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Video lesson on Ani DiFranco's guitar style

My lesson on Ani DiFranco's guitar style appears in the Dec. 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine and is available online with notation and video.

Jason Mraz on performing lessons of the coffeehouse, 2010

"I remember going to coffee shops and open mics and songwriter nights, and admittedly there’d be a good number of songwriters where I’d just be bored. I felt like a lot of people were trying to write the perfect song or a hit song, and there’s nothing wrong with that—I’m not making anyone wrong for me being bored. But there’d be a wall between me and that person. I decided, when I do this, my goal, the first thing, is to try not to be boring—whatever it takes....

"If you find that the song you just played didn’t really do it and everyone’s yakking, then make up for it somehow in the story you’re going to tell, and just basically create a relationship with your audience that isn’t all about 'look at me.' It’s all about 'look at us': we’re all here in this moment, and it’s never going to happen this way again. So it was always a matter of staying present and having a sense of relatedness. I used humor and the awkward and embarrassing moments of my life to create that safe place for an audience to be comfortable and participate in these songs."

From my Jason Mraz cover story for the October 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar. Read the full story here.

New DVD: Learn Seven Grateful Dead Classics for Acoustic Guitar

My first guitar DVD is out now from Homespun Tapes! The video includes complete transcriptions and detailed instruction for seven songs: “Friend of the Devil,” “Black Peter,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Stella Blue,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “New Speedway Boogie,” and “Cassidy.”

It's a thrill, to say the least, to join a teaching roster that includes Tony Rice, Pete Seeger, David Grisman, Tony Trishka, John Sebastian, Richard Thompson, Chris Thile, and on and on.

The DVD is available now on DVD or for direct download.

"New Speedway Boogie" on The Grateful Dead Hour

My solo acoustic version of "New Speedway Boogie" (from the album Dead to the Core) boogies on: it was transcribed in the August 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar, and David Gans played it on the latest show in his nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour program.

I also teach how to play this arrangement of "Boogie," plus six other classic Dead songs ("Friend of the Devil," "Black Peter," "Brokedown Palace," "Fire on the Mountain," "Cassidy," and "Stella Blue") on the DVD Learn Seven Classic Grateful Dead Songs for Acoustic Guitar, out this month from Homespun Tapes.

More about all the above at www.deadtothecore.com.

Buddy Miller on analog vs. digital recording, 2009

"I had a Studer A80 two-inch machine, but it started to be too much of a pain in the neck. It would slow down or speed up at the end of a reel, and I’d always have to be making adjustments. So I did switch over to digital, and you know it’s a trade-off. It’s kind of like making soup without heat. Everything sounds so sharp—it’s clean but in not a great way. You can find a way to make it mix together, to turn it into delicious soup, but it’s a lot more work. The analog tape had something that made it easier to do that. They’re making plug-ins now to simulate [the tape sound], but they don’t quite get there."

From my Buddy Miller interview in the September 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar. Read the full story here.

"New Speedway Boogie" in Acoustic Guitar magazine

My solo guitar/voice arrangement of the Grateful Dead's "New Speedway Boogie" is featured in the August 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar, in the Songbook department. (I also did the cover story for this issue--an interview with Jakob Dylan.)

The studio version, from the digital album Dead to the Core, just hit iTunes and CD Baby and can be heard on my site.

"New Speedway Boogie" will also be featured on the DVD Learn to Play the Songs of the Grateful Dead, coming summer 2010 from Homespun Tapes.

Jakob Dylan on confessional songwriting, 2010

"I’ve never written confessional music, and actually for the most part that kind of music turns me off. With other artists, when I hear their songs, it wouldn’t occur to me that they might be singing about themselves. And I don’t think being honest or direct or having rough, raw emotions has anything to do with making music any better. That’s always gone right over my head. I don’t think you ask if actors making films are being honest; I don’t think you ask it of the guy working at the market.

"That being said, I’m in the [songs] somewhere because I wrote them, and these things all occurred to me. I’m the one who chose to put these specific lines together and tell a story that I find compelling.

"I think songwriters are always looking. Most of us, we’re telling the same stories as the next guy—there are only so many stories to tell. That’s the nature of songwriting—you’re telling something most people have already heard, but what will make it more interesting and have more longevity is if your take on it is slightly different. Those are the tools that I work with."

From my Jakob Dylan cover story in Acoustic Guitar August 2010. Read the full interview here.