Electric Bard

Band gigs have not been as frequent lately, mostly because we refuse to work for just about nothing I guess, and that’s where the economy seems to be driving prices for bands around these parts. Gail and I have been doing more gigs as a duo, so we fired up a new website. It’s super simple, but I like it. Dive in at GailandKarl.com

Well this is really interesting. Fender keep finding ways to keep their product offerings fresh, and they’ve had a lot more hits than misses. The Pawnshop Series is an excellent case in point. Recently, they’ve introduced a new model that I must confess has me really excited. The Fender Pawn Shop ’70s Stratocaster Deluxe is a great idea. It’s a Strat hardtail body (I own two hardtail Strats, a 1980 model and a 2006 Robert Cray model), with a Tele front pickup (awesome!) and a sweet, bright humbucker. Check and check. It’s got a maple neck, bullet truss rod access, and 22 frets. It comes in 3 colours, and they’re all cool in their way.

I’ve played one briefly, and it’s nearly perfect. I really want one. If/when I get one, I will swap out the bridge saddles because I really like the Graph Tech saddles. I first tried them when I literally wore out the original saddles on my 1980 Strat, and I loved them. I put a set on the Robert Cray and those were a big improvement for me. The only other thing on this Pawn Shop model might be the Jazz bass knobs – I’m just not sure about them. They don’t look that cool to me. What do you think?

Meanwhile, over at Gibson, they’ve introduced a really affordable US-made Les Paul Junior (or LPJ). Tempting, but if I go by my gut, the 70s Pawn Shop Strat Deluxe is where my money would go.

Get your hillbilly on.

Here’s an old school Motown style R’n’B number called Before We Say Hello. Written by me and David Cavan Fraser.

I caught this great set by Donald Ray Johnson at Wine-ohs. Great stuff, guys!

I’m back from Breakout West, and there’s so much follow up work to do, it’s great! It was so good to meet Music Supervisors Connie Farr, Michael Perlmutter, Natasha Duprey, Richard Glasser, Andrea von Foerster, Samuel Diaz and Aminé Ramer. Thank you all for your time and participation.

The keynote interview with Michael Chugge was great, but I didn’t get a chance to check out the rest of the National Music Centre – next time, Calgary.

I’ll be there! Looking forward to meeting lots of people at Breakout West in Calgary, especially music supervisors. I’ll be armed with business cards, meta data-rich CD’s with clear contact info on the labels and a focus on finding out how I can be of service to make it easy for you to find and license some great music!

Astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about playing guitar in space.

One of the best things about busking is seeing people smile, especially kids who start dancing or just look at what you’re doing and break out into a big grin. It’s fantastic to be able to share music and create a moment where we are all in the present moment and enjoying the same vibe.