Greg Koch, Sgt. Pepper’s, Gregg Allman and more
Hey everyone, thanks for hanging out for Six String Sunday! With the holiday here in the States, I’ve had more time to write cool and helpful articles. Stay tuned all next week for good stuff! There’s also been a lot of great music released over the past week. Let’s get right to the links!
Greg Koch’s new Unrepentant — I remember listening to Greg Koch’s ‘The Grip’ back in 2001 and loving Greg’s style and feel. Here we are 16 years later, and he’s just released his new album called ‘Unrepentant’. The album clocks in at 37 minutes, and is chock full of songs that’d make both Stevie Ray Vaughan and country pickers proud, for its bluesy rock, with a touch of country.
Greg reminds me of Frank Zappa in that he knows how to interject a healthy dose of humor into his music. If you’ve never seen Greg’s Wildwood Guitar videos, go fix that now. I saw Greg do a Fender clinic 16 years ago, and he was nice enough to stop and answer questions after the gig, and I’ll never forget that. Thanks Greg!
Don’t stop with just ‘Unrepentant’. Go check out ‘The Grip’, and especially go check out my favorite Greg Koch album ‘Radio Free Gristle’.
New stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper’s — Another small band came out with a double disc set this week. I think they’re called the Beatles? All jokes aside, the new Sgt. Pepper’s stereo mix is beautiful. It’s punchy, and wide, and reveals elements of the album I’ve never heard before.
Giles Martin (son of classic Beatles producer George Martin) re-mixed the album, and if you check out the double disc, you’ll hear lots of alternate takes of tracks, which have lots of fun studio talk in between.
Sgt. Pepper’s has it all, from happy rock songs like When I’m Sixty-Four and Lovely Rita to the sitar driven Within You Without You, and so many other hits. So many of our favorite guitar heroes site the Beatles as an enormous influence, and with good reason! Let’s be honest, I don’t need to sell you on the Beatles. Go check out this new version here.
RIP Gregg Allman — One of the founding members of the Allman Brothers band, the legendary Gregg Allman just passed away this weekend. Along with his brother Duane Allman, the Allman Brothers Band were a staple of rock n’ roll.
One of my favorite Allman albums came later in their career. The album’s called ‘Hittin’ the Note’, and it features the guitar stylings of both Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks. I remember watching them perform tracks from this album at the Beacon, and it was intense.
The slide work from both Haynes and Trucks is incredible. They both still put out incredible music, Haynes guesting on multiple albums and bringing back Gov’t Mule, and Trucks with his solo albums, and lately with the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Go check them out for a dose of soulful rock playing.
Nita Strauss shares her #1 tip for improving on guitar — Nita Strauss is an incredible guitar player. I included her in my 8 fantastic female guitar players post, because she can shred with the best of them. She plays for Alice Cooper, and is in a Iron Maiden tribute band called the Iron Maidens, and that’s just some of the places her guitar work shows up.
In this video, Nita shows us some great tips on improving at guitar by using a metronome. This is one of my favorite ways to learn, and she makes it musical! The key here is, don’t be sloppy, and play cleanly slowly before you try and play fast. Plus, check out that beautiful Ibanez she’s playing. I need that guitar in my life.
How to use your effects loop — Guitar World featured a video this week that helps players understand how to use your effects loop.
It’s honestly not that difficult to know what to put through the loop, and what to use in front of your amp. More traditional ‘insert’ effects like EQ, compressor, distortion and others can go straight into the front of the amp, but ‘time based’ effects should go through the effects loop.
In addition to playing guitar, I’m also an audio engineer, so if you ever have any recording questions, or questions about how to set up your guitar rig, let me know!
New posts coming late May through June! — This week was a quiet one on the site, but I did put up an interesting post about how one microphone changed my perspective. This experience was when I was recording an album with They Might Be Giants, and the main engineer had me change out a classic mic, for one I’d never heard of before. It made me think about getting lazy or stale when it comes to playing guitar, recording, or life really.
I also put up a survey on the site, which I’d love for you to answer. I’m going to keep it up until this Monday (May 29th). It’s a simple 1 question survey, asking ‘how do you like to learn guitar?’
This weekend I have some ‘free’ time, and I’m working on new articles with audio clips, and lots more. I can’t wait for you to read them, and get these riffs under your fingers.
I love writing Chasing Sound every week, and I hope the lessons help you become a better guitar player. Writing and practicing is helping ME stay fresh too.
That’s about it for now. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
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If you have any questions or comments, you can reply to this post, let me know on Twitter, or by posting in our Facebook group. I also have a fun Instagram channel where I post fun guitar pictures throughout the week.
Brian Sutich is a guitar player, audio engineer, podcaster, teacher, and hockey fan! He loves learning, helping people, and drinking way too much coffee.
