Somber pickin'

Spent the weekend being an audience member in eclectic situations — a one-woman stage play, an NBA basketball game, a medieval re-enactment in New Jersey. After that, I'm all ears for these guys making quiet and pretty guitar sounds in a Chicago loft some 15 years ago.

Pullman - So Breaks Yesterday

Strung up

Cold times. And some of these days you have to let your headphones double as earmuffs, press them close, and tap into Bishop's vibrations. That guitar contains a world worth escaping to.

Sir Richard Bishop - Dream Of The Lotus Eaters

Shimmering

There are lots of ways to love the guitar. Hey, not like that. Mind out of the guitar, people. The sound of the thing, I mean. I don't usually think about it. Growing up with rock n' roll means the guitar seems as much a part of nature as water. But sometimes, its properties just assert their magic — a brain-melting Eddie Hazel solo, a John Fahey rhapsody, Johnny Marr doing just about anything. And then there are minor moments that stop you all the same. Like this tune, where the steady, reverb'd string-raking ushers you solemnly into an ethereal place that suddenly comes into existence. Respect to my man Carl for bringing it to my attention.

The Bloodthirsty Lovers - Call Off The Thugs