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6 Great Albums You May Not Have Listened To (But Probably Should)

great albums

I hate “the best.” It rankles me when people say it – always has. Superlatives (and even extreme comparatives – like “genius”) always make me pause. Only genuine experts in a subject should be able to reach that level of judgment, and even then it will be skewed by the data available, or their upbringing, or their path of study. And then the Dunning Kruger effect suggests that the more of an expert you are in a field, the more you realize that your answer is not absolute. Now we find ourselves in an era where bloviating about the “best wall” and the “best steaks” has empowered a racist administration who are rapidly turning the clock back to 1789.
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Texas Guitar: It’s Not Just Blues, You Know? Pt 2 Rock and Progressive

texas guitar

Now I love the Blues and Blues Guitar – I just posted 9 Texas Blues Guitarists, and What You Can Learn From Them – but there is a lot more to love about Texas guitar than just the blues (and there’s more blues in Texas than I covered in that post). We’ve got shredders playing country and shredders playing rock and shredders playing old-timey – Austin even had a legit classical guitar society.
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The Greatest Guitar Player of All Time, Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt

Someone once told me that Eric Clapton said, “acoustic guitar will teach you everything about the electric guitar; electric guitar will teach you nothing about the acoustic guitar.” Whoever said it, I believe they were mostly right. So today I nominate acoustic guitar wizard Django Reinhardt as the Greatest Guitar Player of All Time.
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Listen Along: You And Me Neither by Lick Lick

You and Me Neither

Lick Lick is so good, and I am so proud of this You and Me Neither – I hope as you listen along you find as much joy in these performances as I do.

This was our third record, our second with David Hobizal on drums, and our first with Sam Arnold on the bass. Greg Yancey did the lions-share of the recording and engineering, David did the artwork, and you can buy it on 10″ vinyl!

We recorded basics in an afternoon at Michael Crow’s studio, and then did overdubs all over town – vocals at Ohm studio with Chico Jones, piano in the chapel at St. Andrews School, guitar at the Opposite Day rehearsal space, etc.
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Listen Along: Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat by Minutemen

Listen Along: Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat by Minutemen

This record, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, was my life in high school.

If asked who my favorite band was, I didn’t even stutter before saying “Minutemen.” There are about a million reasons why, and over time I acquired all of their albums and EPs, and the occasional compilation, too. Here are a few reasons why they were the best:
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9 Texas Blues Guitarists, and What You Can Learn From Them

texas blues guitarists

I spent many years in my youth learning and playing blues guitar, mostly electric, but some acoustic. During college, I joined a band in my hometown of Nacogdoches called Cold Shot (with Danny Britton and Richard Suggs) and played a couple of shows a month, mostly at a club called Blank and Co. We would do three sets, one acoustic and two electric, and over the years we had tons of guests join us on stage and had a great time playing mostly blues standards, maybe a little rock and roll.
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