Clare Free is one of the fastest rising stars on the UK Blues circuit and is an artist who is redefining the blues for the modern world. Her roots lie in the blues but her influences go way beyond the genre making her one of the most exciting new artists writing and performing in the blues world today. A passionate, award nominated, songwriter and a fabulous guitar player, she has an excellent band. Clare’s performances are fiery, exciting and heartfelt.

Clare won the “Best Acoustic Performance” in the 2011 WRC Awards and her new album “Dust and Bones” will be released on Friday 23rd March 2012.

Visit www.clarefree.co.uk to find out more about Clare and check out some of her exciting blues tracks.

In this exclusive blues guitar lesson, Clare demonstrates how to take a simple pentatonic lick in A minor and slowly build it up into something that is both bluesy and exciting. Using elements of the Dorian mode Clare turns this straight forward lick into something this is perfect for any blues guitar solo.

Video Guitar Lesson: How to take a simple lick and build on it.

Guitar Tablature & Playing Notes

We hope you enjoy Clare’s lesson and look out for a full interview soon!

Gibson, much like Fender, are continuing to update their guitar range and the latest model to undergo a makeover is the trust old workhorse, the SG. Since it’s introduction in 1961 when it replaced the Les Paul for a little while the guitar has been a mainstay for many classic rock and blues artists but while the guitar is undoubtedly full of tone it’s never been the most versatile beast. The SG Diablo aims to correct this and give the SG a metal edged makeover.

The SG Diablo has a “double-locking” Floyd Rose vibrato bridge, 24 frets for extended soloing range and a simplified no-nonsense control layout with a hand-sprayed nitrocellulose finish in gloss Ebony Black. The Diablo also features two of Gibson’s popular PAF-style humbucking pickups—a 490R at the neck and 498T at the bridge, made with Alnico II and Alnico V magnets.

What the Experts say about the SG Diablo

We asked several respected Gibson’s dealers about this guitar and this is what they had to say.

“…the guitar certainly looks cool. An interesting departure for Gibson to add a Floyd Rose to an SG, it’ll be interesting to see how well that goes down with the guitar playing public. It’s sure to be a love/hate product, but as with anything Gibson, those that love it, will REALLY love it! ”

Jamie, Hartnolls Online Guitar Centre, Plymouth UK

“The Gibson Diablo with Floyd Rose Tremolo, as the name suggests, is designed and equipped for the darker and heavier styles of rock. It is the prefect addition to any heavy rock players, especially shredders. The typical double cutaway ‘devil-horn’ body is made of mahogany along with the neck and it looks very cool.

It has Gibson 490R and 498T humbuckers for higher output and great versatility, but the major feature is of course the tremolo meaning it keeps tuning stable during extreme pitch changes. I think if you’re looking for a heavy metal machine that looks and sounds dark, but in all fairness sounds with crystal clear clarity, then look no further.”

Steve Williams, Dawsons UK

“…it’s certainly an interesting looking model. Gibsons with Floyd Roses are always a nice alternative to ESP/LTD guitars. The proof will be in the pudding though!”

GAK, UK

The Gibson SG Diablo will retail at around £1,500 in the UK & $2,799 in the US.

Due to popular demand, Australian power rock trio “TRACER” kick off their first nationwide headline UK tour at London’s Islington O2 Academy on Tuesday 24th April.

Planet Rock (www.planetrock.com) will start a 48-hour ticket pre-sale for Planet Rock listeners from Wednesday 1st February at 9am. www.ents24.com will start their 24-hour pre-sale on Thursday 2nd February. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public from 10am on Friday 3rd February via the 24 hour box office: 0844 478 0898 and www.thegigcartel.com.

Tracer was recently voted third place in Planet Rock’s “Best New Band” listeners’ poll. Over the past four months Planet Rock has played the singles Too Muchand Devil Ride, two songs taken from Tracer’s debut critically acclaimed album Spaces In Between.

Tracer has captured the excitement and adrenalin rush of rock ’n’ roll. Tracer’s sound embodies the same raw dynamics and edge to that of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age and Black Sabbath.

Richie Kotzen is coming back to Europe for a 4 week live tour with his band to support his new album, ’24 Hours’! The tour starts February 29th 2012 in Luxemburg and ends March 24th in Turkey including March 5th at Islington Academy in London & March 6th at the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton.

He’s also putting together a VIP Experience for fans which includes the following;

• Attend sound check with Richie! (sound check time will be e mailed to you separately)
• A meet and greet with Richie! Come meet Richie, have your photo taken with him and get ONE personal item signed.
• An autographed, limited edition RICHIE KOTZEN ’24 HOURS’ COMMEMORATIVE POSTER! (In addition to your personal item, Richie will also personalize the poster for you at the meet and greet if you’d like)
• A RICHIE KOTZEN VIP COMMEMORATIVE LAMINATE!
• A RICHIE KOTZEN ’24 Hours’ T-SHIRT.
• A copy of Richie’s new CD ’24 HOURS’

In the meantime, to get you in the mood check out the video to ’24 Hours’.

The Gibson Jeff Tweedy SG 61 is one of several impressive signature guitars unveiled by Gibson at NAMM 2012. The famous Wilco front man took the leading role in making this is a signature guitar to remember giving Gibson a precise specification based on his early ’60s SG. The resulting guitar is something that is becoming ever more popular: a vintage guitar with a modern twist.

The design, unsurprisingly, is very much that of the original, the finish perfectly captures the era in which these guitar were made with a beautiful Blue Mist finish with cream detailing. This vintage feel is emphasised by the authentic Lyre Vibrola tailpiece with tremolo. The authenticity doesn’t just stop with looks, beneath the surface a there is a mahogany neck and body and even a North American Mahogany fretboard in a slim SG profile. Unlike the original however the neck is an unpainted satin finish.

You’ll be pleased to know that pickups on the Gibson Jeff Tweedy match them of the original with Gibson ’57 Classic humbuckers meaning you get the vintage tone you know and love. The pickups are renditions of the PAF humbuckers found on the early SG guitars so you can perfectly replicate their rich, warm tone. However Jeff Tweedy was by no means a close-minded artist and experimented with various playing styles and genres from country to punk rock. So it was important to replicate this and create a versatile guitar that is capable of many tonal possibilities.

There is no opinion involved; the Gibson Jeff Tweedy SG 61 is a breathtakingly attractive guitar, fact! Whether you’re a Wilco fan or not, it doesn’t matter when it looks and sounds this good. In my opinion when guitar manufacturers create signature guitars and put a little time and effort in rather than simply creating replicas, they are a cut above the rest. Especially if you want to reproduce that vintage sound that you just can’t get with modern guitars.

Price: £1,300 GBP / $1,700 USD

For the full solo and more details about this downloadable guitar package be sure to keep checking the URL below.

http://fretpoint.com/joe-satriani-lesson/

If you want to be the first to know when this package becomes available then like the Fretpoint Facebook page to be sent a notification as soon as it goes live.

Part 3 of my interview with Andy Timmons. In this section of the interview Andy discusses his signature Ibanez guitars, the AT300 and AT100 as well as some of the other guitars in his arsenal.

Check out parts 1 & 2 of the Andy Timmons interview below  if you haven’t already.

Andy Timmons Interview Part 1 – Early Influences

Andy Timmons Interview Part 2 – Recording ‘Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt Pepper’

You might also like the the ‘In the style of Andy Timmon’s video guitar lesson that is available now for instant download.

We can’t stop listening to Andy’s new record, ‘Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt Pepper’ so do yourself a favour and head over to Andy’s website to hear some samples and purchase the record.

Fretpoint.com is proud to announce it’s first ever product! As the first installment of a 5 part “In the style of…” series that Fretpoint will be producing over the next few months, this downloadable video guitar lesson is now available to purchase.

Focusing on one of the greatest guitar players of our era, Andy Timmons and taught by the incredibly talented Mike Baugh, the video will talk you through a full guitar solo that features many of Andy’s signature licks.

The package includes;

1. Full high quality video guitar lesson
2. 2 x High quality videos of the full guitar solo featuring different angles
3. High quality MP3 backing track
4. MP3 audio version of the guitar solo
5. Accurate guitar tablature for the entire solo

Check out the video trailer below to see Mike in action.

Visit the In The Style of Andy Timmons Video Guitar Lesson page for more information.

Part two of an audio interview recorded with Andy Timmons in October 2011 ahead of his Italian tour. Andy discusses how he recorded his new album ‘Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt Pepper’ mostly from memory and how he has managed to capture such a killer guitar tone on the new record.

You can listen to part two of this interview below.

Don’t forget to check out part one of the Andy Timmons Interview if you haven’t already heard it.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Joanne Shaw Taylor since I interviewed her back in September . Both her debut album ‘White Sugar’, and 2010’s follow-up ‘Diamonds in the Dirt’ are full of classic soul drenched blues and her playing has a maturity rarely seen in guitarists of her age. However live Joanne is on a different level altogether and the quality of her guitar playing is at times breathtaking.

Interestingly Joanne was without her blonde telecaster for this gig instead favouring a candy apple red Fender Stratocaster through a Blackstar Artisan 30. Joanne’s guitar sound however had a pretty raunchy, stripped down feel which suited the energy of many of the tracks. ‘Can’t keep living like this’, ‘Dead and Gone’ and ‘Diamonds in the Dirt’ from the new album sounded great live and featured stunning guitar solos.

Having seen  Kenny Wayne Shepherd a couple of weeks earlier, the bar had been set extremely high however Joanne and her band really delivered. Joanne had mentioned that she had found some great musicians in Detroit and her drummer and bass player provided a super tight rhythm section which really let Joanne off the chain during the set.

Of particular note was her drummer who put in one of the finest drumming performances I’ve seen in a while and managed to pull off a drum solo that not proved both technically outstanding and a crowd pleaser. The only disappointment was a rather bizaare moment of silence after one of the tracks which proved a little awkward and the fact that the gig was poorly attended. In my opinion paying £15 to see an artist of this calibre is a bargain and I certainly hope the turnout will be better on the rest of the UK tour dates. You’ll rarely see a blues guitarist this talented for so little money so do yourself a favour and make sure you check out Joanne live if you get the chance!