Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 9:42 am Post subject: Another newbie
Hello All,
A bit of my musical background and how I came to discover Robben.
I've been playing guitar since I was a little kid. Pestered my parents forever and after a year of making me take piano lessons (a "real" instrument) finally got a guitar of my own. Played whateve was on the radio in j-teen bands in the later 60's around Pacificia (small costal town near SF) and even played on the PBS telethon when I was 12. At one point another older guitarist walked in on one of our practices with the record he was raving about. We all sat down as listened to the first Paul Butterfield album and I was blown away. Then my parents relocated me to Hawaii. Nice place to live but not very advanced musically and very far away from Barney Steel's. So I fell into rock and had a power trio in high school that played everything from the first 3 Grand Funk records and other trio stuff, Cream, Hendrix, Blue Cheer, ect... In the mid 70's in Hawaii, a rock guitarist had to play all the dual guitar parts from the Alman Brothers and Humble Pie. Then I hung up the guitar and went to work in a music store where I got exposed to Joe Pass and Howard Roberts. How I wish someone had showed me this before. I had Blow by Blow and RTF at home but still had no exposure to Robben. The music store led to sitting in with cover bands in Waikiki which let to a full time gig for a couple of years. Then I hung it up again and later moved back to California. The guitar came out of the closet occasionally until about 8 years ago I discovered these blues jam nights at a local bar. The house guitarist kept saying that I must be really into Robben Ford. I'd heard the name but didn't know who that was. I just figured out that he was a local blues hero that everyone revered. One night the leader brought out Andy Just who was amazing. When Andy told me the same thing about Robben, I thought I'd better check this out. I picked up Handfull of Blues and from halfway through Rugged Road I was out of my mind. This is what I always wanted to hear from a guitar! This mixing of Mike Bloomfield with Joe Pass and Miles Davis. Advanced harmony done with the fluidity of a horn player and the feel of and olld blues master.
Now I have found out what was missing from the voice I heard in my head and I've collected all sorts of Robben's material including obscure stuff like Minor Elegance, the Jerry Granelli stuff, and even Ricky Lee Jones' "Pop Pop" where Robben played nylon acoustic. But the best has been being able to see Robben live. He cuts loose live in a way that doesn't come across on the records as great as they are. After the shows he is the most gracious unaffected person. He has signed many things for me including the truss cover of my '84 Fender Esprit (low end percursor to the Fender signature model). Because of some of the South Bay musicians I have become friends with, I've been fortunate to hang out after some gigs and found Robben to be just as unaffected around friends as he is with the public.
It would not be possible to completely copy Robben's style and there is still too much of the legacy of wanting to be Al and the cheap thrill of too many notes but I'm continuing to work on it and find a more melodic voice.
I don't really have time to play as much as I'd like but I do casuals around the southern Bay Area, sit in with various folks and go to occasional jam nights in other parts of the Bay Area to meet new people. I've been very fortunate to be able to play on occasion with some of the better players in this genre in the Bay Area such as John Wedemeyer, Terry Hiatt, Tom Politzer (TOP), and Myron Dove (Tiger Walk tour and others) whom I got to play "Fredom" with one night.
For the gearheads, my primary guitar is a mid 80's 335. I have the Fender Esprit (like an RF but with a maple top and dot rosewood board), An Epiphone '56 Goldtop copy, an American Standard tele (white with rosewood board just like the back of the Butterfield album) and a Korean Epiphone Regent archtop. For amps I have an Andy Fuchs ODS mod and a one off built by Bruce Zinky that was a development mule for his new Superfly amp. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
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