Acoustic issue 45 sEPTEMBEr 2010

30
Jackson
Browne
The living legend talks
to Acoustic.

AlSO aCousTIC
14 This month:
Mike stern
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Retune
Your Ears
42 Donovan 39 Nic Jones 20 Have a listen
35 David We catch up with one of the
quintessential 60s singer-
A career cut short by a tragic
accident, Nic tells Reg Meuross
to something new
Lindley songwriters. about life afterwards.
The multi-instrumental
maestro on working with
Jackson Browne.

24 Tristan 26 amy
seume MacDonald
According to Jackie Oates’ A chart smashing debut album
sideman, it’s not all about can be a tough thing to follow
chops. up. Not for Amy.

uK luthieR CorNEr
28 slash 68 Brook Guitars
Slash? Acoustic? You bet.
Russell Welton checks in with the Devon Luthiers

06-07 Contents 44_BC.indd 6 23/07/2010 16:07

 Guitar Techniques
cHecK out ouR HuGe
tecHNiQues sectioN!
with 20 pages of level specific techniques,
whether you’re a novice or an expert our col-
umns have something for everyone.
Acoustic Techniques
Biography
Maartin Allcock is
an acclaimed multi-
instrumentalist, sideman
and producer. A former
member of Fairport
Convention and Jethro Tull,
he has been touring
recently with Beth Nielsen
MAARTIN Chapman.
ALLCOCK
Multi-instrumentalist
Skill level: Advanced
Hello again. I’ve been hinting darkly
about this tune for a while now and it
will fry your brain. ‘Smeceno Horo’ is a
trad tune from Bulgaria and is such fun
to play. A ‘horo’ is a type of Bulgarian
folk dance, although my mate Fergus
Feely reckons it’s called a ‘horo’
because it’s a horo to play… It may
seem like Zappa’s revenge, but normal
working people in Bulgaria dance
to this kind of stuff. It’s all to do with
feeling the beat. If you have to rely on
counting, you’ve had it…
The Irish supergroup Planxty,
who were really The Beatles of Irish
traditional music, recorded this in
1979 for a reunion album, After The
Break. Mandolinist/bouzouki player
Andy Irvine travelled extensively in
the Balkans back in the days when
others were off to India and brought
back to Ireland a passion for the music
of places like Macedonia, Bulgaria,
Romania and those parts.
‘Smeceno Horo’ really amazed
Smeceno Horo
108
108-110 Maartin Allcock_BC.indd 108
96 Lin Flanagan
Thinking of taking an exam?
Lin’s got some advice
98 David Price
Building on the last couple
of issues, David guides you
through an instrumental
100 Keith Murray
Keith looks at minor chord
inversions
102 stu Norman
Stu takes you through Open
D tuning
Subscribe - Details on Page 44
Special Features
18 Classic album
Aerial Boundaries by
Michael Hedges
72 Collector’s Piece
More rare guitars from Paul
Brett
06-07 Contents 44_BC.indd 7
Advanced
Trad Arr:
Smeceno Horo
The Bulgarian mind-mangler
people at the time because nothing
like it had ever been heard this side of
Calais, but with the masterful playing
and arrangement skills of Andy,
Donal Lunny (my hero) and piper
Liam O’Flynn it soon became part
of the Irish session scene for those
brave enough to attempt it. I myself
played it live a few times with Fergus
(Allcock & Feely) along with a Roland
Drumatix and Bassline (it was the 80s),
and though we got it right most of
the time, when it went wrong it went
wrong big time…
The first thing you will notice is
that every bar is in a different time
signature. ‘How do you dance to
that?’ I hear you cry. ‘Carefully,’ I would
suggest. Put the pint down first. It
really is about feeling the beat. This is
why I’ve been very careful about the
groupings of the notes within each
bar. Best thing to do is treat yourself
and download the track. Go on, give
the lads their penny. When you’ve got
your breath back, listen to it again
with the music. As there is quite a
bit of repetition of various blocks, it
really doesn’t take that long to get
the gist of what it’s about, and the
first time you get it right is cause for
celebration. You’ll want to play it all
night, and please don’t blame me
if you have to find somewhere else
to live.
The tune is basically in D major
with a flattened 7th, C natural. It
wanders off into a lovely semi-Eastern
E major flattened 2nd, 6th and 7th
vibe in the G and H parts before
rollicking back into D major when it
goes back to the top. The structure
goes AAAABBBBCCCCDDEEFFGGHH.
It can repeat more than once, but the
tune ends when it gets to a DD.
Things to look out for:
The metronome mark of quaver = 450
seems very fast, and indeed it is. This is
a high-octane rip-up, and no mistake.
NEW Gear reviews
acoustic keeps you up
to date with whats hot
and whats not in our
gear reviews section.
46 Taylor Gs8
Does Taylor’s Grand Symphony stand out from
Techniques
Acoustic Techniques
Skill Level the crowd?
Suitable for
advanced
players
Sergeant Early’s
Biography
Duck Baker is one of the most
Dream
50 shaun Newman Zebra
highly regarded fingerstyle
guitarists of his generation. Techniques
Various critics named his album Skill Level
Spinning Song among the best Suitable for
jazz records of 1997 and one of ‘Ello ‘Ello ‘Ello. This month Duck advanced
the best guitar albums ever.
guides you through a number players
Duck
Bar 1: there are a couple of Eastern
An interesting classical guitar from a Devon luthier
trills here. It looks harder than it is. It’s with its roots in law enforcement.
BAkEr
just a quick hammer-on/pull-off.
Blues Finger Style Legend
Skill level: Advanced
Watch out for the staccato notes and
the slides up to the F#.
This tune has an
Part C is where the tune really starts interesting history, traditional musicians. tune was a lively reel, but at some
to head eastwards.
which begins with Francis O’Neill, the
Sergeant Early was a piper and fiddler bow the low G under the D in
chief of police in Chicago early in the point someone noticed how good it a D minor tune, it’s disrespectful to
friend of O’Neill. My understanding is sounds slow, and it is often played this
54 Vintage Pilgrim
last century, who also managed to be assume that the effect is anything but
Part D is also the final part. that Early’s ability to transcribe tunes way nowadays. I believe that it was
one of the greatest collectors of Irish
quickly was invaluable to the chief, intentional. In fact, it’s only by working
traditional music the band Shegui who first arranged with exactly these kinds of effects that
rhythmically. It in history. O’Neill
Part F is the trickiestachieved and some later cynics have even
‘Sergeant Early’s’ as a slow tune, and
kind of stutters its way into…this largely by getting the questioned whether his promotion to we can hope to do the music justice.
word around in musical circles back I learnt it myself from Pat Kilbride,
This arrangement is good for
sergeant may not have owed as much who was associated with the group
in Ireland that any good players in
to his musical abilities as his police stretching out your left hand, and you
Part G when the excitement mounts
need of work could have a job with back in the 1970s. Pat’s arrangement
and… work. This would not be the only area was different from this one in many
want to be careful that you’re using
A modern reproduction of the classic bowl-back
Chicago’s finest if they would let the
for speculation opened by O’Neill’s particulars, but one thing I definitely
the right left-hand shapes. But the
chief take down any tunes in their
parallel careers. One would have to hard trick here is the bent note at the
Part H is again a bit stutter, so that picked up from him was the trick of
repertoires that he hadn’t already
assume, for instance, that his recruiting beginning of the second measure of
to part A, it feels
when it goes backencountered. In this way O’Neill ending the tune with a low D under the B section, where the ring finger
like you’re really rocking.
methods help explain why Irish cops the final A in the melody. When I
managed to see that some 2,000 must choke the high string at the 7th
are such a constant in gangland-era remarked that this was striking, Pat
Pilgrim guitars. Can it recapture the glory days?
melodies found their way into print,
movies. Come to that, we may wonder fret while the middle finger holds the
and while his books may be faulted just chuckled, ‘That’s what the pipers 5th string at the same fret. We have to
whether the rise of the mobsters and do all the time.’ Of course, a trained
in various ways (there are certainly
the habit these policemen had of avoid bending that bass note as well,
errors in many of the transcriptions, for musician might conclude that things and the best thing is to try and push
getting together to play tunes for each like this happen in the music because
instance), there is no escaping the fact the middle finger over towards the
other is more than mere coincidence. the people who made it didn’t know
that O’Neill’s Music Of Ireland is one of ring finger. You won’t be able to, but
In any case, the dream Sergeant any better, but this is very dangerous
the most basic sources of Irish music, Early had wasn’t so sad as to be the effort will help keep the middle
the bible for several generations of thinking. When we hear a piper finger from moving too far in the same
about his police work; originally this drone a D in an A minor tune, or a direction as the ring finger.
Sergeant Early’s Dream
58 Epiphone roy orbison
Is this the pretty woman you would want to be seen
walking down the street with?
23/07/2010 11:46
62 recording King soloist
Leon Hunt gets to grips with another offering from
112
112-113 Duck Baker_BC.indd 112
Recording King, this time aimed at the semi-pro
23/07/2010 11:45
104 Chris Gibbons market.
Time signatures can be tricky. Chris
helps you with 9/8 and 12/8
64 ZT Lunchbox amp
This tiny amp doesn’t look big enough for a picnic
108 Maartin allcock for two, but packs 200 watts in alongside the
A Bulgarian mind-bender sandwiches. Sam Wise finds out how.
112 Duck Baker 66 D-Tar DPu3
Another classic from Duck
114 Pierre Bensusan
More technical insights
from Pierre
118 ray Gamble
A piece for classical guitar
arranged for the little jumping flea
74 Montreal Jazz
Festival and Guitar show
Noel Harvey reports in from one of
the world’s greatest music festivals
79 How To Make
a record
Part 2: What makes classic
albums classic?
85 Legends of
© Getty Images
acoustic
This month: Charlie Byrd
23/07/2010 16:08