035 - Are You Going To Merlefest?

Compliments to you on this fine Acoustic Tuesday, Guitar Geek!

Acoustic Tuesday presented by http://tonysacousticchallenge.com

As Spring arrives gazes are drawn towards the tree branches for fresh buds, the ground for tender green sprouts, and of course towards the guitar geek radar to see if any new inspiring things have come up.

And boy howdy have they...

Here are 5 guitar geek things pinging the #guitargeek radar this week.

How does a guitar geek stay properly fueled, hydrated, and alert? You may think bourbon is the answer, but I reckon it is quite the contrary. See bourbon, although it tastes delicious, doesn't do much for hydration or the alertness aspect. However, Fretboard Coffee out of Columbia, MO is here to provide the perfect cup of Joe for any tired and fading fretter. This coffee company was brought to my attention by Acoustic Tuesday Show viewer and fan Troy and when I dug into the coffee I was not only pumped to find out it tastes good, but it also lives up to its name. See the name fretboard coffee is just plain awesome in and of itself, but the coolness factor bumped up a notch when I opened the bag to find a little card sharing what song was playing during the roasting process. Double whammy for us coffee loving guitar geeks; you get a great cup of joe and exposure to a song you may have never heard before. It's like a match made in heaven. Fretboard Coffee also seems to support live music as well have some killer merch available to peruse. So order yourself a bag or two, have a nice long sip and listen to the song that your beans were born to. 

http://www.fretboardcoffee.com/

http://www.fretboardcoffee.com/shop/

Your Song Changed My Life by Bob Boilen

Books about artists and their life fascinate me, my bookshelves at home are covered with biographies, autobiographies, and the like. So this next book was a bit of a surprise to me. Last Christmas Whitney's folks gifted me a book by the author Bob Boilen, entitled Your Song Changed My Life. Now first off, Bob is the creator and host of NPR's All Songs Considered as well as their Tiny Desk Concert Series so this man knows music. This book is a sampling of 33 artists and what song they define as changing their life. It is fascinating, there is enough context around each artist to learn some great factoids about their life and also you get insight into their vast musical interests. Each artist, in discussion with Bob, shares not only the song they define as life-altering, but also the when's, where's, and why's of it. This book is a great read and it's separated in such a way that makes it a great read.

http://www.bobboilen.info/ - Bob's Site

https://youtu.be/I3NOvTn01gg - Book Interview

https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2015/11/18/456191341/bob-boilen-wrote-a-book - NPR story

https://amzn.to/2H6hwx2 - Buy the Book

This week's artist I would say is from the "old-time" category, but I definitely do not want to pigeonhole them as they are capable of way more than old-time music. 

It's not often that you hear a new artist that is able to take you back to a time and place long forgotten and only best conjured up by an artist from that very era. The Local Honeys are a group that is basically a time machine. From their voices, inflection, phrasing, and instrumentation these ladies do a great job in teleporting the listener back to a simpler time, yet they are able to freely flow from old-time music on up to more contemporary tunes. The Local Honeys are a made up of Montana Hobbs, and Linda Jean Stokely and the way these gals sing together is addictive. At first, I thought the accents were a bit contrived... and then I did my research... it's the real deal and it is amazing. From slow ballads to craftily written tunes all the way to instrumentals, these girls have it. Their album is a blast to listen to front to back, from the slow tunes to the peppy ones. Also, special note the tune Cigarette Trees is an anti-strip mining song that brought home blue ribbon from the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in 2017. 

https://youtu.be/4F6k4Xdrj4Q - Cigarette Trees

https://youtu.be/XpnXAQ0jF1U - How Mountain Girls Can Love

https://youtu.be/yO5jGGHKSjA - Hares On the Mountain

https://youtu.be/Z6xla0Q2PIg - The L&N Don't Stop here Anymore

https://youtu.be/yy10LoYTBzg - Hills of Mexico

http://www.thelocalhoneys.com/ - Band Site

http://www.thelocalhoneys.com/album/ - Merch

https://amzn.to/2vsL86u - Buy the Album

Merlefest April 26- April 29

This weekend, on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, one of the most amazing and inspiring bluegrass festivals will take place. From April 26th to April 29th, 2018 incredible acoustic musicians, music fans, jammers, and all around good people will join together to create the phenomenon known as Merlefest. Merlefest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson (Doc Watson's Son) as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and to celebrate ‘traditional plus’ music. I owe this festival a huge thanks because although I have never attended in person, I have discovered numerous artists just by checking out who is playing Merlefest in any given year. This year, as always, the lineup is chocked full of pure acoustic goodness, and I am absolutely positive there will be plenty of jamming to be had by any who wish to partake that are in attendance. If you are interested in the festival just check out their website for all of the ticket info as well as all of the other things you need to know to have an outstanding festival experience. 

https://youtu.be/s0NC_JIJVCs

http://merlefest.org/

http://merlefest.org/lineup/

http://merlefest.org/purchase/

What's the point of the CAGED system?

At one point in anyone's guitar journey there comes a time where you hear about the CAGED system. You hear how wondrous it can be to unlock the fretboard, you hear about how much it can help with your overall understanding of the fretboard, but when you find information on it may seem a little bit disorienting, and that's ok because I was disoriented too until I figured out the core elements of what makes CAGED so darn useful. See with CAGED you need to know three things:

1.) The 5 basic chord shapes C A G E D. You need to know how to make them, and the most important part, the fact that they can become moveable by converting them to barre chords.

2.) Where the root note is for each of the 5 chord shapes. The Root note is the lowest bass note that defines the chord. Each of the 5 chord shapes has their root note located on a specific string. Knowing this makes the moveable shapes much more useful because now you can name them. 

3.) Why Caged is useful. Knowing why CAGED is useful helps with the reason why you need to learn it in the first place. If you have thr "why" you will follow through not only learning it but implementing it. So here are just a handful of reasons CAGED is helpful: It helps with Capo use, it helps with transposition, it helps with alternate chord voicings, it helps you add sonic layers in multiple guitar situations, it even helps you organize scale patterns and see how they connect. 

It would be hard to break from the show and start teaching CAGED due to technical limitations so I want you to check out video 2 of my foundational five workshop series. In video 2 I go into detail on CAGED and show you how all of the things I just discussed are connected and more importantly how you can do apply them immediately to the guitar. 

vid 1 is live and people are going nuts make sure to check it out at: fretwiz.com

There's another Acoustic Tuesday chiseled on the stone of guitar geekdom.

Make sure to tune in to see the full episode and unite with your fellow #guitargeeks.

Until next Tuesday, keep your guitars tuned and the guitar geeks uniting.

Cheers,
Tony