Steve Vai - Jibboom

This is a performance by guitarist Steve Vai playing something a little more bluesy and outside his comfort-zone. The song appears on Vai's 1999 album "The Ultra Zone".
On the album Vai mentions that this track is an homage to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. And you can definitely hear the resemblance, it's a classic blues progression that sort of is a take-off/sounds similar to songs recorded by SRV song like Scuttle Buttin', Mary Had a Little Lamb and Testify. It's an homage and it's own original thing, but the general feel and groove of the song is similar to many SRV songs.
Steve Vai recently said in a video posted on his official youtube channel that blues is outside his comfort-zone. He jokingly says that he plays blues within the comforts of his own home which is a pretty funny thing to say. (I've embeded the video below, he also shares some very good practice-techniques for guitar)

I really love how long this performance is. It starts out with the basic song, and then goes into Vai soloing. Then it turns into a "call and response" sort of thing between Vai and the bassist which is just awesome. The bassist really does an amazing job, and the two performers play to well together and interact so well on stage. At the end Vai goes into a Hendrix style guitar thing, making sounds by using the whammy bar, the natural harmonics and the control knobs to really make the guitar scream.
This is an awesome performance and awesome showmanship. Gotta love that!!

Enjoy ; )

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Lonnie Mack - Double Whammy

This is a performance by Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan joining him on stage is guitarist Lonnie Mack who is famous among guitarists for introducing a new kind of playing that influenced a lot of people. He is considered one of the first blues rock performers, and performed many instrumentals, including this one. The original title of the song was simply "Wham", but when played and recorded on Mack's "Strike Like Lightning" album featuring SRV they changed the title.
Lonnie also named the whammy bar on the guitar, before it was known as a tremolo bar, but this recording panned the American term "whammy bar" instead.
Stevie had been playing Lonnie Mack's stuff since the very early days of his learning. He plays it on the "Live at The El Mocambo" DVD, and quotes it as the first record he ever owned.
Stevie and Lonnie became close friends, and the generation gap wasn't a problem. Lonnie has said that Stevie was a mature soul. Also when Lonnie got ill Stevie and the band helped him out by helping to pay his medical bills, and Tommy Shannon and Stevie personally installed an air-condition system in Lonnie's house.
It's a good performance, but you can tell that Stevie is holding back, just a bit, like he always did playing with his heroes. I personally prefer the version from El Mocambo, it's a little faster, and Stevie plays it to the max. But any ways, it's a great performance of a great instrumental from the mind of Lonnie Mack.

Enjoy ; )

Steve Vai - For the Love of God

This is a guitar instrumental piece by guitar legend Steve Vai. The song was originally recorded and released in 1990 on Steve Vai's album "Passion and Warfare".
It's a long instrumental featuring a wide variety of different guitar techniques, one more impressive than the other. He uses the whammy-bar on the song a lot, he uses pinch harmonics, natural harmonics, two finger tapping and it all adds up to something amazing and out of this world.
Vai himself has stated that when he's making music he likes to try and enter different states of consciousness. So there is a, hmm... religious or spiritual overtone at work here, and you can hear that emotion channelled through Vai's playing.
That is what I love about Vai's playing, it's ultra-technical and out of this world difficult. But through his hands it's still played with emotion. There are very few players who can be speed demons and still emote, and for that Vai, I personally salute you.
A high point of this performance, in my opinion, is when he towards the end of his performance makes the guitar sound like dolphin screams. I mean who else could do that but him? This is an all over awesome performance.

Enjoy ; )

The Shadows - Sleepwalk

This is a live performance from the band "The Shadows". They play the classic song "Sleepwalk" which has become one of Hank Marvin's standard songs in his live sets.
The song was originally recorded and released by the brothers Santo & Johnny. It was originally a steel guitar based song, with the melody played on a steel guitar with a slide.
The song has been covered by numerous artists including; The Ventures, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and Brian Setzer who won a Grammy for his arrangement of the song in 1998.
Because of the songs mellow and unique melody it has been featured in several films and television shows such as; the films; La Bamba, Sleepwalkers, Twelve Monkeys and the television series Heroes.
It's a nice song with a good melody. And Hank plays it beautifully and uses the whammy bar with perfection. A great performance.

Enjoy ; )

(Below is a performance by the Ventures who come closest to how the original recording sounded)


Hope you enjoy that as well : D