Resident Waybacks guitarist extraordinaire James Nash has just released an instructional guitar video, aptly titled "Making the Acoustic Guitar Rock!" The two-hour DVD covers a wide range of topics, from basics like alternate picking and how to make bar chords and string bends easier, to more advanced strategies for moving around the fingerboard and playing over chord changes. James shows how he works influences like Keith Richards and Neil Young into his flatpicking, and shares ideas for improvising over bluegrass standards like "Cherokee Shuffle" and "Blackberry Blossom," as well as songs like "Hide Your Love Away," "Cocaine," and his own "Bright Place."
There's a lot here for players of all levels, as well as some exciting off-the-cuff studio jams. So, if you want to get a glimpse at how James does what he does on the acoustic and bring some new ideas and techniques to your own playing, head on over to our Mercantile & Boutique at the link below for more info.
We're happy to announce that we captured every note and are now able to share them with you via the modern miracle of CD or Digital Download, as you choose. To check out what took place on that sun-drenched afternoon under a fine Carolina blue sky, click the yellow peach colored link below, head on over to our Mercantile & Boutique, and get a healthy dose of those timeless tunes.
We hope to release the proceedings on CD and via download in the not too distant future, so stay tuned to this space for updates. We'll also be posting some videos here and at Facebook for those who couldn't make it to Merlefest.
We're already looking forward to next year's Album Hour. Feel free to visit our Facebook page and make suggestions!
Head over to our Facebook Event page at the link below to weigh in for a chance at winning cool stuff.
Head over to our Facebook Event page at the link below to cast your best guess.
Simply follow the yellow Event link below, sign in, and give us your best guess for a chance to win who knows what and be King or Queen of The Waybacks for a day. Or something.
We'll post clues here, as well, but the Facebook Event page will tell you all the details you need to know. Good luck!
CLUE #1: This year's mystery album proved to be inspirational to many an underage mall gang.
We're honored to be included on Jerry Jams for Rex, a recently released compilation of live performances of Jerry Garcia tunes to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his passing and benefit the ongoing efforts of the Rex Foundation.
Jerry Jams for Rex includes our version of Dupree's Diamond Blues, along with an array of inspired performances by the likes of Phish, Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, The String Cheese Incident, Keller & The Keels, Railroad Earth, The Black Crowes, Moonalice, Yonder Mountain String Band, Widespread Panic, Hot Buttered Rum, and Steve Kimock Crazy Engine. An exceptional tribute to an exceptional musician and spirit.
To learn more about this great tribute to Jerry and help the Rex Foundation carry on their good work, please visit this link to sample tracks and purchase the CD or downloadable tunes. Jerry Jams For Rex A project well worth your support!
Many thanks to our guest artists and Bob Bernhardt, Maestro of the Symphony for a job very well done. A sampling of the reviews captures how good we all felt about the show:
"The Beatles would have been proud last night. The Chattanooga Symphony, Joan Osborne, The Waybacks, and John Cowan combined to cover The Beatles Abbey Road album, and did it in a most spectacular way. George Martin, The Beatles producer, Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons, engineers on the Abbey Road Album, would be proud. Chattanoogans in attendance last night were proud of their symphony. I am proud of the folks at Riverbend who took a chance with this show and pulled off what may have been the greatest show in Riverbend history.
Opening with "Come Together", the group proceeded through the original album, scored beautifully, with Joan Osborne and John Cowan providing the lead vocals for the concert. The group even did an encore, which is hard to do once you cover the entire album, but they improvised and came up with a cover of "I Saw Her Standing There". Yes, The Beatles would have been proud, as was I."
- Bob Payne, The Chattanoogan
"Wow. I'm almost at a loss for words to describe how incredible it was hearing tonight's headlining performance of "Abbey Road" by the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera's partnership with vocalists John Cowan and Joan Osborne, banjo player Jens Kruger and The Waybacks.
Frankly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed live music quite as much as the hour long performance I just experienced.
Obviously, with such excellent source material as the Beatles legendary studio opus, it seems like it would be impossible to go wrong, but material that well-known is a decidedly double-edged sword. It's almost impossible to live up to a suite of music that well known, and if you try, your performance is automatically put under microscopic scrutiny. I think tonight’s show easily survived that scrutiny.
There's a reason "Abbey Road" was never performed live. Its intricacies and nuances were so heaped upon one another that to attempt to recreate it live would require, as it did tonight, a full orchestral backing. This was an exciting opportunity to experience the album in what I think is the form closest to how it would have been performed by the Fab Four live.
Guitarist/singer/songwriter James Nash, who founded The Waybacks, led us on a brilliant rendition that played to the ensemble's strengths. Cowan is the human equivalent of vocal dynamite, which I think was obvious to everyone after he lit into "Oh! Darling" ("Carry That Weight" was another standout).
Not to be outdone, Osborne showed she can dance like a Bond girl and fit vocal tongue and groove as the lead on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."
The Waybacks and Kruger added incredibly spicy acoustic accompaniment in just the right places. If you think fiddle sounds like a weird ingredient to add to "The End" and "Her Majesty," you haven't heard Warren Hood give it a go. He made it sound, well, the word "good" comes to mind, but it doesn't do it justice. On the same song, Nash proved he’s got killer guitar chops that made me want to cut off my fingers I was so envious.
I know this comes across as a Beatles fan gushing, and I've never made a secret of my idol worship of the Liverpoolians, but I also scrutinize groups that cover them much more than I do tributers of any other group. This was, hands down, the best performance of Beatles music I've ever heard, including Abbey Road Live!, the Athens, Ga.-based group that make a living doing just this kind of tribute show.
If there's one thing that fans of the Beatles can take away from tonight, it's that to really do their studio work justice requires a full-on orchestra backing. The CSO's performance was just ideal to accompany this show. It seriously couldn’t have been done, well or not, without them. We should be proud to count such a group of musicians among our ranks.
Although the show was fairly short, at just an hour long, I've never been so entertained for that length of time. The cherry on top, however, was when we, the audience took to our collective feet and showed such appreciation that Nash came back out on stage.
"We didn't know Chattanooga was going to be this kind to us, so we didn't prepare anything (as an encore)," he said. "Give us a second, and we'll make something up."
I've gotta say, I envy their ability to improvise, if their bopping rendition of "I Saw Her Standing There" really was done on the fly. The awesome riffs seemed too good to be the product of flying by the seat of your pants, but these guys had already demonstrated they had incredible chops. I can't say I would have had high hopes for "Beatles banjo," which Nash asked Kruger for, but he certainly delivered the goods.
All in all, the best time I"ve had at Riverbend ... ever. It's hard to see how it can get any better than this."
-Casey Phillips, Chattanooga Times Fee Press
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