Player archive

November 2023

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14 articles

November 27
- “We worked out a big, long harmonized guitar solo. It’s my little homage to Thin Lizzy.” Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett on his new solo album Lost at Sea and why he's happy to not be the loudest guitarist in the room
November 23
- “I had a gold Klon but I lost it in Hurricane Katrina...” Blues supremo Eric Johanson on being both a Metallica and Jack White fanboy and why he’s into tone as much as music
- “I have a few guitars but if I don’t play them for a while, I punish myself by giving them away. It’s not fair to have a guitar in a lockup…” The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne on songwriting and the “solo-shy” James Honeyman-Scott
November 19
- From playing fiddle on street corners during the Great Depression to becoming one of the biggest Telecaster heroes of the 20th century – here's why you should immerse yourself in Jimmy Bryant's Country Cabin Blues…
November 16
- Pink Floyd didn't mean anything to him, he told Thin Lizzy he wouldn't jump around onstage and he once had an accidental top 10 hit: The career of Snowy White, rock's easiest-going guitar hero, in five songs
November 14
- Steve Lukather: "I realized it was okay to play a bad note when I saw Larry Carlton six years ago. He broke his E string, and everybody was like 'Oh, no.' Then he took his clippers and clipped off the B and G strings and played a killer solo!"
November 13
- "The keyboard player said ‘Why are you just hitting random chords?’ I said, ‘You never know, I might get lucky!'" How Loverboy's Paul Dean wrote Working For The Weekend
November 10
- "This is what separates the pros from the Joes…" Gary Hoey's top five tips for guitarists (and a bonus tip from Steve Morse)
November 9
- "Every kid who picks up a guitar wants to be Keith Richards, right?" How Andrew Watt kicked Keef and Mick Jagger "up the ass in the studio," connected the Stones back to Muddy Waters, and recruited Paul McCartney for a punky cameo on the band's new album
November 8
- Adrian Belew recounts his audition with Frank Zappa: "We sat on his purple couch. I placed my Pignose amplifier face down on it so I could get a little bit of sustain... At the end of it, he reached out his hand and said, ‘You got the job’"
- Billy Gibbons: “We went to the second change, but Lightnin’ was still in the first... Our bassist said, ‘Lightnin’, that’s where the second change is supposed to be, isn’t it?' Lightnin’ said, ‘Lightnin’ change when Lightnin’ want to change!’”
November 7
- David Bowie: "I've only ever showed one person how to play Rebel Rebel properly. I was downstairs in a hotel and there was some guy playing guitar – dreadful metal stuff. He started playing Rebel Rebel. I went stomping upstairs, and it was John McEnroe”
November 6
- Sharon Isbin: "The ability to improvise is something that is a part of all of us, but when it’s developed to the fullest in artists like Steve Morse or Steve Vai, who can just create music on the spot, it’s truly something to marvel at"
November 2
- "For slide, I've always used a glass Coricidin bottle, like Duane Allman. He told me that a bottle sounds different than a steel slide, so I copied him": Gary Rossington on the gear – and unlikely household tool – that inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird