Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

Every year millions of people around the year Karaoke their way to self gratification in their local bars, bowling alleys, workplaces and other venues around the world. Each singer has in their own mind how good they are. The best of the best make each song their own.

Then comes guitar Karaoke.

Playing a guitar to a track of a known or unknown song. How do you make a known song your own song. Do you change it enough to be individual, or do you change it to make it unrecognizable. You could and do well at that.

Think comes KOTB, Guitar Karaoke at it's peak. Comparable to American Idol, maybe not, but then again, maybe. Everyone thinks they can sing, well almost everyone, but not everyone thinks they can play the guitar. Those who can play the guitar are sometime clouded by ideas that they can play all styles of music the same way.

Think about your favorite band

Then think about them without their guitar player. Then think about them without their lead singer.

interesting?

I was thinking today... The overall tone of your competition tune is mostly out of your control. If the PA is set up with too much bass, and you have normal treble settings you will sound off.

Will any Guitar Centers have a good sound guy?

Will this effect your score?

Think about that!

2010 KOTB will be here in less than 3 weeks. My journey this year is really different. The first 2 years I have had my song ready at least 3 weeks before the competition started. This year... Well.. not even close. I am actually thinking of changing my tune...

Silly me..

We have gone around the sun again, and we have earth day upon us. This year marks the 40th Earth day. When I heard that on the radio I thought to my self, I wonder if some alien is spying on us laughing thinking our planet is 40 days old.

"Today is our 40th Earth Day....."

This past week my youngest daughter and I went on quite an interesting bike ride. There was a 30 MPH wind in our faces and it was barely 62. I enjoy the bike rides with my youngest because she has a great imagination. I asked if she was having fun and she said she was chilly. I asked her again if she was having fun and she said yes, funchilly. I E Funchilly got it

At Burlap and Blues we have some great resources available for you. One of these resources is our great panel of long time KOTB'ers. These guitar slingers can help you refine your tune for KOTB 2010. Our users have the ability to upload music to their profile. Check out our KOTB 2010 information.

Good luck guitareoke players!

There are 24 days and a few hours until the first night of competition for the 2010 KOTB contest. If you want to know how many days you have, just check out Burlap and Blues, the official unofficial forum of the 2010 Guitar Center King of the Blues contest.

Happy 2nd Anniversary BAB. It was 2 years ago today, that a few lonely blues players, recuperating from the loss of the KOTB forum got together and started Burlap and Blues.

75 members and 2 years later we have a pretty good community of blues players. BAB is different from a lot of musician forums. We strive to be a place to learn and not just be critical.

Thanks to all the members and visitors who make our forum fun!

(Yes even, Yoso!)

http://twitter.com/burlapandblues

You can now follow new entries on the Blues Blog on Twitter!

On April 16, 2008 the website www.gckingoftheblues.com and it's forums were taken off line. Last year, KOTB was resurrected, but without the forums, IMHO, it was not the same experience. I wish that some of the other members who frequented KOTB would come to BAB, but I am sure that many of those players are off doing other things and not aware of our forum.

I first wrote this post before I was aware there was going to be a KOTB 2010. In my opinion the best thing about KOTB 2007 was the forum. Even though the forum is gone and no longer a part of what will be those that migrated to Burlap and Blues have been a positive influence on my life. Thanks to BABer and the original KOTBers

What ever happened to headcutter?

The taxman cometh. No more appropriate song than this

Remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and begged you not to
leave because I'd go berserk?? Well...
You left me anyhow and then the days got worse and worse and now you see
I've gone completely out of my mind.. And..

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!!
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa
To the funny farm. Where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be
happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and they're
coming to take me away, ha-haaa!!!!!

You thought it was a joke and so you laughed, you laughed when I had said
that loosing you would make me flip my lid.. RIGHT???
I know you laughed, I heard you laugh, you laughed you laughed and
laughed and then you left, but now you know I'm utterly mad... And..

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa,
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa.
To the happy home. With trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket
weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes and they're
coming to take me away, ha-haaa!!!

I cooked your food, I cleaned your house, and this is how you pay me back
for all my kind unselfish loving deeds.. Huh??
Well you just wait, they'll find you yet and when they do they'll put you
in the ASPCA, you mangy mutt!!! And...

They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa.
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa.
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy
to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and they're coming
to take me away, ha-haaa!!!
To the happy home, with trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket
weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes and they're
coming to take me away, ha-haa!!!
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time...

original recording by Napoleon XIV

They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa
from: Dr. Demento's Delights
Warner Bros. 1975 BS 2855 0698

Yes, today would be the ides of April. Ceaser would have been dead for about a month. Long enough to grow a Cesear salad.

Beware of the Ides of April?

Who comes up with this stuff.

To take effects or to not take effects..

Do you loose mojo for bringing one effect?

Zack Weisinger brought an effect and make the finals?

DONT Bring one of these

And don't bring one of these either

Thoughts?

Can the right or wrong equipment make or break you?

Depends on the judges. Looking at the past 2 years of winners, at least one of the finalists was playing something unusual. 2007 gave us a player who modded an acoustic guitar and last year gave us a steel guitar player.

I don't think a Daisy Rock guitar is the blues

Although I think there is a forum member who could make that guitar work...

The first thing you need to do (that is after you sign up) is select a backing track to play over. This selection can make or break your performance. Last year during performances, I heard guitar players pick songs that had nothing to do with them or their playing style. Listening it a shredder play arpeggios over "A minor affair" did not fit well. Pick one of the more rocking tunes if you are looking for the shred fest, and not a slow blues.

Thoughts:

Think of American Idol and how important song selection is. Ever week a judge tells the competitor that their song selection will send them home and it does. I personally cannot stand watching too much of AI, but you can get tips from the professional musicians.

If you are a country picker, for goodness sake pick the country blues tune.

Thoughts?

There are some great points made in this video about how to prepare for the KOTB contest.

Try and create a Melodic, Momentus, Majestic instrumental. Yes use your skills to create!

Note: Pete has 3 Reverend guitars and a Fender in the video and 2010 KOTB is sponsored by Epiphone/Gibson!

1. The automatic coffee maker started right on time, but you forgot to add the coffee grounds.

2. You start your shower and the water is coming out brown, because you forgot the city is flushing the hydrants this morning.

3. You are proud that you didn't have to wear the same shirt because you stopped by the dry cleaners, but when you open the bag from the dry cleaners you have someone else's shirt. Since you have nothing clean you decide to wear the shirt which is 4 sizes to big.

4. On the way to work you forgot your coffee mug because you didn't have it ready because of #1, so you go back home to get your coffee, tripping on the dog when you get in the door.

5. You finally get to work 30 minutes late and realize that the dog is still outside..

Happy Friday to all

Guitar Center aka. the guitarmegamall has announced the 2010 Guitar Center King of the Blues contest. This is an event that has been trying to find the best undiscovered blues player for years. Each year thousands of undiscovered blues players line up to sign up at local Guitar Center stores across America. This year they have 5 new backing tracks, in not the traditional GC KOTB backing track keys of A or E. This will be a good stretch for those who have repeatedly performed!

Burlap and Blues is not affiliated with Guitar Center, but we have several players with experience playing the KOTB contests. If you are a player at on the Guitar Centers King of the Blues preliminary rounds, we encourage you to sign up at our forum.

Not an April Fools Joke.. It is here

http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/

Another round.. This will be my third time competing. Going to do a ton different this time.

Last year I blogged about a musician band scam

http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/blog1.php/2009/04/23/musician-and-band-scam

Basically, this venue prowls myspace looking for musicians with the keyword "Wisconsin". Then what they do is send a canned message "I really like your music, our patrons will be amazed, open for this nationally known artist." This venue gets nationally known artists on a regular basis, but they get 4 or 5 people to open for them real early and they effectively get no view. they ask the opening acts to fork over a large sum of money to be "an opening act on the billing."

Amazingly the bi-weekly email that I have gotten since telling this guy he is out of his mind.

"Hey everyone, our email server has been down forever, and it just got back up. So I am letting you know we still have openings to open for Dragonforce, etc.etc."

The email server up just once every time you send a message? What an excuse to not answer the emails that you don't like calling you on your scam or psudoscam..

For music to succeed we need a venue to play. Patrons should be paying the musicians for good music, not the other way around.

April Fools Day.

What if the census was the biggest orchestrated joke in the history of mankind? April fools day brings many things to mind, but not being counted. I remember a series of jokes that were pulled by doctors and nurses that I know.

The first part of the joke a worker in the emergency room covered the staff toilet seat with Vaseline jelly.

The next worker secured saran wrap over the toilet bowl so whatever was supposed to go in went nowhere.

The next person put KY on the handle of the exit of the bathroom, so as you could go in, you could not get out.

And we wonder why the cost of health care has gone up!