Tag: Duane Allman

Duane Allman

smackyjackjack1 Comment

There are those who spend their whole lives trying to be great.

There are those who die young and are remembered for their contributions to this planet.

Then there’s Duane Allman.

By all accounts, Duane Allman’s measly 24 years on this planet should not have built up to much. But he managed to become one of the most influential guitar players in history…a couple of years out of high school.

Duane Allman has, obviously, played for the Allman Brother Band. He also backed greats such as Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton (who was quoted as calling Allman his soulmate in terms of guitar playing), Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and Derek and the Dominoes.

He became the sound of American Soul before anyone knew who he was. Sadly, he died in a motorcycle crash before he became the next Jimi Hendrix.

Duane Allman isn’t the best guitarist of all time, or my favorite. But if I could sound like any guitar player ever, it would definitely be him. He has more soul than some sort of soul machine. Just listen to this song he played with Clapton.

Slide Guitar

smackyjackjack1 Comment

This past Thursday, I went down to Oxnard to look at a used car. After being told by the owner that the car’s trunk was big enough to store a gun by a very serious man, I took off to the nearby guitar center to waste some time. I ended up walking out with a Gretsch G9220.

Before Thursday, I’d been playing slide on a Yamaha classical guitar with three nylon strings. Needless to say it hadn’t been sounding to authentic. I started playing slide after hearing old slide players like the Texan Blind Willie Johnson. His music literally transcends his genre and even time. The beautiful slide on “Dark was the night, Cold was the ground” is one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. The loneliness portrayed in this song is one of the many feelings slide can represent.

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