phantom309 wrote on Mon, 20 August 2007 21:10 |
Billy Yates wrote on Mon, 20 August 2007 19:28 |
phantom309 wrote on Mon, 20 August 2007 20:14 | Hey Billy,
Welcome!
A cover band I was in as a kid used to play "Holiday" and "Green Grass....." for a good many gigs. We only had TWO lead players in that band tho! I grew up in Steve Gains country (north eastern Oklahoma till I was 13) and had that whole scene around me in spades.
"Holiday" was a great record. What was your guitar set-up in those days?
David.
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Funny you ask that... I joined the group in 1988 right after I left "Doc Holliday" and I started with a 50 watt Marshall and a Stratocaster. That did not work. I ended up with a Les Paul Custom (black, of course) and a Boogie MKIIC...dreadful now,(the boogie) but cool back then. I played all of Billy Jones' parts. That lasted 2 years but it almost killed me. After I left, my good friend Toy Caldwell died and I realized I had made the right choice. I loved Steve Gaines. He was the best guitarist Skynyrd ever had including my old boss, Hughie Thomasson. When I worked at Capricorn Studios, I had the fortune of finding a bunch of tape that was in the vault that included the material from his posthumous release "One from the Sun"...my god what a guitarist and sang his ass off too. Such a tragic loss. Billy Yates
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Steve was a legend in our town. He came out of Miami Ok. and played the Tulsa circuit quite a bit before getting the Skynyrd gig. "I Know A Little" is a great example of his Stratocaster mastery.
So you've played this progression about a trillion times?: Em/C/G/D/A
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Hell Yes!!! Who wouldn't want to? That thing shreds!
Paul Rothschild produced the first Outlaws record and it was brilliant. You know why...just like Tres Hombres, simple and straightforward with an attitude. They were very well rehearsed when they cut that record and it shows. The artists and the engineer/producer being in sync and having mutual responsibility for its outcome. To me, that makes a record a record. There is a saying that I coined from my mentor, Tad Bush...RIP,
"There is a difference in making a record...do you want to make a record or jerk off?"
I have to laugh at that because its so true. How many releases do you hear during the course of year, or years do you actually connect with the process and say yea, that whole record is good?
From my backyard, it ain't often enough. I would love to see a trend where artists take the time to go beyond their abilities and take the time to do it right. Don't get me wrong here, many do but not enough of us get to hear about it and certainly not on radio. Gosh, I hope I don't sound too crass here on that one but it seems that way