
Known for playing Epiphone Casinos onstage, Gary Clark Jr. now has his own signature model, dubbed the Blak & Blu Casino.
The innovative bluesman says he wasn’t made for these times.
Just in case this whole hotshot axe-man thing didn't pan out, Gary Clark Jr. had a backup plan—more than a few of them, in fact. “My mother used to say to me, 'What if you can't be a guitarist? What then?' So I told her, 'If the guitar doesn't work out, then I'll play drums. If that doesn't work, I'll play bass. If that doesn't work, I'll play keys. And if that doesn't work, I'll play trumpet.' Or whatever. The backup plan was always music. There was never any two ways about it."
The funny thing is, Clark made good on most of his promises. While he doesn't play trumpet on his musically diverse and compelling new album, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, the 31-year-old singer-guitar star gives pretty much everything else a go, functioning as a veritable (and astonishingly versatile) one-man band, tackling drums, keyboards, bass, finger snaps … oh, and, of course, the guitar. The album brims with the kind of fiery, emotive, and imaginative 6-string work that has prompted some writers to compare Clark to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But the Austin native is anything but a strict traditionalist, and on the new set he weaves psychedelic and Delta blues, chillaxed retro-soul, acoustic gospel, and gonzo garage rock into a personal sonic tapestry that's as daringly au courant as it is classic.
“I love playing guitar, but I get a lot of satisfaction from playing other instruments, too," Clark says. “My sister started playing drums when I played guitar. She kind of lost interest, so there was this nice shiny drum kit waiting for me. I just sat down and figured it out. We had keyboards in the house, so I started playing them, too. I wanted to record my own demos, and little by little, just by doing gigs, I acquired enough gear to get things going. Nobody showed me how to record—I figured it out by myself."
Clark put his self-taught production chops to the test on The Story of Sonny Boy Slim. Whereas his 2012 major-label debut, Blak and Blu, was a Los Angeles-based, three-way co-production between himself, Rob Cavallo, and Mike Elizondo, for the follow-up the guitarist set up shop at Austin's Arlyn Studios with a trio of engineers, Bharath “Cheex" Ramanath, Jacob Sciba, and Joseph Holguin.
“It's a whole different vibe making a record on your own than working with producers," Clark notes. “The guys in the studio would sometimes say, 'No, dude, that wasn't good enough' or 'That was cool. That's the take.' We did have those conversations. But I do think working on my own changes the way I play a bit. I feel more free—I feel open, like I'm at home. If I can feel completely comfortable, like I can take my shoes off, that's when I work the best."
Clark will soon open a string of arena dates for the Foo Fighters, and then he'll be supporting The Story of Sonny Boy Slim with a headline run that currently stretches into April 2016. Before hitting the road, he sat down with Premier Guitar to dissect his playing on the new album and trace the evolution of his early years woodshedding with his friend Eve Monsees. He also discussed his beloved Epiphone Casinos and Fender Vibro-Kings, along with other guitars and gear, while positing the notion that he “wasn't born in the right decade."
It's widely thought that blues players don't spend a lot of time practicing technique or studying theory—it's all feel. What are your practice habits?
Well, yeah, I could study up on that more. I don't practice as much as I could, to be honest. When I'm up onstage playing and I hit a bum note—you know, it happens—I'll think to myself, “You see? You've got to practice a bit more before you get up in front of all these people." It's a struggle sometimes. No matter how much practice you get in, you could always do more.
Gary Clark Jr. says he's a man of symmetry when it comes to guitars. No single-cutaways for this slinger, but an SG makes the grade. Photo by Joe Russo
Is it true that your first guitar was an Ibanez RX20 you got after seeing Michael Jackson?
That's right. That was great.
Did you want to be a shredder like Jennifer Batten, who was playing with him at the time?
I did, I did. But as soon as I got my guitar and I couldn't play the solo to “Beat It," I thought, “That's it. I might just need to move on to something else." [Laughs.] Sure, I wanted to be a shredder after I saw that concert, but I also loved clean, soul guitar tones. I remember when I asked my parents for a guitar, I said, “You know, so I can get that muted kind of sound." I wanted a “mute guitar"—I didn't know what things were called. I didn't understand what a hollowbody was or a semi-hollow or a 335 or anything like that. I just wanted to do cool, soulful hammer-ons, things like that.
When you were a kid, you formed an incredible friendship with a girl named Eve Monsees. You two would spend hours in her garage playing the guitar. What kind of things did you jam on?
We would jam on 12-bar blues, basically. We would go back and forth between major and minor keys. We thought we were really advanced for our age. [Laughs.] We were into Jimmy Reed and guys like that. And there'd be rock 'n' roll stuff—the Ramones. But most of the time, it was just us hanging around and playing pentatonic stuff, learning how to play solos over 12-bar blues.
I remember Eve was into listening to these two stations on the radio—91.7 and 90.5. One deejay, Larry Monroe, hosted a blues hour. That's how we discovered guys like T-Bone Walker and Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, and Muddy Waters. Larry really educated us. If I missed a show, Eve would record it off the radio and give me a tape. “You didn't hear this. Check it out." I was so into it.
Then I started going to blues jams. I met these older guys who would sort of school me about where the music came from. My first blues album was Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood—my neighbor Fred Wheeler gave it to me. After hearing Stevie Ray, I was like, “Oh, shit. What is this?" It was eye-opening. From there, I started learning about Albert King, and I just kind of went backwards.
“I like to turn the volume down and really get that thin clean tone," says Clark about Strats. “And then for solos I'll crank it up and let the bridge pickup wail a little bit." Photo by Debi Del Grande
Eddie Van Halen has talked about learning Cream's version of “Spoonful" note for note. Did you ever do stuff like that?
I did, sure. I went straight for Hendrix and “Purple Haze," and Stevie Ray's version of “Little Wing." Those are the ones that I tried to get note for note. All I would think about at school was, “Man, I can't wait to get home and figure out that second verse."
Is that how you learned to build a solo?
A lot of it was watching and listening. I have to give it up to guitarists like Alan Haynes, Derek O'Brien, Johnny Moeller, and Mike Keller. Those are the guys in Austin I would see here and there. Just their improvisation and how dynamic they would be—you give them 24 bars or a 36-bar solo and just listen to them build. You go from “Oh, that was really cool" to “Wow, my mind was just blown by this." Those are the guys I listened to and tried to figure out what they were doing.
In Austin you got to jam with guitarists like Jimmie Vaughan and Hubert Sumlin. Were you watching their fingers as they played?
Oh, I was definitely watching their fingers. They have their own identity when they pick up a guitar. You close your eyes and listen, and you go, “That's Jimmie Vaughan. That's Hubert Sumlin. That's Buddy Guy right there." It made me think. Instead of trying to play Freddie King note for note or whatever, I could make it my own and figure out what works for me. What's the best way to play the instrument to my ability? I really got that just from being with them, because that's what they were doing.
How did that affect your picking style? Are you a hard or soft picker?
Well, they weren't using picks at the time. I would see Jimmie Vaughan, and he was all fingers. Hubert Sumlin was all fingers. So I was playing with these guys who didn't use picks. I liked the way they would get this nasally tone with their fingers. I was really into that for a while, but then I also realized I was better off with a pick. I would say I'm now somewhat of an obnoxiously hard picker. [Laughs.] No finesse about it. I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to playing with a pick.
You mentioned Hendrix and Stevie Ray—both were big Strat players. I know you use a Strat sometimes, mostly for songs that are more soul and R&B.
Yeah, definitely. For that kind of stuff I really like the Strat. I like to turn the volume down and really get that thin clean tone, and then for solos I'll crank it up and let the bridge pickup wail a little bit. I play near the bridge and get that twangy, nasal sound.
The Casino has been your main guitar. What was it about the Casino that first appealed to you?
I could finally get that B.B. King tone I was looking for. I love his sound and T-Bone Walker's sound. I was really into those guys at the time I picked up the Casino. It was just a different sound that I couldn't really get out of a Strat. I also liked that I could play it acoustically and still get a lot of sound out of it without plugging in. You can play a Casino anywhere, and it gives you something back.
Gary Clark Jr.'s Gear
Guitars
Epiphone Casino (red with Bigsby)
Epiphone Gary Clark Jr. Blak & Blu Casino (prototype)
Epiphone Casino (burled red, bought in the U.K.)
1961 Gibson Les Paul/SG Standard (gift from the Foo Fighters' Pat Smear)
Gibson ES-330
Gibson ES-125
2000 Fender Stratocaster
1970s Fender Telecaster
Fano JM6
Amps
Fender Vibro-King 20th Anniversary Edition combo
Fender Vibro-King head with matching 2x12 cabinet
Fender Princeton
Effects
Fulltone Octafuzz
Hermida Audio Zendrive
TC Electronic PolyTune
Strymon Flint Tremolo & Reverb
Dunlop GCB95 Cry Baby Wah
Fulltone A/B box (runs two amps)
Strings and Picks
D'Addario Custom Nickel .011–.049 (lower-tuned guitars use .011–.052)
Dunlop Poly Medium picks
Did single-cut guitars like Les Pauls ever appeal to you?
No, honestly. Visually, they just didn't look right to me. They look great on some guys, but not on me. Aesthetically, I like things to be even. I have this weird thing where if it's a little bit off, it makes me uncomfortable. That's just me—the way my mind works.
As a teenager, how did you start to educate yourself about different combinations of amps and effects?
That really comes from hanging out with [Eric “King"] Zapata [rhythm guitarist in Clark's band]. I have to give it up to him on tone and putting the combos together. He sold me my first tube amp, my Fender Vibro-King. I'd show up to play with guys like Alan Haynes, and I'd have my solid-state Crate amp. No disrespect to Crate, but I'd always look back to my amp and think, “How come mine doesn't sound like his Vibro-King or his Super?" I just didn't know. Zapata was the one who really helped me with the amps and combos. I tried Marshalls, but that wasn't the tone I was going for. I liked the Fenders.
You play an Epiphone Riviera at home but not live. For you, what are the sonic and playability differences between a Riviera and a Casino?
To me, the Riviera, for lack of a better word, has more of a shimmery tone to it. It sounds more like water and raindrops to me. The Casino is a little bit rounder, bolder, and then it gets all gnarly and screaming when you push it back to the bridge pickup. I like both of them for different reasons. I would play the Riviera a lot more, but it's heavy, man. It's not a light guitar.
What about your '61 Gibson Les Paul/SG Standard? Are you using that on the new album?
Oh, yeah. That's got the humbuckers. I use that guitar when I want lots of attitude. It's an aggressive guitar. It's on “The Healing" and “Grinder."
Walk me through that piercing, stinging solo sound on “The Healing." It's sort of a classic SRV sound with a little added Gary bite.
I used the SG on that, and I put it through a Vibro-King head, out to the cabinets. Everything—bass, mid, treble—everything right at the middle on 5. There's a little bit of reverb, a Strymon on the '60s reverb setting, and a little bit of delay. There's some Octafuzz, too, but I don't know if I needed it because the amp was breaking up really nice.
Gary Clark Jr. credits his rhythm guitarist Eric Zapata (left) for introducing him to his amp of choice, the Fender Vibro-King. Photo by Joe Russo
The SG sound on "Grinder" is even bigger and more unhinged, especially in the solo—it's barely controlled feedback.
Definitely, man. For that, I just thumped on the wah and left it all the way open, which is quite rude. It's not nice at all, very unapologetic. It's the same combo as “The Healing," but I'm all the way up.
Did you work the “Grinder" solo out, or was it all one spontaneous pass?
I originally did a solo that was a little bit nicer. [Laughs.] We were just sitting on it and I was like, “Let me get one more. Let me just go in here and see what happens." We just turned it up and I went through it again. I didn't think I could get it any wilder, any ruder, so that was the one we stuck on the record.
I love your clean rhythm playing on songs like “Cold Blooded" and “Star"—so Curtis Mayfield. What's your recipe for that approach? Is it all in the hand, or is it the guitar and the settings?
It's a combination of everything. I played the rhythm stuff for those songs on the Strat—very clean, no crazy effects, just reverb and a little bit of wah. I really just wanted to explore that clean thing. I mean I grew up on soul and Motown and stuff like that. That Strat thin tone really resonated with me. I just went in there and worked it out. When I listen to some of these songs and sounds, I think that maybe I wasn't born in the right decade.
How's that?
When I listen to them, I picture Marvin [Gaye] in the '70s. He's as much of my roots as Jimmy Reed. Curtis Mayfield, too. I think that's more apparent on this record. I feel like my musical style is a little bit throwback, but I'm trying to move it forward and bridge some sort of a gap. You know, I love Dr. Dre and RZA, too.
Do you record more of the soulful songs at a particular time of day? Like, “Okay, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon I'm in a rude mood for soloing. At 10 o'clock I'm more relaxed and it's time to do some mellow rhythm work."
It's actually the reverse. I'd say before midnight is when the rhythm stuff happens. I try to have some discipline, get into a different mindset. I'll think, “How would Jimmie Vaughan play this?" It's like, “How chill can I possibly be?" You just vibe out. After midnight, that's when you're prone to try out new things. That's when you get a “Grinder" solo.
Recently, you came out with your signature Epiphone guitar, the Blak & Blu Casino. Where are we hearing that on the record?
That's on “The Healing," along with the SG. The little bit of vibrato is the Casino. You hear it on “Star" a little bit, too. You can barely hear it, but that fuzzed-out, sitar-y little thing— that's the Casino.
YouTube It
Gary Clark Jr. gets into an especially nasty soloing mood during this extended version of “Grinder" at the 2015 Toronto Jazz Festival.
Do you have a different attitude when you play a guitar that bears your name versus another guitar you've had for years?
That's a good question. I definitely look at it more. [Laughs.] I'm like, “Wow, I can't believe this actually happened." While I'm playing it, I'll be sitting and I'll have it on my lap, and then I'll just put it on my knees and look at it. “Man, that's pretty cool." It's a different feeling, for sure. I'm proud of it.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years as a guitarist?
I'd like to have a better understanding of how chords and notes really work together because, quite honestly, I don't have much of a music education other than, “Put your finger here. This makes this chord," or whatever. I've pretty much just figured out different scales and tunings. I feel like I've only really tapped into a small bank of what guitar is really capable of.
The Oceans Abyss expands on Electro-Harmonix’s highly acclaimed reverb technology to deliver a truly immersive effects workstation. The pedal is centered around dual reverb engines that are independently programmable with full-stereo algorithms including Hall, Spring, Shimmer and more. Place these reverbs into a customizable signal path with additional FX blocks like Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, or Bit Crusher for a completely unique soundscape building experience.
Electro-Harmonix has paved the way for powerful, accessible reverbs since the release of the original Holy Grail and now we’ve pushed the envelope deeper with the fully-equipped Oceans Abyss. Featuring a customizable signal path with up to 8 effects blocks, the Oceans Abyss can be configured as individual reverb, modulation, EQ, delay, bit crusher, saturation or volume effects, or as countless combinations for incredibly creative effect shaping. From a simple Spring reverb to a lush stereo field featuring stereo hall and shimmer reverbs, chorus, delay, overdrive, and tremolo, you can go from surf to shoegaze instantly, without breaking a sweat.
Deep parameter editing is accessible via the high-visibility OLED display with multiple graphical views and easy-to-read designs. Expression/CV control over nearly every parameter gives artful control of your effects and dynamics. Fully-stereo I/O plus an FX Loop allows for use with any instrument, recording set up, or live rig. 128 programmable presets via onboard footswitching or MIDI ensure perfect recall in all performance situations. MIDI IN/OUT ports with MIDI IN support of PC, CC, and Tempo Clock expand the already immense talents of the Oceans Abyss. Connect with UBS-C to Windows or Mac for effects editing, preset management, and more with the free EHXport™ app (coming soon).
- Two Stereo Reverbs available at once, each fully pannable in the stereo field
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- 128 fully customizable presets
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- Illuminated slide pots and buttons
- High-visibility OLED graphical display
- Multiple graphical views: Signal Path, Performance, Settings, Physical, Explorer
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- Ergonomic NavCoder knob allows rotary and directional navigation through menus
- EXPRESSION / CV input to control nearly any parameter in any FX block
- Footswitch input allows for adding up to three external footswitches, each assigna-ble to a number of functions
- MIDI In and Out. MIDI IN supports PC, CC (over nearly every available parameter), and Tempo Clock
- USB-C port to connect to Windows or Mac and interface with EHXport™ app (coming soon)
- 96kHz / 24-bit sample rate conversion
- Supplied with 9.6VDC / 500mA power supply
Guitarist William Tyler, a restless sonic explorer: “I would get bored staying in the same place.”
The expansive instrumental guitarist/composer pushes himself out of his comfort zone, beyond the boundaries of his neo-Americana wheelhouse on Time Indefinite.
Mastering an instrument and an artistic style—and then being recognized and rewarded for it—is a daunting enough accomplishment that one might be forgiven for feeling that, once reached, it’s the be-all to end-all. Guitarist William Tyler, for all the praise and opportunity that have come his way over the past decade and a half, isn’t content to plow the same furrow. With his evolutionary new album, Time Indefinite, this son of the South is pushing further afield, not completely forgoing his virtuosic neo-Americana lyricism but incorporating it into static-friendly, otherworldly studio experimentation.
The disorienting opener of Time Indefinite, “Cabin Six,” begins with a loop of hovering blare that, lasting nearly a minute, might lead listeners to think something is amiss with their turntable stylus; this gradually dissipates into an eddy of railroad-like whine from which a chiming 6-string hook emerges only to finally sink into a murky, detuned drone. The simple, lovely “Anima Motel” and almost naïve “Concern” are eminently approachable, and “Howling at the Second Moon,” with its alternate, Joni Mitchell-inspired tuning, feels like something that could have appeared on one of Tyler’s previous albums (even if it was recorded on his iPhone then texturized via a bump to a cassette recorder and dosed with added effects). But the distressed sonic sculptures of “The Hardest Land to Harvest” and “Electric Lake” or the sampled, distorted church choir laced through “Star of Hope” have a ghostly resonance unlike anything the guitarist has done before.
SoundStream
“I think it’s important for artists to push themselves into new ways of working,” Tyler says. “Most of my favorites, artists I follow over the long trajectory of their careers, have done that, whether it’s in music, film, visual art, novels. Of course, some people have a method or style that they stick to, and it serves them. And I wouldn’t want to put anything out into the world that I wouldn’t myself, as a consumer, enjoy spending time with and taking seriously. That said, I would get bored staying in the same place. The new record is about making something that was a little less chained to certain kinds of guitar music, where I felt like I might be running up against my creative limitations or enthusiasms in that area. I wanted to reinvent myself for myself, to explore fresh possibilities, even with the guitar as my primary tool.”
Tyler, whose parents were hitmaking Nashville songwriters, made his name early on as a young guitar phenom playing in such alternative-minded, country-influenced bands as Lambchop and Silver Jews, before appearing on the fourth volume of the influential Tompkins Square “Imaginational Anthem” series of new-era American Primitive guitar and then making his full-length debut as a solo artist with the 2010 album Behold the Spirit. As a player and composer, he was recognized for subsuming the early influence of John Fahey and the Takoma style into something vibrantly his own.
Tyler keeps his tools simple and his ears open.
Photo by Angelina Castillo
William Tyler’s Gear
Guitars
- Mid-1950s Martin D-18
- 1974 Gibson SG
Pedals
- Hologram Electronics Microcosm
- Strymon El Capistan
- Line 6 DL4 Mark II
Once Tyler signed to the stalwart indie-rock label Merge, the guitarist released a string of warmly received electro-acoustic albums: Impossible Truth (2013), Deseret Canyon (2015) and Modern Country (2016). There was also a marvel of a solo performance at Nashville’s Third Man Records released as an LP in the “Live at Third Man” series. A few years later came the album Goes West, its title alluding to a pre-pandemic move to Los Angeles, and its arrangements flecked with atmospheric swirls and sunny, almost pop-like touches. Tyler also created an aptly rustic score for First Cow, director Kelly Reichardt’s 2019 art house Western, and the guitarist capped his Merge run in 2023 with Secret Stratosphere, a live album of soaring full-band versions of numbers from his back catalog, credited to William Tyler’s Impossible Truth.
“I wanted to reinvent myself for myself, to explore fresh possibilities, even with the guitar as my primary tool.”
Tyler has released covers of such disparate artists as Alex Chilton, Michael Chapman, Fleetwood Mac, Yo La Tengo and Neu!/Harmonia’s Michael Rother, not to mention classical composers Handel and Dvorák. The broad listening palette suggested by these choices always pointed toward a more intrepid path. But the album that most presaged the spirit of Time Indefinite is New Vanitas, a small masterpiece of pandemic creation that found him threading beautiful, involved guitar melodies through hypnagogic soundscapes, often haunted by lo-fi snatches of radio broadcasts and sotto-voce dialogue, as on the evocatively titled “Slow Night’s Static.” New Vanitas even includes a woozy track called “Time Indefinite,” the foreshadowing title a favorite that he borrowed from a film by documentarian Ross McElwee.
On Time Indefinite, Tyler says, “I was drawn to more ambient music, including by guitarists like Christian Fennesz and Norman Westberg, but also groups like Stars of the Lid and Boards of Canada.”
Another signpost on Tyler’s new road was a collaboration with Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden that yielded the folktronica single “Darkness, Darkness.” Then last year brought the standalone track “Flight Final,” Tyler’s first release for the artist-led imprint Psychic Hotline, and a slice of musique concrète that brings to mind Brian Eno’s association with German “kosmische” pioneers Harmonia and Cluster. That recording, the first fruit of an association with collaborator and co-producer Jake Davis, set the stage for their work together on Time Indefinite. Most of the pieces on this album, whether blown-out lullabies or spectral hymns or folk-art abstractions, feel like memories refracted in a dream diary.
“The process of working on this album helped me get better at tempo, just feeling more comfortable playing slower.”
“The new album started out as a series of experiments, without necessarily thinking that they were going to make for a whole record—though, eventually, Jake and I heard a thematic coherence to what we were coming up with,” Tyler explains. “It took a long while to come together, but the roots of the music are in the Covid lockdown. The emotional landscape of that time changed the things I was listening to as well as the music that was coming out of me. I was drawn to more ambient music, including by guitarists like Christian Fennesz and Norman Westberg, but also groups like Stars of the Lid and Boards of Canada. I had gone back to Nashville and was dealing with a problematic mental state. Among other issues, I can tend to approach things too fast, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Beyond using different recording techniques and learning new ways of creating a piece of music, the process of working on this album helped me get better at tempo, just feeling more comfortable playing slower.”
The guitars Tyler used in the studio for Time Indefinite were his “family heirloom” Martin D-18 and a beloved Gibson SG, both of which are his main live instruments. For effects pedals, he favored a Hologram Electronics Microcosm (“for low-pass filter looping and really weird granular stuff”) and a Strymon El Capistan (“for delays kind of like the old Electro-Harmonix Memory Man”), though Davis also did a lot of processing with an array of his own. One serendipitous piece of gear was a 1959 Webcor Regent reel-to-reel machine deck that Tyler liberated, still new in the box, while helping to clear out his grandfather’s storage space in Mississippi. Davis was inspired to make old-school tape loops with it, including that startling sound that opens the album. Tyler would play arrhythmic, asymmetrical parts that Davis would record and chop up for the loops.
Tyler at this year’s Big Ears Festival with Jake Davis and Cecilia Stair.
Photo by Ross Bustin
Tyler’s recent spate of collaborations, from Davis and Four Tet to pedal-steel guitarist Luke Schneider, “has kept me on my toes, challenged me and recharged me,” he says. “The insularity of being a solo instrumentalist and writing everything by yourself can be freeing at first. And it can be motivating, as when I first started learning how to play fingerstyle guitar, with all the practicing. But I don’t like the isolation of it now. These days, I prefer working with other people. It pushes you into other genres, those different modes of communication.”
Another recent colleague, Marisa Anderson, has credited Tyler for his open, venturesome spirit as a studio partner, with his default attitude of “yes” when they were making their absorbing duo album, Lost Futures. “That was something I really enjoyed about playing with William—he was up for everything,” she said. “I was like, ‘There’s the diving board,’ and he’d say, ‘Let’s go.’”
“These days, I prefer working with other people. It pushes you into other genres, those different modes of communication.”
Tyler is quick to credit artists and albums that have inspired him. Along with the aforementioned players, he namechecks a vast range of others, from Jimmy Page to Jeff Parker, Bill Frisell to Fred Frith, Bruce Langhorne to Nels Cline, William Ackerman to Sandy Bull. Tyler muses about how some of his Nashville session heroes should “have gotten weirder…. I wish Chet Atkins had dropped acid, listened to a Sonny Sharrock LP, and made his own noise record, you know?” Regarding his touchstones for sonic left turns, he points to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as well as Talk Talk’s emotive, avant-minded swansongs Spirit of Eden and Laughingstock.
“Those two Talk Talk albums are beyond masterpieces, with some great guitar playing,” Tyler says. “They were in essence made by an artist, Mark Hollis, who did not care about being commercial anymore and certainly not about being able to replicate the stuff live. When Jake and I were recording ‘Howling at the Second Moon,’ that sort of attitude was a reference point, kind of like, ‘Well, instead of trying to get away from the lo-fi weirdness of my original iPhone demo, why don’t we lean into it?’”
Ever thoughtful and candid in conversation, Tyler has been exceptionally transparent about coping with personal loss and midlife crises, as well as going to rehab for the over-indulgence of alcohol. Knowing that, one can hear grief and anxiety in the whorls of Time Indefinite, with the passages of guileless 6-string representing a nostalgia for less complicated times. “It’s a mental landscape record for sure,” he says. “For fans of my previous albums, it might not hit the same way, I realize. But I hope this record says to people that it’s all right to take chances with how you express yourself, with how naked and raw that can be. It has a purposeful arc and is meant to prompt things that aren’t super fashionable in today’s ephemeral, constant-content culture, like deep listening, emotional ambiguity, self-reflection, you know?”YouTube It
This three-song set from last year showcases the expansive cosmic country sound of Tyler and his Impossible Truth band, which includes a Kraftwerk cover.
The country virtuoso closes out this season of Wong Notes with a fascinating, career-spanning interview.
We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry.
The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.
Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of Phish—Paisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature Fender Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake pattern—which some might describe as “hippie puke”—and its surprising origin with Elvis’ guitarist James Burton.
Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.
PG contributor Tom Butwin profiles three versatile - and affordable - acoustic guitars from Cort, Epiphone, and Gold Tone. These classic designs and appointments offer pro-level sound for an accessible price.
Cort Essence Series ES-GA4 Grand Auditorium Cutaway Acoustic Electric Guitar, Natural Semi Gloss (GA4NSG)
Epiphone Slash J-45 Acoustic Guitar - November Burst
The classic J-45 has been the choice of legendary musicians ever since it was first introduced in 1942. Known as The Workhorse, it is Gibson's most famous and most popular acoustic guitar model. Now Epiphone has released a new Inspired by Gibson"' J-45"' with all of the features players want, including all solid wood construction, a comfortable rounded C neck profile, 20 medium jumbo frets, the 60s style Kalamazoo headstock shape and a gorgeous Aged Vintage Sunburst finish. The Fishman® Sonicore under-saddle pickup and Sonitone preamp make this Workhorse stage-ready too. Optional hardshell or Epilite"' case available separately. A battery is not included. To power your pickup, you will need a 9-volt battery.
Gold Tone The Bell Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural
Gold Tone’s Festival Series: The Bell stands out by blending classic craftsmanship with stage-ready versatility. Its all-solid wood construction—featuring a Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides—produces a rich, balanced tone that shines in any setting. The slope-shoulder design offers both comfort and clarity, perfect for fingerstyle or strumming. With a slim "D" neck, Fishman electronics, Grover tuners, and D’Addario strings, The Bell is crafted for players who demand tone, playability, and reliable performance—on stage or in the studio.