D'Addario Summer Six Pack

Welcome! Take a seat and relax. We're about to crack open the D'Addario Summer Six Pack. Our good friend Michael Ross, curator of www.guitarmoderne.com, helped us pick out a few ice cold tunes to share with you. We'll post a new song to the six pack each day so make sure you check back tomorrow.

Get those speakers ready because for this six pack we're Droning the Blues!

The rock and roll revolution was born as a mashup of the blues, jump swing, and country music, as played by young white American musicians in the 1950s. As rock and roll gradually became just “rock” the swing and twang diminished and the blues influence became ascendant.

When we think of the blues we normally imagine a twelve-bar three-chord progression. But there is a trend in modern rock toward music based on a more primitive form of the blues: the one chord drone.

White Stripes

Jack White’s “Rag and Bone” has the occasional extra chord thrown in but is far from a classic twelve-bar progression. It is rather based on a single repetitive riff and a hopped up version of the boogie feel.

John Lee Hooker

Here the boogie man himself plays “Boom Boom,” demonstrating that three chords can be two too many.

Black Keys

This Akron, Ohio bred duo makes no bones about being influenced by the droning, Mississippi juke joint blues of people like Junior Kimbrough. Here they cover his tune, “Everywhere I Go.”

Check back tomorrow for the next ice cold tune in the D'Addario Summer Six Pack!

Live Music

I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to see an incredible amount of live music in my first 40 years and I plan to continue. My first concert was the Police at the Providence Civic Center 4-13-1982, I was 11 years old. I remember the opening act, Bow Wow Wow, getting booed off of the stage and thinking that this was normal, like the gong show! And I remember how fabulous the Police and Sting were that night, they held the audience in their hands. I was hooked!

Stones VIP Pass (first time ever backstage) & Ghost in the Machine Tour Book From 1982 (I still have these!)

In high school my friends and I would work all summer landscaping at Green Animals, and we we would spend the rest of our time going to concerts all over New England. Sometimes we would be the first ones in line at the record store to buy tickets when the summer lineup was announced. Most of my favorite live concert experiences have nothing to do with being backstage, VIP, etc. Today when I am fortunate enough to have preferred seats or backstage passes, I often watch the show from the middle of the crowd - there is nothing like it when a great band is playing.

Green Animals Topiary Garden

Most of what I listen to on a daily basis is live music. I just prefer the improvisation and way great live music sounds. It is natural and real, you can hear the interaction between the musicians and you know that it has not been altered, re-mixed or dubbed over.

A friend and I were debating our top 5 concerts of all time that we have seen live (another in a long list of top 5 discussions we love to have). I found it very hard to come up with just 5, so many great moments and the memories after 20+ years are foggy at best sometimes. Every time I came up with 5 someone would remind me of another show that should be considered. I am going to keep working on it, if you have any suggestions or want to send me your top 5 I would love to debate with you: pdaddario@daddario.com