GERRY HUNDT
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Jim Liban! 

6/19/2014

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PictureJoel Paterson & Jim Liban
Joel Paterson's newest platter for Ventrella Records, "I Say What I Mean,"  focuses the spotlight squarely on Milwaukee harmonica ace and songwriter Jim Liban.  Long held in high regard by fellow musicians of every stripe  and Midwestern blues aficionados, Liban leads a crack session crew through 11 original lyrics and 3 instrumentals tracked at Chicago's Hi-Style Studio.  While the production is unabashedly vintage, Liban's songs and warm, engaging vocals lend the proceedings a timeless quality rare in contemporary recordings.

The synergy Paterson mentions in his thoughtful liner notes is immediately evident in the disc's eponymous opener - tough guitar, a swaggering beat, and HUGE harp tone.  As a matter of fact, every song on the disc could be described that way!  Liban and Paterson present us a groove album that is equal in artistic achievement and danceability, one where no song or style fusion seems out of place; in fact, tunes like "Must've Been Dreaming" call to mind the entirely plausible daydream of James Cotton jamming with Carl Perkins at Sun.

What sets this album far above the rest, however, is Liban's songcraft in both lyric and melody.   He peppers his songs with memorable and meaningful  lines like "Last night was my last call," on "No More Alcohol" and confidently doubles Paterson's guitar on "Real Good Deal."  Every elegant instrumental break fits its song, and the arrangements keep the listener intrigued on repeated spins.  There's little doubt; Jim Liban & Joel Paterson's "I Say What I Mean"  is a long-overdue masterpiece of American roots music.  Highly recommended. 


Purchase here!

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Connections!  An easy upgrade for better sound.

4/7/2014

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My friend Quinn Raymond used to say he lost a dollar's worth of sound by plugging a $5 guitar into a $4 amp. Pretty funny, right?  Consider this - using the same formula, how much sound are you "losing" by just plugging your guitar into your amp?  Probably a LOT more than a dollar - turns out old Quinn had one up on the rest of us!

Now, I'm not saying you need to buy a cheaper guitar or a more expensive amp to sound better - far from it.  I'm here to argue for a decent investment in the medium between your axe & amp: your cable.  This alone can have a significant difference in the overall sound of your rig and your enjoyment of it.

Instrument cables usually consist of a insulated, stranded copper conductor  wrapped with a stranded copper shield, all encased in a rubber sheath and terminated with 1/4" male phone plugs.   Our first concern is the cable's length.  The longer the cable, the more treble  is lost between guitar and  amp.  I have found that significant treble loss starts to occur in cables longer than 10 feet (about 3 meters).  This is due to phenomenon known as capacitance; in a nutshell, a long cable acts like a fixed tone control on your guitar, rolling off highs and robbing your pickups of clarity.  For many situations, though, a 10-foot cable is impractical.  In this case, selecting a cable that's designed to avoid tone loss is the way to go - low capacitance and spiral shielding are the buzzwords here and my experience is definitely that you get what you pay for when it come to cables.  


Adding to the fun, most electric guitarists use stompbox-style effects these days and thus have double the cable, compounding the "tone suck" inherent in the effects.  I had a series of true-bypass pedals wired up with budget connecting cables and a loop box (this removed the effects between the guitar & amp when desired).  When I stepped on the loop and brought in the effects, my signal level dropped and became lifeless.  I inserted a buffer pedal in the chain and things improved somewhat, but it wasn't until I replaced all the cheap cables with premium ones (with a capacitance of 30pF/foot) that I heard what I wanted to - nothing!  No difference between the sound when the loop was in or out.  A few companies offer kits to make cables and wire up your pedalboard and I'll be happy to share which brand I used in the comments section if you're interested. 

In summary: skip the takeout coffee for a week or two and spend a little extra money to get an instrument cable that offers low capacitance, good connectors, and quality construction.  (A good warranty is the surest sign of a company that takes pride in its work and stands behind their product.)  Isn't your investment in a guitar & amp worth the best connection between them you can afford?   


Happy pickin'!

  
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Proof the Blues isn't dead.

10/23/2013

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Every so often, an intrepid news reporter  informs us that the blues is dying or dead. Oftentimes this polemic ends with an exhortation to visit a blues club and celebrate the last gasps of an artform that spawned Elvis, Run DMC, and yes, even Miley Cyrus.  Well, I'm here today to offer proof to the contrary, and it's a video of young folks dancing to an acoustic blues trio (Ronnie Shellist, Matt Hendricks, and myself).   

Many of my compadres in the blues "industry" aren't aware of the blues renaissance happening among the dance crowd.  Blues dancing is now at least as popular as lindy was years ago and these folks hire bands and buy CDs! Like its musical counterpart, blues dancing's strength is its accessibility - it's not as structured as other forms of swing dancing and slower tempos are preferred.  International events like Mile High Blues, bluesShout!, and CUBE see hundreds of dancers flying in for a weekend of dances and workshops, and blues dancers pop up at clubs and festivals.   These folks are pretty much the opposite of your typical blues fan demographic, too, they're young, single, the  majority are female and they're all enjoying an alternative to socializing in sports bars.  

Someone will probably point out that most of the participants in the video are white, in an effort to prove me wrong and foster division in the genre.  Dig this...  Most musicians of any stripe don't care about race: either you can play or not.  Let the academics debate and sell their books, magazines and symposia tickets - I've got tunes to learn and gigs to do.   At the end of the day, it's the music, and people's enjoyment of it, that matters most.

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Blues Mandolin Instructional Videos on YouTube

10/22/2013

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"Online presence?"  What the heck is that and why do I care?  It's remarkable - between facebook, twitter, youtube, instagram and many, many more,  musicians today have so many options to get their music and their message out to the masses.  Inspired by Ronnie Shellist's success, I was reviewing my YouTube account and saw again that my most popular video was my first Chicago Blues Mandolin Instructional Video.   It clocks in at just under a minute long but really gets at the heart of the Johnny Young mandolin style.  If you go to my Channel, there are some other instructional videos as well as performance footage in a variety of settings.  
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Video of the Corey Dennison Blues Band's debut at Rosa's Lounge

3/4/2013

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Picture
Last Saturday night, we rolled into Chicago, lit up Rosa's Lounge, and every moment was preserved here: http://gigity.tv/event/1004/.  Check it out!   Rob Pasenko, drums,  Nik Skilnik, bass, Gerry Hundt, guitar and harmonica, Corey Dennison vocals and guitar.  This was the fourth gig of five on a four-day run to The Root in MI, Pickle's Blues Fest in OH, the Ice Meltin' Blues Fest in IL, and Rosa's.  Saturday, we left OH at 6 am EST to make our noon gig in Long Grove, IL - the highlight of that drive was breakfast at Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, IN.  By the time the Rosa's gig rolled around, we pretty tired but tightened up and ready to play.  Corey was in fine voice and the appreciative (and sizable!) crowd hung on every word.  The second set features an appearance from Milwaukee Slim and the last tune of the evening saw Dan Carelli from The Sons of Blues playing my guitar.  The trip was an excellent regional introduction of the band; we made some new friends and started to discuss exciting possibilities for 2013.  Stay tuned!

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Jack White's Third Man Records re-issues Charley Patton and others

1/23/2013

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Over at  my favorite Facebook group, I just saw that Third Man Records is re-issuing the  Document collections of pre-war artists like Charley Patton, The Mississippi Sheiks, and Blind Willie McTell.   Legal debates notwithstanding, it makes me glad to hear these recordings so clearly.  I'm also grateful to Mr. White for using his considerable celebrity to champion this music.    Check it out for yourself below!
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Why the Blues?  Why not?

1/11/2013

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    I've heard various discussions about the state of the blues and its future.  It's true that the genre is not as well-represented in the mainstream media as we'd like.  I, for one, don't think it's in any danger... I didn't grow up in a blues-rich environment and it certainly  found me.  People have easier access to more kinds of media then ever before - I had to rely on CD liner notes, a weekly public radio, and a few well-timed cassette loans from school friends.  I think as long as people like music, the blues will have its devotees. 
    As for the here & now, many blues musicians get  frustrated when we see the same handful of rock cover bands (some of which are very good, mind you) playing the majority of gigs.  Club owners like to decry the blues, saying "The kids don't like it."  I can only speak for myself, but it seems to me that when they hear  blues beyond the bar band blooze - music played with groove,  fire, and originality -  they really dig it and will follow it.  So, folks, tell the management at your favorite watering hole to take a chance on the blues!
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    Gerry Hundt

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