Sweet Baby James

We drove all night, arriving around dawn. We staggered wearily into the hotel restaurant, and as I sat there mesmerized by the aroma of coffee, eggs, and bacon, it slowly dawned on me through the fog of fatigue that music was playing in the room.

The first song I was aware of was a slow, quiet song – a mellow-voiced man singing about “Sweet dreams and Flying Machines in pieces on the ground”. The album continued to play, and as I listened more closely to the songs, I realized that I was hearing something special but I had no idea who the singer was.

Different Enough

When you stop to think of all of the guitarists that you have heard in popular music, you begin to realize that not only are there hundreds or more, but even those that play the same genre are all clearly different. Then the next thought for me was, “Well duh – that’s why we have heard of them.”

No Stairway

If you love guitars, you have probably spent a fair amount of time in guitar stores browsing, drooling, talking, and playing. Store personnel do their best to provide customer service to those ready to buy, and for those that are just browsing. While this is part of retail life, especially with big-ticket items like guitars, basses, and amps, it is helpful to remember that there is a code of best practices for customers as well as retailers.