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Posts under ‘Inspiration’

Randy Rhoads Cabernet Sauvignon

Now, there’s 4 words I never expected to use in the same sentence.

Nevertheless, if you find yourself in Burbank, CA on December 4th & 5th, you can celebrate Randy’s birthday with his sister Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio and the Rhoads family at the D’Argenzio Tasting Room (who knew Randy’s sister had a winery?). You’ll get to try the new Randy Rhoads Cabernet Sauvignon (2005). Hey, if it’s wine, it’s gotta be a Cab, right? If you can’t make it out there personally, you can order a bottle for $53 (a portion of which goes to the Randy Rhoads Charitable Trust). It could be cool gift for that RR fan in your life. With the new The Police Synchronicity wine (which, to me, is somehow a little more expected from Sting), I gotta ask if this is some kind of trend?

Holiday Gift Ideas

Chances are you’ve got a guitar player on your gift list this year, or maybe you play and are expecting Santa to drop some cash, or maybe you just want to help ol’ 22frets out for all the great blogging he’s done over the past year (ya can’t blame a guy for tryin!).

Whatever the case may be, here are some reasonably priced gift ideas for ya.  This is either stuff I want, plan to buy, or already have (just so you know I’m not shillin’ here).  Happy shopping!  :)

SRV Biography by Craig Hopkins

I stumbled onto Craig Hopkins’ book, Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day by Day Night After Night a few years back looking for something SRV related, but it was a little too expensive for me to justify at the time ($75 plus shipping). Well, problem solved!

The book is being republished by Backbeat Books in two volumes: The first, The Early Years 1954-1982, is already out, and the second volume will be out next Fall.  It’s $32 for the first volume, but you can find it for less if you shop around, especially with the holidays looming.  I haven’t finished it yet, but this book is fantastic.  I can’t believe the level of detail.  It covers much more detail than any biography I’ve read, including details about every known performance (with setlists, when available), broadcast information, interviews with family, friends, bandmates, club owners, and others close to Stevie.  But perhaps most amazing are the photos and memorabilia in the book.  The book’s a real treasure, and Mr. Hopkins obviously put a lot of time and research into it.  And for his work, he won the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Literature.

DC’s Guitar Shop and a Famous ’52 Tele

The Washington Post Magazine this morning has a cool feature on Steve & Lynda Spellman’s Guitar Shop, a store opened in 1922 by classical guitarist & teacher Sophocles Pappas (friend of Andrés Segovia & teacher of Charlie Byrd).  Yeah, that’s some good company there.

In the article, Steve shares several treasures from his personal collection (read NOT FOR SALE!).  Among them, this 1952 Fender Telecaster played by Roy Buchanan & Danny Gatton, among others. Man, this thing is in great shape!

I mean, compare this to Jeff Beck’s ’54 Esquire or Danny Gatton’s ’53 Tele and this thing is mint! Anyway, good (if brief) feature on a cool piece of DC guitar history, with some other fantastic guitars in Steve’s collection, including a 1903 Gibson Harp Guitar (whoa!).  Check it out.

Jeff Beck Live at the Grammy Museum

In case you haven’t already checked it out, Jeff Beck’s exclusive show at the Grammy Museum from April is available on iTunes & at Rhino Records. They have a listening party going on over there so you can listen to it before you buy it.

The Tunes:

1. “Corpus Christi Carol”
2. “Hammerhead”
3. “Over The Rainbow”
4. “Brush With The Blues”
5. “A Day In The Life”
6. “Nessun Dorma”
7. “How High The Moon”
8. “People Get Ready”

It’s been quite a year for Jeff.  Here’s the release:

Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck hit the ground running in 2010, kicking the year off by winning his fifth Grammy Award.  Just weeks later, the multi-platinum-selling artist scored the highest Billboard debut of his 45-year career with the release of Emotion & Commotion.  Riding high on that red-hot streak, Beck performed an exclusive show at the Grammy Museum on April 22, thrilling an intimate crowd of 200 with his mind-bending guitar heroics.  Audio and video available exclusively on iTunes.

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