It really is true that each student one can have is a real blessing! I have found that not only have I made some of the greatest friends I’ve ever had through teaching them, but also the very act of teaching has done more to teach me than anyone else!

Sometimes we all end up doing some gigs that we may not necessarily really want to do, but we end up with a sense of “having” to do it! This occurs very often when friends or family ask us to do them certain gigs as “favors.” It is amazing how these gigs can come about, and sometimes for me there have been some really funny circumstances!

When you want to first get together with some friends and really start a band for yourselves, you’ll find this to be a very exciting time! The early and formative days of anyone’s life in music can be a time when great memories are made, and when anything is possible. The feeling you get is basically like you can “rule the world” and that nothing will stop you or slow you down!

As players, appreciators and as collectors, we all must admit that in many ways, every single guitar has a story to tell. In fact, the ones that don’t somehow seem far less interesting, and as we all know, the guitars that seem to acquire the most “mojo” are really the best ones anyway, and they seem to have more “soul”, in a guitar kind of way!

I’m sure many of you have already recorded albums, or at least have plans to eventually do so, and I hope this blog can offer you some tips and some help in achieving the best recording you can. These last few months I have been involved a great deal in recording my latest album, a “Slide Guitar Summit”, and there have been countless decisions made over the course of the recording to make improvements, and to affect its ultimate outcome.

What a momentous day of recording! Got to continue my “Slide Guitar Summit” album with 3 tracks with my good buddies Lee Roy Parnell, and Greg Martin, who plays lead for The Kentucky Headhunters, one of my all-time favorite bands! Both Lee Roy and Greg each made Hot Licks videos for me back in the earl to mid-Nineties, and back then we had established terrific friendships as well as loving playing together!

This “Slide Guitar Summit” I have been working on has really brought a lot of musicians together for sure. I have gotten a chance to play with folks who I played with a long time ago, I have played with people who I always wanted to play with, and some folks who I had never met before, but who’s playing I have always admired.

I know I’ve written blogs in the past about having “roots” to your playing, and what it means to many players and their histories, but it’s the blues roots that to me, really have the most meaning. This is especially true for those of us who enjoy playing American “roots”-based music, and that of course, stretches around the world, especially when it comes to the guitar!

There are definitely right as well as wrong ways in which we can run a recording session, and with my upcoming Slide Summit album really underway, each session seems to present new challenges and approaches that must be taken. Some recording studios are more in a “time is money, money’s time” kind of mode, and when you get there, there can be a rather strict vibe in the air.

This winter in particular has been really rough on my gigging, and I’ve literally had four straight gigs cancelled due to storms of one form or another...ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, nor’easters, they’ve all taken an equal role in shutting down my “live” engagements! Tonight could be another such disaster, as I have to go into NYC to play with the Les Paul Trio, and they’re expecting 7-10 inches of more snow again by me! Not to mention the fact that this gig was cancelled for the same reason 2 months ago, and this night is actually the “make-up” for the first cancellation!!