Catfish Keith

Righto here's the lowdown on the Catfish Keith gig last night - simply brilliant. Just a small gig which was nice and intimate, I got to sit right in front of the stage. He played three guitars and a foot stomp box. Guitars were a National tricone reso, a small parlour style 6 stringer and a beautiful luthier built 12 stringer based on an old Stella. This guy can really play and his vocals are powerful and expressive. He's a great fingerpicker and slide player. If you love old style blues with a gospel flavour you'll love this guy. He's a really cool fella and easy to talk to. His musical influences come from the likes of Rev Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred Mcdowell, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly to name a few. That might give you an idea of his style of music. Very much a delta sound. Some of his numbers were quite mesmerising especially when he played the 12 stringer. He's touring the UK right now so why not check out his website and if he's appearing near you, go see him - you won't be disappointed.

http://www.catfishkeith.com/

life after Boxstock 2011

So I think I've finally come back down to earth (and the mundane) after a cracking weekend at West Brom and the UK cbg boxfest. What now, to stop me from topping myself every time I see the news or look at my ever-increasing bills? Well I understand plans are already underway for next years Boxstock so that's got to be good but it's a long way off yet.

Well Hollowbelly is doing a gig at the Verge (The Cheshire Ring) in Manchester on 26th November. My mate Mark C. is organising that one, I'll put the poster on here when he sends me the file so watch out for that. It's the first Northern gig HB will have done and coming originally from Warrington, it's something of a special event for him. Looks like being a popular gig so if you fancy it, get your tickets early. I'll give you details soon about booking.

Nearer to that in time (this week) and only a few miles down the road from me, Catfish Keith is appearing in a local wine bar. I've heard a lot of good things about this guy who is a superb slide player. Can't wait for that one, I'll let you know how it went later this week.

So what am I doing with my time now? Still making electronic stuff. I have a couple of those nand oscillator machines to make for friends so I'm part way on with those. No cbg making in the offing yet but the Boxfest did stir my enthusiasm for more playing and recording. Haven't done anything serious for months now and am raring to get experimenting again. I'd love to get something bluesy going on a cbg along with the oscillator drone box I made. Just need some time to get on with it. Got a busy month ahead with this 'n that but hope to find some time for music making. Be sure to call in here again for more news soon.

June and a little cigar box guitar news

Just heard from my mate over in Manchester that he's planning a CBG gig at his local pub in November. One of our top uk CBG gigging men - Hollowbelly will be playing. He describes himself as punk blues and it'll be a great gig. Provisionally it's gonna be 26th Nov but I'll confirm nearer the time. If you're in that neck of the woods, be sure to come along for a brilliant evening. I'm gonna be there!

I'm having trouble with bloody Youtube again. Taking forever to load the page, then it's all screwed up and I can't get into it to upload anything new or answer any comments. So my apologies if you are waiting for a reply or looking for new material from me. Can't figure out what's wrong but they probably changed something in the name of progress and my ageing laptop can't handle it. Hoping to get a new one soon, then I can spend more time being creative with it rather than trying to fix it.

I'm still not making any new guitars as I'm fully immersed in holidaying, decorating, running around after old folks and when I do get some time to be creative, it's a bit of electron-trickery/circuit-bending rather than CBG building. Just completed my NAND gate oscillators in the old box and it's a pretty wicked machine. I'm hoping to get to grips with it's music making potential and somehow weave it's manic pulsey noisies into something listenable, ideally a bit of CBG palyed over it. Watch this space.

I do have a couple of CBGs for sale. If you want details just email me.

A side benefit of CBG playing for me is that it pushed me toward fingerstyle playing to the point that even when playing standard 6 stringers, I hardly ever use a plectrum now. In fact it feels quite awkward. The limit of three strings to play with on a CBG made it fairly easy to get into fingerstyle plucking. You just need a thumb and one or two fingers. Glad to say I still have all four fingers which I was trying to use when I first attempted fingerstyle in pre-CBG days. I realise now that two are plenty, in fact many of the old time blues players just used thumb and one finger. I think Blind Gary Davis did and he often played a 12 stringer! So if you've tried and failed fingerstyle on 6 strings before. Try getting to grips with it on a 3-string CBG, you'll find it falls into place quite easily.

Bye for now, enjoy summer, it's gone quicker than you think.