog

Reinhardt. Not Fett. Today is guitar genius Jean Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt’s 100th birthday. Treat yourself and listen to some of this music. Django was incredible — and only had two usable fingers on his left hand (that’s the hand that makes chords). Django is on my short list of greatest guitar players of all time. [...]

CaseyContrarian is compiling some year-end lists about music for his blog from some of the blog’s contributors, of which I’m one. Along with some best-of lists, Casey asked us to consider who our favorite underrated guitar players are. Here’s what I wrote to him in an email. Your thoughts, Candleblog readers? Underrated guitarists: Bruce Cockburn [...]

Back in the early 90s I used to sing funny songs with my friends Spine and Mazur. We called ourselves “Spamnation” and would entertain our friends at parties with a couple of original songs we’d arranged, with me playing the guitar and the three of us singing in three-part harmony. We toyed around with several [...]

Lately I’ve engaged in a new project. I’m finding out as much information as I can about Vermont-made Time Guitars in the hope of maybe making a short documentary about the company, it’s history and influence, and the lingering mystique of these beautiful instruments. I own a Time GS9 and I love it. It’s the [...]

I don’t talk much about it on this blog, but I’ve played guitar since I was about 16 or so. I started playing to impress a girl and when that didn’t work out, I delved into the instrument anyway. I’ve always been mostly a solo player (I’ve never been in a band) and it’s only [...]