JasonShadrick

A lot of things have changed for me over the last year, including my commitment to music. It has grown by leaps and bounds. Recently, I was talking with a co-worker and we collectively decided that we had won the guitar lottery. Neither of us are ground-breaking, world-changing players, but we were in the right place at the right time with the right skills. Not only have I found the coolest job possible during the last year, but my musical vision has widened.

Therefore, I present you with a list of the albums that opened my eyes (and ears) over the last year.

Dirty Side Down – Widespread Panic. It took me a little time to fully get into this album. Once I spent some time listening to it and then going to see the band live, it all clicked. Now that Jimmy Herring has had some time to find his space in the band, I think WP is finally hitting their post-Mikey stride.

American Patchwork – Anders Osborne. From the opening de-tuned riff to “On the Road to Charlie Parker,” this album had me hooked. I had heard about Anders before this, but never really got into him until this album. In August, I went and did an interview with him in Chicago and he came across as genuine and frantic all at the same time. Two traits that true artists always have.

Orchestrion – Pat Metheny. To really get what this album is all about, you need to forget that it is a “solo” album. I think with Metheny’s last album, the need to create a long-form piece had been met. With Orchestrion you really hear how Metheny’s “sound” comes through. This is probably the tour I most regret missing this year.

Live at the Jazz Standard – Wolfgang Muthspiel & Mick Goodrick. I would consider this album on of the better modern jazz duo albums of all time. Both Muthspiel and Goodrick are intimately familiar with each others playing. This type of connection betweeen two musicians is rare and to have it translate to an album is somewhat of a musical unicorn.

Georgia Warhorse – JJ Grey and Mofro. Pure Georiga blue-eyed soul. JJ has been around for a while, but this album combines the swamp feel of his homeland with the uptown horns of New Orleans. Also, the songs are GREAT. Check out the documentary vid and dig the solo acoustic version of “Gotta Know.”

10/31/2010 – Phish. I didn’t get the chance to see the boys from Vermont this year, but from all the accounts I have read, Phish 3.0 have been melting faces and busting out some new jams. This Halloween show from Atlantic City found them paying tribute to one of their main influences by covering Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus from front to back. I think for anyone who wants to like Phish, but hasn’t found something they dig, give them the second set of this show.

Living Proof – Buddy Guy. The solo on the opening track “74 Years Young” will make you reconsider the direction of your life. Guy rips into an unbelievable solo that is bursting with fire, intensity, and nearly 3/4 of a century of being one of the most legendary blues-stringers to pick up an axe. Pay attention.

Sugarcoating – Martin Sexton. I am a huge MS fan, and this album continues where the last one left off with a groovy band sound and some great writing. The only downer is the title track where Sexton takes a political slant with his lyrics. Martin, please leave the political stuff at home.

Blues, Ballads, and Favorites – Jimmie Vaughan. For his first solo album in nearly a decade, Vaughan captures the ’50s vibe perfectly and lays claim to the title of MTP (most tasteful player). His trademarked capoed guitar is in full force with a tone that is less Albert Collins and more Gatemouth Brown.

Groove Alchemy – Stanton Moore Trio. If hearing Stanton Moore play drums doesn’t make you either dance or pick up a drumstick and want to hit something, then check your vitals. Here, Moore along with organist Robert Walter and guitarist Wil Bernard head up to Levon Helm’s barn to combine funky, organ dance grooves with some burning modern jazz.

Roadsongs – Derek Trucks Band. After listening to this album and seeing Derek at the Crossroads Festival this summer, I firmly believe we will one day (probably very soon) be speaking his name alongside Beck, Clapton and Page. The sound he gets on this album is equal parts Duane Allman and Aubrey Ghent. You can tell the band has been hitting it hard and luckily on this night in Chicago the tape was rolling.

What albums did you really dig this year?

image courtesy of brent_nashville

As you can tell, things have been slow around here. That is mostly because writing for Guitar Edge and Premier Guitar has taken up a lot of my time. A few weeks ago I went to the Crossroads Festival in Chicago and recorded a few videos. The first one below is with one of my all-time guitar heroes, Jimmie Vaughan.

I met with Jimmie before his CD Release Party at Buddy Guy’s new club. Not only was Buddy there, but Jeff Beck also showed up to celebrate his birthday. The next night I met up with Pete Huttlinger to record to lesson videos:

The rest of the summer I will spending getting settled into my new house in addition to cranking out lessons for GE and PG. I will also begin teaching at the Marion Music Academy this fall, so if you are interested in lessons, send me an email and I can get you the info.

Keep Austin Weird.

Austin is by far one of my favorite cities to go to.  There is always great food nearby and if live music is your thing (which for me it is), there is plenty of great bands and musicians to check out.

This year our workshop took place at Concordia University in the northwest suburbs of Austin.  It is a great campus that gave the feeling that you were on a nature retreat somewhere in the hill country of Texas.  Everyone there welcomed us back (we were at their old location in 2006 and 2007) and I was really looking forward to seeing the returning students and our faculty.

Our featured guest for our Blues Summit was Jimmie Vaughan.  Jimmie is a legendary Texas Blues musician and is one of a handful of guitarists who we have never had the chance to work with.  For his appearance, Jimmie brought his band with him that included Mike Flanigin on B3 and the legendary blues drummer, Frosty.  The band did a great job of mixing up some performances of Jimmie’s tunes and some Q and A with the audience.   This is a big reason why our students come back year after year, they get the chance not only to see some of their guitar heroes up close, but also get the opportunity to ask them questions.

Another guest we had in Austin was John Jorgenson.  John is largely known for his time in the twang supergroup The Hellecasters with Jerry Donahue and Will Ray.  John’s talent as a musician is endless.  Not only is he a scary good electric country player he is easily one of the foremost Gipsy style guitarists in the world.  Adding his skills on clarinet and he is pretty much one of the most versatile musicians around.

Overall it was a great week for the students and faculty alike.

Here is a video of an especially talented student playing on the student concert:

As always, Chicago this year was great.  From the location to the housing to the great people at Judson who take care of us, it seems that every year our Chicago campus is usually my favorite.

The faculty this year included Matt Smith, Dennis McCumber, Cass Faulconer, John Horne, Murali Coryell, Mike Cramer, Shawn Purcell, Jeff Beasley, Dave Tiede, and several more amazing instructors.

The week began with meeting Amanda Monaco at O’Hare and then directly heading down to the Jazz Record Mart.  I had been there several times before and I knew that I had to put a time limit on our visit otherwise we would be there all day.  I ended up with a Paul Motian album and an early Jerry Bergonzi album.

The faculty arrived on Saturday and we had a nice hang before the students arrived on Sunday.  This year’s group of students were some of the most talented I had ever seen at NGW.  We had two students from Mexico, one from Italy and one from France. All of them had decided to come to Chicago to get the chance to see our guest artist, Buddy Guy.

One of the most memorable moments of the week was the night of the first student concert.  That afternoon the power went out for about half of the campus, which of course included our performance space.  At the last minute we decided to have the concert in a large classroom with minimal amplification and with the drummer only using a snare and a splash cymbal.

It was one of the most memorable student concerts ever.

Everyone who came had such a great time.  The students played great and many of them came up to me at the end of the week and let me know how great of a time they had.

On the 16th we headed down to Buddy Guy’s Legends to spend some time with the man himself.  As we arrived at the club, Buddy was sitting at the bar waiting for us.  Many of the students had to look twice as they walked in, not believing that he was just hanging out.

Buddy Guy at Legends Photo Courtesy of GuitarVibe.com

Buddy spent some time answering questions and telling stories about his life in music over the last 6 decades.  After he answered questions, he went back to sitting at the bar and proceeded to make sure everyone who attended had the chance to say hi, get an autograph or get a picture taken.  It was great to see someone at his level take the time to do this.

After all the autographs were signed the jam for the students started.  Buddy continued to hang to check out the first few bands and you could tell he was digging it.  It was an incredible thrill for everyone involved and I hope to talk to Buddy (and Isabelle) soon to bring him to another campus.

Another cool thing about this week was that Zack from GuitarVibe was attending as a student to document the entire week.  He did an amazing job of writing about the experience from a student’s perspective.  You can also check out some videos he shot on his YouTube channel.

I am already in Austin (very hot) and today we have the great Jimmie Vaughan on campus.  It is great being able to travel in the summer and see all of the students, but I am looking forward to going home on Saturday.

So mostly due to deadlines at work and post NAMM craziness, I have been absent.

Matt Warnock, a guitar professor at Western Illinois University recently interviewed me for the MusicEdMagic Website.  You can read it here.

Also, we have announced some of our guest artists for our campuses this summer.

National Guitar Workshop’s 2009 Guest Artist Roster (more to come)

Chicago, IL – Blues Guitar Summit July 12-17 with special guest Buddy Guy

Austin, TX – Blues Guitar Summit July 19-24 with special guest Jimmie Vaughan

Purchase, NY

July 19-24 Rock Summit with special guest TBA

July 26-31

Jazz Summit with Pat Metheny

Jam Summit with Jimmy Herring and Oteil Burbridge

August 2-7 Rock Summit with Paul Gilbert

August 9-14

Blues Summit with Robben Ford

Songwriting Summit with David Wilcox and Robert Lee Castleman

(I have a cool job)