Before his headlining gig at Nashville’s Basement East, Donny B welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage to chat about his minimal-but-musical setup and explain the origins of “Donny.”
The Man in Black returns with the unreleased Songwriter album. John Carter Cash tells us the story.
“The Man Comes Around” is a much-played song from the final album Johnny Cash recorded before his death in 2003, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Now, the Man in Black himself has come around again, as the voice and soul of an album he initially cut in 1993, titled Songwriter. It hits the street on June 28.
For fans who know Cash only through his much-loved American Recordings series, this is a very different artist—healthy, vital, his signature baritone booming, his acoustic playing lively, percussive, and focused. This is the muscular Johnny Cash heard on his career-defining recordings, from his early Sun Records sides like “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Ring of Fire” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” to later, less familiar hits like “The Baron” and “That Old Wheel.” In short, classic Cash—the performer who became an international icon and remains one even 21 years after his death.
I recently visited the Cash Cabin recording studio—a log cabin on the Cash family property in Hendersonville, Tennessee, that was originally built as a sanctuary where Johnny wrote songs and poetry—with PG’s video team of Chris Kies and Perry Bean to talk about Songwriter with John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash.
In addition to getting the lowdown on Songwriter from John Carter Cash, he showed us some of the iconic guitars—including original Johnny Cash lead guitarist Luther Perkin’s 1953 Fender Esquire and a Martin that was favored by the Man himself—that dwell at the busy private studio. Check out this visit.
Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper announces highly anticipated sophomore album Friendlytown, featuring guest appearances from Billy F Gibbons, Brian May, and Tim Montana.
Cropper has brought in the talents of Billy F Gibbons from ZZ Top to play on the record. The album also features guest appearances from Queen guitarist extraordinaire Brian May and country-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Tim Montana, who has balanced a successful solo career with high-profile collaborations with Gibbons and Kid Rock.
Steve Cropper and The Midnight Hour (feat. Brian May) - "Too Much Stress"
“If your booty is not shaking in the first two bars of this album you’re already dead in a chair,” laughs Cropper. “I feel so good about this batch of songs. They’re packed with radio hooks, and we have Billy Gibbons, Brian May, and Tim Montana playing on the album—it’s like guitar heaven.”
In conjunction with the album announcement, Cropper has released the album's first single, “Too Much Stress feat. Brian May,” giving fans a tantalizing taste of the new music. This groovy mid-tempo number features gospel-style backing vocals and a trifecta of the baddest rock guitar players. Brian May sings the duet vocal together with Roger C. Reale and the backing vocals while May and Gibbons trade back-to-back solos. The Queen’s axeman’s trademark snarling tone and lyrical licks perfectly complement Gibbons’ searing blues-based style, with Cropper holding it all down with some signature slinky rhythm guitar work. “It was heaven playing with those two,” Cropper recalls.
Cropper produced Friendlytown with producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist, and longtime friend Jon Tiven (Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Frank Black). Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour is rounded out by lead vocalist Roger C. Reale, Nashville first-call drummer and percussionist Nioshi Jackson, and, of course, the Reverend Billy Gibbons. Producer, artist developer, and studio co-owner Eddie Gore (Aaron Goodvin, Keb Mo, Jonathan Singleton) engineered the album and contributed organ.
For more information, please visit playitsteve.com.
Bill Wyman's first album in 9 years, Drive My Car is out August 9.
Drive My Car will be available digitally, on CD and gatefold vinyl. Both CD and digital formats will feature two additional bonus tracks.
As a founding member and rhythm architect of The Rolling Stones, Bill became a household name, revered by fans and peers alike. With a career spanning over six decades, Wyman steps back into the spotlight with a fresh collection of songs showcasing his passion and talent. Five tracks, including the album’s title track are self-penned, a testament to Bill’s enduring songwriting talent. “It’s not something I do every day, but sometimes I just see a guitar in the corner of the room, pick it up to play around, and then something clicks into place,” he explains.
Bill Wyman - Drive My Car (Official Lyric Video)
Recorded at Wyman’s home studio, Drive My Car features a tight-knit group of long-time collaborators, including guitarist Terry Taylor and drummer Paul Beavis. “A bass player and a drummer are a team, you’re the rhythm section, the foundation of the whole thing,” Bill emphasizes. The album opens with a unique rendition of Bob Dylan’s 'Thunder On The Mountain,' combining elements from both Dylan's original and Wanda Jackson’s lively cover. “I’ve known Bob since the mid-‘60s," says Bill. "He used to take me and Brian Jones round the Greenwich Village clubs whenever we were in New York. We were very good friends for a while, he was a really nice guy.”
Another highlight is a cover of Taj Mahal’s 'Light Rain.' Bill recounts their long-standing friendship, which began in 1968 when Taj was invited to join The Stones Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus TV special. “He was fascinated that I was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society – we bonded over botany!” he recalls fondly.
Bill Wyman had a busy 2023. The oldest of the Rolling Stones (“They all talk about the war, but none of them remember it like I do!”), Bill mined his memories for vivid anecdotes of his wartime childhood and published them in an engrossing book, Billy In The Wars. At the same time, he was planning for the future, recording the songs for Drive My Car.
Reflecting on the album’s overall sound, Bill cites JJ Cale as a major influence. “I think the biggest influence on the album as a whole is JJ Cale, his laidback groove has always appealed to me. Friends I’ve played it to have said things like ‘it really sounds like you’, and that makes me happy. I’ve never tried to be anyone else - I’m Bill, basically.”
For more information, please visit billwyman.com.
Jesse Dayton uses an EP-3, from the first generation of solid-state Echoplex models, on the road and in the studio.
From Page to Eddie to Gilmour, the comparatively impractical Maestro Echoplex has nonetheless served its masters well. And for some, like our 6-stringing contributor, it still does.
Feast your eyes on the missing link. I give you the coolest contraption to ever run between a guitar and an amplifier: the Maestro Echoplex.
The cool factor for this historic piece of gear is so off the chart that I’m always a bit shocked when players, young or old, are not familiar with this marvelous old-school tape-echo device. But no, I’m not writing this to copy and paste Wikipedia stats on this crown jewel of the guitar-pedal world. (However, if your inner nerdom is anything like mine, it’s worthy of a snoop. All of the Echoplexes from 1959 to the late ’70s sound amazing!) I’m writing to profess to all my fellow guitar gear freaks my undying love for something that was used on so many historical recordings that it’s mind-blowing. And while a big box with an analog tape loop might not be your idea of a great ride-along pal on tour, or even in the studio, truth is, there is nothing else exactly like an authentic Echoplex.
Do you remember the first time you heard that huge swelling repeat sound at the end of “Eruption” by Van Halen? Echoplex. How about the heaviness of Jimmy Page’s guitar on “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin? That’s a cranked Echoplex preamp, mis amigos!
The Echoplex design is pretty simple, which is one reason why it’s so iconic. It has actual tape that runs on the top of the unit, records your sound, then plays it back. Remember 8-track tape players? Yeah, kind of like that—except for the recording part. You just crank the slide in the middle—at least on the solid-state EP-3 model that I own—to make the delay effect go fast or slow. It’s not rocket science. But it does also work as a preamp and will enhance the tone of the guitar coming out of your amp like no other unit. Eric Johnson, for example, travels with one in a rack, sans tape, just so he can use the preamp for his classic tone. The Echoplex preamp basically boosts and compresses your signal, fattening it up and providing some EQ trickery that will have guitar players unfamiliar with the device’s charms scratching their heads.
The original Echoplexes come in four flavors: the EP-1, EP-2, EP-3, and EP-4. The EP-1 is the O.G.—the first tape delay ever, with a moving tape head that allows the delay time to be changed. It was made from ’59 to ’62, when the next generation of ’Plex, called the EP-2, not only gave the tape head more mobility but protected the tape itself in a cartridge. The solid-state version was the EP-3, which was used by Van Halen, Page, Tommy Bolin, and Brian May, among others. The EP-4 offered an output buffer to improve impedance-matching with other gear. Today, you can find early generation Echoplexes for anywhere from $1,400 to nearly $2,000, and the EP-3 and EP-4 are in the $600 to $1,500 range, depending on condition.
“I have all kinds of analog delay pedals but none of them compare to the Echoplex.”
There are related devices out there that some vintage-tone-inclined players, like Brian Setzer, prefer. The Roland Space Echo is one, and there’s the Binson Echorec. They’re easier for traveling because the Space Echo has a more efficient tape transport system and the Binson records on a drum rather than a length of tape. David Gilmour from Pink Floyd was a fan of the Echorec. But just remember, it is the original Echoplex sound those models were built to emulate. And both of those artists also used original Echoplex units on a few of their classic recordings.
Sure, you can buy some newfangled digital pedal that tries to recreate the Echoplex, but what fun is there in that? Where’s the potential for tape snarls or the manual cleaning required? After owning several EP-3 Echoplexes and using them in recording studios on countless tracks, touring all over the world with one in cars, vans, RVs, buses, and planes, I can tell you nothing replicates or enhances your tone like an EP-3. And if you do roll out with one, don’t forget Q-tips and a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the tape heads when they get dirty. If that doesn’t sound like a good time, then I guess you don't wanna get the sound that fattened up the guitars in power trios like Joe Walsh’s James Gang or on Billy Gibbons’ first five ZZ Top albums.
I have all kinds of analog delay pedals but none of them compare to the Echoplex. Remember, a cool thing about owning vintage gear is not that it’s a piece of handcrafted history, but knowing that Leo Fender or Les Paul himself, or, in this case, Echoplex designer Mike Battle, is never making another one like the one that you own. Don't get overwhelmed or anxious by projecting what could go wrong with it. Get excited about having a piece of gear that can make your guitar sound like almost every classic-rock, blues, and country record ever made.