by quarantoons | Jan 25, 2021 | Uncategorized
I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon, and I’ve been thinking about doing this 1966 garage rock classic by The Count Five for a while, so I dove in. I went after the loose feel of the original, so I kept the takes to a minimum and let a few clams slide....
by quarantoons | Jan 22, 2021 | Music
When Billy Kohout suggested doing this classic by Bill Withers, I couldn’t resist. I always loved the economy of the arrangement, so I stayed close to what was on the original – with the exception of adding a solo, of course. And Billy did a nice job on...
by quarantoons | Jan 19, 2021 | Music
I learned this Shooter Jennings tune for a gig I did with the band Stagecoach a couple of years ago, and it’s been a favorite since. After I got the track put together I reached out to John Genua, who helped out with harmony vocals and an acoustic guitar track....
by quarantoons | Jan 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
We’re kicking off 2021 with a song by one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever to walk the planet – Rockpile. This one’s a Rockpile tune through and through, even though it was released on the Dave Edmunds 1979 solo album Repeat When Necessary. I...
by quarantoons | Dec 26, 2020 | Uncategorized
Hendrix. He was my guy when I first got serious about playing guitar, and every single song was a new challenge. There’s some stuff of his that I still don’t know how to play after years of listening and studying, but I still like to give them a try. This...
by quarantoons | Dec 10, 2020 | Music
You can’t go wrong with a little Petty. The lead single off the Wildflowers album, it’s one of my favorites. The overall sound is so spare, but there’s a whole lot going on instrumentally. I had a little space to fill today, so I went down to the...
by quarantoons | Nov 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
This song from Bob Dylan’s pivotal 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited has long been my favorite Dylan lyric. Six verses, no chorus, with a lyric that contains poverty, disease, loose women, crooked cops, alcohol, drugs and New York City. What more do you need from...
by quarantoons | Nov 2, 2020 | Music
It was only a matter of time before The King showed up here. This song was a Top 5 hit for Big El in 1961, and it’s been covered by everyone from Ry Cooder and Robert Plant to Pearl Jam and Dwight Yoakam. I had a little downtime over the weekend, so I figured...
by quarantoons | Oct 25, 2020 | Uncategorized
I’ve had it in my head to do this song for a while. ‘Bus Stop’ was The Hollies’ first Top Ten hit in the US, and it’s always been my favorite Hollies tune. Since the song is so harmony-dependent, I asked Bob Sole if he’d help me...
by quarantoons | Oct 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
When Tommy Dolan and I did ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ a few weeks ago, he raised the idea of doing the other side of that double-A Side single, so here it is. We got a little help on this one from Rich Forman on keyboards and Robert Sole on vocals. This...
by quarantoons | Sep 27, 2020 | Music
After doing ‘Better Man Than I’ with Scott Bittner, I got the idea in my head to do another Yardbirds song – the only question was which one? They had so many cool hits. I finally opted for one from the 1966 album Roger The Engineer that featured...
by quarantoons | Sep 20, 2020 | Music
My band Nurse Diesel is known for taking certain, umm, chances with our choices of material – we’re a three piece band, but we often do material that’s a lot more complex than guitar, bass and drums. So when Diesel bassist Tommy Dolan and I decided...
by quarantoons | Sep 17, 2020 | Uncategorized
My friend Chris Antos has been known as the voice of AC/DC in the Northeast for over 20 years with his tribute bands Live Wire and Shoot2Thrill, so when I asked him what song he wanted to do with me, he immediately stepped outside his comfort zone and suggested this...
by quarantoons | Sep 16, 2020 | Uncategorized
This one was a surprise. Bill Haney sent me this track yesterday, where he took one of The Beatles’ early rockers and turned it into a gentle ballad. After listening to it a couple of times, I got the idea for a simple string arrangement, and after about an hour...
by quarantoons | Sep 14, 2020 | Music
While updating my drum software a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the update included a new drum kit they called ‘Levee.’ And that reminded me of a mashup that my band Nurse Diesel used to do, using the music from ‘When The Levee Breaks’...
by quarantoons | Sep 13, 2020 | Music
Here’s a song from one of my favorite bands – the title track from Mountain’s third album, 1971’s Nantucket Sleighride. This one was suggested a while ago by my long-time guitar tech Rodney ‘Rocky’ Arnhold, so i decided to finally...
by quarantoons | Aug 16, 2020 | Music
After Mike Tirelli and I did ‘It’s No Good,’ we started talking about another song to do. We were talking about doing a song by INXS, and this one from the Kick album was what we landed on – but with a slight twist. It turns out that...
by quarantoons | Aug 3, 2020 | Music
When I posted that Yardbirds tune last week, I struck up a conversation with Bill Hafener (Finn & His Rustkickers) about doing a song. Bill suggested that he bring in the band and do a revved-up take on Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska,’ done in...
by quarantoons | Jul 31, 2020 | Uncategorized
New Jersey Power Pop pioneers The Smithereens are one of the most overlooked American bands ever for my money, and this song from their debut album is one of their best. This track has been sitting around for a while, mainly because I was a little skittish about...
by quarantoons | Jul 29, 2020 | Uncategorized
Here’s another quick track, because this site needs a little country! This track from The Byrds’ 1966 album Fifth Dimension is arguably the very first country-rock song. I kept the arrangement pretty bare-bones to match the original, although I did allow...
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