Kevin's Guitar Corner

Albert Lee & John Jorgenson

Canyon Club, Agoura Hills, CA

The other night I had the extreme pleasure of seeing guitar greats, Albert Lee and John Jorgenson at the Canyon Club in Agoura, CA. Nice venue if not just a tad outdated decor wise. But I mean that in a good way. It's not a hip Hollywood joint, with stainless steel or lots of neon lights and really loud thumping unbearable music. It's like a small House Of Blues, without all the pretentiousness and cost. In fact, during the dinner hours before the band actually took the stage, the music out of the house system was perfect. Nice selection of tunes and not loud! They had the good notion to keep the volume down so you could actually converse. What a concept. Lots of seating, in fairly comfy chairs, at tables, or a few couches scattered here and there. The three of us had a table just a bit left of stage about 10 -12 feet from the stage. We had dinner which was a little pricey, but from what I read about the joint the owner is good to his acts and he makes his money on food and drinks to keep the ticket prices down. These were only $20, so that in itself isn't too bad these days. I paid a ton more to see Clapton at the Hollywood Bowl, so this my friends, was a bargain and a half. I recommend the place to see anyone.

The food wasn't bad, as I opted for the cheapest meal on their menu. The beers at $7 for a Newcastle was a bit high, but the salad was fresh and nice greens and pretty good bleu cheese dressing, potato was good too, so overall it was a good night and great music. I will be returning soon I hope. I saw that Robben Ford is playing next month. The Canyon Club features a lot of great acts and I don't have to trek to Hollywood or somewhere and pay exorbitant parking rates. Plenty of free parking, and if you get there early you can check out all the antique stores in the little plaza next door to the Canyon Club.

What can I say about Albert, he's the guitarist's guitarist. Eric Clapton says he's his favorite guitarist. He's played with everyone from the Everly's to Emmylou Harris' Hot Band to Eric Clapton to every country Nashville player, like Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Danny Gatton and Brent Mason. He's even tours with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.

When Albert and John took to the stage, which was rounded out by very good musicians - Jeff Ross on keyboards, Lance Hoppen on bass, and Jason Smith on drums, they opened up with a rousing rendition of Dave Edmunds' 'Sweet Little Lisa', to which Albert and John got their respective licks in. Great opener. They went onto play 'Big Hunka Love' by Elvis, 'Mystery Girl', a nice Orbison tune, and ended the opening set with Gram Parsons' 'Luxury Liner'.

Albert then left the stage, and John Jorgenson stayed out, and for those of you not familiar with him, he was a member of the Desert Rose Band, The Hellecasters and Elton John's band just to name a few of the people he's played with. Plus he's got his own Gypsy Jazz band in the style of Django Reinhardt which he really does justice to. He's an amazing guitarist, and a really nice guy to boot. He opened with a great rendition of George Harrison's 'Love You To', and was coaxing some really nice sitar sounds out of his Strat. He went on to play 'If It Be Your Will' and ended with his own tune 'Back On Terra Firma' from the first Hellecasters album.

Albert came out again and played up on an old Buddy Holly tune, 'Rock Around With Ollie Vee', Little Feat's 'Rad Gumbo' - a fav of his he plays a lot that I've seen online. Albert then brought out his daughter, Alexandra to sing 'She' by Gram Parsons. Really nice change of pace and a nice song, and she has a terrific voice. He ended his little set with Ray Charles' 'Leave My Woman Alone'.

Again, another little set of just Albert on piano and John on acoustic guitar, singing and playing 'Devoted To You' by the Everly's and 'Til I Gain Control Again' by Rodney Crowell.

The rest of the band then joined them for the last set, which included Albert's band Hogan's Heroes own 'Tear It Up', 'Well Alright' again by Holly, 'Evangelina', a nice Hoyt Axton tune and ended with Albert's most well known tune, 'Country Boy', which he wrote some forty years ago, and it gets better everytime I hear it. Both Albert and John had extended solos in this one joined on this by guest violinist Scarlet Rivera, whom some of you might know from Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. It was like a rockabilly heaven hearing these two play. For the encore they did a long wicked version of 'Orange Blossom Special', sort of in the vein the Hellecasters did on their first album.

If you ever get a chance to see these two in action, do so, you won't be disappointed, especially if you are a fan of this type of music or are just a guitar player. I still don't believe my guitar has as many notes on the neck as Albert's or John's, but I'll keep searching for them. And many thanks to John Jorgenson for the set list.

You can and should visit these fine guitarists on their own sites -

John Jorgenson

Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes

Want to learn some new guitar licks, or just listen to some great playing check these out.

Albert Lee with Hogan's Heroes and his newest solo album.

John Jorgenson's latest and in my opinion, the best Hellecasters album. Buy Today!

Kevin's Guitar Corner - Robben Ford

From time to time I'm going to do some guitar oriented posts about my favorite guitarists out there. There are a million to choose from so in no particular order I'm starting with Robben Ford.

Today's entry is about one of my favorite guitarists as I mentioned above, Robben Ford. I had the opportunity to attend his guitar workshop up in Ojai CA last fall and it was great.

Ojai, for you out-of-towners, is up the coast just north of Santa Barbara CA. Great little town just east of the coast, inland a bit. It's a very artsy community. Great place if just to visit for a day too.

But back to Robben. He talked and played for almost 5 hours and we had a lunch break in between with fellow workshop guitarists in the little town. I've seen him several times over the years, at small clubs in Hollywood and bigger places like House Of Blues. I started following him during his Tom Scott and the LA Express days, back around 1977 after hearing the Tom Scott album Tom Cat which came out in '74. Back when I was teaching guitar in the late 70's, one of the best things I ever did was go to Venture dept store, which was pre-Target, in Tinley Park, Il, where I lived, and they had a cut out bin of vinyl. Robben's solo album The Inside Story was in there for 50¢, and there were about a dozen of them. I bought 10 of them for $5 and kept two of them and handed out 8 of them to my guitar students and said, 'listen and learn'. Best $5 I ever spent on music. It's basically The Yellowjackets as his backup band.

Robben mostly stood up there with his old Telecaster and an old Fender amp and went over jazz changes, chord structures, playing the blues a whole different way. He handed out about 20 pages of stuff to us all on chords, triads, altered scales, a Larry Carlton progression, shuffle blues and major and minor progression. All in all, it was a very good learning day and stuff to keep me busy for quite some time. A lot of the stuff was things I had learned somewhat a long time ago out of Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar Book, of which Robben went over some, especially the jazz chords. He stressed chords, and how not a lot of people do rhythm or even know a lot of chords these days.

There was a question and answer time where we discussed the stuff he talked about. He talked a little about his history, working with such people as Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and Tom Scott and blues great Charlie Musslewhite, where he got his start playing the blues. He talked about guitars and amps and even other guitarists, and how some people get famous and make a ton of dough for doing very little, and he was referring to The Edge in this particular instance, because he played a bit of a U2 lick to emphasize his point. I'm sure like a lot of jazz and blues musicians who may not make it big on the international scale of things, monetarily speaking, they get a bit peeved at what is out there music wise on the radio compared to what they themselves play. But blues or jazz is a niche market so to speak, and although it's a more highly regarded form in Europe or Japan, it doesn't get the respect or cash flow that Top 40 or whatever Lady Gaga is doing now. But Robben isn't really that bitter. He makes a nice living I'm sure. Plays an awful lot and is well respected by a million guitar players and singers and other musicians. Robben is a very personable guy and there's lots to learn from him. I'm glad he does these things. I'm glad I went. I want to go again the next time he's around.

A few days later he was playing in Studio City down at the Baked Potato club on Cahuenga Blvd. so I went with a friend and it was a great show. He even remembered me from 5 days earlier! The Baked Potato is a really really really small joint but full of music history. All the local greats and studio musicians have played here at one time or another or still do. It's such a small place you're never any further than 10 or maybe 15 feet from the band, and for an electric blues band like Robben Ford's it can get quite loud, but still worth it.

So check out some Robben Ford -

Here he's talking about rhythm, jazz chords and blues from his workshop.
Very informative for you guitarists out there.

Here's a recent tune called Lateral Climb done with his trio. They sure
get a lot of sound out of a 3 piece blues band.
With Toss Panos on drums and Larry Carlton's son, Travis, on bass.
Robben Ford - Toss Panos - Travis Carlton

Some early Robben playing with Tom Scott and the LA Express backing
Joni Mitchell in 1974 on Raised On Robbery. Great tune.

Robben and Larry Carlton doing one of Robben's signature tunes
Talk To Your Daughter

When in town check out the Baked Potato - you'll be glad you did.

Here's a pic of yours truly and Robben from the workshop

Robben Ford’s Wiki page is here:

If you would like to purchase some of Mr. Ford’s fine guitar playing, it can be purchased here:






















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