More Worldofblues.com

A New World

I’ve had this site for 15 years now. I’ve had lots of content then lost it (thanks GoDaddy). I’ve changed directions a few times but with a URL like Worldofblues.com the changes seemed sacrilegious. But I’m sort ofa fanatic about not being fanatical so the seemingly randomness of the site made sense to me.

To be sure blues was what pulled me into music but as I became a better guitar player I realized it was the words and acoustic sounds I was really in love with. So with that said the worldofblues.com has started anew once again.

I’ll be focusing on promoting music I love and all the things related to playing, listening and learning more about the music. Some will be blues, some not, and some will be acoustic but, I have been playing the electric guitar more and more so who knows where that will take us.

My hope is to find like minded people who will share their musical gems with me and to help promote the music and musicians who have entertained me . Please contact me if you have suggestions of music to listen to or other ideas for the site to help with these goals. Thanks, Fred.

Other Guitar Stuff

Guitar Repair and Maintainance

Here is an interesting articles on guitar setup and maintenance for truly fearless guitar owners. Just saying, you may want to take your guitar to an expert technician.

The 12-Step Guide to Electric and Acoustic Guitar Setup by The Pick Really more of a maintenance guide but does show some adjustments. Mind you they do nothing for setting intonation on acoustic guitars.

This one does a better job of adjusting intonation on an acoustic guitar

Lastly a discussion with a tech at Long and McQuade Kanata has indicated intonation on acoustic guitar is more commonly affected by the wood around the saddle giving way – so if you see a bow in the top of your guitar or the saddle is lifting then it would affect intonation. Now you can check this with a piece of paper. Check if you can slip the paper under the saddle. If you can it may be coming loose. That said my best sounding guitar which has minimal intonation problems (less than any of my other guitars) I can slip paper under the saddle, so not sure what to make of that.

Bob Dylan, Books, Open D/E Tuning, Playing Guitar

Bob Dylan Songs Open D Tuning

Open D tuning ( D A D F♯ A D ) has a wonderful sound to it. It is frequently played with capo on the second fret to get open E (apparently easier on the guitar than tuning open E). Blood on the tracks is probably my favorite Bob Dylan album and I’m pretty sure this is what fueled my fondness of open D. Could be a chicken and an egg thing, really not sure.

So with all that said here are my favorite Bob Dylan tunes to play in Open D tuning.

  • Favorite Open D Bob Dylan Tunes to Play
    • Simple Twist of Fate
    • You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
    • Buckets of Rain
    • Tangled up in Blue

  • Some others I’ll need to check out
    • Idiot Wind
    • Corina Corina
More Worldofblues.com

Got It need IT

I love going to the record store and picking up music but frequently I find myself wondering if I have the album I find. Other times I’ll come across a garage sale or music store or some other random collection of music for sale and find myself trying to recall what band or tune recently caught my attention that I want to keep a look out for.

The problem is worse still with online shopping. Now I can pick up just a track so I have the tune but I tend to want the entire album and I enjoy the experience of shopping locally and supporting the record stores. So now I have a track from an album I want to pick up but when I get to the store , well, you know I fall into that cycle of what I got and what I need.

But even in the There just seems to be an unlimited number of issues I run into when it comes to tracking and organizing my music collection. Just a few other examples:

  • Remembering songs I want to learn to play
  • Recalling albums I want to stream to see if I want to own them
  • Making note of music I want blog about
  • Choosing which album will have the best recording of a specific track
  • Finding covers of songs I love

To solve this problem I started to write my own web app that I could access anytime on my phone. I called it “Got It Need It” and you can see it here.

It’s early days and there is not much there in terms of functionality yet. I’m wondering if anyone else has this problem or an interest in using the application. If so please feel free to email me gotitneedit @ worldofblues.com or discuss it on the worldofblues discord server.

Thanks for reading.

Acoustic Blues, Blues Music

Colin Linden (Artist)

Behind the scenes of the music I’ve come to enjoy there are some people putting it all together. I’ve come to realize that well may be the reason I love one album over another. Some are such influences that they deserve a book being written about their efforts and experiences. Colin Linden is one such person.

Colin has appeared on over 400 recordings accompanying such greats as Bruce Cockburn, Bob Dylan, Keb Mo’, T Bone Burnett and Emmy Lou Harris. He has also produced over 100 albums including several by Bruce Cockburn, Colin James and Sue Foley.

I was also introduced to two amazing songs which I found by looking up Colin’s contributions to tribute albums. Big River by Johnny Cash, I just love that E to Em strum, and Dry Bones Dance by Mark Heard. For Dry Bone’s dance Colin’s acoustic version is also worth a listen. I think that cool riff is something like this:

Colin is a great solo performer as well and as proof I present my favorite Colin Linden tune. Check this out:

Colin’s influence reaches far and wide and certainly appeals to my taste in music. I’ll be adding more about Colin and the band I’ve seen him perform most often which is Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. Here are some links to Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and the original band members Colin Linden, Steven Fearing and . The group started as a super group of Canadian performers for a tribute to Willie P. Bennet who passed away when he was 56. Another great performed who I had the privilege of crossing paths with. Now if you ever get a chance to see Blackie and the Rodeo Kings DO IT! Probably the best concert I ever saw was on their Kings and Queens tour where they rolled out one special guest after another.

Thanks Colin, Steven, Tom and Willie P for all the hours of enjoyment I had listening to your tunes and thanks to you all for reading this post. I hope it was fun and you go on to discover lots more of the music from this gang.