Inneresting vision of acoustic rock

[Kap'n]

I just got back from seeing "Cracker Acoustic" tonight. Not the whole band, just David Lowery and Johnny Hickman.

'Twasn't really acoustic, but it gave me some ideas of how to convey rock in a plugged-in acoustic format.

From my days doing a 'rocking acoustic duo' I had figured out the whole 'chord with your left, hit as many bass notes as possible, strum with the drum pattern' thing.

David had gone a step further. He was playing a cheap-o nylon string with a piezo, while Johnny was playing his Les Paul. I was a little confused at first.

However, David's choice of guitar worked perfectly. When appropriate, he could thump the top as a bass drum, and a rake across muted strings made a perfect piccolo snare sound. He was an entire band in his right hand.

Food for thought, anyway.

[Plugger]

Rhythm guitar playing is a generally underappreciated accomplishment, imho. I've found the best guitarists are invariably excellent and versatile rhythm guitarists, but it's usually only their lead playing that gets the attention. Hendrix, as an obvious example, is a brilliant rhythm player -- you can't really play Hendrix convincingly at all if you haven't got fairly accomplished rhythm chops.

So many beginner guitarists I've heard today seem be to ignoring rhthym playing almost altogether -- it seems kids will often learn "Blitzkrieg" before they can hold down a decent 12-bar shufffle, or develop any sort of wrist fluidity and technique. Not entirely surprising, really. My guess is that they will figure out later on that there's a big chunk of technique (and interesting possibilities) missing.

But it sounds like David Lowery has got this entirely all figured out.

-Mark

[Kap'n]

Rhythm is king.

[NeoFauve]

This was my secret weapon...
http://www.egitara.ru/image/oc_2.jpg

If you mix a lot of the direct signal in, it hides the worst of the tracking glitches. You get a nice fat bottom.
You don't really want to use it for straight strumming though.

I got the idea from a guy named Pete Heitzman. He plays with his wife Karen Savoca.
I just happened to see them when I'd just started doing a kind of ballsy acoustic trio. The three of us were sitting there when this guy got this massive sound out of a Washburn Festival.
Eureka!
I check out his pedals after the set.

[Offshore Angler]

Any schmuck with a guitar can play leads. Rythm is what real guitar players can do.

[bonefish]

dave and johnny are both freekin' monsters!