Two Kinds Of Music

To me there are only two kinds of music: music I like, and music I don’t like. This goes for the music I listen to and how I approach writing my own music.

I like variety in food, drinks, entertainment.  With music, my playlists are all over the place. I could go from listening to Beck to Bach, Miles Davis to Van Halen, or Pat Metheny to Muse. In my own music I strive to embrace all of my many influences.  For me this approach keeps things interesting.

Chet Atkins is a guitar player whose music has influenced me. His tune “Jerry’s Breakdown” blew me away the first time I heard it. Chet recorded “Jerry’s Breakdown” with another brilliant country picker named Jerry Reed. When I heard that tune I told myself, “I have to learn this”. Overtime I made the tune my own and eventually recorded it. 

In keeping with the spirit of having two guitar players jamming I asked the legendary guitar virtuoso and Tone Wizard, Carl Verheyen to sit in and lay down a guest solo (1:53). It turns out that Carl is also a huge Chet Atkins fan with an affinity for this tune. Along with the solo Carl also laid down a pumpin’ acoustic guitar track with his 1950’s era Gibson.

I have known Carl for many years and he was actually the first person that I bounced the Tone Wizards book idea off of. He agreed to be my first interview for the book and the rest, as they say, is history.