Voodoo Amps and Trace Davis - The New Kings of Live and Loud?

Fifteen years ago, Trace Davis took a natural attraction for electronics and a love for rock 'n' roll, and founded Voodoo Amps. Today he stands at the top of the heap, servicing the amps of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Aerosmith, Rammstein, Alice Cooper's band, Mark Tremonti, and building Voodoo Amps  masterpieces for the masses. He does it one customer at a time, and the customers could not be happier.

Trace Davis on the job.

I considered not writing up anything about our recent chat and simply reprinting examples of Trace's letters from his customers, which are probably the most enthusiastic and effusive I have ever seen - whether he is modifying a Fender Vibro-King, a wall of Rectifiers, or delivering one of his own, Davis seems to receive raves from those he serves, and in these days that says a tremendous amount about his commitment to his customers, and to great tones.

Voodoo Amps came to my attention back in 2011, when I happened to view a video of Thin Lizzy's performance at Hellfest in France. Vivian Campbell (a Voodoo endorsee who has a prototype Signature preamp - the VC-2 and utilizes Voodoo V-Plex amps) had just left the band and had been replaced by Richard Fortus of Guns 'N' Roses fame. Two things about this performance blew me away - one was the passion and excitement contained within Fortus's playing, he was the most exciting co-guitarist I had seen next to Scott Gorham since a young Gary Moore. I realize that this is a subjective opinion, but I also acknowledge that I am favorably comparing him to some amazing players, but I feel he earns it. The other thing that amazed me was the tone coming from Fortus's amps. He was using a Voodoo Custom V-Rock 100 and the tone was amongst the finest I've ever heard - goose-bump good.

Trace recently had the honor and pleasure of modifying thirteen (13) Marshall JMP-1 preamps for none other than arguably the king of tone, Billy Gibbons - who also gave a Voodoo V-Rock head the once over:

Trace: "All thirteen JMP-1s had been on the road for years and as such, had drifted a bit - they no longer sounded quite the same, and the requirement was to make them indistinguishable from one another. I performed the same JMP-1 Platinum Mod that we offer on our website. 

"We meticulously went through each, so that when all was said and done, they would be identical to one another. Of course, I grew up listening to Billy, so it was an honor to work with him! I always loved his sense of phrasing and he has had such great tones throughout his career. I am thrilled to no end that he enjoys the tones and feel of his preamps. 

"He also played through one of my amps that I had brought along - I didn't know if he would have an interest or not, and I took a chance and brought one along. Things were very hectic backstage, and Billy was there one minute and gone the next, but when we finished up, he stopped by and played for a few minutes through the amp. He played for a bit, and then handed the guitar back to his tech, Elwood Francis, and you can imagine how thrilled I was when he said, 'Son, that's one hell of an amp you got there.' Tony, if I died tomorrow, I would die a happy man"

Aerosmith's Brad Whitford and his Voodoo

Trace spends much of his summers being deeply immersed in the touring season, servicing back-lines as a technician and consultant to the biggest acts on the road - last year he spent much of the day re-tubing, biasing, and otherwise making sure that there would be no technical difficulties with Aerosmith's extensive amp back line. You have to appreciate that none of these thirteen amps are of the same model and make - they run the gamut from yesterday's tweed classics, British standbys, and a superb collection of modern boutique beauties, and Davis tends and tweaks them all:

Trace: "I think that when I do support for an act, I go a bit deeper than most. I basically service all of the amps, and I also try to make sure their guitar techs are comfortable when I leave. Doing a band like Aerosmith, well, that makes for a long day as they are able to bring out and use as many amps as they like on the road. 

"I recently did Alice Cooper's back-line and one of the things I got into was with Orianthi's amps. They were brand new, but they were a bit noisy on the high gain channel, so I helped her tech move some ISP Decimaters around in the rig to help quiet things down. You just have to listen to the player, listen to the amp and address their needs."

Scott Ian approved!

If you're wondering how Trace got into the amp business, well, the apple apparently falls not far from the tree:

Trace: "My father worked for the Westinghouse Corporation, and part of his job was overseeing the production of vacuum tubes. Westinghouse made their own tubes, but they also OEM'd tubes for GE, RCA, and many others. Then much later, I owned an amazing '68 Marshall Plexi, and one day I was playing it and lightning struck nearby and shorted out the amp's output tubes and transformers. The amp was never the same after that, and ironically, that's what got me into this business - trying to duplicate that perfect tone. 

"A few years later, a gentleman brought a very late '68 or early '69 Plexi into our shop for servicing. We service and refurbish a lot of old Marshalls, but this was the first one that truly captured that lost tone! I couldn't believe it. Of course, the fellow had no desire to part with his amp, but after several offers I finally purchased it. That amp became the basis for our V-series of amps. 

"We sent the transformer to Mercury Magnetics to be cloned - I wanted every player to be able to experience that tone without having to go through a bunch of old amps to find it."

Mark Tremonti and Trace dialing in Tones.

The topic of transformers is one dear to Trace Davis - he feels that the transformers are the heart of the amp, and he has worked closely with Mercury Magnetics to insure that his designs are seen through to the highest quality. He also is a big proponent of transformer upgrades when doing modifications - Voodoo Amps is the largest mod shop in the world, and Davis and company can tackle most any amp and make it all it can be:

Trace: "We have modified literally thousands of amps - we have Standardized modifications, but that's just the beginning. We spend a lot of time with customers, finding out exactly what they are looking for when they want a modification done. While most customers love our Standard Mods, some players have more specific needs, or needs outside the ordinary, and we are here to meet those needs."

One of my favorite Trace/Voodoo amp modification stories comes from a fellow who was looking for a certain tone that he heard on AC/DC's tune, Night Prowler. After several phone sessions, and the customary filling out of the Mod Form that helps break down the customers complete signal chain, he received an additional e-mail from Davis, from which I will quote:

Trace: " Bill, I spent most of the day and all morning making some fine line tweaks based on the song you referenced. 

"AC/DC Night Prowler tone - when you listen to the studio version the guitar tone is great (truly). However - there are (2) different guitars creating the tone you are hearing. Combined, they sound great. 

"I tried to morph both tones together in the Treble channel, going by the guitar/pickups you have, speaker cabinets, speakers, etc. I would recommend plugging into the Treble channel only to start with. Set the Preamp/Gain control full up/wide open. Set Treble, Mids, Presence to 12:00, and the Bass to 10:00. Raise up the Master and play - this should be a good starting point."

The customer went on to rave about how the exact tone he sought had been achieved and how Davis had made the entire transaction one of ease and enjoyment.

Customer service above and beyond the call of duty seems to be Trace Davis and Voodoo's stock-in-trade. A visit to the company's Facebook page finds a wall covered in customer love. I asked Trace where such a devotion found its beginnings, and his answer was simple - it all kind of starts with the old Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Of course, we know that in the every day hustle and bustle of life it's not always that easy, but I have always found Trace to be not just receptive, but eager to be of assistance in any way possible at any time.

New products are often the lifeblood of the boutique amp builder, and the latest addition to Voodoo's amp line, the ODS-60, might be Davis's boldest move yet. After building his reputation as the lord of live and loud, Trace has now went after the 'holy grail' of boutique amps, but at a fraction of the price of a genuine Dumble. Davis stops short of direct comparisons, but is confident that the amp is what it is intended to be, and as such opens yet a new avenue of tones for Voodoo lovers.

Also, Davis has done what some have called impossible - he has built an iso-cabinet that actually works and sounds great. It's built to reduce volume by 30 dB and will retain a tight and full bottom end at up to 130 dB. He told me that the Iso Cab took over two years to design and R&D to get it where he felt confident to offer it to a public that had been failed too many times by isolation cabinets that simply didn't deliver.

So - when he's not making loud better, Trace Davis is making louder more tolerable and usable at home, onstage, and in studios. There are loads of great amps out there, but to my ears nobody is doing the classic 50 and 100 watt heads better than Voodoo Amps - even if their name isn't seen on the stage, there's a good chance that amps you are seeing may have been made better by David and his crew at Voodoo.

Click here to hear loads of great Voodoo Amp samples on Soundcloud!

He's even a great matchmaker - when we spoke, we talked about a couple of friends of ours - one Trace's and one of mine, who had never met. One needs a hot guitar player, the other is looking to spread his wings a bit and work with yet another world class vocalist. We arranged an introduction, and as fate would have it, they both happened to be on the same island continent at the same time. A match made in heaven? Hahaha, we'll have to see, but if it's not it won't be for a shortage of effort and genuine good will. Trace Davis is a great amp builder, designer (did I forget to mention that he does a tremendous business as a design consultant for some very large, unnameable amp companies?), and modification/restoration specialist, but even above all that he's a helluva guy and a damned decent human being - who could ask for anything more, I ask?

EDIT: Huge thanks to Trace Davis - even after the fact, he's making things better with some great facts and pics to help make this article better.

Bill Nelson on the Value of Music and Musicians - "Artists deserve respect and should be able to earn their living without their work being stolen."

I spend a certain amount of my time speaking with musicians. Much more time, I am sure, than the general public would ever have need, or desire. What comes up almost as much as the music is the fact that there is a cancer that has eaten away at the masses - the proliferation of theft as a way of life.

I'm not looking for an argument here, and not interested in a debate. When McDonalds gives their burgers away for free, my lawyer stops sending me his bill, and the rent is no longer due, I'll be fine with illegal downloading and piracy of music - until then, I'm not listening.

However, I came across a Facebook discussion this morning that delved into the topic, and I came across a comment by Bill Nelson - a man who has been in the business of being a working musician his entire adult life (a bit over 40 years). Nelson led the band Be Bop Deluxe for several years before casting the conventional music business model (record, tour, record, tour....) aside to focus upon the recording side of his business and art, only occasionally venturing out to play live. He has done this for over thirty years and managed to please his fans, and feed his family - in other words, he has been a success.

His comment on this thread, which actually came from the Facebook wall of music journalist Anil Prasad (if you don't know this man, Google, Google), captured my attention by almost perfectly encapsulating both thoughts I've had and discussions I have participated in concerning the topic of 'free' music versus music as a viable commodity. As Apple works on its streaming successor to iTunes (iRadio), the issues of how we listen and choose to fund the art of music grows more complex and disadvantageous for the artist, while in the background there is the swell of a tide that suggests that people do want to listen to music at a bit rate better than dismal, and albums are to singles as movies are to a sitcom, as books are to short stories. Here is Nelson's comment in full:

Bill Nelson: "I have strong opinions on this subject, as those who frequent my Dreamsville website (http://www.billnelson.com) will already know. I've been a professional musician for 40 years or so. I work long and hard hours, producing music that I hope my audience wants to hear and enjoy. Music is my career and my calling, and the notion that my craft amounts to nothing of financial value in the eyes of certain consumers gets my hackles up. 

"Nevertheless, it's worth pointing out that physical sales of recorded music still outnumber downloads and that there is still a healthy market for music that doesn't cow-tow to the fickle youth market. I'm not just citing the 'classic rock' type of audience here but those of us who have broader and perhaps more complex and developed tastes. Whilst the mainstream music sector pitches its 'product' at increasingly younger kids, there is still a relatively sizable mature and discerning audience who appreciate a somewhat deeper listening experience. 

"Which is why, in the city where I live, there are a number of hi-fi shops selling expensive, top-end speakers and amps to people who place a real value on music and are willing to invest time and money in maximizing their enjoyment. These folks are not listening to mp3s or downloads through cheap ear buds, they sit in front of their high-end systems and really listen, giving themselves to the music with genuine commitment. 

"Despite the perceived 'war' between formats, delivery systems, free music versus paid for music, etc. (a war gleefully pumped up by the popular media), there's really no black and white, either or, with this subject, (although those with vested interests will continue to crow the demise of physical product in an attempt to push the music further into the download only realm). Kids will have their free music and will listen to it in whatever manner they like, (or think is cool). But kids grow up and their tastes change along with their values. 

"The music I enjoyed in my teens defined me as I was then but doesn't necessarily do so now. I've grown to demand more, not just from music but from myself and everything around me. I guess one of the problems with the music industry is that it remains pathologically infantile and presumes its entire audience is likewise fixated with some shallow ideal of perpetual 'youthfulness.' Thankfully music is capable of so much more than that, as any musician worthy of the title 'artist' already knows. 

"Music has a real value, both spiritually and materially. Artists deserve respect and should be able to earn their living without their work being stolen by morons who inhabit a 'something for nothing' culture."

Nelson has done his usual great job of communicating his thoughts to his audience - in a manner that I felt deserves a wider reading.

There is much work to be done, but I am encouraged by things such as record store day, and the fact that vinyl is viable - you can't keep the beauty of music from the masses forever. One day they will hear it as it is meant to be heard, and the tide will turn. In the meantime, many of us will continue to fight the good fight, and carry on with the mission to make music both a better listening experience, and profitable for the artist.

Again, I'm not looking for debate, or argument here - you can't sway me a bit, as I love and respect musicians way too much to ever think they should toil for my pleasure without fair compensation. As a reviewer who gets a lot of music free, I will add that I often buy a copy of records that I have received from labels and artists that I like. I generally give them to someone less fortunate, who I think will appreciate the act, and remain a customer, and not just a consumer.

My thanks to those like Mr. Nelson, Anil Prasad, and David Lowery who voice this loudly, and often.

Peter Frampton - Hello London!

Peter Frampton returns to the UK for a rare UK show at the London Camden Roundhouse on Tuesday, November 5th, and as tickets went on sale this morning, you'd be well advised to get yours now.

The legendary guitarist is set to rock the US through the Spring and Summer with first two shows with the Cincinnati Ballet, a Frampton first, followed by a slate of shows being billed as Frampton's Guitar Circus Tour, which will see Peter being joined by BB King, Robert Cray Band, Sonny Landreth and a host of special guests, so I'm guessing that by summer's end he'll be as hot as he was in 1976.

Peter Frampton is playing as well, if not better than ever, and this show is one that I imagine no UK friend will want to miss.

Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum - Incredible Electrical Alchemy

Sometimes the pieces just fit together perfectly. Joe Satriani sounds ecstatic - his exuberance is unmistakable, and while he's never less than excellent, this record finds him to be almost shamanic as he leads this journey. Mike Fraser is back behind the recording console, and again makes Joe sparkle with incredible clarity, and force. The tunes are stellar - as fine, if not the finest the six string phenomenon has assembled, and again, I mark this as being a result of wherever Satriani's spirit is currently sailing. His playing is transcendently beautiful across the disc, and his tones are textbook. He even went out and rounded up the perfect rhythm section - bassist Chris Chaney is super solid, and his propulsive push is a wonderful platform from which Satriani launches his melodic forays; then there is Vinnie Colaiuta behind the drum kit - his sheer mass of musicality matches Satriani's every step of the way. Unstoppable Momentum may be Satch's new crowning moment - the puzzle of perfect pieces.

Satriani has alway been melodic, and virtuosic - he settled that issue back in 1987 when Surfing With The Alien went platinum and literally invented the genre. However, the years have been well spent, and Unstoppable Momentum is the best realized package of melody, chops, and magic that Joe has yet mustered. Maybe a few years of working in the school of hard rock writing with Chickenfoot has tempered the more esoteric impulses, and while there's no less technical wizardry, this somehow feels much more complete.

Unstoppable Momentum harkens back to the late '80s in the best sense. The arpeggiated chord pattern, sure footed shuffle, and the summer sweet melancholy of the verses that launch into a tightly harmonized chorus remind me why that era stands so tall in the lore of the electric guitar. I say this a lot, but yeah, if you had played me this track back in '87 and told me that's where Satch would be in 2013, I would have been over the moon - and I am. The fading tail of this tune is one of those rock moments that will become part of the lexicon.

Photo by Chapman Baehler

The summery theme continues with the top down at midnight vibe of Can't Go Back, in which Joe shows that, actually, maybe you can. This is a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie with a happy ending - when the ascending harmonies are launched, all systems are go. Goddamn, this is exciting stuff - a slight return to a golden age. Satriani challenges Beck as the reigning King of the Trem, and his vowel sound wah inflections are to die for. Colaiuta and Chaney play like they've played together all their lives, and again, Chaney's is the perfect masonry on which a drummer could ever want to dance upon.

Nighttime falls upon the disc with the dark, sci-fi stylings of Lies and Truth - shredding hasn't been this gorgeous since Vai was waxing poetic with DLR. Mike Keneally's keyboards are a delightful pastiche of tones and moods that take you right where you need to be to tag along with Mr. Joe's Wild Ride - he just keeps ratcheting up the stakes, and the drama climbs along with the winsome harmonies. There's no shortage of amazing, death defying technical displays, but they are so consummately musical that you almost don't notice your jaw dropping.

The smile hits your face about five seconds into Three Sheets to the Wind, and it stays. Is it Beatlesesque? Djangoesque? Sure it is, but it's all Satriani and when he and Colaiuta go into their brutish, muscular stomp that's announced by Keneally's trip trance to Pepperland, it's all Keystone Cops and Chaplin smiles from heaven upon these artistic souls. The happiest song of Summer 2013, an instant classic.

I'll Put a Stone On Your Cairn takes us across an ocean and into the stratophere of guitaristic beautificense. Yeah, I made that one up. Short sweet, and pretty - play this one when you mean it.

A Door Into Summer is the album's lead track (single?), and it's a great choice - a bit more obvious in its tip of the hat to the best of the '80s, but it's the best reminder we've had in too damned long. I hope Joe takes a few tracks this anthemic down to Cabo the next time he makes the trip. Joe's melodies are sublime and they've managed to make us not miss having a singer on so many occasions. His trademark Ibanez into Marshall tones are captured in HD by Fraser's sure-handed engineering. They make this sound really easy, but if it was, everyone would be doing it.

The movie takes off into adventure hero land, and Shine On American Dreamer has me doing just that. Bolero moments abound and the hero takes to the ring and dances. This is the dream they're trying so damned hard to kill over in Washington, but just by listening this you know they can't win. Souls gotta fly free.

Jumpin' In is a jitterbug gone dinosaur tromp that if you try to dance to, you might just stumble - then Satriani and Keneally throw in some fabulous Middle Eastern mystery that sees Chaney playing some serious bass, throwing down melody, then some solid pop and thumping as Satriani dances across the top with delight. This one is very playful, so make sure you keep it contained. And yes, Colaiuta is wonderful.

Jumpin' Out sees the circus leaving town, and the interplay between an obvious joyful Satriani and his band is astounding - they never miss a step, and they sound like this is the most natural thing in the world to do, but again, this should not be done at home without a net. Joe shows off some ridiculously innovative chops, and barely blinks - makes it all sound so easy for our listening pleasure as he rides off into the sundown.

Classical melodicism enters the picture with The Weight of the World, and Satriani seems to have gone a bit European here, and he does it brilliantly, and dare I say he evokes the rock 'n' roll soul of the sadly missed from the scene Ritchie Blackmore at times. He hits reset several times to lighten the load, but then the returns to the bittersweet refrains, made all the more effective by the brief respites.

A Celebration wraps it up, and it does its job quite well as Satriani takes things higher and higher. He really does sound ecstatic - you can almost hear the guitar smiling - this is how guitars are meant to be played - joyfully, fearlessly, and loudly.

Play this one loudly. And buy it today. Maybe Satriani's best since the '80s, and he's put out a lot of great records, but this one grabs my rock 'n' roll heart and holds on.

Thanks to Joe Satriani, Melissa Dragich-Cordero, Peter Noble, and

http://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Momentum-Joe-Satriani/dp/B00BSWMITK

https://soundcloud.com/joesatriani/a-door-into-summer

   

Todd Rundgren - State - Genius

A State in which the discombobulated voice and guitar of Todd Rundgren again successfully mates with his laptop studio to results as sweet as his best. Melodies have always been what kept us coming back to Todd, and this record is swimming in it.

At long last The Runt sounds like he remembers his best moments producing XTC, Hall and Oates, Cheap Trick, The New York Dolls, and his many own classic rock radio classics. Every electronica drenched moment is married to marvelous melody, and the road from Something/Anything? is made much clearer. Rundgren has always been one of the world's greatest manipulators of the art of recording, and this may be his crowning achievement - he's lassoed HAL 9000 and brought him back to earth. He's made the machines nearly human, and the melodies are straight from the angels. He may not have faith, but he is a god.

My issue with electronic music has historically been that there was little imagination, and too much repetition - and then there is the almost complete absence of interesting harmonic invention. For State, Rundgren has emptied the fridge - he's left no ingredient in storage, and he has put them together with a deftness and beauty that has been missing from the concept of soulful electronic music since Don Was put his flagship Was (Not Was) into dry dock some years ago. From beginning to end, State delivers on the promise.

Imagination caught my ear instantly with it's return to Skylarking bit of sequenced synth beauty that just keeps morphing into something more and more lovely, when Todd makes me miss Robert Fripp more than ever with some huge power chords and a stately beat that rings in the verse. Imagine my surprise to hear an electric piano pad, a beat, and some skronkily melodic keyboard pastiches that fly around a delicate vocal that swims through the sultry mix, and it becomes clear where much of Daryl Hall's success may have conceived.

"What is hell? The same old smell,

The same old situation,

No Imagination."

Heavy Prog - with much imagination. Imagination is the first track from Rundgren that has absolutely blown my mind in a long time, but I'm guessing that is just how it is with genius. On occasion it is even obvious to me - I might not be it, but I know it when I hear it.

The Gap Band makes time with Nile Rodgers's Chic throughout Serious - scratchy rubber band rhythm guitar chops joust with super fat analog sounding synths, and an angry sounding Todd tramples over the tundra with his steely eyed intent. This is way too much fun for a Todd Rundgren record.

Rundgren's computer generated keyboards sound better than many more organic ivories I've heard over the last couple of decades. He understands tone - nothing grates, and nothing sticks around for longer than it's welcome. In My Mouth is a loping mid paced number that is unclearly ambiguous, but in the best sense - what's in the singer's mouth that he is offering? Could be a kiss, could be a word, but I'm guessing it's a song when it's all said and done.

Ping Me is a desperate plea to communicate - to make us at least feel we're communicating. Just a small reminder that you think of me. One of this record's many beauties is its ability to sound so organically electronic - electronica has never sounded so musical, and that's where Todd has his ace hidden. The melodramatic tone of Ping Me haunts equally to Rundgren's impassioned requests.

Todd weighs in on the war on women with the video game drone of Angry Bird. If Bowie and XTC had ever met up to dance in Berlin, it may have sounded like this - this is a great party. I can't imagine someone not digging this - I know it's subjective and all, but this is great stuff. There's a moment here in which ZZ Tops's Sharp Dressed Man passes Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle in the hall, and it's a sit-com classic. They stop, look at one another and then move on in silence after a nod of the head. All of these moments work - there's never a sense of copying for any sake other than fun.

You might not like the instrumental track for Smoke without Rundgren's vocal melodies, and the same can be said for the equation in reverse. The track is one of the stiffer on the album in terms of sounding very quantized, but the jazzy and ethereal vocal saves the day.

Collide A Scope should be the album's classic - it kicks off with some Rush via Godzilla hard rock tomfoolery of the highest order before settling into Todd's best song since, well, maybe ever. This might be the Todd track that gets put into the space capsule. Existential dualism weaves its way through a laundry list of yes/no hello/goodbyes and a sci-fi rock chorus that will have many remembering why they love Canada'a most profitable export.

The ghosts of Danny Wilson (the band) gathers around Something From Nothing, and if you're unfamiliar with my reference, do yourself a favor and seek them out, and then you too can say, "Oh yeah!" Things are often not what they seem on this platter, and Rungren's rumination on faith is not one of reverence, but rather a cautioning against. Rachel Haden from Todd's touring band joins in on vocals, and her performance is sublime, the perfect foil to TR's voice. A spiritual sibling of sorts to XTC's Dear God?

Speaking of cautionary tales, Party Liquor might be one of the better examples I've heard. The best dance track on the record is not so much a celebration as a pronouncement of last rites. This track is a treat - you've been there, you've seen the balloons and the parade, and then had to clean it up in so many ways.

Sir Reality closes out the record with a trip into the darkside of the world's attachment to untruths. Every line a lie in the kali yuga times of the endless newscycle of big media propaganda. Here, Fripp meets Philip Dick as Todd plays some of the best guitar on the record - I haven't mentioned the guitars much, but they carry their weight in a way that leaves you wanting more. It begs the question, is anyone speaking their mind, or is it just their agendas? A nice bit of spacey prog to return from one of the most satisfying pieces of art to see birth in 2013. This could bring back the concept of the album as a living entity, if anyone would just stop and listen.

Rundgren's best? I'll leave that up to you to decide, but don't miss the opportunity to sit down and listen to this from beginning to end.   

Niacin - Krush / Back and Better Than Ever

Niacin, the organ based power trio made up of Billy Sheehan, Dennis Chambers, and John Novello, has returned with their eighth album, Krush, on Prosthetic Records, and it may be their best yet. It sounds like they've been downright hungry to get to this one, and their return is a very welcome one.

They've been gone for the better part of a decade, and while they have been on hiatus, it is obvious that they've not stopped working for a moment - chops are razor sharp, and on this outing it sounds like they've not only brought their virtuosity as players, but they've also been in the woodshed working on their composition skills. These tunes come off as songs, memorable and fresh.

Krush kicks it off and I wish ELP had lived long enough to sound this good in 2013 - it's a great chase with Sheehan furiously digging in and dueling with John Novello in a way that I've not heard him dig in since the unforgettable fire created by Billy and Steve Vai on David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile solo debut way back in '86. Dennis Chambers is as amazing as ever - he's kind of a ringleader on this cut, and his syncopated groove keeps the sparring melody men between the lines. Best rock/fusion I've heard since last year's spectacular debut by Spectrum Road.

There may still be three people left on the planet who don't know that niacin is vitamin B-3, and the appropriately titled Tone Wheels features Novello taking us on an awe inspiring tour of just what a Hammond organ can do. The production is crystal clear, and you can hear every nuance - something missed by many a producer when faced with recording the sonorities of the Hammond's moving parts. Sheehan and Chambers point, pluck, and punctuate in a manner that brings back memories of Simon Phillips and Anthony Jackson's amazing jousts in years past. I don't know what's better, Sheehan's chops, or his tone - let's call it a draw and walk away smiling. Novello is at the top of the heap, this is certain.

Stormy Sunday isn't exactly a blues, but it certainly contains shades thereof, but these guys are not to be constrained by labels, or genres - this is great music, simple as that. If you don't get jazz, you'll still get this, if you're anti-metal, this will still rock you. This is orchestral beauty. It's impossible for me not to sway as I'm listening and typing. You hear Jamerson clashing with Mussorgsky as Chambers conducts from his throne - majestic.

Krush is as musical in its way as an XTC album is in its. That's a genre stretch of about half a solar system, but when you hear the atmospheric Low Art, you may catch my drift. Novello's abundant supply of chord voicings create myriad harmonic suggestions, and directions - his palette is as wide as an ocean, and just as deep. His staccato riffing approaches a very cool pianistic timbre at times, and this is as fascinating as it is visceral.

Car Crash Red sounds like it would fit perfectly on a new David Lee Roth solo disc, if DLR was still this hip. This is a high rolling riff rocker that dances high on the wire with no net, and when Sheehan and Novello start squaring off, I'm reminded that heavy metal has been painfully pale for edges. This is more dangerous than any collection of death rockers on the planet - the unison runs are as good as any I have ever heard, and all I can do is smile and laugh out loud.

Electricity has Novello showing off his piano chops, and this is the disc's jazziest moment thus far. Sheehan has an amazing set of ears - he spins right alongside some dizzying runs, and riffs. Chambers sounds like he's soloing when in fact he's running the show from behind his kit, and we're reminded why much of the world considers him its greatest drummer. Subjective for sure, but he's in there on any list.

Funk rears its ugly head, and it's time to dance with the dinosaurs on Cold Fusion. These guys swing like nobody's business, and it's easy to get lost in the groove and almost miss the mind-blowing chops, and skills on display. Novello breaks out on some stratospheric synth, plucky piano, and his chops are matched by his skill as a composer - the twists and turns are always above all musical, and when they throw down some bolero styled segues, it makes nothing but great sense.

I love that every tune here is a song - they could all easily be converted to vocal numbers, and Majestic Dance is a great bit of hard rock that makes me long for the days that music like this could be heard in large arenas. This is big and majestic music, and deserves to be given the big stage treatment. This could wake the kids up, fer crissakes.

Prog rock finally pops up at the introduction of Prelude & Funky Opus. Novello's piano is huge - underpinned by Sheehan's solid tone, it's then supplanted by some hyperkinetic shuffling that will have you toe tapping. The tightness and cohesion is phenomenal, and it's even more stunning when you realize that these guys don't have the luxury of playing together very often. They just happen to operate like a three headed entity that always know where each head is turning.

The Gnarly Shuffle? Oh hell yeah it is. This cooks. Flat out cooks. Again, I am incredibly pleased that Billy's bass, and John Novello's organ don't crash, clash, or ever muddy up - when they go on their flights of fancy, they are both very distinct and pure. Then it's Sheehan and Chambers going head to head, and of course, guess who joins in? They come out of the insane unisons swinging like Count Basie's Orchestra, and it's a beautiful thing.

After wearing me down with such thunderous energy, the trio back it down in tempo, but not necessarily intensity for Drifting.This has a not quite dirge slow swagger that starts climbing up the mountain of majesty just as you think it may not - these guys are masters at timing and knowing when to make the big change. This would be the best show in any city on any night that it was played. Exciting, invigorating, and intellectually challenging - what more can one ask for?

More funk is in store with Sheehan's clavinesque intro to Sly Voltage, and I'm dreaming off how good this would sound at a summer festival. This is a straight up dance number, and it gets really nasty when Sheehan starts soloing and Novello takes some lascivious stabs at his keyboard. This sounds like the band has been missing in some sort of time loop for a few decades and walked out to some new fun technology. Billy Sheehan hasn't lost a step, and when he solos, it is clear he is still the most accomplished bassist in rock. He gets the rhythm, he's got the sound, and he never plays less than right for the tune. This one goes all Herby Hancock at the end, and you are going to love it.

That's The One is on the one, that's for sure. The synchronicity between this bunch is a work of wonder. Chambers marches them through a minefield of funkified goo, and they don't even get their feet muddy. This is a timekeeper's tour de force - maybe more fun for the players than the listener, but not by much.

All good things must come to an end, and it's the same with Krush - they go out on a talk show theme soundscape, but talk shows were never quite this hip. Triple Strength, indeed. As Chambers gives his cymbals an sound thrashing, Novello and Sheehan set it on cruise, and send us sailing down the river of musical bliss. From beginning to end, they do not for a moment let up - they are on it, and this wraps up a rock/fusion masterwork.

I can't pick a winner, or even a frontrunner - this trio is perfectly matched, and they operate as a single mind in so many ways. I hope they get to take this one out for some shows - it might be the most musically exciting event of the year.

Thanks to Niacin and Kelly Walsh at Prosthetic Records

Krush is out April 2nd.

Danny Bryant - Hurricane - A Big Storm

Danny Bryant - the big man brings it. He doesn't play like he's chasing ghosts - no, he plays like he's chasin' down the devil, and he's got him in his sights. He's furious and fearless - if all blues rock rocked like this I'd be kinder to the genre.

This guy is the complete package - he plays like the house is on fire, a Fret-King Corona SP 50 guitar (if you aren't familiar with Fret-King, that's Trev Wilkinson's company - if you don't know Trev, I can't much help you) sneaking through an angry way into a Marshall half stack seems to be his formula, and it sounds like raging magic. Bryant is also an excellent singer - he's got a great voice, very rare in a genre filled with hands, and few throats. To top it off, he can write songs - these tunes live on their own without tripping over all the tired cliches. In short, Danny Bryant is the real deal.

The album blasts off with a throbbing rocker entitled, Prisoner of the Blues - Bryant seems to know the skeletons that hide in every corner, and as he barrels down the highway he's swerving past them all. This has genuine swagger and big bluster - he has a solid band behind him, and they sound like a band, not a bunch of over paid sessioners. His solo rips the throat out of his wah, and throws it down when he's done - super bad.

31 Greenwood - ring a bell? The beloved Hubert Sumlin was born in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1931, and not many guys could move me in tribute, but Danny does it. Drummer Trevor Barr brings some Bonhamesque backbeats, and bassist Ken Barr manages to keep things solid without weighing things down as so many young blues bassists do - if you see him smiling in videos, it may because he brought his boy up right.

Next up is a ballad that will be dearly loved by anybody who remember what Gary Moore, and Michael Schenker could do with a piano in the room. Bryant really shows his songwriting and singing off here to wonderful effect. Melody is thick on this one, and the drama is delivered believably. His guitar fills are melody, not the same old, tired blues riffs, and when he solos, it is memorable and soaked with feeling. Can't Hold On shows Bryant to be a very complete package, indeed.

Hurricane is a mid-tempo rocker that has a great chunky guitar riff that sounds like it walked off of an '80s MTV video set (in a great way). This type of guitar rock can come off terribly, but again, this guy pulls it off convincingly. Bryant must have been spoon fed great music since birth - it's attached to his DNA. His singing gives me hope for his generation, and you haven't heard me say that in  a while.

When he tackles a genre, or a song style, Bryant is smart enough to try to up the ante, and not just lick at boots. Devil's Got A Hold On Me is a Texas boogie, but his Strat-edged tone bites perfectly, with enough serration on the edge to keep things cutting.This tune isn't as adventurous as those previous, but he's still keeping me engaged - I try to nit pick, but that's all it would be. The solo sails - you know where it's coming from, but he owns it, and that is what matters.

Danny Bryant is a great singer - I'm Broken will thrill fans of Glenn Hughes's phrasing and vibrato. He's the best blues belter since Gary left us, and that is no small praise. I don't bandy Moore's name around casually, nor my buddy Glenn's. His guitar tone is always right on the mark - it's all in the hands, but he also makes great use of the right tools. Goddamn, this is good. At times he approaches the tones that made Deep Purple's forays into the blues such gems. I kid you not.

All Or Nothing again reminds me of Moore's Run For Cover album, on which Moore and Hughes came so close to connecting - it has the melodic synth underpinnings and the straight up beat that made Gary's poppier moments so delightful. I hate to keep dragging in comparisons, but if the shoe fits, and I'm referring to some of my favorite moments of an era, and I want to remind you of them, as well. Bryant is today, but he connects with some magic I feared lost, and am thrilled to re-find.

This guy knows how to pull heart strings, in an era in which false emotion has become our shield - at a time when we need our hearts on our sleeves more than ever. Losing You is a delicate number that tugs gently and sweeps you into a cold, dark, and lonely alley to face your tears. This may be marketed as the blues, but I'm hearing all kinds of rock and pop - have we gotten so stuck in a pentatonic haze that we've forgotten what true beauty is? Danny Bryant's solos are achingly right - his sound is the perfect combination of Hank Marvin melody, and Schenker fueled passion. Again, if you don't get that, look them up.

Danny Bryant is a great musician, and an impassioned soul - I hope you give him a good listen, it will do your heart right. He breaks out an acoustic on the album closer, Painkiller, and again, the son-of-a-gun avoids the obvious somehow, and this is his, all his. His voice keeps stunning me - it fits the songs, and that's where it all begins, the songs. He decorates them in a manner that is maybe more stately and beautiful than I've heard in some time. When he leans into the thick side of his Marshall's throaty distortion for the solo on this one, I am swept away in rock reverence.

I know I'm given to hyperbole, but goddamn this is a great record. Danny Bryant deserves a listen from anyone who reads this, and of course, a great many more. He's worked his ass off here, and delivered what I feel may be tough to beat in the blues rock field this year, though again - this isn't really at all what I would call a blues album, this is just good rock with some bluesy vbes. If you liked the hot guitar slingers of the '80s, who combined melody with chops, great vocals and songs, you are going to really dig this one.

Doug Aldrich - The Rock Guitar Daily Interview

"He's a really generous guy, and we are mutual supporters of each other. He's been really good to me, man - I feel completely blessed just to have the opportunity to work with a legend like him, and to work with him for an extended period of time." ~ Doug Aldrich on working with David Coverdale

Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich has been with the band for ten years now - much more than just a guitarist, he has become David Coverdale's co-writer, and musical director. It's no mean feat to be in that position - it takes tremendous skills, not just as a musician, but also as a human being.

Whether it's in being able to laugh when Dio fans throw beer bottles at you because you're the new guy, not rushing David Coverdale into a creative partnership, being humble enough to know why you didn't get the gig with KISS, or knowing how to ask Jimmy Page to carve his initials into your guitar. Doug has time and time again displayed the wisdom and courage that has allowed him to get great gigs and not just keep them, but to grow within them. Reading back over this interview, it becomes clear to me that while Doug is obviously a huge talent, he's also a hell of a good guy.

Made In Japan is Whitesnake's new DVD/CD package, and it shows the band at the height of their considerable talents. The band was wise to focus on some great material from their last two studio efforts, alongside some 'Snake classics - there's also a great CD of extras that displays the band in an acoustic setting, and some great rough cuts taken from various sound checks. As if that weren't enough, Aldrich also is getting ready to release the third album with Burning Rain, a band he started with singer Keith St. John back in 1998.

We started off our chat with me congratulating Doug on both projects. I mentioned that I had talked to David Coverdale just a few days previous, and that his boss was extremely effusive with his respect and admiration for his partner's skills, and that he was especially thrilled that the guitarist brought with him to the band what David called, 'An amazing treasury of awareness' of the early history of Whitesnake. I asked Doug how his education in all things Whitesnake came to pass:

Doug Aldrich: "I was in Los Angeles, around early 1984, and I had heard maybe a track or two from the Slide It In album - so I knew about Slide it In, and Slow An' Easy, and I really liked them. Whitesnake was just at the beginning of cracking big in the US and so I got this call to join this band with the ex-drummer from Steeler, which was Yngwie's first band, and this drummer, he had actually kind of helped discover Yngwie, and got him together with his first record deal with Mike Varney. 

"Yngwie had split and left Steeler, so this drummer, Mark Edwards, he said, 'Hey, I want you to play guitar - I've found the next David Coverdale,' He said it was this singer from Scotland (Kal Swan), who was really a Whitesnake aficionado, among other bands like Slade, and Status Quo, bands I had never heard of up to that time. 

"He was the one that brought those early Whitesnake records to my attention - and immediately those chords and melodies resonated with me. I felt really lucky about that, because it was very cool and very different - I was very easily influenced at that point, and I could have easily fallen into a more glam thing, or whatever. 

"Living in Los Angeles at that time, the whole thing was going big and bands like Motley Crue, and all that, but I really loved this different sound that Kal showed me. Whitesnake had these blues progressions, but done in a heavier way, and I just loved it - and that was what our band, Lion, tried to do. To have our sound be more European. Eventually, Lion broke up, and Kal and I tried some different projects, but later, when I met David - there were so many things that I remembered Kal telling me that was great information for me in becoming a member of Whitesnake."

Indeed they did - one of the things that I notice in Doug's playing that makes him stand apart most of the Los Angeles rock guitarists of that era is his slide guitar stylings which Coverdale had just called two days previous, 'that filthy, dirty, underbelly of the blues groove.' David was recalling Aldrich's playing on Steal Your Heat Away from the new live set, on which Doug unleashes some lovely slide. Doug is a little more humble in his assessment of his slide skills (I tend to agree with Coverdale on this one):

Doug Aldrich: "To be honest, I don't know if I'd say bad-assed, I might just say, bad! Hahaha! 

"I'm learning, and I love it - I feel it. I love that sound and I'm trying to find a way to do it that is a little bit my own, even though my technique is still in the learning process. But when you listen to the real guys, like Derek Trucks - now that guy, he's just sick! He's so good, and Warren Haynes, anybody that's ever played slide with the Allman Brothers, starting with Duane. 

"I also love all that ethereal slide playing that David Gilmour does. I didn't know that a lot of that was lap steel, but it just sounds so cool. That was definitely an influence, and when I got into Whitesnake, I actually had a reason to get a lot better, because the early Whitesnake - Micky Moody was the slide guy, and those songs are very unique because of that. I've just tried to develop this a bit."

Photo by Jon Beckel

Coverdale had just told me that the tune Steal Your Heart Away was a fantastic marriage between early and current Whitesnake, but in fact it had been written very organically, and with no prior discussion of the past. I asked Doug to recant the origins of the tune:

Doug Aldrich: "That was a kind of funny song - we were just jamming and David sang that first line in the verse, and I was like, 'Man, that is really cool,' and I thought, 'Let's see if we can get this song together.' 

"This same week, we were up at his house writing, and I got stuck on that song. I didn't know quite what to do with it, but I knew it had potential, so I said, 'Hey DC, can I move on to something else? I have something I want to work with you on,' and we started jamming on Love Will Set You Free, and I was like, 'Whoa, that one came together so fast!" He started singing and it was immediate - this is great. 

"Then we did Tell Me How the same week, so we had done two full, new songs and we made some rough demos, and I was getting done, and David was in a meeting, so I thought, 'Well, let me listen to that Steal Your Heart Away thing again.' I had been beating myself up about it, and when I listened to it fresh, I was like, 'Whoa, this is actually very cool!' So we kind of roughed up the arrangement a little bit to get through it, and we finished it up the next time we got together. 

"A lot of this stuff is like updated early Whitesnake. Love Will Set You Free is not so far away from songs like Ready 'N' Willing."

Photo by Michael Wiersch

Coverdale and Aldrich have now been writing partners for years, but it didn't start that way - Doug was a member of Dio, and had been hired by Whitesnake for a two month tour while Dio was on hiatus - I was curious as to how Doug's role evolved from hired hand to right hand man. I would advise anyone who ever thinks they may join an established band to pay close attention to his answer, as I think it addresses head-on how Aldrich has been so successful in a very difficult business:

Doug Aldrich: "Well, we would jam on stuff just for fun, but I was very conscious not to, um....David basically said, 'This is going to be a short tour, and that's it - that's all I need.' 

"I was, at the time, a member of Dio. Everything was kind of on the surface - we're doing this tour, and that's it. Once we started touring, we'd jam around on some stuff just for fun, and I thought, 'Hey, this is pretty cool,' but I never really thought about pursuing things with David, just because you don't want to push, and have anybody feel pressured - the worst thing you can do when you are new is to come in and go, 'Hey, let's write a song!' 

"Hold on - first, let's see if we have some chemistry going. It's best for things like that to happen naturally. Eventually, it did happen, and we didn't force it. 

"But to answer your question, it was probably at the end of the year in 2003 when we started banging out some songs for real. We were both getting used to how the other guy works, and obviously, I was learning a lot. David's done this a lot, so I was learning from him the whole time. What to focus on, and which melodies are more important - things like that, and I'm still learning." 

"We were both being very polite, so the first songs that we worked on, I wasn't - not aggressive - but not as honest, as to, 'This is what I'm hearing.' He was the boss, and I didn't want to push anything, and I think the same went for him - he probably heard things I was doing, and he could have suggested some improvements, but he was trying to encourage me and not to shut me down. 

"It wasn't until about 2006 that we decided, let's see what we got. Let's get together, do some writing, and see just what we've got. That's when we came up with the Good To Be Bad record - I think our songwriting improved 1,000%, and I think it's still improving!"

Doug Aldrich has had the opportunity to work with two of the greatest vocalists in the history of rock, and I was curious as to both the similarities and the differences in working with, and for Ronnie James Dio, and David Coverdale in Whitesnake:

Doug Aldrich: "It's weird - there are a lot of similarities about them because of the structure of the bands - like you said, Whitesnake is looked upon as a band, and it is a band, but David is the leader, founder and in the end he's the only non-replaceable person in the band. It's his band, and it was the same in Dio. 

"There is that mentality of we've got a leader, a captain of the ship, so I knew how to handle that situation from working with Ronnie already. When it came to the stage, Ronnie basically said, 'Look, I'm going to give you the stage, and you take it over - do whatever you want, it's your time. Ronnie was very supportive, and he set me free on the stage - I learned a lot and got a lot of touring and performing experience. 

"Watching Ronnie, and being on the road with him - it was the first really big tour I had been on, and it was a little late for me. I was in my late 30s and we started in May and we toured all the way to Christmas. I learned a lot, so when I got into Whitesnake, my chops were definitely together. I had been through everything that I thought was possible as far as what I thought could happen onstage - an amp going down, or somebody throwing something at you, hahahaha."

I stopped - What, what do you mean someone throwing something at you? Doug's answer again gave me pause to realize the importance of cool, poise, and calm:

Doug Aldrich: "When you join a band like Dio, or Whitesnake - there are going to be some fans that go, 'No - I don't like this guy, I liked the other guy.' 

"We were doing a festival in Germany with Dio, and somebody chucked a beer bottle at me. I happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye that it was coming - I bobbed my head and it went right past my ear, and I laughed. I was like, 'C'mon, try it again!' That's the mentality - where people go, 'Yeah, that guy's all right!' You can't get flustered by that - of course, Ronnie set out to find the guy, and get him thrown out, but I thought it was funny! 

"So, in Whitesnake, I was prepared for anything like that, because Whitesnake had some great guitar players, like the original guys, then Sykes, Vandenberg, Steve Vai - and it's hard to please everybody! 

"I think, though, it's different in a lot of ways, because Whitesnake is a different kind of band, a different kind of music."

Bringing things back up to current events, I told Doug that I had been listening to the new record, Whitesnake - Made In Japan for the last week and that I was mightily impressed by both the power of the band, and the attention to detail throughout. I asked if there would be some intensive rehearsals before the band set off for Japan in May:

Doug Aldrich: "Cool - I'm really happy to hear you say that, Tony - I haven't listened to it since we finished it, and I felt it was pretty cool, but you never really know. 

"Yeah, we'll be rehearsing - obviously, we have a new drummer (the legendary Tommy Aldridge). I say new, but he's been in the band before, so it's exciting to get him back. 

"We've got Tommy coming back, so he and I, along with Michael Devin are going to spend a few days jamming together before we start the Whitesnake rehearsals to get our feet wet - I want to be sure that Michael and Tommy start locking in, and get to know each other before we jump into hardcore rehearsals. 

"Rehearsals with Whitesnake - it's exciting, but it's like mayhem. You've got crew guys running around, and this guy's trying to get his gear together, and David's coming in and saying, 'Hey, try this guys!' We're all trying to find our ways for a few days, so I think it might make sense to Tommy and Michael Devin to spend dome time together and get to know one another. 

"That's the backbone of any band, the rhythm section - it's so important, and I'm very excited about the possibilities of hearing....I've played with Tommy a lot, and I've played with Michael a lot, so I'm very excited about the two of them together, because they are both obviously fine players - Tommy is a legend, and I think Michael is a legend in the making. He is just so solid, and such a natural, amazing bass player."

I wondered what, if any, difference it made to play with a drummer who has such a different style than his predecessor:

Doug Aldrich: "It's definitely different, but it's going to be fine, because I know how he plays. 

"It doesn't really effect me - it will get me off in a good way, when I hear somebody do something that is their signature thing. We know that Tommy does have his signature sound, and he has these things that he'll do with the kick drums that are very 'Tommy-esque,' you know? 

"By the same token - Brian Tichy is one of my favorite drummers of all time. I think he is an extremely talented musician all the way around, and when he plays the drums it is just so natural. It feels great - I guess I'd say he is a little more of a pocket player. A little more simple in style, and he plays a little heavier, and Tommy has a little more finesse in certain ways, but they are both amazing."

Burning Rain, another of Doug's ongoing projects, has been on the shelf since 2004, due to the guitarist's Whitesnake commitments, but in mid-May they will see the release of their third album, Epic Obsession, on Frontiers Records. It's a barnburner - more metallic than Whitesnake, and far enough afield that there should be few comparisons that make any sense, beyond the very basics. I told Doug that I thought it was the best Burning Rain yet, and I asked if he and Keith St. John had been stockpiling material, or if this batch was au courant:

Doug Aldrich: " I appreciate that! Pretty much, it was all of the above! We had a few songs like Ride The Monkey which is one of my favorites on there - it was something that was really old, and we re-worked it several times over the years. I wanted the lyrics to be right, I wanted the music to be right, and I feel like now that it's a really cool song with dark, crazy lyrics and I really like the guitar work on there a lot. 

"My Lust Your Fate was the last song we wrote when we did it, and it was a pretty rough demo, but it turned out really nice on the record - much better than I thought it would. We actually have just started shooting a video for that song - a very dark, sexy thing. 

"I wanted this Burning Rain record to sound different than Whitesnake. I didn't want it to sound like Whitesnake junior. We tried to maintain the sound we started with, which was a little more towards the metal side, melodic based metal. Of course, I'm just a blues based guitar player - my roots are that, but I wanted it to sound different. I didn't want there to be any cross-collateralization between Whitesnake and Burning Rain other than the fact that I was playing guitar on both. 

"I'm really glad that you got it, and are digging it!"

One song in particular has kept me going back - and it was the huge guitar tones on Pray Out Loud that did it - time to switch to guitar talk, and I was guessing there was some heavy-gauge string action going on:

Doug Aldrich: "I was using 11-50s on that guitar, because it was a slide tuning and it needs a little thicker strings to stay in tune, but the real combo I'm using is the same one I've had since you were in Hollywood (we had earlier discussed the fact that we were both living in Hollywood in the mid-80s) - I had bought a 1979 JMP Marshall from Guitar Center that was on the other side of Sunset. I don't know if you knew it, but the Guitar Center used to be across the street from where it is now."

I laughed, and explained that actually, I was working at that store when we moved it across the street, and there was a good possibility that I had sold him that very amp:

Doug Aldrich: "Hahaha, so you and I might have some history there! I bought the amp at that store. It's a JMP Master Volume, and this amp is just awesome! 

"I've used it on every record I've worked on, and loaned it to Satriani for The Extremist record, he used it on that. Then Godsmack rented it for some records they were working on, and everybody that hears this amp loves it! I used it on Dio, on Whitesnake, and Burning Rain, too!"

On both the Whitesnake records and Burning Rain, one consistent factor is the hugeness of Aldrich's guitar tone - I asked if he was still making great use of his signature Majik Box Overdrive and Boost pedal, the Rocket Fuel:

Doug Aldrich: "I do use that. In the studio, though, I do things a little differently because I want to use the shortest amount of cables and connections as possible. I'm a little bit, I guess I wanna say anal - but there's no reason for me to go through any box - it's better for me to go straight into the amp when I'm cutting rhythms. 

"When I'm tracking with the band, I might go through something like the Majik Box and a wah, and I'll keep the solo parts with that setup, and end up replacing the rhythm part, because I want to be sure that it's as clean as possible for my main rhythm tracks. In other words, unless I'm doing something super heavy, I don't use any boxes. For solos, I definitely use the Majik Box - it's a really cool box. I've never found any one thing that I could rely on so much. 

"I had been using for years this Furman PQ-3, I don't know if you remember that from LA (in fact, I do - it was the de facto secret weapon in every guitar rig on the Sunset Strip at one point), but that was the kind of go-to thing back then, and it's got a great sound, but I wanted something in pedal form - but was like that. The guys from Majik Box - we did a prototype that was super cool, but it was noisy and kind of unusable, because it had so much hiss to it. Then they said, 'Hey, we've got this other thing we've been working on that's a different idea, but we can arrange it so that the bottom end stays. That was what I wanted, so they showed me a prototype, and we started tweaking that, and added the bass shift switch, which is really nice for solos because you don't lose so much bottom end - it still boosts the mids - it's still big sounding. I'm really glad you like that guitar sound!"

Exactly what I liked about that guitar sound is the fact that even though the tones are thick, fat, and beefy, it does not mush out - they retain the articulation of Doug's right hand. It's a great right hand full of power and precision - I told Doug that, in fact, his right hand reminded me of that of one of my favorites, the late Gary Moore:

Doug Aldrich: "Hey - thanks, man! Anytime I get mentioned in the same sentence with Gary Moore, I'm pretty happy! He's one of my all time favorites, and he was a huge inspiration to all of us rock guitar players - I definitely miss him. 

"In fact, Somebody asked me the other day, 'If you could have a guitar lesson from anybody living, or passed on, who would it be?' I said, "You know what, that is a great question!' I just picked who came to mind, and it was Gary Moore. 

"It's funny - in 2003 Gary supported Whitesnake in the UK, and he was very quiet! I thought he didn't like me, but he was just very quiet and very shy. We had this little exchange at one point, and I realized, he's just shy! 

"The thing that was cool was he'd be warming up backstage, Reb and Me would be sitting there - we'd be in our dressing room, and he'd be in his, and we'd be listening to him play, going, 'No way!!' I think Reb actually recorded something on a little cassette player, and it was awesome because he was just playing off the cuff stuff that was just so sweet!"

I told him I knew exactly how that felt - when I worked for the McAuley/Schenker Group, my favorite part of every day of the tour was sitting on the bus beside Michael Schenker as he practiced for two or three hours each morning:

Doug Aldrich: "Man - I'll tell you what! You and I are definitely on the same page as far as these guys go. I love Michael Schenker - he's so inspirational to me. As far as that whole wah thing - you find the sweet spot - right in the middle where you find that Schenker tone!"

One of my favorite moments on the Burning Rain record is one of the bonus tracks, and what a bonus it is - the band does a great version of the Zeppelin epic, Kashmir. And they do it justice - where many bands might assassinate it with too much, Burning Rain nails it. I asked Doug how they came to record this one:

Doug Aldrich: "Uh.... we needed another track, hahahaha! 

"We had a jam of that track, Keith put down a vocal, and I put on some backwards guitars - and you know what's really interesting about that? I didn't want to mess up the song with a bunch of shredding - I wanted it to be more ethereal, I wanted it to sound like Burning Rain, but to keep the integrity of the original in some way. So I'll do some backwards guitar parts. 

"Eventually, that track was cut on a 2 inch tape machine that I have - we cut it at my house, so I ended up getting that out and putting it down on tape - then I chucked it onto Pro Tools so I could edit it, and clean it up. 

"Then I noticed - when I listened back to my playing when it's backwards? It sounds like George Lynch. A lot, hahaha! 

"It was really funny, I was like, 'That's where George got his style! He flipped the tape over!' There are some moments where I'm doing my normal 'Doug' things, and I'm like, 'Whoa, that sounds just like George now!' 

"You know, I got to be friends with George about ten years ago, and he's a great guy. Sometimes at Christmas he'll have a party, and we'll jam, or I'll see him at the NAMM show - I can't wait to tell him this story, he's going to crack up, man! 'I can sound just like you, George - all I gotta do is flip the tape over!'

When I'm able to stop laughing, I remember what I'm doing, and comment that the orchestration he chose to lay upon the Led Zeppelin classic was most appropriate:

Doug Aldrich: "Thank you, man - that means a lot to me, because the worst thing I could ever do is to ruin something. We had just done that for the fun of it, and we needed a bonus track, so that's what we did. It wasn't originally for the record, but it turned out to be just that, a nice bonus. 

"But I really appreciate your comment because if I had to pick my favorite all time guitar player, it would have to be Jimmy Page, even though I don't sound like him, I absolutely love his writing, his playing, his everything - the whole package - pound for pound, Jimmy Page is my guy! 

"I hate to say it, but I'm sure that Jimmy would hear that and just go, 'Yeah, man, that's.......'"

I disagree, telling Doug that I had recently heard Dave Kilminster of Roger Waters band telling me a story of his having played his version of The Rain Song, only to discover that Page was not only in the audience, but wanted to meet him - turned out that Jimmy was quite laudatory about the rendition, as I'm sure he will be if he hears Burning Rain's Kashmir:

Doug Aldrich: "I hope so, but I'm not going to play it for him! 

"We see Jimmy every year when we go to England, and I fully expect to see him this year when we are over there. And I guarantee you I will make no mention of this! I would be way too embarrassed to bring it up to him, but I'll tell you a funny story.... 

"On that tour we did with Gary Moore back in '03, when I first met Jimmy and just happened to have a Les Paul backstage - he was gracious enough to, I asked him if he would scratch his initials in it. And he did it with a fork! He scratched his initials in it in 2003. 

"He was there to see David, and David was in the shower, and there's Jimmy hanging out in the hallway! I'm going, 'Jimmy, what are you doing in the hallway? Please, come in with us and hang out in our dressing room.' He came in and we just had a nice cordial chat - he's super nice, just really nice. 

"You know, for basically being rock 'n' roll's god - he was just very down to earth. So I said, 'Hey, Jimmy, I hate to do this, but would you mind scratching your initials? I hate to do this, but I'm going to anyway.' And he said, 'Yeah, man, I'll do it - never done that before!'

"And then two years later - we were playing at Hammersmith, and Jimmy was at the side of the stage, and I came off stage at the end of the show - David was doing Soldier of Fortune a cappella, and it's a great moment in the show, because David's voice is just huge, and by itself. So, I pulled out the guitar, just to show him that I still had it - of course I still have it. 

"I handed it to him, and he kind of grabbed it like he was going to go onstage with David! 

"I kind of wish that he had, it would have been so cool, you know? Maybe someday we'll get to jam with him."

After that riveting story of a meeting with a rock god, I thought it best to wind down with another story of a meeting with some rock demi-gods - Aldrich's audition for KISS at the young age of 18. I approached the topic by asking what track he was playing on the upcoming KISS 40th Anniversary Tribute record, A World With Heroes, being produced by Mitch Lafon to benefit a Cancer Care Hospice:

Doug Aldrich: "Actually, I haven't done my track yet! I don't know which song it will be. They were going to send me the track, but I'll play on any of the tracks! 

"I'll tell you what I'd love to play on - something like Shock Me, or Christine Sixteen - I love those songs, or Hotter Than Hell. 

"Black Diamond - I only know these songs because after all these years, I've really come to appreciate how cool early KISS was. When you get past the image, it comes down to great songs, but one song I know the guys in KISS really love, it was kind of like their Stairway To Heaven at the time - that was Black Diamond - now that would be great to play on! 

"I auditioned for KISS back in the early '80s"

I stopped to tell him that in retrospect, not getting that job was probably the best thing that ever happened to him, on many levels:

Doug Aldrich: "I agree! The thing that was great about it was that, had I gotten that gig, and obviously, I was not the right guy - I was very young (18), and inexperienced. But had I gotten it, I wouldn't have gone through a lot of things which helped me be a better musician - if you get picked up, and join a big band without having any experience, who knows, you may miss out on a lot of things. 

"The thing is, they said, 'This song, Black Diamond, is very important to us, and it comes down to how you play it, really.' And I played it pretty good - well enough that they called me back for a second look, but I agree with you. Things do happen for a reason, and you just have to roll with it."

Thanks to Doug Aldrich, David Coverdale, Whitesnake, Frontiers Records, Carise Yatter at Hired Gun Media, and Peter Noble at Noble PR (UK).