What am I listening to?Voyager, a new compilation of Kyoji Yamamoto shreddery. Great stuff.
What is your favorite music documentary?
The second segment of radio show This American Life’s Episode 286: Mind Games. It’s a fascinating, documentary-style account of what happens when an unknown band is pranked into thinking they just played the most amazing gig ever.
Andy Ellis - Senior Editor
What am I listening to?King Tubby, Select Cuts - 100% of Dub. With Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and others laying down deep drum-and-bass grooves, this is superb jam-along music. In dub we trust!
What is your favorite music documentary?
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco. An unflinching view of a band struggling with creativity and label executives, the film has great music and edgy drama. Despite its sad ending, it’s inspiring for anyone who plays in a band.
Shawn Hammond - Editor in Chief
What am I listening to?Tegan & Sara, Sainthood. Classic New Wave meets smart pop with contagious beats, hooky songs, imaginative use of guitars and effects, and vocals that are simultaneously sexy and innocent sounding.
What is your favorite music documentary?
It Might Get Loud. I don’t watch a lot of music documentaries, but this intrigued me. Contrasted with the laidback and genuine Edge and Jimmy Page, Jack White confirms that he’s a pompous poser who shouldn’t be dismissed despite being out of his league. Inspiring, captivating, and touching.
Nick Ireland - Marketing Manager
What am I listening to?Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around. When Cash teamed up with Rick Rubin for the American series, it gave us what is arguably his most soul-piercing collection of songs. It just cuts straight to the bone.
What is your favorite music documentary?
Wings for Wheels: The Making of ‘Born to Run’. This is an up-close look at the arduous, note-for-note composing of the masterpiece album that introduced the world to Bruce Springsteen.
Chris Kies - Associate Editor
What am I listening to?
Huey Lewis and the
News, Sports. It’s a great
summertime album with
plenty of hits. Sure, it’s
known for its ’80s-style keys and sax parts, but
guitarist Chris Hayes still did his best to keep the
guitar in the mix.What is your favorite music documentary?
Another State of Mind does a great job chronicling punk rockers the Youth Brigade and Social Distortion as they went on their yellow-schoolbus DIY tour in 1982. Warning: It depicts circle pits and moshing.
Adam Moore - Senior Editor
What am I listening to?The Rapture, Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks. An early EP by a band who would later shift toward dance and electronica, this guitardriven outing is full of sloppy, funky, post-punk grooves. The opening measures of the title track are worth the price of admission alone.
What is your favorite music documentary?
Anthropologist/metalhead/director Sam Dunn explores the often mysterious world of heavy metal in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey with such passion and insight that even outsiders will be totally engrossed.
Lee Ritenour - Guest Picker
What am I listening to?Kurt Rosenwinkel. I wasn’t able to get him on my 6 String Theory project, but I do enjoy his playing quite a bit. His latest album, Standards, is very good.
What is your favorite music documentary?
Standing in the Shadows of Motown. I knew a bunch of those guys, so it was great to see how they put all that together.
Jason Shadrick - Associate Editor
What am I listening to?JJ Grey & Mofro, Georgia Warhorse. This album just drips with the sound and soul of the swamps. JJ combines horns, dirty guitar tones, and great songs to create probably his best album to date.
What is your favorite music documentary?
Talking Guitars. This is a film about guitar “improver” Flip Scipio and his passion for guitar repair. Many big names have Flip on speed-dial, including Paul Simon and Jackson Browne.
Jordan Wagner - Associate Gear Editor
What am I listening to?The Walker Brothers, Nite Flights. A far cry from their early hit “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” with a moodier, denser atmosphere. Scott Walker’s dark songwriting is incredible, and he’s easily my favorite singer of all time.
What is your favorite music documentary?
It might be dated at this point, but Nine Inch Nails’ Closure was huge for me. It takes me back to when my fire for music was just getting started, and NIN wasn’t afraid to show its savage edge.
“I am thrilled to announce the launch of The Collection: Kirk Hammett. I’ve worked diligently on this curated collection of vintage and modern guitars for the book. I feel the book captures the rich history and artistry behind each of these unique and rare instruments. Every picture tells a story and thanks to Ross Halfin and his exceptional photography, every picture in this book is worth a million words! This book could not be possible without the help of Gibson, so I’d like to thank them for making my passion for Greeny, and guitars a reality. I hope all of you enjoy this journey as much as I did.”
“It’s exciting the time has come to release The Collection: Kirk Hammett by Gibson,” adds Cesar Gueikian, President and CEO of Gibson. “We have been working on this project with Kirk for years now, and I had the opportunity to work closely with Kirk on the composition of the collection for the book. It was a thrill to put this together and it took a village to get it done! I hope everyone appreciates the work that went into this book and enjoys every story behind the guitars.”
The Collection: Kirk Hammett, Custom Edition is limited to just 300 numbered copies signed by KIRK HAMMETT and comes in a huge 19 x 14.5” (490 x 370mm) presentation box featuring custom artwork and an outstanding case candy package. In addition to the large-format 17 x 12” (432 x 310mm) hardcover version of the book with a stunning lenticular cover, the boxset includes a frameable 16 x 11.6” (407 x 295mm) art print of a Ross Halfin portrait of KIRK HAMMETT signed by both Halfin and the Metallica guitarist. Other case candy includes an Axe Heaven miniature replica of Hammett’s 1979 Gibson Flying V with case and stand, an exclusive pick tin complete with six Dunlop® Kirk Hammett signature Jazz III guitar picks, and a Gibson Publishing Certificate of Authenticity.
Explore The Collection: Kirk Hammett book HERE.
Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst have been making music as Shovels & Rope since 2008. The husband-and-wife duo from South Carolina specialize in rootsy, bluesy rock, Americana, and alt-country, but they don’t confine themselves to traditional two-piece arrangements. They switch off on vocal, guitar, percussion, and synth duty throughout their shows, orchestrating a full-band ruckus with all available limbs.
Their seventh full-length, Something Is Working Up Above My Head, released in September last year, and while touring in support of it, they stopped at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl in late February. PG’s John Bohlinger caught up with Trent before the gig to see what tools he and Hearst use to maintain their musical juggling act.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Black Bird
Trent’s not a guitar snob: Generally speaking, he plays whatever he can get his hands on. While playing Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Fest, someone loaned him this Gretsch Black Falcon, and he fell in love with it. He likes its size compared to the broader White Falcon. It’s also the band’s only electric, so if it goes down, it’s back to acoustic. Hearst takes turns on it, too.
Trent loads the heaviest strings he can onto it, which is a set of .013s. It lives in standard tuning.
Ol' Faithful
As Trent explains, he and Hearst have done some DIY decorating on this beautiful Gibson J-45—it’s adorned with sweat droplets, stains, and fingernail dust. It runs direct to the venue’s front-of-house system with an LR Baggs pickup. This one is strung with Martin heavy or medium gauge strings; lighter ones are too prone to snapping under Trent’s heavy picking hand (which holds a Dunlop Max-Grip .88 mm pick). And it rolls around in an Enki tour case.
On Call
These second-stringers—a Loar archtop and an LR Baggs-equipped Recording King—are on hand in case of broken strings or other malfunctions.
Need for Tweed
Trent doesn’t trust amps with too many knobs, so this tweed Fender Blues Junior does the trick. It can get fairly loud, so there’s a Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box on hand to tame it for some stages.
Shovels & Rope's Pedalboard
Because Trent and Hearst trade off bass, guitar, keys, and percussion duties, all four of their limbs are active through the set. Whoever is on guitars works this board, with an MXR Blue Box, Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff, EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird, and Boss OC-5, plus a pair of Walrus Canvas Tuners for the electric and acoustic. Utility boxes on the board include a Walrus Canvas Passive Re-Amp, Radial J48, Livewire ABY1, and a Mesa Stowaway input buffer.
A Roland PK-5 MIDI controller, operated by foot, sits on the lower edge of the board. It controls the board for “Thing 2,” one of two MicroKORG synths onstage.
Thing 1 and Thing 2
There’s no one backstage helping Hearst and Trent cook up all their racket; they handle every sound themselves, manually. During the first few sets of a tour, you’re liable to see some headaches, like forgetting to switch synth patches during a song, but eventually they hit a rhythm.
Affectionately given Seuss-ian nicknames, this pair of microKORGs handles bass notes through the set, among other things, via the foot-controlled PK5. “Thing 1” is set up at the drum station, and runs through a board with an EHX Nano Big Muff, EHX Bass9, EHX Nano Holy Grail, and a Radial Pro DI. A Walrus Aetos keeps them all powered up.
The board for “Thing 2,” beside the guitar amps, includes an EHX Mel9 and Bass9 powered by a Truetone 1 SPOT Pro, plus a Radial ProD2.
