Seen here at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound, Estevan strums an E minor on “Rudy,” Dan Auerbach’s 1958 Gretsch 6120, while Alejandro cradles his own Silvertone 1446 with his Rickenbacker Electro NS looking on.
For brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez, it wasn’t until they’d travelled across the American Southwest that they realized how captivated they’d become. Raised by an Ecuadoran mother and Swiss father in Switzerland—a decent distance from any arid terrain—Estevan explains, “I think it’s just a feeling that we have. It’s just in us.” In 2018, a couple years after forming their duo, Hermanos Gutiérrez, they took a trip across through Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. “It just blew our minds.” he says. The brothers had never discussed musical influences, and their trip taught them their deepest musical truth. The desert, Estevan says, “is where our music was born.”
Hermanos Gutiérrez - "Los Chicos Tristes" [Official Music Video]
A few years have now passed, and the brothers are confident in their inspiration, which, on El Bueno Y El Malo—their fifth full-length release and their first on Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound—comes by way of classic film imagery. The album opens with the title track, its dramatic first strums serving as an overture that introduces listeners to the type of instrumental storytelling they’re about to hear in 10 short, simply stated chapters. By the middle of the record, Western analogies abound: “Tres Hermanos” feels like a three-way high-noon guitar showdown across the stereo field with Auerbach joining in, while the simple, major-key elegance of “Pueblo Man” radiates the morning sun, contrasting the minor-key chiaroscuro of the subsequent “La Verdad.” Together, the album makes for an enthralling listen, with a balance of instrumental plot and exposition in their simple chord progressions, ornate rhythms, and plainly stated melodies that appeals to the same sensibilities as some of Cormac McCarthy’s best novels.
Any of the songs on El Bueno Y El Malo could serve as more intimate stand-ins for Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack work, and throughout their body of work, the brothers’ music feels like a series of ready-made film scores. “On a personal level,” says Alejandro, “I always love to make a sound that brings you somewhere. Because we love the desert and the spaghetti Western kind of vibe, we’re telling a story that has this kind of a feeling.” He points to “big film scores” as an outsize influence, specifically Morricone’s work with director Sergio Leone. “Watching those movies without music,” he says, “it’s impossible. It just shows the power of music itself.” He goes on to call Neil Young’s score to Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man “a milestone in film scores. It’s perfect.”
“The biggest thing you can hear on the record is the Easy Eye Sound, which sounds kind of hilarious, but it is. You enter this studio, and you can just feel it, you know?” –Estevan
It’s no surprise, then, that the Gutiérrezes talk at least as much in visual references as they do about musical ones. And as a touring act they’ve taken in a lot of firsthand stimuli. “Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers,” says Alejandro, “so we go to places, we come back and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.”
Their relationship as brothers is the other essential part of their music. Around the age of 9, Estevan first picked up a guitar. He started by studying classical guitar and says he was a fan of “old music from Ecuador,” which he played into his teens. Once he took up surfing, he got into Jack Johnson, but says he “always stayed with my salsa roots.” Eight years younger, Alejandro saw the power of music in his brother’s hands for as long as he can remember. “Our mom always got emotional when he was playing that old milonga kind of music,” he says about “those Argentinian pieces which are so beautiful.”
Working with Dan Auerbach and his stable of Nashville veterans, El Bueno Y El Malo marks the first time the brothers have collaborated with a producer or featured other musicians on an Hermanos Gutiérrez album.
In his 20s, Estevan moved to Ecuador to live with his grandparents. “I didn’t have a real plan,” he confesses. “I just went over, and I started to work in a salsa bar on the weekend.” There, he served drinks and worked security, spending the rest of his time surfing. “[It] was the best experience I ever had.”
Back in Switzerland, Alejandro picked up the guitar out of loneliness. “I just missed that sound in our house, so I started playing,” he explains. He started by teaching himself and, by 18, his parents gave him a classical guitar.
It wasn’t until just six years ago, when Alejandro moved to Zurich, that the brothers, once again living in the same place, started playing music together. “We were missing each other,” Alejandro explains. “Instantly, we were connecting through music.” Writing with just their electric guitars plugged direct into small amps—a Gibson CS-336 and a Fender Princeton Reverb for Estevan, and a Fender Stratocaster and Vox AC10 for Alejandro—he says they “always had this idea of having our own vinyl” because “it lasts forever, and you can pass it on to future generations.” In 2017, they recorded their debut, 8 Ãños.
Estevan Guttiérez’s Gear
It wasn’t until the brothers took a trip through the American Southwest that they realized the desert was their muse. Estevan explains, “It just blew our minds.”
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Guitars
- Gibson CS-336
- Gretsch 6120
- 1959 Gretsch 6120 “Rudy” (at Easy Eye Sound)
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
- Fender Princeton Reverb
- Vintage Magnatone (at Easy Eye Sound)
Effects
- Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
- MXR Dyna Comp
- Malekko Omicron Vibrato
- Strymon El Capistan
- Boss TR-2 Tremolo Analog Man mod
- Boss RC-300 Loop Station
Strings
- D’Addario EXL 115 (.011–.049)
Even on their first record, the Hermanos Gutiérrez established a strong, recognizable style. Estevan and Alejandro say their basic approach to writing and collaborating has never changed. “We have this invisible communication,” says Alejandro. “We don’t have to talk to each other that much. We feel it.” When writing, he explains, “we always know the other part is missing, this is the other brother’s part. We have this deep connection as brothers.” He adds that they never question their intuition. “We’re never looking for a particular sound or rhythm,” he says. “It’s never conceptual. It was never trying to have this sound. It’s just what it was.”
That’s not to say the project hasn’t evolved. Gear discoveries have helped them along their path. “When we started, we didn’t use any pedals,” says Estevan. “We just used the guitars and the amps. We were just two brothers playing guitar.” Eventually, Estevan discovered the Strymon El Capistan, a watershed that opened up creative possibilities. “I remember that day,” he reminisces about first playing the pedal. “I fell in love. I knew it was gonna change something in our sound.” As soon as he purchased the El Capistan, he says he called his brother and said, “You have to buy this. This is gonna be next level for us.”
“Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers, so we go to places, we come back, and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.” – Alejandro
Part of the El Capistan’s allure, Alejandro explains, is that that they both found ways to approach the pedal differently. “I use it as a layer,” he explains. “Really subtle. My brother uses it more as a delay. He has this horse sound, like this galloping sound he can create with his slapping, which only he can do.”
That slapping is a percussive righthand technique that Estevan uses—not slapping of the funk variety. Rather, it’s the way he hits the strings when he’s strumming. Both Estevan and Alejandro are fingerpickers, which—and lots of credit to their classical-guitar backgrounds—means they have a variety of picking, strumming, and righthand attack techniques at their disposal. That includes using muted-string attacks for percussive effect, a relative of the early “bongo guitar” methods used by players such as Ray Crawford or Herb Ellis in drummer-less trio settings. While Alejandro credits his brother’s signature technique, they each do a variation on the move.
The Gutiérrezes’ rhythmic versatility casts a spell in live performance. There are few instrumental guitar duos out there who can make their audience dance and rock out. But when the Hermanos played Philadelphia in November, most of the near-capacity audience pulsed along with the music, with a small cohort breaking out into wavy, full-body interpretations.
Alejandro Guttiérez’s Gear
The brothers live in Switzerland, but they were back at Hollywood Forever for a Day of the Dead concert this fall. “Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers,” says Alejandro, “so we go to places, we come back and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.”
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Guitars
- Fender Stratocaster
- Rickenbacker Electro NS lap steel
- Silvertone 1446
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
- Vox AC10
- Vintage Flot-A-Tone amp (at Easy Eye Sound)
Effects
- Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
- Boss GE-7 Equalizer
- Ceasar Diaz Texas Tremodillo
- MXR Dyna Comp
- Strymon El Capistan
- Electro-Harmonix Freeze
Strings & Picks
- Pyramid Gold Heavy (.013–.052)
In concert, it’s just as easy to zoom in on the finer details in the brothers’ music as it is to vibe out on a wave of rhythm. Both Estevan and Alejandro sound as though they’re reproducing the most life-affirming classic guitar tones—mythical, old-school sounds, like they’re contemporaries of Santo and Johnny (another pair of guitar- and steel-playing brothers)—which will draw in any armchair historian of guitar music. Of course, that’s one thing to capture on record, which they do, but it’s another, more impressive thing to do with some rented Deluxe Reverbs. Within those sounds, there are sonic details to catch, like how nuanced Estevan’s right-hand patterns can get, or how Alejandro manages to pluck the string on his lap steel with his thumbnail—he eschews fingerpicks on lap steel as well—to add a bright attack to just the right notes. At the Philadelphia show, most of those who weren’t dancing slowly lurched closer to the duo until, near the end, the brothers were encircled on the World Café’s narrowly defined stage by listeners who were seemingly enraptured by these subtleties.
No doubt, though, it’s the brothers’ chemistry that ultimately makes them sound magical, no matter what a listener is focused on. For El Bueno Y El Malo, Auerbach was careful not to disrupt any of that energy. Upon arriving at Easy Eye Sound, he didn’t dissect how they’d approach the session with the duo. Instead, Auerbach simply let them do their thing. “We entered the studio,” says Alejandro, “and we were recording after 20 minutes.” As soon as they plugged into their amps, Auerbach made a few level adjustments around them while they got a feel for the studio. “We didn’t even realize,” he adds. “We looked at Dan and he said, ‘From the top again,’ and we were recording. That was ‘El Bueno Y El Malo,’ it was the first take.”
Although much has been written about Auerbach’s studio, including in PG, it bears repeating that the producer/guitarist has curated not just a fine collection of gear in Easy Eye Sound, but a vibe. “The biggest thing you can hear on the record,” points out Estevan, “is Easy Eye Sound, which sounds kind of hilarious, but it is. You enter this studio, and you can just feel it, you know? So, this mixed with all these vintage amps and guitars and our flavors that we put together, it was like a soup that we were cooking. It’s beautiful. You can hear it and it sounds so special.”
Brothers Estevan (left) and Alejandro (right) Gutiérrez at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in May 2022.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
At Easy Eye, Alejandro used the house Flot-A-Tone amp and Estevan opted for a vintage Magnatone. He points out that the amp’s heralded vibrato is noticeable on the title track. Alejandro brought along his own vintage Silvertone 1446 and his Rickenbacker Electro NS lap steel—which he tunes by ear to each song, though he notes that he doesn’t keep track of his tunings. While Estevan brought his own modern Gretsch 6120, Auerbach offered his own 1958 Gretsch 6120, “Rudy,” which was too good to resist, and he used as his primary instrument for the record.
The duo finished their parts in just two and a half days, using several first takes. “We were not rushing things at all,” says Alejandro. “It was just really flowing perfectly.” With more time planned for the session, the brothers, who’d never worked with other musicians on their records, had plenty of ideas for how they would take advantage of Auerbach’s connections, and they brought in percussion, string, and organ players for overdubs.
“It’s never conceptual. It was never trying to have this sound. It’s just what it was.” –Alejandro
“It was so beautiful to work with these kinds of musicians,” says Estevan. “Everyone is on a high level. We felt like this is the right place for us.” Although other Auerbach productions might feature old-school session cats ripping solos and contributing key riffs, the additional production on El Bueno Y El Malo simply adds color and amplifies the magic that is already there. Auerbach and company deliver the perfect Easy Eye treatment—all ears are on the brothers.
With El Bueno Y El Malo, coming to Nashville to record has added to the brothers’ ongoing musical travelogue. Having come this far, it’s no surprise that the album stands as a major aesthetic statement for instrumental guitar music, and the definitive statement of Hermanos Gutiérrez. At least for now. When we spoke, they were getting ready for their U.S. tour, which would end in the Southwest. Both brothers acknowledged this trip would be a return to the source of their musical inspiration, a full-circle experience they were looking forward to. “It’s just beautiful where we can go with this music,” says Alejandro. “It’s just my brother and I together, and we’re so happy to have this.”
YouTube It
With a pair of hollowbodies in hand, Estevan and Alejandro seem to manifest the history of electric-guitar music in this intimate live taping of “El Bueno Y El Malo.”
Pickin’ Like Chet: Chet Atkins’ Vintage Classics Volume One & Two Taught by Pat Kirtley Stephan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop Pat Kirtley has impressive fingerstyle guitar creds having done a stack of CDs and instructional videos, to say nothing of his being 1995 US National Fingerstyle Champion, and National Thumbpicking Champion in 1994. He is obviously a big Chet Atkins fan and in these DVD sets Kirtley has delivered up a huge serving of great Chet tunes. Volume One is 173 minutes of Chetty goodness featuring “Hidden Charm,” “Mystery Train,” “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To,” “St Louis Blues,” “Oh By Jingo,” and “Chinatown, My Chinatown.” Volume Two clocks in at 122 minutes and contains “Rose Ann,” “Down Home,” “Somebody’s Knockin’,” “Trambone,” “Drive In,” and “Alice Blue Gown.” These are classic Chet tunes and several of them are must haves for Chet-o-philes. Kirtley takes his time and explains each tune in detail with a full speed performance and then each tune is shown slowly bit by bit. The set comes with a book of transcriptions as well as PDF files on the discs. Kirtley also covers information about effects like reverb and delay as they apply to the songs.
Now if you are like me in that you love this sort of DVD lesson, then you probably have a stack of DVDs—some of which make you think why the heck did I buy that junk? and others that you go to over and over again. This is one of the latter. Frankly, lessons aside, I just enjoyed hearing Kirtley play these tunes; he plays them beautifully and gets a pretty authentic Chet tone with his Taylor T5. Just in case all this good stuff isn’t enough for you Volume One also includes some classic Chet videos, three from The Purina Show in 1955; The Poor People of Paris, Side by Side, and Makin’ Believe, and from 1958’s Ozark Jubilee; Villa and Say Si Si. It’s always a joy to hear Chet in his prime and it’s worth it just to see the outfits these folks wore.
So hey Chet fans, rejoice and check this out, you may learn something. Be sure to visit Pat Kirtley on My Space at myspace.com/patkirtley; he has posted some nice clips including one of “Mystery Train” from this set. –PS
List: $39.95 per volume
guitarvideos.com
From the Basement DVD Ever wonder what it’d be like to have a collection of TV show performances on DVD from some of contemporary indie’s biggest names without the grotesquely gushing TV hosts? From the Basement does just that and does it well. The series of artist performances was originally recorded and aired from a UK basement studio, and was later picked up and distributed in the US on the Rave channel and also on IFC. There are performances from Radiohead, including two In Rainbows tracks with just Thom Yorke on piano; the disc also includes PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Beck and Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes fame.
The recording producer of these sessions, Nigel Godrich, wanted these performances to be seen as the truest representation of the state of their artists work, captured in a way that lets their talents speak without the interference of presenters, logos or audiences. He does this simply by making the music the focus with few if any distractions.
With each artist performing either one or two songs, the DVD has a seamless flow from track to track, artist to artist. In addition to its stripped down demeanor, it provides gearheads with a healthy dose of rare and peculiar guitars and amps. Whether you’re a fan of Jack White’s Sears Silvertone 1485 amp paired with a 1965 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline guitar; Sonic Youth’s pairing of a vintage Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar; or PJ Harvey’s unidentified 12-string acoustic used on “The Piano”, this underground series covers many gear-loving bases.
The only negative was the fact that there was no on-screen identification for songs or artists. However, the overall setup and production is uniquely cozy as the DVD provides a platform for the artists to play seemingly directly to the viewer… in their own basement. –CK
List: $14.98
eaglerockent.com
King’s X: Gretchen Goes to London Live DVDThe year 1990 was a turbulent one for rock music. The Seattle Sound was gaining notoriety, and among those bands slowly garnering more attention was King’s X.
Originally rising from the ashes of Sneak Preview, the band regrouped and christenedthemselves King’s X, and gained many fans, one of which was Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, who has credited King’s X with inventing grunge. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, the impact that the group has had is known by few outside of the music world.
The live release Gretchen Goes to London, now available on DVD through Molken Music, is a perfect way to introduce the band exhibiting their signature raw sound. The footage was taped at The Astoria in May of 1990, right at the moment when the group started to gain some commercial success. Little did they know that only a year later they would be opening for AC/DC. Gretchen Goes to London captures the essence of the legendary group quite well, even if the sound mix could use a little adjustment here and there. Video-wise, it’s a treat to watch the band rip through their set, especially staples such as “Over My Head” and “Summerland” (that’s the solo that cements Ty Tabor as one of the most underrated guitarists ever).
If you’re not familiar with King’s X, you should be, and Gretchen Goes to London is an excellent place to start. –JW
List: $18.98
molkenmusic.com
The Black Keys: Live At The Crystal Ballroom2008 found the now well-established Black Keys in Portland, Oregon, for an energetic stand at the Crystal Ballroom.
Couldn’t be there? This DVD comes about as close as possible, without all the friendly audience elbows. Live performance video has come a long way with the prodding of people like producer and director Lance Bangs (REM’s Road Movie). Sound and image quality are of course top notch, but the camera work is what really brings this raucous show in to your living room. For a relatively cozy venue, the sweeping shots and close up stage film keep you on stage with the band, with choice glimpses of Dan Auerbach’s plethora of old, crusty gear including an oversized Silvertone 1454 with a Bigsby, a vintage Marshall Super Lead and even a song on a Rhodes Electric Piano. Onstage banter between the crowd and the band is nonexistent as the Keys concentrate on a strong performance of an equally strong set of songs. The sound quality of this live recording further showcases the Black Keys now familiar combination of fuzz, rhythm, and memorable lyrics.
While this is only the second live DVD released by the band, fans can pick from a number of critically acclaimed EPs and albums.
The disk includes 17 live songs from the Black Keys’ successful discography as well as behind-the-scenes segments on the making of the Black Keys’ fifth album Attack & Release and the making of their notable “Your Touch” video. The original music videos for “Your Touch,” “Just Got to Be” and “Strange Times” are also included. –BO
List: $12.99
nonesuch.com
Books
Solo Jazz Guitar: Through Chord- Melody & BeyondThis topic has been covered by many books, but few as comprehensive as this one, written by the venerable Howard Morgen. At almost 200 pages this is a pretty thick book, just as solo guitar is a deep topic. I think of books like this as a tool box from which you can take the tools you want as you need them. The best feature of this book is that rather than useless songs based on standard changes that you won’t ever play, Morgen gives you 11 real standards including classics like “‘Round Midnight,” “Li’l Darlin’,” and “My Funny Valentine.” That means once you work your butt off learning this stuff, you can actually go out on a gig and play them—that’s a biggie.
Each song is dissected then reassembled, and some of the tunes have several versions to illustrate different aspects of the illustrated techniques. This is great as you get to see how an arrangement is constructed, so you can move on to creating your own arrangements using the tools in the book. The book has 14 chapters which go into fair depth on topics like inner moving voices, two note comping, key selection, walking bass lines, and chord substitution. Morgen at least touches on all you need to know to start getting your solo style happening. Further he has a large list of other books he recommends to get into particular aspects of this style. A CD of the examples is included. Howard has been a guitar teacher and writer for a long time and his experience really shines in this work. Highly recommended! –PS
List: $34.95
alfred.com