guitar-appreciation.com

Communique by Dire Straits

My first guitar album review.

If someone told you that the guitar is all distortion, loud noise and shredding then you will have to show them this album, “Communique” by Dire Straits. Made in 1979, this was the second album from the band and from the Mark I line-up. “Communique” exudes soothing electric guitar licks and solos that hasve stood the test of time. Though not as popular as ther self-titled debut, “Communique” remains a huge guitar favorite. Chances are that you will not stop the CD once it begins playing and before you know it you are going to start listening to it again.

Though recorded in the pre-CD/DVD era I wonder if this beautiful sound can be duplicated even with modern technology or even if it were how many are going to prefer this sound.

Here’s a review of the songs

1. Once upon a time in the West – A beauty that starts the album. This song is included on most of Dire Straits’ hits compilation and live albums though in the live versions it can be heavily modified. Smooth guitar licks and Dylanesque vocals dominate the song.

2. News – More sweet guitar licks this time sounding heavy with melancholy notes and lyrics. Play it loud and it still sounds sweet.

3. Where do you think you’re going – Continuing in the tradition of the previous song this one concludes a three-song intro to the album.

4. Communique – Title song and the only one that I thought was a little too long and one with hardly any solo though Mark never lets go off his guitar and can be heard plucking it all the time.

5. Lady Writer – After “Sultans of Swing” from their debut album the most played song on this side of the world was this one because it bears strong resemblance to the way Sultans was delivered inlcuding some same lead guitar notes from the former hit. Faster than all the other songs on the album with lovely lead solos you cannot help miss this one. When Mark hits the high notes it sounds sublimal.

6. Angel of Mercy – Another song that I let pass by though it has some impressive licks.

7. Portobello Belle – Who can forget the lines “Portobello Belle, on the high streets, Her breasts on the off-beat….”. Lovely song about a beautiful girl. At one point in the song “Yes and the Barrow boys are hawking…” it sounds as though an organ is also playing in the background. Piano is certainly used towards the end.

8. Single Handed Sailor – When you think the album is almost going to finish comes this killer. Lovely lead guitar solos and bass.

9. Follow me home – If a cassette recording on my Sansui CP7 in the late 80′s and early 90′s sounded so good you can imagine how the bass would sound on todays’ systems. Lovely slow ending to an album that you just want to listen to again.

The personnel on the album:
Mark Knopfler – Lead vocals, Lead and Rhythm guitars
David Knopfler – Rhythm guitar and backing vocals
John Illsley – Bass and backing vocals
Pick Withers – Drums

More Dire Straits albums reviews will be on guitar-appreciation. Watch out for the reviews.

It’s been quite some time since I made a post here. It is the end of January 2009 but here’s wishing you all a vary Happy New Year.

Every time I make a fresh start to play I am demoralized when I see these kids play but if you are a beginner you shouldn’t be. Here are some of the finest on YouTube that I could lay my hands on. If you have links to better or similar videos let me know.

First up one of the youngest, 7 yr old Lucciano Pizzichini playing Santana’s “Samba Pati”.  When you hear the melody it is just unbelievable.

8 yr old Japanese guitar god Yuto Miyazawa attempting Randy Rhoads and Eric Clapton. Just barely taller than the guitar he plays the instrument like a pro.

Eight-year-old Tallan Latz, of Elkhorn, is billed as the “youngest performing blues guitarist in the world.” and is playing gigs and racking up endorsement deals.

And continuing with the blues-prodigies check Quinn Sullivan jamming with Buddy Guy

And here’s a 11 year old playing The Pirates of the Carribean theme

And check this 13 yr old Korean Kid make guitar playing look so easy.

These are some of the best. Let me know if you find others.

Guitar One magazine rated him the No.1, fastest shredder of all time. Ambidextrous Michael can play both right handed and left handed guitars. But that’s not all he can also cross hands while playing, i.e switch the stumming/picking hand and the hand that holds down the string(s) that form a chord or when playing a note. And he can do that playing both left and right handed guitars. Check the following video from Metalmethod.com to see what I mean. In this video he plays a right handed guitar but note the way he forms the chords using his left hand.

Michael also plays one of a kind guitar called the double guitar. Made by Dean Markley exclusively for him it consists of two guitars joined together at a detachable joint at the bottom in the shape of a giant “V”. Michael can play these two guitars simultaneously. He can also switch hands while playing simultaneously, i.e play the left guitar with his right hand and the right guitar with his left. Watch him literally turn the “V” up and plays the guitars from behind. Actually this is a nice instrumental incorporating the riff from Smoke on the Water and a Randy Rhoads riff towards the end.

To step up a little further, Michael also used to have four guitars joined together in the shape of an “X”. He no longer plays this instrument but you can watch a video of him playing the instrument when he was in the band Nitro.

Michael’s guitar videos are one of the most popular on the net. You can buy his very successfully selling Speed Kills instructional series.

They are produced and sold by metalmethod.com.

Voice of America named it the best rock song ever and guitarists and guitar fans the world over will swear by it as one of the best if not the best lead solo ever. On YouTube and elsewhere there are many who have tried to emulate Jimmy Page but only a few are perfect. Here are my favorite picks.

The near perfect one is from Tom Lane, the instructor at playguitarsolos.com

Tom Lane has other excellent guitar solo videos that you can also learn to play and from the videos I have seen he is the best out there. You can find them on his website, more about which I plan to write later.

From Ugur Dariveren and like someone commented, nice wind in his hair.

Ugur has posted some other solos too of various hits and they are very impressive.

Another video posted by markmusicman but there is a tiny mistake in the first line of the solo

And the classical imporvisation live performance from Rodrigo and Gabriela which even challenges the original.

If you know of a “stairway to heaven” solo video that either matches these performances or even betters them send me a message and I will link them here.

I first heard John Williams play this classical composition on my car-radio while travelling in Athens, GA. It was so melodious that after parking my car I continued to keep the radio on to find out who was playing. I heard these unforgettable words, Carlo Domeniconi and Koyunbaba and that the legendary classical guitarist John Williams (not to be confused with the composer John Williams of StarWars, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark fame) was playing the tune. The classical guitarist John Williams is from Australia. I later bought the CD and to my surprise there were other great compositions on the CD. Sony produced this album it is called The Guitarist. Koyunbaba on the CD comes in four parts and is composed by the Italian composer Carlo Domeniconi who composed it during his stay in Turkey.

The video below shows Li Jie, the Chinese classical guitarist playing Koyunbaba. On YouTube I found it the best among several others who have attempted Koyunbaba. Li Jie adds more elegance to the beauty of the classical guitar in the composed and lithe manner she plays her instrument. A little expression would have made the performance even better.

The Chapman stick has been around since the late 60′s but it never got the attention that the regular 6 strings or 12 strings did. Nevertheless it has ardent devotees and serious players. Here is one performance on YouTube worth watching. Notice how the player, Rob Martino uses both his hands to play both bass and melodies simultaneously.

Before I post my first guitar album review, I thought it would be convenient to mention my other blog where I have already reviewed some big guitar albums instead of duplicating reviews here. The blog is great-anonymous-albums.com that I have been running since 2006. Many a great guitar hero have been missed by the guitar enjoying public and I have reviewed some of the most anonymous yet very pleasing and interesting albums on this site. Please find the links to these albums in my sidebar under great-anonymous-albums.com reviews

If this 4 yr old can be so fired up imagine what we grown-ups should be feeling. When I came across this delightful video I thot’ it should make my first post before I start working on the rest.  Check out the yahoo video below.

I tried hard and wasted time creating a new theme. Tired of checking and tweaking other available themes and then when I almost thought of giving up I come across Dilectio, a smashing theme. Like the theme of my other music site I run using WordPress, great-anonymous-albums.com, the Dilectio theme was love at first sight. Though it may not match the content of my site I used it because I liked it so much. Time to tweak it to my requirements.