After 3 years hosted on WordPress.com, The Guitar Channel has moved to a self-hosted WordPress.

Consequence for you ? None.

Really. As the URL www.theguitarchannel.biz is now pointing to the new place.

In case you used the WordPress.com URL (theguitarchnnl.wordpress.com), you should update your bookmarks to use main URL instead:

www.theguitarchannel.biz

NO MORE article will be posted here on WordPress.com. Old ones will remain available here though.

Pierre.

LCG-173-20121102.mp3 (41min 42s)

Hello,

It seems that the countries from northern Europe have something special to have so many incredible guitar players, Mika Tyyskä from Finland and also known as Mr Fastfinger is one of them.

“In Motion” is a great music album full of superb guitar playing. Yes you will hear some heavy shredding in there but this is NOT your typical shredder’s album, it’s way more than that. Mika’s music is both intriguing and enjoyable.

Extracts from “In Motion” played before the interview:

• Little Wind
• Motion Beat
• Beach Turtles
• Unravel

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-169-20121010.mp3 (27min 23s)

Hello,

For the first time ever in the show I present you with an interview of an american musician whose main instrument is NOT the guitar but her great voice.

Beth Hart has played with so many guitar players (from Jeff Beck to Joe Bonnamassa) I thought it was interesting to interview her.

Her last album Bang Bang Boom Boom is full of great songs and cool guitar tones by Randy Flowers.

I can also highly recommend the album she has recorded with Joe Bonnamassa “Don’t Explain”:

Extracts played before the interview:

• Sinner’s Prayer – Beth Hart and Joe Bonnamassa “Don’t Explain”
• For My Friends – Beth Hart and Joe Bonnamassa “Don’t Explain”
• Well, Well – Beth Hart and Joe Bonnamassa “Don’t Explain”
• Bang, Bang, Boom, Boom – Beth Hart “Bang, Bang, Boom, Boom”

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-164-20120901.mp3

Hello,

It’s a very special interview I propose you in this show because you might not know that but I am a big fan of Rory Gallagher who died in 1995 so I jumped on the occasion to interview Rory’s brother, Donal, who followed him a lot on the road and who his taking care of Rory’s legacy now.

In this interview Donal tells the whole story about how Rory almost joined the Rolling Stones after Mick Taylor quit in 1974. You will hear this and many more about Rory’s music.

Who is the guitar player has NOT fantasized about Rory’s battered 61 Stratocaster?

All Rory’s albums are currently rereleased on CD so it’s the perfect time to (re)discover the music of this great guitar player who disappeared way to soon.

Extracts played before the interview:

• Laundromat from Rory Gallagher
• Barley And Grape Rag from Calling Card
• Title track from Calling Card
• Walk On Hot Coals from Irish Tour 74

A really cool YouTube videos where you will hear Rory talking about his 61 Strat:

Enjoy,

Pierre.

PS: please note that at the end of the interview I had a glitch with my phone recording software that’s why the interview is stopping a bit abruptly. Sorry about that.

Update September 3rd 2012

After I put this interview online Donal sent me a mail to give some more details, here’s an extract from the mail.

“…Thank you for the link, however on listening through the interview, I noted that I may have mistakenly said it was the mid-fifties (might be the audio quality mid sixties) as to when Rory purchased his ‘stratocaster’, it should be ’63.”

.

“Also, you asked me of high – points in my brother’s career, I overlooked his meeting and recording with Muddy Waters, for the ‘London Sessions’ album – this was most important to him.”

LCG-158-20120626.mp3

Hello,

Marty Friedman (aka @_martyfriedman_) is one of those guitar super stars who seems to be going from one project to another non-stop.

I had the pleasure to catch him on Skype for the interview you will hear in this episode. He was in Tokyo, I was in Paris so no surprise the sound is kind of weird here and there.

Extracts played before the interview:

• Weapons Of Ecstacy (Bad D.N.A.)
• School Spirit Delin  (Bad D.N.A.)
• Aitakatta (Tokyo Jukebox 2)
• Canon A La Koto (Tokyo Jukebox 2)

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-155-20120603.mp3

Hello,

I was very happy to interview Simon McBride (aka @smcbridemusic) via Skype as his music kept on showing up when I did some listening in shuffle mode to go through all the music I receive.

And each time it happened I said to myself  ”I really MUST have this guy in the show!”.

That’s the method I use: I hit play and if the music I hear interests me I take a note. When it happened several times for the same artist, it really means I am on to something.

Extracts played before the interview:

• Devil’s Road (Since Then)
• Tear Down Your Soul (Since Then)
• Down To The Wire (Nine Lives)
• Rich Man Falling (Nine Lives)

Happy listening,

Pierre.

PS: note that toward the end of the interview there is a weird offset between our voices so it sounds like we are talking at the same time and like there were some long silences during our conversation. I had to way to correct that after the fact. Sorry about that.

LCG-150-20120428.mp3

Hello,

For this episode #150 I am very happy to present you with an interview from guitar super star Richie Kotzen (aka @Richie_Kotzen) himself! He was in Paris a couple of weeks ago for a concert and I had the opportunity to meet him right before the gig.

I cannot recommend enough his latest CD “24 Hours” which is shock full of good songs, excellent singing and awesome guitar parts.

Extracts from his album “24 hours” played before the interview:

• Get It On
• 24 Hours
• I Don’t Know Why
• Help Me

Richie’s guitar pics right before the show (notice the inboard tuner around the volume pot):

Enjoy,

Pierre.

PS: thanks Michelle (aka @mholland5001) for putting me in contact with Richie’s management to organize the interview.

LCG-149-20120421.mp3

Hello,

I am very happy to present you with the second interview on the Channel of a women guitar player with Clare Free (aka @ClareFree1).

As a reminder the first women interviewed was Heike Matthiesen whom I interviewed in french in episode #103 at last year MusikMesse. I also did more recently an interview with her in english that I will publish in the near future.

We need more women playing the guitar!

Let’s concentrate now on Clare who has just released a great blues album called “Dust And Bones”:

 Extracts played before the interview:

• Believe In Me
• Stronger Than You Think
• Smaller Miracles
• Scars

Fours songs from the a previous EP “How It Is” are downloadable for free from Clare web site, check this page: www.clarefree.co.uk/download-songs/

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-147-20120407.mp3

Hello,

Another guitar super star on this episode with none other than Lee Ritenour.

I had the opportunity to call him on his cell during a 15 minute break he was taking during a recording session of his next album.

Extracts played in the episodes are from the “Six String Theory” album published in 2010:

• Lay It Down (feat. Lee Ritenour & John Scofield)
• 68 (feat. Neal Schon, Slash & Steve Lukather)
• Why I Sing the Blues (feat. Keb’ Mo’, B.B. King, Vince Gill, Lee Ritenour & Jonny Lang)

Enjoy,

Pierre.

Hello,

Last week in episode #145 I published the interview with Eric Bibb, now is the time to enjoy a song performed by him and beautifuly filmed as always by my usual partner in crime for video, Nicolas Esposito (aka @nesposit) from Rendez-Vous Création.

The link to Nicolas’s blog post on his own website is here.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-145-20120323.mp3

Hello,

It’s a great pleasure for me to present you with a second interview with the great blues man Eric Bibb (aka @ericbibb). The first one is in episode #68. He was in Paris for a cameo appearance at the New Morning but he will be back to play his own gig on April 2nd.

Extracts from Deeper In The Well:

• Dig A Little Deeper In The Well
• Could Be You, Could Be Me
• Money In Your Pocket
• Movin’ Up

Three great photos taken during the interview by Nicolas Esposito from Rendez-Vous Création (www.rendezvouscreation.org):

Don’t forget if you are in the Paris area, Eric Bibb is playing at the New Morning on April 2nd 2012.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-143-20120310.mp3

Hello,

Last week I published the Bryan Beller interview in episode 142, this week none other than Guthrie Govan himself.

As you can guess I was thrilled to speak to Guthrie who is one of the srongest rising star of guitar playing. It’s the kind of musician you hear about in guitar magazine way before you hear their music then you discover what they do and you’re blown away!

Yes, Guthrie is THAT good.

Photo by Alex Solca

Song extracts from the album played before the interview:

• Get It Like That
• Sweaty Knockers

They will be playing in Paris on March 14th 2012 in Paris at La Scène Bastille (www.la-scene.com) so if you are around, don’t miss that! The rest of the tour dates are on their website here.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-142-20120304.mp3

Hello,

The Aristocrats is what you can call a super group with Guthrie Govan on the guitar, Bryan Beller on bass on Marco Minnemann on drums. I had the great opportunity to talk to 2 out of the 3 members of the band.

Here is part 1 of 2 with the interview of Bryan Beller who also played with none other than Steve Vaï among many others.

I tremendously enjoyed the Aristocrats debut album. Yes, it’s chock full of incredible technical work but it is even more full of great songs with great melodies and feelings all over the CD.

We are talking music here, it’s NOT a boring intellectual jazz-fusion thing. I can’t wait to see those guys play live.

Song extracts from the album played before the interview:

• Flatlands
• I Want A Parrot

They will be playing in Paris on March 14th in Paris at La Scène Bastille (www.la-scene.com) so if you are around, don’t miss that! The rest of the tour dates are on their website here.

Next episode will have the Guthrie Govan interview.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-140-20120218.mp3

Hello,

I am happy to present you with an interview of Tony Macalpine, one of the not-so-numerous survivor of the 80s shredder era. He has a very rich career so far and his latest album rocks big time.

If you are into metal and high class guitar playing, you will sure enjoy Tony’s work.

Extracts played before the interview:

• Blue Maserati
• Dream Mechanism
• Ölüdeniz
• Flowers For Monday

If you are in the Paris, France area, Tony will play March 21st at Le Divan du Monde. All the tour dates are in the Tours page of his website.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-136-20120119.mp3 (39min 27s)

Hello,

Philip Sayce (aka @philipsayce on Twitter) is a very prolific and talented singer and guitar player, here he is with another very powerful album called Steamroller (Release date: February 27th 2012).

To speak about it we did a Skype interview just last week so, hot from the press if I can say, here is the second interview of Philip on The Guitar Channel (the first one is in episode #058).

Steamroller extracts played before the interview:

• Steamroller
• Black Train

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-132-20111219.mp3

Hello,

For the second time I had the pleasure to meet and interview Bjorn Berge the great norwegian guitar player. The first time was last year in episode 78. The guy can be pretty intimidating but he is very cool and extremely nice.

I was at his New Morning show the night before we did the interview, he gave a superb show. The place was packed and the crowd very responsive to Bjorn. I highly recommend seeing him on stage, he rocks BIG time with “only” his 12 string guitars.

Here he is now with his latest CD called Blackwood.

Extracts played before the interview:

• Blackwood
• Woodstock
• Sick’N Tired
• Blues For One

Enjoy,

Pierre.

LCG-127-20111111.mp3

Hello,

I met Eric McFadden when he was in Paris for a couple of shows as well as promoting his latest album “Bluebird On Fire”. He has a great voice, knows his way around a guitar and has a very wide range of styles he masters, from rock to deep roots blues to more funky stuff as well as more melancholic music.

It was a pleasure to discuss with him, check out his music or his show if you live nearby.

www.EricMcFadden.com

Concert dates:

15/11 - Mantes La Jolie - Blues Sur Seine
16/11 - Mantes La Jolie - Blues Sur Seine
17/11 - Mantes La Jolie - Blues Sur Seine
18/11 - Mantes La Jolie - Blues Sur Seine
19/11 - Roanne - Papillon Bleu
20/11 - Ensisheim - Caf’ Conc’
22/11 - Ensisheim - Caf’ Conc’
25/11 - Blois - Maison de Begon

Bonne écoute,

Pierre.

Hello,

After the interview published in episode #124, here is the video of “Pound Of Flesh” song from the lasted Popa Chubby album ”Back To New-York City”.

Once more, Nicolas Esposito de Rendez-Vous Création has done a great job to capture on video this moment. Thanks A TON Nicolas.

Here a few pictures taken during the session:

Pierre.

LCG-124-20111023.mp3

Hello,

For the 2nd time (see #81 for the 1st interview), I had the pleasure to interview Popa Chubby as he was in paris to promote his latest album Back To New York City. After the interview we did a video recording of the song Pound Of Flesh you will see in next week episode.

Picture: Nicolas Esposito (http://rendezvouscreation.org)

Meeting and interviewing Popa is always some kind of adventure, this time we were supposed to to the interview in a radio studio but during the show he broke two strings so we had to go back to the hotel to get some new strings. We ended up doing the interview in the basement of his hotel in the gym room!

Extracts from Back To New York City played before the interview:

• Pound Of Flesh
• Back To New-York City
• A Love That Will Not Die
• She Made Me Beg For It.

Don’t forget to check out next week episode with the video recording of Pound Of Flesh!

Happy listening,

Pierre.

PS: Popa will play the Olympia on November 20th with Walter Trout.

LCG-122-20111007.mp3

Hello,

Do you have any idea how it feels to get to interview such a guitar legend a Mr Leslie West?? Maybe be Mr West is not THAT famous among younger guitar players but he is cited as an influence by many people.

I had a blast discovering his latest CD “Unusual Suspects” which is full of georgous guitar tones with an incredible range of guitar guests:

• Billy F Gibbons
• Slah
• Zakk Wylde
• Steve Lukather
• Joe Bonamassa

I hope you will enjoy the interview I did with him on the phone.

Extracts:

• Standing On A Higher Ground
• Third Degree
• I Feel Fine
• My Gravity

Happy listening,

Pierre.