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Dire Straits are one of the classic British Classic Rock bands to grace the 20th Century. Intially formed by Mark Knopfler together with brother David Knopfler and developed a sound that was refreshingly cool against a backdrop of the current Punk phenomenon and the over produced Stadium Rock of the 70’s.

Their unassuming style was lapped up be the audience of the day and their self titled first album went multi-platinum. They went on to produce another five albums, all of which went platinum or multi platinum.

In 1996 Dire Straits disbanded and Knopfler went on to do some solo work, releasing his first solo album Golden Heart. Since this time he has released a string of solo albums and remains musically active.

Knopfler is noted for being left handed, but playing guitar right handed. He generally plays a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, but makes extensive use of finger picking, normally associated with acoustic guitar. Knopfler is a huge guitar enthusiast and collecter and has around 170 electric guitars in his collection!

Tom Morello rose to fame with the ground breaking rap / metal band Rage Against the Machine. The combination of extremely tight three piece backing band including Tom Morello with his distinctive pseudo synthesiser style of guitar backing up the politically charged rapping / vocals of Zack de la Rocha proved to be a refreshing and very popular alternative to the alternative music of the day.

Rage Against the Machine, the bands self titled debut album achieved success in North America and Europe and was acclaimed for its originality, being the first album to completely combine Rock and Hip Hop.

Rage went on to produce three more albums including Evil Empire, The Battle of Los Angeles and finally Renegades. However the time span between albums was often quite long and rumours of splits abounded. Finally de la Rocha did leave the band, though the rest of the guys wanted to continue making music together. They started jamming with Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell and Audioslave was born.

Tom Morello’s guitar technique is definitely distinctive with heavy use of effects and a wide variety of unusal playing techniques. This avante garde style is backed up by some serious technical ability in a more traditional sense. The finished result is something that is something that swings from the sublime to the seriously hard edged and unusual.

One of Morello’s most relied on effects, especially for his more pseudo-synth work is the Digitech Whammy Pedal. This pedal allows for huge pitch shifting sweeps and is distinctive on numerous tracks.

Tom Morello is less known for his Folk music. However he has been writing and playing Folk music under the alias of The Nightwatchman.

“The Nightwatchman is my political folk alter ego. I’ve been writing these songs and playing them at open mic nights with friends for some time. This is the first time I’ve toured with it. When I play open mic nights, it’s announced as The Nightwatchman. There will be kids there who are fans of my electric guitar playing, and you see them there scratching their heads.

But it’s something that I enjoy doing. I look at it more as an extension of my politics. Then again, some of the songs are not explicitly political. It really helped me grow as an artist and songwriter. Once you prick the vein you never know what is going to come out. You could aim for all union songs and you find yourself in other territory.”

Nightwatchman Video

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Jimmy Page, OBE was born on the 9th of January 1944. His career started off as a session guitarist in London. This then lead on to him becoming a member of The Yardbirds, from late 1966 to 1968, before founding the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

Before getting into his own bands, Jimmy did loads of session work. He was talent scouted by John Gibb of EMI records who wanted him to work on a number of singles for them. He was then offered a position with Decca records which gave him even more session work. Jimmy became a full time session guitarist and his work included Marianne Faithfull’s “As Tears Go By”, The Nashville Teens’ “Tobacco Road”, The Rolling Stones’ “Heart of Stone” (alternate version), Van Morrison & Them’s “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Here Comes the Night”, Dave Berry’s “The Crying Game” and “My Baby Left Me”, and Brenda Lee’s “Is It True”.

In 1968 Page joined Led Zeppellin along with Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass guitar / keyboards) and John Bonham (drums). The groups roots can be traced to the Yardbirds which Page previously played bass guitar and then second lead guitar along with Jeff Beck. With their first album not yet released, Led Zeppelin made their live debut at the University of Surrey, Guildford on October 15, 1968.

The self titled debut album was released in 1969. It is often described as one of the first heavy metal albums, however Robert Plant has said that this is not really fair as a large amount of the album is acoustic.

Jimmy Page’s guitar style continues to be a major influence of modern music. His solo in the massively famous “Stairway to Heaven” has been voted by readers of various guitar magazines, including Guitar World and Total Guitar, as the greatest guitar solo of all time.

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Born on the 30th of March, 1945, Eric Patrick Clapton was the son of 16 year old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 24 year old Canadian soldier stationed in England during the second world war. Before Eric was born, Fryer returned to Canada and his wife.

Eric’s grandmother played piano and his uncle and mother both enjoyed listening to the sounds of the big bands. His father had been a gifted musician, playing piano in several dance bands in the Surrey area.

For his thirteenth birthday, Erica as for a guitar. He found his first one difficult to play and put it aside. Then when he was sixteen he went to the Kingston College of Art. He was expelled after a year for lack of progress due to the fact the he spent his time playing guitar and listening to the blues.

In early 1963, 17 year-old Eric joined his first band, The Roosters. Following the band’s demise in August 1963, he spent one month in the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers. Before turning to music as a full-time career, he supported himself as a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather, a master bricklayer and plasterer.

In October 1963, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith recruited him to become a member of The Yardbirds because Clapton was the most talked about guitar player on the R&B pub circuit. During his 18-month tenure with The Yardbirds, he earned his nickname, Slowhand, and recorded his first albums: Five Live Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds.

In April 1965, John Mayall invited Eric to join his band, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. With this group, Clapton established his reputation as a guitarist and earned his second nickname: “God”. It came from an admirer’s graffiti on the wall of London’s Islington Tube Station that boldly proclaimed “Clapton is God.”

Eric’s time with the band was turbulent and he left for a while to tour Greece with friends. Upon his return from Greece, Eric rejoined the Bluesbreakers. It was during this time that the now classic Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton was recorded. While with the Bluesbreakers, Eric also recorded a one-off four-track session with a band dubbed “The Powerhouse”. This studio band included John Paul Jones, Steve Winwood and Jack Bruce.

After leaving the Bluesbreakers for a second and final time in July 1966, Eric teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream.

Following Cream’s break-up, Clapton founded Blind Faith - rock’s first “supergroup” - with Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech. Disbanding after one album and a disastrous American tour, Eric tried to hide from his growing fame by touring as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. While with this outfit, Eric was encouraged to sing by Delaney Bramlett. He also began composing more. A live album from the Delaney & Bonnie tour was released in 1970. Clapton’s self-titled debut was released that same year.

Eric went through further musical transformations, survived a three year heroin addicition and came back to win a Grammy in 1992 for the single “Tears in Heaven”.

One of Eric’s biggest influences is Robert Johnson. In his book “Discovering Robert Johnson”, Eric wrote “Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry than I think you can find in the human voice, really. … it seemed to echo something I had always felt.”.

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flash.popphoto.com
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Ken Leebow’s Business Card for the 21st Century :: CBS Sunday Morning News Interviews Eric Clapton :: November :: 2006

www.consolatio.com
Sedulia on Grief: Eric Clapton: The terrible numbness that I lived in

www.mediafuturist.com
MediaFuturist: Is this REALLY Eric Clapton playing (stretching the boundaries of fair use)

mavrixonline.com
mavrixonline.com: John Mayer Plays with Blues Legend Eric Clapton

playguitar.blogsome.com
Play Guitar :: DVD Review: Eric Clapton - Live At Montreux 1986 :: September :: 2006

Riley B. King was born on the 16th of September 1925. He grew up to become crowned \”The King of Blues\” and is widely regarding as one of the best blues musicians of all time. The initials B.B. are actually short for Blues Boy King.

Now aged 76 B.B is still actively wearing this crown - continuing to sing and play the blues with relentless passion.

He has released over fifty albums and is currently recording his latest album. He got his first break back in 1948 with an appearance on Sonny Boy Williamsons radio program on KWEM. He then managed to get a regular ten minute spot on another radio station called WDIA.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world\’s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist\’s vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.\’s words, \”When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.\”

BB King Related Blogs
variety.com writes:
It was in 1967 that King, already a staple in the blues world, first performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival and San Francisco’s Fillmore West.

petanqueandpastis writes:
when he played his guitar, he was amazing ! He also moved around pretty well from the waist up, with his face twisting and writhing with every note he squeezed out

West Coast Music writes:
B.B. King has encouraged and inspired so many musical artists and entertained several generations of blues fans

Professional Rock Stars writes:
B King, a dedicated Photocharity Music Angel for many years now, will also perform at the event, held in his honor

Welcome to a new series on the PlayRecord.Net Blog. We are going to be profiling some of the greatest and most famous guitarists of all time and giving you the lowdown, links, videos and other online goodies for your inspiration and enjoyment. To kick off, we are looking at jimi Hendrix:

Born on November 27, 1942, hendrix is considered one of the greatest and most influential guitarists in rock music history. His first success in England, and he even played a gig down the road from PlayRecord.Net in the town of Ilkley. Unfortunately it was before the time of most of the PlayRecord.Net employees. He went on to achieve worldwide fame following his 1967 performance at the Monterey pop festival and famously headlined at the iconic 1969 woodstock Festival.

Hendrix taught himself to play the guitar and generally preferred to play a fender stratocaster guitar turned upside down (so that the right-handed guitar could be played left-handed) and restrung to suit him. This upside down left handed style is the same as adopted by kurt cobain among others. hendrix helped pioneer the technique of the feedback solo, taking something that was previously an undesirable sound and making it a cornerstone of his style.

Hendrix drew influences from blues greats such as B.B. King, muddy Waters, albert King, and T-Bone Walker, He also built upon the styles of rhythm and blues and soul guitarists curtis Mayfield, steve Cropper, and Cornell Dupree, as well as from traditional jazz.

Hendrix’s flamboyant stage persona was probably inspired by rock pioneer little Richard, who he toured with as part of “The Upsetters”. hendrix is also famously influenced by The Who’s pete Townsend who was performing in london when hendrix was starting his career there.

Hendrix strove to combine what he called “earth”, a blues, jazz, or funk driven rhythm accompaniment, with “space”, the high-pitched psychedelic sounds created by his guitar improvisations. As a record producer, hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas; he was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects during recording.

Hendrix was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1992 and the uk music hall of fame in 2005. His star on the hollywood walk of fame (at 6627 hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the united states national recording Preservation Board’s national recording Registry. rolling stone named hendrix number 1 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of All time in 2003.

Check out this Video of Jimi at Woodstock!

Other Hendrix Related Blogs:
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Jimi Hendrix Steals the Show At Intellectual Property Auction…