High Strung Guitar: Woodsmoke and Oranges

Today’s high strung guitar selection is not as well known as some of the others that I’ve featured this week. Canadian Ian Tamblyn’s “Woodsmoke and Oranges,” which also serves as our Wooden Music Wednesday selection, was actually inspired by a lick he first played on a high strung guitar some thirty years ago. In 2007, he re-recorded the song for his “Superior: Spirit and Light” CD. Tamblyn said that the high strung part sounded like the North Coast of Lake Superior.

The title intrigues me, as I am not sure what “Woodsmoke and Oranges” really means. Perhaps I’m dense, but the oranges may refer to the colors of autumn and of course the fires burning in the distance provides the woodsmoke.

Add to the title’s mystique is the fact that folk-singer Paul Siebel titled his 1970 debut album with the same phrase – yet no song named “Woodsmoke and Oranges” appears on the record. Perhaps Tamblyn was paying tribute to Siebel – unfortunately, I do not know this for a certainty.

I like the tune and if you listen, you’ll hear the high strung guitar.

Live Version from 2012

I have also included a live video where Tamblyn talks about how the guitar configuration motivated the song’s writing.

High Strung Guitar: Wild Horses

As we continue our look at the use of high strung guitar, I turn to another popular song that employed this technique – The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” Inspired by Gram Parsons, this Stones’ foray into a country influenced sound simultaneously was issued on two albums on two different labels in 1971.

Joining its fellow single “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses” was one of the two 45s from the album “Sticky Fingers” – their first release on Rolling Stones Records that was distributed by Atlantic’s ATCO division. Due to a contractual fight with their former manager Allen Klein, he claimed ownership rights to both singles and subsequently they also appeared on a London Records compilation known as “Hot Rocks 1964-1971.”

Keith Richard plays most of the guitar parts – a 12-string guitar in the right channel and the electric lead guitar; he also provides backing vocals on the chorus. Mick Taylor, however, was responsible for the high strung guitar that appears in the left channel. He does some nice accompanying parts as well as some 12th fret harmonics. The remainder of the line-up is straight forward: Mick Jagger on vocals, Bill Wyman on bass, and Charlie Watts on drums. They are joined by the late Jim Dickinson on piano.

Today’s feature also fulfills our Atypical Tuesday selection as “Sticky Fingers” was packaged with an Andy Warhol designed cover of a man’s jeans with an operational zipper. Behind the cover was a photograph of men’s briefs, but you had to pry apart a thin line of glue to get to the inner picture.

Bowing to complaints of record stores who returned a number of albums damaged in shipping, Atlantic began manufacturing the album with the zipper pull tab opened and centered over the label. This prevented damage in shipment to the playing surface of the LP – a hazard that occurred when the zipper was completely closed.

While “Brown Sugar” was a number one record, its follow-up “Wild Horses” was a mid-charter at #28. Selling over three million copies, “Sticky Fingers” was certified triple platinum. The album spent four weeks at the number one position on the US album charts and a total of 62 weeks on the charts.

High Strung Guitar: Hey You

From Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall,” “Hey You” was originally intended to be part of the motion picture of the same name, but was cut from the final due to time constraints. Copies of the DVD contain a rough cut in black and white of the intended video.

The song features lead vocals by both Roger Waters and David Gilmour. While Waters doesn’t play any instruments on this cut, Gilmour is on fretless bass, 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, electric guitars, pedal steel guitar, and his own take on the high strung guitar.

For this particular recording, Gilmour strings the low “E” string an octave higher than a normal high strung configuration – thus making the string two octaves higher than standard tuning and in unison with the high “E” string. His own take on the high strung acoustic guitar provides a unique sound on the arpeggios during the “Hey You’s” beginning.

In addition, Nick Mason plays drums and Richard Wright is on Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, and synthesizer. More unusual than Gilmour’s take on the high strung guitar is engineer James Guthrie’s use of an electric drill as an effect. You can hear it from about 3:22 to 4:00 in the song.

High Strung Guitar: Paradox (Disciple's Song)

Well, it’s the second week of the month and time for our special feature this month is the high string guitar or sometimes referred to as Nashville tuning or stringing. The Nashville moniker was attributed to this non standard way of stringing of an acoustic guitar because of its frequent use by Nashville session musicians.

To make it simple, a high strung guitar is not one with too much caffeine, but rather one where the four lowest strings (E-A-D-G) are strung an octave higher while the B and the high E strings are strung in standard. In other words, a high strung guitar is the octave set from a 12-string guitar. A guitar strung in this manner has a bell like quality and even alone sounds wonderful, but many musicians use it in tandem with a standard strung acoustic guitar.

In 1974, I began stringing one of my acoustic guitars in this matter and still have it strung this way. I don’t use it often and haven’t played it out since using it for special music at a funeral in 1989. As I was performing with two other guitarists that evening, I opted for a different sound to round things out and used it rather than my typical instrument.

My, I must use it more – as that is a long time. Probably my reason for not using it since is that I typically use my 12-string which I purchased in 1990 since I don’t often play in a group setting. There are quite a few recordings that use this technique and we will explore some of these during this week. To my limited knowledge, the most famous song using a high strung guitar is Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind”; unfortunately, I will not be featuring this tune as I have already used it on this blog.

In February 1981, I left Eastern Kentucky for Beckley, WV and the last album that I received was a promo copy of ArkAngel’s “Warrior.” I played this record to death and have already featured a few of the songs from this contemporary Christian album.

“Paradox (Disciple’s Song)” is today’s feature and features Kemper Crabbe on high strung guitar as well as much of the song’s (and the album’s) instrumentation. He also sings lead. The high strung parts can be heard near the beginning of the song. It appears that there is a 12-string in the mix – and it is a very nice mix for this song as well. The paradoxical lyrics are “before you can win, you first must lose”; “before you can gain, you’ve got to give”; and “you’ve got to die in order to live.” While it is a paradox, it is what a disciple is called to do.

I hope through the song choices of this week that you gain an appreciation for high strung guitar.

Little Feat: Dixie Chicken

I know . . . I’ve been a bad boy. It’s been a week since my last post. Although I had intended posting yesterday, I decided to save the song for our second week special that starts tomorrow. For today’s  Bubbling Under Feature, I turn to a band that had little chart success, but had a very loyal following. Little Feat formed in 1969 and broke up shortly before their leader Lowell George passed away from a heart attack ten years later. In 1987, keyboardist Bill Payne reformed Little Feat and they are still going strong today.

“Dixie Chicken” was originally released as a single and as the title cut of the band’s third LP, but today I’m featuring the live version from their 1978 album “Waiting for Columbus.” This nearly nine minute rendition is a rock ‘n roll jam extraordinaire. Written by Lowell George and Fred Martin, “Dixie Chicken” is often considered Feat’s signature song. This version features an extended solo by Payne and it is augmented by Tower of Power’s horn section in a true-to-life Dixieland style. 

This live rendition brings back memories. I moved to Beckley, WV in February 1981, and it seemed that every time I gathered with a group of friends who were employed in the New River rafting industry in nearby Fayette County, someone would breakout “Waiting for Columbus.”  Immediately, the choice would be Side 3 and “Dixie Chicken” would round out the evening and the dancing commenced. When I listen to it today, it takes me back to my mid 20s although that was over 30 years ago.

One apology is needed here. Every version on YouTube – cuts the songs ending too close. I guess we will have to live with that.

Loss Hurts: Rest in Peace Phil Everly

In 1959, he served as a pallbearer at Buddy Holly’s funeral and now nearly 55 years later Phil Everly has gone on to his reward. A lifelong smoker, Phil Everly died yesterday from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; he was 74. Collectively, Phil and his older brother Don were the chart making Everly Brothers. Don generally sang lead while Phil contributed the high tenor harmony. Their sound and style influenced quite a few of the second generation of rock musicians and that influence carries over to the present.

Phil Everly playing his Gibson Everly Brothers model guitar.

During their career, the duo had 27 Top 40 hits, 12 country hits, nine R&B hits, four adult contemporary hits, and three Top 20 albums. Of those, the Everly Brothers had five US number one hits – with three simultaneously charting at the top position on more than one chart. Two of the three were number one records on the pop, country, and R&B charts. All five of their number one singles were certified gold in the US. Their biggest hit, “Cathy’s Clown,” sold 8 million units.

As a tribute to Phil, and in keeping with our normal Saturday “Bubbling Under Feature,” I did not select one of their hits, but rather an album cut that was originally recorded by the duo, but became a hit for the rock band Nazareth in 1975. “Love Hurts,” penned by Boudleaux Bryant, is today’s featured song.

As for the Bryants, Boudleaux and his wife Felice wrote a string of hits for The Everlys that included the following: “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to do is Dream,” “Bird Dog,” and “Problems” to name a few. “Love Hurts” was included on the Everlys’ second Warner Brothers’ album: “A Date with the Everly Brothers.”

Shortly after the December 1960 release of the album, Roy Orbison recorded “Love Hurts” as a single, but it failed to chart in the US. Previously, Orbison had penned the Everly’s 1958 hit “Claudette.”

Although the brothers have not charted since the 1980s, they have performed together since the 1950s – with the exception of a decade long estrangement from 1973 to 1983. Yesterday, the world lost a great voice with the death of the first rock ‘n roll star of this new year. May we never forget Phil Everly’s contributions to modern music.

David Crosby: Laughing

Last week my friend Greg Rector posted on my Facebook account that he and a couple of coworkers were discussing what three albums they would take with them on a deserted island. If you’ve ever contemplated this, you know how difficult it is to whittle down a collection to only three albums. Not so for Greg though, he has his three selections already in mind for the post apocalyptic world: Little Feet’s “Waiting for Columbus,” Graham Nash’s “Songs for Beginners,” and David Crosby’s album “If I Could Only Remember my Name.” Greg was amazed that neither one of his friends had any familiarity with the album.

I must confess, of the solo albums released in 1971-72 by the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; this is one that I don’t have in my collection. That was not by decision – it just never happened. It’s not an obscure LP, as “If I Could Only Remember my Name” charted on the Top 200 Album charts at #12 and has never gone out of print since its initial release in July 1971 – which shows Atlantic’s commitment to the LP.

As I have rekindled my knowledge of this album, I could see why it holds a special place in Greg’s heart. He asked that I feature the song “Laughing” for a Wooden Music Wednesday selection and I’m happy to oblige by making it the first selection of 2014.

The album features a veritable Who’s Who of musicians – especially from the San Francisco music scene. I remember in 1971 that Circus Magazine did a feature on the cross-pollination of musicians from the Bay Area and that contained groups like CSN&Y, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Jefferson Airplane, and their splinter bands. The article, which charted the activities of these musicians, was spurred on by the Crosby album and the release of the first Jefferson Starship project by Paul Kantner.

“If I Could Only Remember my Name” contains personnel from many of the aforementioned bands. “Laughing” features Crosby on all of the guitars and lead vocals. Back-up harmonies were provided by Crosby, his partner in crime – Graham Nash, and longtime friend Joni Mitchell.

Members of the Grateful Dead fill out the remainder of the musicians. Jerry Garcia is on pedal steel guitar – a role he held on with CSN&Y’s “Teach Your Children.” Bill Kreutzmann handles the back beat while Phil Lesh attacks the bass with a vengeance.

Even during his tenure with The Byrds, Crosby’s songs were notoriously complex and his compositions on “If I Could Only Remember my Name” are no different. The chord changes are unique and the harmonic qualities of his arrangements are unlike any other artist at this time. Good stuff for a New Year. Happy New Year all.