Hey everybody, this is Jesse Dayton and you are
listening to My Weekly Mixtape with none other
than Brian Colburn. Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape,
a podcast that takes the classic mixtape approach
to building a modern playlist. I'm your host,
Brian Colburn. Joining me tonight from the road
is guest curator Jesse Dayton. Jesse, thank you
so much for joining me on My Weekly Mixtape.
Great to be here, man. Well, I'd like to start
by asking you my first -time guest question,
and that is, Jesse, what does the word mixtape
mean to you? Well, of course, I am old enough
to remember those, and I made them, and mixtapes
were a really... interesting way to find out
if people were cool or not. It was like looking
at their record collection, but later that we
would just record stuff. I mean, mixtapes for
me, I was always all over the place because I've
never subscribed to one genre fully, even though
I'm a nerd and spent 10 ,000 hours in each one
of them. And as not only a record collector,
but a player. But the mixtapes for me, you know,
what it really means to me is it lets me know
who you are. But I can remember, you know, going
and buying four of the packaged ones and busting
the little tabs off and putting, you know, recording
stuff off the radio. And it was a thing, you
know, and now my son who's, you know, does the
playlist. I mean, that's his version of it. Yep.
Well, tonight, our topic is something that's
going to cover that wide variety of genres that
you talked about just now, and that is guitar
solos. That is such a wide open topic. So for
a guitarist like yourself, what were you looking
for in the guitar solos that you're bringing
to the table this evening? I mean, basically,
I'm always looking for, like, I look at guitar
solos like a great book. Like, there needs to
be a really good entrance. It needs to be the
middle thing, needs to be the meat and heart
of the matter, whether that's melody or shredding
or just sad or happy playing, you know, just
very emotive playing. And then an exit that's,
like, undeniable. And it was a hard, you know,
it's a really tough thing, man, because those
20 solos could change like every five minutes.
So I just kind of had to commit and just go with
what I thought was groundbreaking historically
for me. So let's get down to business tonight.
As I mentioned, Jesse and I will be curating
the ultimate guitar solos mixtape, and we'll
use the old cassette deck approach. Jesse, as
my special guest, will begin side A with his
first song choice, and then I'll add a song that
I feel best follows up that choice. We'll then
flip -flop choosing songs until we've mapped
out. 10 songs for side A. We'll then give our
mixtape a proverbial flip and we'll map out side
B. Only this time, I'll kick things off with
Jesse choosing second. Our overall goal for the
episode is to craft the best guitar solos mixtape
possible through only 20 songs. And at the end
of the show, you can take our conversation to
the next level by visiting the episode page at
myweeklymixtape .com to give our final mixtape
a listen. via the embedded playlist. And if you
like what you're hearing on the show, you can
help me out by either telling a friend, leaving
the show a five -star review wherever you're
tuning in, or becoming a Patreon mixtaper at
patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape. There
you can enjoy ad -free episodes of the show,
become a future guest, and so much more. And
a few of the Patreon mixtapers chimed in with
the songs they would use to kick off a guitar
solos mixtape. And I'd like to give a quick shout
out to a few of those. Jen Fink chimed in with
Angus Young from ACDC, Back in Black, Princess
Purple Rain, Slash from Guns N' Roses on Sweet
Child O' Mine, and anything from Jimi Hendrix
or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Seeker chimed in with
Adrian Smith from Iron Maidens 2 Minutes to Midnight
with Zero Disrespect to Dave Murray. Sean Goff
chimed in with Nuno Betancourt from Extreme's
Get the Funk Out, saying Nuno is so much more
than more than words. Chad LaMassa chimed in
with Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine
and Killing of the Name. Mike Daly chimed in
with Mark Tremonti from Alterbridge's Ties That
Bind. Cactus Pete also chimed in with Mark Tremonti,
only he chose Fortress, along with Vito Brata
from White Lion's Little Fighter and Eddie Van
Halen from Van Halen's Feelin'. Philip Bergman
also chimed in with Eddie Van Halen, only he
went with Eruption, as well as Jeff Skunk Baxter
from Donna Summer's Hot Stuff, saying the solo
on that record is just as searing as about any
arena rock song that came out around the same
time. Tom Hutchinson chimed in with Dimebag Darryl
from Pantera and Walk, and Jason Donch has chimed
in with Mark Ford from the Black Crowes' Sometime
Salvation, along with Rich Robinson's solo from
their track I Ain't Hiding. Once again, if you'd
like to join the Patreon mixtaper family and
chime in for future episodes of the show, you
can do so at patreon .com forward slash my weekly
mixtape. With that said, Jesse, I'm officially
going to press the record button on our mixtape
and turn things over to you. What song would
you like to use to kick off our ultimate guitar
solos playlist? Well, I mean, we could start
with Hendrix. the thing about hendrix is i have
this theory that like if you're born after a
certain period of time like if you were born
early around the time that jimmy was born whatever
that was in the in the late 40s early 50s then
for me you have a true outlet out as far as not
being influenced or some would say corrupted
by jimmy hendrix's guitar play But if you were
not born then and you were born afterwards and
you're a guitar player and you never went through
a Hendrix phase, I am very suspicious of you.
So we're going to keep our eye on that guy. So
which song by Jimmy are you going to put to kick
things off then? Well, there's so many great
ones. I mean, I love the solo on When Cries Mary.
It's just because it's got all this magical.
stuff all over it with the slide and there's
so much great stuff i mean of course voodoo child
but you know we've all heard that a million times
and so i i think we're gonna go with room full
of merits wow all right because it's still got
the funky r &b thing that he's taken into this
psychedelic groove thing you know he took all
these licks that he did When he was playing with
King Curtis and Little Richard and he was doing
these, you know, playing in these R &B and funk
bands. And he took them and just revved them
up into this rock thing. And no one had ever
done that before. So it was groundbreaking. He
influenced everyone who came after him. Could
not agree more. I had 1967's Are You Experienced
on my list. I had Red House because for me, when
my father. first introduced me to his Smash Hits
8 -track cassette at the time. We then ended
up getting it on CD when I made the transition.
The first song he wanted me to hear by Jimi Hendrix
was Red House. And the reason was, at least in
his mind, he said, the blues doesn't get better
than this. This is what got me into the blues
as far as my father, and it got me into the blues
as well. Absolutely. I agree with that. Red House
is so... just genre defining important so important
and it got so many people into the blues and
she doesn't want me i know her sister will too
you know i mean that's as cool as it gets man
so that's boss level songwriting right there
well i'm gonna come off of jimi hendrix using
the groove that you went with from roomful of
mirrors plus kudos for going with something off
a rainbow bridge because to me rainbow bridge
is always going to be that album of what might
have been had he not passed yeah but i'm going
to stick with the groove part of it and i'm going
to come up a couple of decades and go with a
song that i feel like groove wise with a guitar
solo was such a masterful play on taking rock
and R &B and blues and everything else and kind
of just throwing it into a pot and kind of making
your own thing. And that's the title track from
1984's Purple Rain and Prince. Oh, wow. That
guitar solo, just every time he kicks into it,
you're taken on this half a song adventure. Yes.
Lyrically, the song is powerful. It's strong.
But by the time the guitar kicks in, it just
takes you over and it commands your attention.
And Prince is one of those guitarists that I
think by the time he did the Super Bowl halftime
show, I think a lot of people truly realized
what a guitar player he was. And I feel like
up until that point, he was always very popular,
always selling out concerts. But I don't think
people thought of him as a guitar player as much
as a songwriter, as well as a jack of all trades
when it comes to playing instruments. And I think
Purple Rain is the argument for that. Absolutely,
because Purple Rain came out. I saw him on that
tour, by the way, and I'm a huge fan. And I saw
him do that. And we always knew that he was a
great guitar player, but he was looked more like
at this multi -instrumental genius type than
he was like this guitar hero. And I'll tell you
what really changed the tide for a lot of people
is when he walked out on that rock and roll hall
of fame and played guitar with Tom Petty doing
the George Harrison song and then throws the
guitar up in the air at the end of it. This guy
catches it, but it was such an emotional. guitar
part and i'll be perfectly honest i was flipping
a coin between the two and i just didn't know
if i wanted to go with the number two spot with
a cover song but yeah that that performance is
mind -blowing and there's a reason it's got like
a bajillion views on youtube that was an iconic
and dare i say important performance in music
history especially given the fact that some of
those players are no longer with us So following
up Jimi Hendrix and Prince, where do we go from
here? Well, let's take a big turn. Let's do something
different. I mean, we could stay in Bluesville
and Rockville or whatever, but there was an incredible
guitar player named Django Reinhardt. And Django
Reinhardt was this gypsy who started out playing
American jazz music in cafes around France and
Belgium. And he is a monster, monster guitar
player. And if you go to guys that are kind of
heavy cats, whether it's, I mean, you name it
from, you know, Randy Rhodes was a big fan. All
the jazz guys that you can imagine, you know,
and these jazz guys, a lot of these jazz guys
that worship Django are, you know, they're ungodly
players. I mean, they're just. They're just doing
things that people in rock and roll blues aren't
in terms of like moving the form around and just
pushing the boundaries. But Django, he was in
a fire when he was a kid. He lost one of his
fingers. So he only plays with three fingers.
But if you listen to Django Reinhardt, he's like
Willie Nelson's favorite guitar player. He's
like a lot of. Like a lot of the country guys
who were super hot chicken picking guys who could
really burn up a neck. They're all into Django.
So Django has had this amazing effect in all
these genres from heavy metal to country to swing
to jazz to blues. They're just deep into the
guy. So anyway, this song is called You Rascal
You. And it's just him and an upright bass. in
a stripped down band playing in a cafe in France.
And he sounds like he's having a conversation
on his guitar with the other musicians. And that's
a rare thing because most of the time when guitar
players play, you hear like, okay, everybody
look at me. You know, it's the old thing. Like,
hey, everybody, I've been working on this a long
time and I'm about to blow your mind, which is
cool. But this is more like, oh, by the way.
Let me tell you some things, get some stuff off
my chest and have this conversation. So anyway,
it's a swinging, swinging track. Unbelievable
guitar player. The fact that he does that minus
one of the key tools to play a guitar and he's
at that level. It's almost like a pre. Jerry
Garcia, because it's pretty well known that Jerry
was missing a finger as well, but kind of a different
style and different time of playing back when
Django was cutting his teeth musically. Absolutely.
And Django kept jazz guitar and swing guitar,
which would eventually become rock and roll guitar.
You know, he kept all that alive. It's interesting
you say Jerry Garcia, because I was telling a
friend of mine the other day, take a quick. derail
just two seconds here i was telling a friend
of mine that jerry garcia started out as a bluegrass
banjo player and i have this theory which isn't
very popular with purists but their feelings
aren't facts so what i'm saying is facts in the
70s when the dead would take a break jerry would
go out with his bluegrass band and these promoters
would book him And this is at a time when all
the Bluegrass guys were still alive. Jimmy Martin,
Bill Monroe, all those guys, they were all still
alive. But they were getting diminishing returns
unless they were playing with the Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band or they were playing the Newport Folk
Festival. Their shows were not heavily attended.
And Bluegrass was in a real dire straits and
was dying. But Jerry would go out and play Bluegrass
and thousands upon thousands of kids would show
up. And I think Jerry single -handedly saved.
bluegrass music concerts. Wow. Yeah. And that's
a big deal. But I think that back to Django,
I think Django kind of did that too, because,
you know, he was playing this kind of, if you
listen to this track, it's so aggressive, you
know, it's not like, Hey, let's lay back and
cross our legs and play some sophisticated stuff.
And, you know, like, like, you know, any shredder
worth their weight goal could sit down and listen
to this and go, wow. This guy's on fire. What
I think I'm going to follow that up with, I think
I'm going to lean into the jazz side of things.
I'm going to come up a couple of decades, but
I'm going to go with, I am self -proclaimed quote
unquote new to jazz. I've always had an affinity
for it, but it's been the last 10 years that
I really started going down a jazz rabbit hole.
And one of the first albums that helped me make
that transition. was 1963's Midnight Blue. And
the reason I went with that album is in 1991,
Stevie Ray Vaughan had put out a posthumous release
when he had passed away called The Sky Is Crying.
And on it, he covered one of Kenny Burrell's
songs, Chitlin's Concarney. And I fell in love
with the song. And when I realized it was a cover,
I went and bought Midnight Blue and this whole
new genre of music was introduced to me. Right.
I think Kenny Burrell is one of those guitarists
that truly helped bridge jazz, blues and rock
together. And I feel like Midnight Blue is one
of those albums that if someone says to me, drop
a top five jazz albums of all time, this is definitely
in there. Possibly for me, it's top three. I
just think from. Guitar, bass, jazz, it doesn't
get any better than Kenny's. So I'm going to
go with Chitlin's Concarni here. Yeah, he's a
monster. The guy's a monster. He's a great player.
And that's so cool that you brought that up because
Stevie was listening to that stuff, you know,
and just kind of a similar aggressive attack
in the way they play guitar and not the same
player at all. You know, especially tonally,
it's totally different. But yeah, man, I think.
people like Stevie and these, these really heavy
blues guys, they look towards some of these jazz
guys to try to like kind of expand their thing.
Cause they're always wanting to get outside of
what they're doing. I mean, I don't know. I'd
like to see more players do that. Well, following
up Kenny Burrell, where do we go from here? Well,
you know, I'm saying like, let's go back to the
blues on this one. You know, we really have it.
picked a full -on blues thing uh well we did
we did red house i guess was our i don't know
we did we did a hendrix song yeah room full of
mirrors is what you went with for that so yeah
yeah but let's go way out and uh if you go to
otis rush there's a player named otis rush and
If you want to really get your mind blown, go
on YouTube and look up a video of him doing I
Can't Quit You Babe. And it's the song that,
you know, is one of the seminal songs on the
first Led Zeppelin record. But it's Otis Rush
is doing the original version of it. And he's
singing his guts out. I mean, it's not your typical,
like, manly Otis Redding kind of like. I'm going
to show you how manly I am. It's a guy who has
a range that is mind -blowing great. And his
guitar playing, he's playing this 335, and he's
playing it on a curly chord that's plugged directly
into a silver -faced Fender amp. And anyway,
the song's called All Your Love, and it's really
cool because it turns the beat around. from the
verses to the chorus. And it kind of goes from
the samba beat, which is real Latin, Latin -y
beat, into the swing thing. And when it starts
swinging, you can kind of tell where these bands
were getting all this stuff. This is before Creams,
before Zeppelin. It's all that stuff, you know?
It's like when you listen to Freddie King doing
I'm Going Down. They're like, well, this is a
better version of what those bands would go on
to do. Or maybe not better, but pure version.
So anyway, I go with Otis Rush because I think
we can't understate the blues in this conversation.
Love it. Going back to 1956 with this one, you
talked about the groups that Otis Rush influenced.
And I have read that Peter Green. originally
said he was influenced by All Your Love when
he wrote Santana's Black Magic Woman. Yeah, isn't
that crazy? It makes sense though, doesn't it?
You think about those two styles of songs. Super
similar. Right? It's that groove. I almost want
to go with Santana's Black Magic Woman here because
he is another - Why not? You know what? I think
I am. I love Santana. He is such an amazing guitarist.
He's done so much in rock. And he's stayed relevant
throughout the decades when you go all the way
up to his track smooth with Rob Thomas. But then
you go back in the seventies, he did a cover
of John Coltrane's a love Supreme. This guy covered
the musical spectrum with ease and black magic
woman coming out. All your love has a nice musical
conversation going there. So let's do that. Absolutely.
And coming out of that, we're up to track seven
and back to you. Okay. So I'm going to go. with
okay i got to meet billy gibbons when i was younger
and billy gibbons was a huge zz top first five
records were like the soundtrack to my life growing
up in in texas texas louisiana border and uh
we were all just completely bowled over and in
love with zz top and you know a lot of kids when
you talk about zz talk to them the first thing
they think is this kind of 80s programmed and
stuff like that. But really, the first five records
rival anything in rock and roll. I mean, men
have jumped out of towers trying to get the tone
that Billy Gibbons gets. But I'm not setting
this up for Billy. I'm setting this up for Jeff
Beck because I went and saw Jeff Beck three months
before he passed away. And he was playing with
ZZ Top in Houston. And I got backstage and I
got to check out all of Jeff's gear, said hi
real briefly. And then three months later, he
was gone. But Jeff Beck came over. He had known
Billy since Billy was a kid in a band called
The Moving Sidewalks. And he gave Billy his first
Marshall amp a long, long time ago. So they go
way back. But Jeff was probably the. in some
ways, the greatest electric guitar player in
terms of just overall influence on people. And
this is a tough one because Ain't Superstitious
has a young Rod Stewart singing on it. Ron Wood
is the bass player. What a lineup. Oh, my God.
You know, and this is him doing his version of
Howlin' Wolf. I really loved Cuz We've Ended
As Lovers. which is an amazing thing. If the
listeners want to go down an incredible experience,
check out Jeff Beck live at, what's the name
of the club? Live at Ronnie Scott's with Tal
Wilkenfeld on bass. Yeah. Absolutely mind -blowing
rendition there. Mind -blowing. And listen to
them do A Day in the Life by The Beatles. And
Jimmy Page is out in the crowd. He stands up
and gives them a... You know, the place only
holds, what, 100 people or whatever it is. And
Jimmy Page is out in the audience giving a standing
O. But, you know, I have to go with Jeff Beck
in terms of just being just incredibly important
to the electric guitar. So which song are we
going to go with? Because we ended as lovers?
I think we should go with Ain't Superstitious
because the stuff that he does with a slide and
a wah -wah pedal, I've never heard anyone do
that since then. I might low -key piss some people
off with this one, but Truth might be my all
-time favorite Jeff Beck album. I mean, that
lineup of Rod Stewart, Mick Waller, Ronnie Wood.
I mean, that's a musical home run. And then you
think about tracks like Blues Deluxe, which Joe
Bonamassa played in 2003, named an album after
it. Beck's Bolero, their cover of You Shook Me.
That whole album is just a chef's kiss. So I
love the pick. But then... Thank you for mentioning
Cause We Ended As Lovers because while Truth
is my favorite Jeff Beck album, Cause We Ended
As Lovers is my favorite Jeff Beck song. And
it's the version from Ronnie Scott's with Tal
Wilkenfeld on bass. That just was a musical conversation
that just blew my mind. Absolutely blew my mind.
Me too. So Jeff Beck had a unique style of playing
and a unique sound to his playing. I think we
could both agree on that, correct? Yeah. I'm
going to bounce off of that. So musically, this
is going to be a little bit of a jump. But from
a uniqueness standpoint, I feel like it'd be
tough to have this conversation without bringing
this guitarist into the mix. And I'm actually
going to go with a live version. As much as I
love the self -titled Fleetwood Mac album, I'm
going to go off of 1997's The Dance. And I'm
going to go with Lindsey Buckingham in his guitar
solo in I'm So Afraid. wow man well that's the
similarity between him and Jeff Beck is they
weren't big pick guys and the way they touched
the strings was all about feel and you know and
Lindsey had that for sure I mean if you put a
gun to my head if you say Fleetwood Mac I'm always
going to go with Peter Green but I don't think
that people understand how awesome Lindsey Buckingham
is I mean he's got a super unique feel that as
soon as you hear it, you immediately know it's
him. And there's a tone to his guitar. Even in
the later songs like Tusk, the guitar he's playing
in the background, it just tonally cuts through
the music in a way that I don't hear very often.
Yeah, yeah. Isn't it weird how, like, I remember
when Tusk came out, I got to say, when it came
out, I was a little bit dismissive of it. I was
just because they were playing it all the time
on the radio and they had the marching band thing.
And I was just kind of like, you know, and then
I go back later and I start listening to some
of that Fleetwood Mac stuff. And I'm like, oh,
my God, like this guy was very singular. He was
there. He had an ultra unique tone and touch.
And yeah, since then, I've become a big Lindsay.
thing i love what he does so it's cool you're
playing that all right well we have one track
left for you for side a what do you have man
i'm gonna go you know i haven't really done any
country stuff on here and i'm not going to on
this one maybe i'll do it later but i'd love
you know jerry reed and grady martin and these
guys because they were just so important to what
certain aspects of rock and roll would become.
But I'm going to just rev up to, I think it's,
is it 79 or 80? I'm going to go Randy Rose over
the mountain and get into some heavy stuff and
just talk about, you know, what a genius melody
guy he was. And I recently, you know, I was working
on this film project in Hollywood. and we were
in editing and i was flying back and forth from
austin into la and i met rudy sarzo we're both
at the airport in um what's the little studio
what's the great little airport um over there
it's not in culver city but it's not the lax
it's the smaller one um I can't remember it,
but it's a great little airport. It's like John
Wayne or whatever, a little 1960s airport. And
next to me, waiting to get on the plane, is Rudy
Sarzo. So I said, hey, man, are you Rudy Sarzo?
And he said, yeah. And I said, hey, I'm Jesse.
I'm a huge fan. I'm a musician and blah, blah,
blah. So we just ended up sitting together because
we were on a Southwest flight, so we could get
any seats we wanted. And he literally told me
the entire story of Randy Rhodes on the plane
flight. This was before his book came out, Off
the Rails. And he told me that every single one
of those solos that Randy recorded on those Ozzy
records, he doubled. Really? Yeah, I was shocked.
And if you go back and you listen to it, I was
like, because I told him, I said. it did odd
that when his solos come out they attack you
like nothing you've ever heard before like even
more so than van halen or any of those you know
there's only a few guitar players from that era
that i'm crazy about i'm really pre -metal guy
like i like all the hard rock stuff i'm a huge
thin lizzy fan you know i like all the early
early hard rock stuff love it you know But Randy's
leads would jump out and he goes, that's because
he doubled everything. And I was like, did he
double it? Like, cause you didn't have pro tools
back then. Right. So that means that he had to
figure out what he did on his own and sit there
with the engineer and play it with this same
amount of attack. And if you hear it, those leads,
I mean, dude, they just. They rip your head off
like no other guitar I've ever heard. And I could
imagine what Eddie thought when he first heard
that, you know, King Edward probably was like,
Oh, there's a new sheriff in town. I'll tell
you this. I'm just picturing the tapping section
in crazy train where he walks up as he's tapping
to be able to mimic that. And hit the same, like
you said, the attack of hitting the notes. Because
it's a very smooth, there's no kind of cutting
between the notes in it. Yes, fluid. That's insane.
That's absolutely insane. All right. To close
out Side A, we've touched on some blues, some
jazz, some rock. I'm going to stick with your
hard rock here. And I'm going to go with my first
favorite guitarist of all time. And no, it's
not. Alvin and the Chipmunks, because I did have
that record prior to this one, but I digress.
My cousins, basically from the womb up until
kindergarten, raised me on a soundtrack of ACDC
and Angus Young. And as a kid, Angus Young was
the guy standing on the cover of Highway to Hell
with the devil horn sticking out. He was such
an iconic icon as well as guitar player. Being
on the cover of Power Age and every album cover.
He was the face of ACDC the way Eddie is the
face of Iron Man. Sure, absolutely. And to close
out aside, I think there's only one song you
could really, truly close with for ACDC. And
that's the epic concert closer, but album opener.
For those about to rock, we salute you. The title
track. When those cannons raise up on stage,
I get goosebumps just thinking about it. That
guitar solo, to me, is what Slash and Guns N'
Roses were paying homage to at the end of Paradise
City. That big, massive, celebratory ending.
And to me, ACDC kind of wrote the book for those
about to rock. Absolutely, man. They nailed it.
ACDC is such an important band to me. And I remember
blues songs, you know, like Night Prowler and
Sin City. Ride On, even. Yeah, Ride On was a
big one. And it got my young head thinking, wow,
okay, no matter how much the stuff, this is the
roots of it. It was like Chuck Berry on Roids
or something. Because it's all so rock and roll.
And heavy on the roll because, you know, there's
a lot of mechanical rock music out there that,
frankly, it just doesn't swing a bag of shit,
you know? And that's the cool thing about ACDC
is that it has a swing to it. You know, there's
movement in those four bars. And it's pretty
interesting because me and Samantha Fisher are
heading over to Australia to do a tour in May.
And a friend of a friend hooked me up with Mark
Evans, who was the bass player on the first,
all the records up until Highway to Hell, which
is when Cliff joined. Yes. So I think Mark Evans,
who played on Dirty Deeds and all those records
you just said, he's going to come sit in with
us. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm excited just
to have any inkling close to those guys, you
know. Well, there you have it, folks. Side A
of our Ultimate Guitar Solos playlist, which
kicked off with Jimi Hendrix's Roomful of Mirrors,
Prince's Purple Rain, Django Reinhardt's You
Rascal You, Kenny Burrell's Chitlin' Concordia,
Otis Rush's All Your Love, Santana's Black Magic
Woman, Jeff Beck's I Ain't Superstitious, Fleetwood
Mac's I'm So Afraid, Lindsey Buckingham on guitar,
Ozzy Osbourne's Over the Mountain, Randy Rhoads
on guitar, and ACDC, for those about to rock,
we salute you, Angus Young on guitar. Head over
to myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed in this mix through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. Now, Jesse, I want
to talk to you about your new album, The Hardway
Blues. This album was produced... by Shooter
Jennings. Now, given your work with Shooter's
father, Waylon Jennings, on his 1996 album, Right
for the Time, can you talk about how the working
relationship between you and the Jennings family
kind of added a generation for this new album?
Well, it's interesting. When I got the gig with
Waylon, which was kind of a fluke, he saw me
on a TV show. Of course, I grew up around all
that outlaw country stuff because it was outlaw
country or some call it progressive country,
but we all call it outlaw country. It was really
invented in the 70s in Austin, Texas. You know,
Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphy and
Waylon and Willie and all these towns bands that
and all these songwriters were there. And so
they all started surrounding themselves with
these players that were, whoever was hanging
around and these guys, you know, were, were monsters
and, but they weren't, it wasn't Nashville. It
wasn't LA. It wasn't New York. It was really
unique, but you know, that's kind of like my
parents kind of were there when that was all
going on Armadillo world headquarters and all
that stuff. So I heard a lot of that kind of
stuff and that's how I came to, kind of find
it. So you recorded this entire album in less
than a week. Was that a strategic decision or
did the album just come together that way for
you? Well, you know, it's interesting because
when I did play with Waylon, I was only 24. So
I was closer to age with Shooter Jennings than
I was his son, who was in ninth or 10th grade
at that time than I was to the guys in the band.
And we had a way of working together. Waylon
was amazing because he had this perfect pitch,
right? And people don't know this, but he's like
the killer harmony singer. And he's got his own
guitar style, like completely his own 1 ,000%.
Like we were talking about Lindsey Buckingham
earlier. It's like that, where it's just like
he just does his own thing. So I was never going
to try to eat Waylon or play it like Waylon.
I wanted to do something that was me, but not
too... crazy out of the box you know and um it
was so cool man because like i played his leather
-bound telecaster on almost that whole record
i didn't play my my guitar i played waylon's
guitar it was run through an old super six fender
amp and we did all kinds of crazy stuff i actually
played wah -wah pedal with all these chicken
picking licks with a wah -wah pedal and um james
hatfield wrote and guitar player that he really
loved that. It's, it's, it's our version of the
boxer by Paul Simon. Such a great cover. And
then fast forward 20 something years later and
shooter becomes this Grammy award winning producer,
you know? And so I called shooter and I was like,
Hey man, can we make a record together? I know
you're expensive. And, uh, he started laughing
and he said, let's just figure it out. So, you
know, he knows I'm a player and. I wanted to
do it old school, so we showed up in a studio
in the Valley in L .A. where all these great
records had been cut. Johnny Cash and Lucinda
Williams and Tom Petty and all these people had
cut there. We went in with the band in the room.
The record is mostly live. There's few overdubs.
We used a ton of the work vocals, a ton of the
live guitar stuff. It's slamming to tape. We're
not tuning stuff. And it happened in five days.
And we were winning. And the stuff that I have
on the record, it's kind of a cross between some
East Texas blues stuff. There's some classic
rock sound and stuff. And there's also this whole
lyrical Texas singer -songwriter thing going
on throughout the song. So I really tried to
do this hybrid. That I thought would be interesting
for me and focus. It's a guitar record, you know,
from start to finish. And we're going to talk
about a couple of songs from the album. But I
first want to ask, how do you feel bringing Shooter
on board colored the production and the overall
sound of the album? Not the songs itself, but
what did he bring to the sound of the album as
a whole? Well, you know, he created an environment
for. because this was new stuff. It's not like
we've been playing this stuff. We didn't show
up. What he really did was he helped us flush
out these arrangements, trim the fat, get to
the heart of the song, don't force, get to the
chorus, that kind of thing, but also gave me
some room to stretch out as an instrumentalist.
So it feels like that I get to play on it instead
of this like... two and a half minute single
ethos that used to have i mean i love the ramones
i love i think they're fun and you know and it's
not what i do but these he let me stretch out
there's some four or five minute tracks on this
record and that was kind of fun to do that and
to realize that hey man you know You got to show
your superpowers, you know, you can't like deprive
yourself of that stuff. So he would create these
arrangements where it was like, you know, OK,
we're going to go off into Wonderland here. And
I was like, yeah, let's go. So it was it was
exciting. Well, let's go to Wonderland, because
actually, I think if Wonderland is what I'm thinking,
the first song I want to touch on is Baby's Long
Gone. Fishing on the biobank, making love on
the ground, by the wine we drank. Well, I caught
her stepping out a couple of times in those seats
myself, and I know that rhyme. She's gone, gone,
gone. Yeah, Jesus called her home. Baby, it's
long gone. This song immediately jumped out at
me during my first listen because the opening
has this intricate stomp acoustic guitar opening.
Very backwoods, swamp rock, country -esque. But
in the middle of the track it does a 180 into
a full -blown rock track. So across the song's
three minutes it covers a whole lot of musical
ground. When you were writing this song, did
it unfold? Into that 180 in the studio? Or did
you plan that from the beginning? It unfolded
with Shooter. I brought it in. So there's this
thing in East Texas. Your guitar players will
be interested in this because it's a really specific
thing. And it's this East Texas droning thing.
And it started with Blind Lemon Jefferson. And
I'll be frank, you know, those Blind Lemon Jefferson
records. They're hard to listen to because they're
so breaking up. I mean, the fidelity is just
horrendous, right? But you could tell the guy's
playing his ass off and he's a singer. And this
is pre -Robert Johnson, right? This is pre -Robert
Johnson. And this is like a hit song in terms
of back then for what constituted a hit. And
then later, Mance Lipscomb and Lightning Hopkins
would kind of take over that mantle. And they
would always keep, if they were playing a song
in E, they'd keep the E string droning the whole
time they were playing leads. So they would just,
you would see them hit it with their thumb. If
they were playing a song in A, they would do
an A. If it was D, they'd tune the E down to
a D, and they would do these riffs. So when I'm
playing this riff, and those guys actually, you
know, are from like right down the road from
where I grew up. If you hear me playing this
riff, I'm playing two strings. pretty much the
same time on all of those rips. So it's got that,
this East Texas droning blues sound. And I really
wanted to explore that because during COVID,
I went down a huge rabbit hole of like country
blues, you know, the East Texas stuff, the stuff,
you know, the Mississippi Fred McDonald and,
you know, all that kind of stuff. And I was like,
man, I want to bring that in there. I always
heard Dylan and my songwriters like Guy Clark
and Townes Van Zandt. I always heard them talk
about those guitar players, but I was like, they
can't play like those guitar players, but I can.
I have the facility to do it. And so I was like,
that's where I want to go with this. Well, the
next track I want to dive into is Navasota, which
introduces a slide guitar in its solo section.
How do you decide in a given track how to attack
the solo? Is that something that you record a
guitar solo using several different styles, maybe
with a slide, maybe finger picking, maybe shredding?
Or is that the instance of you're writing this
song and you already have a guitar solo in mind
as the song is kind of being tracked? I didn't
really have a guitar solo in mind. You know,
it just kind of felt like the thing to do. The
interesting thing about that song is it starts
off like we're going to do this big Texas blues
shuffle. And we don't do that. We go straight
into this funky kind of thing. And we keep turning
it around and we do that. Everything's building.
And it sounds like it's going to go into this,
but it never does that. We go into this totally
different thing. So I thought that was pretty
interesting. And I hadn't used any slide on the
guitar on the record up until that point. So
when I heard the lead section, as I said, I'm
a huge disciple of the Reverend Billy Gibbons.
He's like, to me, Billy's. I mean, I met Keith
Richards. I played with Willie Nelson. I'm pretty
sure Billy Gibbons is the coolest white guitar
player I've ever met in my entire life. Billy
just exudes cool. And so there's some stuff that
he does, like I heard it on the X and in some
of those songs where when he plays slide, he's
barely breaking up into the note that he's supposed
to be going into. And the guitar starts breaking
up. So I tried to do that kind of vibe on Navasota.
Well, the next song I want to dive into is Huntsville
Prison Rodeo. That pissed off those put on one
hell of a show. With desperados riding in the
hospital prison rodeo. The guitar solo in this
track has a ridiculous tone on it, I just have
to say. Almost with a cathedral -like reverb
on the solo. It gives it a real unique signature
across the album as a whole. And those little
intricacies that I'm talking about, is that something
you're listening for specifically? Or is that
where Shooter comes into play and says, hey...
We need to kind of add some more reverb to this
to give it the feel, or is that kind of a combination
of the two? I think both of us were saying that
we wanted to try to experiment with that, and
it worked. That song almost didn't make the record.
Really? Yeah, it doesn't sound like anything
else on the record. No. It sounds more like a
country rock song. I was a little hesitant because
the record is either bluesy stuff or kind of
classic rock, you know, influenced. So I was
a little hesitant to put that on the record,
but Shearer fought me on it. And he's like, no,
I really think this is cool. It's a part of what
you do. It'll change, you know, give the listeners
ears a break. And, you know, it ended up working.
It's a true story. It's about my parents taking
us to the Huntsville Prison Rodeo when I was
a kid and how completely terrifying and scarring
it was for a little kid to watch, you know, the
most violent rodeo you could ever imagine. So
it was traumatic and fun all at the same time.
So, but yeah, there's some little delay on there.
There's some reverbs, kind of washy. And yeah,
it's kind of cathedral -esque, you know, big
room reverbs and there's some, you know, kind
of chicken picking, you know, parts on there,
that kind of thing. Well, I want to touch on
something you just said there, because across
the album, you had mentioned that Huntsville
Prison Rodeo was kind of a story about your life.
The album lyrically from front to back. There's
a lot of storytelling aspects on the album. I'm
just going to choose one track right now and
play a clip from Angel in My Pocket. In my faded
Levi jeans Gives me enough strength To make it
through Damn near anything And when it shines,
shines, shines Lord, it shines Well, I pick myself
back up More times than I've been knocked down
Broken bones and hearts on motorcycles, riding
at the speed of sound. But that angel in my pocket
always gets me home to you. Where my secrets
are safe, the love we make feels raw and pure
and true. And I sure do miss you, darling, when
I'm gone more than half the time. And on nights
when the tears are falling. But my pocket shines,
shines, shines When I first heard this song,
I had jotted down a little note before I started
forming my questions. And that little note was
channeling the beauty of a John Prine song. So
you can imagine the hair on my arm standing up
when I finally read through the press release
and saw that you wrote that in the wake of his
passing. Yeah. I'd love to hear your feelings
towards John Prine and then what it meant for
the song Angel in My Pocket for you. Well, I'm
a huge John Prine fan, and I can't impress upon
the guitar players who are listening right now.
OK, listening to songwriters might be more important
than listening to guitar players, because if
you get a bunch of hot musicians around together.
who only spent 10 ,000 hours on bass, 10 ,000
hours on drum, 10 ,000 hours on guitar, and they
have not spent 10 ,000 hours on learning how
to write songs, and they don't have a good song
between them, then it doesn't matter how awesome
you are on your instrument. So the songwriter
thing, it kind of got hijacked by FM radio, and
they turned a lot of these guys that were considered
light rock or whatever, who are really songwriters.
They didn't know they couldn't, you know, market
them that way. So, you know, you had all these
great songwriters, whether it was Townes Van
Zandt or John Prine. Even the more mainstream
guys like Jackson Brown and James Taylor and
all those great records they made with L .A.
players, with Waddy Wattel and Leland Sklar and
Russ Kunkel and all that stuff. Those are super
important records to me. So the whole songwriter
thing is of the highest order. And if you're
playing on great songs, man, it's a lot easier.
Yeah, John Prine was like one of the guys that,
you know, my sister had his record when I was
a kid. And, you know, he was so witty and quirky
and just, you know, there's an interesting thing
about John Prine. I got to work with Chris Christopherson,
who might be one of the greats of that whole
bunch I just named in terms of like writing hit
songs that millions of people. heard and the
biggest stars ever. And Chris told me that he
produced the first Billy Joe Shaver record and
he produced the first John Prine record. And
when he first heard about John Prine, Steve Goodman,
another great songwriter in Chicago, he called
up Chris Gustafsson and said, man, you got to
fly to Chicago and see this guy. He's a mailman
and he's playing. And it's just mind blowing.
And they were like, we got to break this guy's
hands. He's just too good. And so, yeah. So John
Prine, masterful, masterful songwriter. And that's
a friend of mine had just been staying about
my wife that I had an angel in my pocket. It
was a little, little wink wink about my wife.
So that's where the idea came from. Well, with
your permission, I'd like to pivot away for a
few questions outside of the Hardway Blues before
we get over to Side B. You had mentioned her
earlier. Your last album, 2023's Death Wish Blues,
was a collaboration effort with Samantha Fish,
and that was produced by John Spencer of the
John Spencer Blues Explosion, became a global
hit, and received a Grammy nomination for Contemporary
Blues Album of the Year. How did that collaboration
come together for you two? Because it was such
an amazingly popular piece of 2023's music scene.
Yeah. I mean, it's the closest thing I think
that me or Samantha have had in terms of a hit
record. It was the biggest thing both of us had
ever done where it was our names featured. And
Samantha used to open up for me in her hometown
of Kansas City when I come through. And I met
her and I thought she was brilliant. I knew something
was going to happen for her. And I'm not just
saying that. I actually knew back then. I was
like, she plays really good. Like, something's
going to happen. I don't know what it is. But
so, you know, whatever. Fast forward 12, 15 years
later, whatever it is. And I'm playing in New
Orleans. And she comes out to check me out in
New Orleans. She's like, hey, do you want to
record some music together? And then her manager,
who became my manager as well, Reuben Williams.
Reuben Williams had a really big hand in all
this. I mean, he kind of put it together. And
he was the first one who mentioned John Spencer.
And I was like, wow, I love John Spencer. I never
thought about him producing it, but I always
liked the way his records sound. This was our
attempt to do something different in a genre
that has been just regurgitating Stevie Ray and
guitar sounds, John Bonham drum sounds over and
over and over and over and over. And it was our
chance to be like, let's do something different.
Let's put the drums in a different place sonically.
Let's use some of this North Georgia. You know,
like, let's get in, let's go some different places
instead of the obvious places, you know. And
let's, you know, I know they want soup, but let's
don't feed them soup this time. Let's try to,
you know, think outside the box a little bit.
So I think that helped. And we'd never met John
until we got to the studio. Really? No. I mean,
a million things. And John, you know, to his
credit, you know, he's the one who really went
down. took RL Burnside on his first tour. And,
you know, he's a big part of that. Him and Fat
Possum were both collaboratively responsible
for turning people on to all those artists down
there. So that was the whole thing, was like
a million things could have gone wrong, man,
and nothing went wrong. We kept just knocking
on wood for 16 months, you know, and it just
kept happening and growing and growing and growing.
Well, you mentioned you got some tour dates coming
up with her this year. Given the insane success
of Death Wish Blues, is it safe to assume another
record will be coming down the pike for you guys?
We're not really even talking about it right
now because we both got stuff that we got to
go do. I got to put this record out and I don't
know when it would happen, but I know that we're
bonded at the hip for the rest of our lives after
getting... dominated so you know it's definitely
not out of the question i am a personal huge
fan of cover songs i talk about them all the
time on this show and there's a cover show that
you played in that i'd like to ask about your
experience on because i find it just a fascinating
show in and of itself and that was in 2021 You
played guitar for Glenn Danzig during two of
his Danzig Sings Elvis shows. I'd love to know
what that experience was like. And do you have
a personal favorite Elvis song that you got to
jam alongside of Glenn Danzig? I mean, I don't
have a personal favorite, but I mean, because
I like some, I'm such a huge Elvis fan. I'm a
huge Scotty Moore fan. I'm a huge James Burton
fan. I mean, I'm a total nerd level fan for that
stuff. I mean, Little Sister and all that stuff
that James Burton got to play. And then the early
stuff with Scotty. But yeah, the Danzig gig was
crazy. I mean, he'd got my number. He found out
about me through Rob Zombie. Because I'd worked
with Rob Zombie on the Devil's Rejects and on
the Halloween movie. And I'd done those soundtracks
with Rob. And so he said, I'm going to do an
Elvis thing. And he talked to, I think, Shooter
as well. Shooter and his wife, Misty. And they
were like, well, if you're going to do Elvis,
you got to get Jesse Dayton. You don't want the
kind of howdy doody guy in the bow tie standing
next to Glenn Danzig. You know what I mean? That's
not going to work. You can't have Richie Cunningham
up there, you know? And like he had somebody.
Get somebody who knows it, but he's got some
edge. And so he called me up and we talked and
he flew me in and the band went in and rehearsed.
And then Glenn came in and then we heard that
voice. And that voice is like, you know, it's
one of the best voices in rock music. And it
was amazing. It was amazing. I mean, I couldn't
keep doing it because I couldn't. you know cancel
my solo gigs and my gigs with sam to go do something
like that but it was really awesome to get to
do it you know for a little while well you brought
it up and i would be remissed if i didn't bring
up banjo and sullivan from the devil's rejects
as well as captain clegg and the night creatures
from halloween 2 how did you and rob zombie come
together to work on multiple soundtracks together
because Based on the other music we've been talking
about tonight, horror films with these type of
soundtracks is a little bit of a pivot. Yeah,
absolutely. But although I did love them growing
up because I'm a total film guy. Yes, yes. I
watch a lot of film. And I grew up watching those
Roger Corman films and those B movies. And I
loved all the Hammer films that came out of England.
And so I just like watching movies like that.
A friend of mine, a really great friend of mine,
who's a really successful character actor, he's
one of those guys that if I say his name, Lou
Temple, you won't know him. But if you see him,
you'll go, oh, that's that guy in that thing
I saw. He's one of those. He's like one of the
top three working actors in SAG, top 3%. And
so he's making this movie with Rob, and he calls
Rob. They're sitting at this party one night
and Rob's like, yeah, he goes, he goes, I think
I'm going to do this fake band. Like where they
did these found instead of found footage, they
find tapes of this band that's in the movie.
And it was just super convoluted story with this
whole backstory. I mean, I did an interview with
David, I forgot his name, the guy from Rolling
Stone who has the Ramones haircut. He's been
there forever. I forgot his name, but he's a
big time journalist. And he was trying to find
out what the hell was going on with this thing.
Because Rob was like, hey, we're going to put
out this fake record like it's a record that
we found. And then we're just releasing it now.
So just go in and do all this like kind of 70s
country rock. And, you know, one of the songs
ended up being a hit on XM Serious. I mean, they
still play it every day. It's crazy. But, you
know, I think that record was a little bit before
its time. It influenced a bunch of people and
has a song on there called I'm at Home Getting
Hammered While She's Out Getting Nailed. And
it's like a bluegrass song. Also, there's a version
of Freebird on there with a bunch of super hot
bluegrass pickers. I got to play that for Gary
Rosington on the bus for Skinner. He loved it.
He couldn't believe it. Howard Stern started
playing it, too. That was another thing. That
record really changed my life because Rob gave
me 75 % of the publishing and only took 25%.
Wow. And most people either take it all or most
of it. And Rob was super generous. And Martin
Scorsese might be a bigger award -winning director,
but he hadn't sold millions of records to crazy
rock fans who want to buy that stuff. So we sold
a bunch of records. Awesome. Well, let's pivot
now to side B of our ultimate guitar solos playlist.
And we talked about this artist briefly on side
A, and I feel like knowing the listeners of my
weekly mixtape, if I don't include this guitarist,
there'll be a revolution. So let's just get it
out of the way to start off side B, Eddie Van
Halen, 1978, Eruption. I don't think there's
anything that needs to be said about this song.
However, we have a great episode all about Van
Halen featuring Eric Senech from the Van Halen
News Desk. You can get a whole two hours of Van
Halen fix there. In this instance, I have a feeling
the guitarists who are listening have heard what
they need to know about Eruption, but I just
feel like it needs to be included when you talk
about the greatest guitarists because Eddie.
really paved the way for rock musicians moving
forward. Yeah. I mean, I almost put Eddie on
my list instead of Randy, but I kind of went
with the underdog, which is Randy. But Eddie
definitely deserves more props in terms of reinventing
the electric guitar. And we were all crazy about
him. I saw him open up for Kiss when I was a
kid. It was mind -bending. I mean, we just literally
didn't understand what he was doing. And I think
he used this MXR phaser pedal on Eruption. And
it's the same exact pedal that Waylon Jennings
was using on all that Outlaw Country stuff. And
the same pedal that I think Chris Stein was using
in Blondie. So I'd love to bring that up because
it kind of gives you a reference for what was
going on culturally at the time. So, you know,
these records were coming out all of this was
1978, you know. And eruption was probably the
most mind bending guitar event in any of our
lives. Could not agree more. And I was almost
ready to throw a curveball and go with Spanish
fly off of Van Halen too, because hearing Eddie
do Eddie on an acoustic guitar and almost a flamenco
setting was always mind blowing to me. Like,
how do you follow up eruption instead of going
louder? go softer and still blow people's minds
but what are you going to follow up eruption
with well i'm going to go with i mean you know
it's eruptions so you can't like you can't put
anything to lay back on i mean i'm gonna have
to go with the second acdc song of the night
which is the studio version a whole lot of rosie
and you know i think angus played such a huge
influence in eddie's playing i mean you could
tell like when van halen was on the sunset strip
supposedly they were doing the entire first montrose
record and that entire first montrose record
is a mind -blowing seminal record like It was
the blueprint before Van Halen came on and they
had an 18 year old kid named Sammy Hagar. It
was a singer who, to me, it's still like Sammy's
opus greatest singing. Cause he sounds like he's
trying to sing like a young soul shout or like
a, like a Sam cook. And I don't know if it was
cause Ronnie Montrose was saying, you know, sing
it funkier or whatever, but it's just mind bending.
So Eddie, I was listening to Ronnie Montrose.
They were playing tons of ACDC covers when they
were playing Guzzaris. So I think as far as heavy
stuff that was coming out at the same time, when
the band was a little older, I'd go with a whole
lot of Rosie with the late, great Bon Scott.
Oh, man. We've already talked about how influential
Angus Young is to me, so I don't need to go on
any longer. A whole lot of Rosie is such a moment
on stage with the blow up Rosie through the whole
song. It's such an iconic ACDC moment. But now
coming out of Angus Young, I want to go with
these big name rock guitarists and stay in this
vibe. So I am just debating which song, because
there are a lot of fantastic guitar solos by
Brian May. And I'm. My age, I grew up in the
age where Wayne's World was such a big deal to
my age demographic. I'm going to go with the
obvious pick in Bohemian Rhapsody. It's such
a great guitar solo. It was reintroduced in the
90s through that movie, the power of film, taking
a song and introducing it to a whole new generation.
Favorite guitarists of all time. I've always
said Brian May was top five and I got the chance
on my honeymoon in 2005 when Queen was playing
with Paul Rogers at the Aruba Music Festival
in Aruba. They happened to be staying at the
same resort that my wife and I had our honeymoon.
And my wife and I went for a couple's massage
and they sent us into separate changing rooms
to get ready before we went into the massage
room. And I'm getting ready. And a gentleman
walks up to me and he goes, good afternoon. And
I turn and kind of gather myself. And he says,
oh, are you here for vacation? I said, no, I'm
here on my honeymoon with my wife. He goes, oh,
congratulations on your honeymoon. And I said,
and I know why you're here, Brian May. I have
second row tickets for the show on Saturday.
You're one of my favorite guitarists ever. And
we ended up having to sit there for about 15
minutes until the room was ready. So I got to
sit and talk. guitar music with ryan may of queen
for 15 minutes we went off and had our massages
when we got back how was your massage it was
lovely how was yours it was amazing and we walk
out together and my wife is standing with somebody
and brian goes is that your wife i said it certainly
is he goes well i guess he met my daughter and
we stood and talked and i said look no one's
gonna believe this story can i trouble you for
an autograph and he says are you kidding me of
course and he signed a little business card to
brian and katie happy marriage brian may for
the rest of the week we ran into him three other
times and he always said brian and katie how's
your honeymoon going and i'm like it's going
great brian may of queen like i'll never my wife
is still embarrassed about me doing that but
one night i actually blew off one of our dinner
reservations because they invited us to have
a drink with them and my wife's like what about
dinner i'm like fuck dinner we're gonna have
a drink with queen Absolutely. Well, you know,
I'm not scared of hits, but I will tell you,
if you want to just rip the faces off of your
listeners, play Dragon Attack by Queen. Oh, God,
that was the song I was debating putting in.
Okay, you know what? Screw it. I'm changing it.
Dragon Attack. It's one of my favorite songs
by them. I'm going with that instead. So badass.
And as a bassist, that bass line. Every time
I hear it, I'm just like, oh, my God, this is
like one of the toughest badass songs I've ever
heard. Yeah, I'm totally pivoting because when
I was sitting here saying I'm debating between
songs, it was and I went with the hit instead.
But being you brought it up, it was Divine Intervention,
Dragon Attack it is. What are you going to follow
it up with? Well, you know, I'm going to go somewhere
else because we've been going heavy rock and
I'm going to do something a little different.
I'm going to go, I'm a big vintage motorcycle
freak. So that's my kind of lot in life. And
I've got a bunch of bikes and, you know, they're
British and Italian. I've got a Harley too, but,
you know, Triumph, Moto Guzzi. And a friend of
mine has a Vincent. It's one of the rarest motorcycles
in the world. And there's a guy named Richard
Thompson. There's a Richard Thompson song called
52 Black Vincents. And there's an acoustic version
of the song. And it's off his all acoustic record.
And Richard Thompson is like Mark Knobler, Jimmy
Page. All these guys are kind of gaga for Richard
Thompson's acoustic guitar playing. And the interesting
thing about Richard Thompson is he had this band
called Fairport Convention. when he was young.
And these were never big records over here in
the States, but they were huge over in Europe.
And the cool thing about Richard Thompson is,
is that Richard Thompson somehow embedded his
Celtic heritage into his guitar play. So when
you hear him play, it's not another white guy
vamping on the blues. It's this guy who's like,
bringing in this almost like Irish and Welsh
and Scottish and British Celtic influence, which
may add along with African music was the basis
for American music. And it was the basis for
the first country songs that like the Carter
family and Jimmy Reed, all that stuff. So this
record is amazing. And he's saying, It's an outlaw
song. So it's about a guy who's a total robber
thief. And he's got this amazing, you know, he's
the bad boy from the other side of the tracks.
And it's the same thing as I shot the sheriff,
right? It's the same thing as a million great
outlaw songs that you've heard. And Red Molly,
the beautiful red haired Irish girl falls in
love with a bad boy. He ends up getting killed
at the end and he gives her his motorcycle, which
is it's in the finger picking. I'm pretty sure
no one in the entire world. I don't care what
little uber talented eight year old you find
on TikTok who can do eruption, which, by the
way, doesn't impress me. People keep sending
me these videos of these little kids playing
these songs. And I'm like, if you want to impress
me, right. If you want to impress me, write this
stuff. It's great. Mimicry, that's how we all
start. I get it. But I don't think anyone in
the world could play guitar like Richard Thompson
does on 52 Black Vincent. And make sure it's
the acoustic version if you can get it. I will
definitely look that one up. I mean, Time Magazine
ranked this song in its all -time 100 songs,
saying, and I quote, 52 Black Vincent is a glorious
example of what one guy can accomplish with just
a guitar, a voice, an imagination, and a set
of astonishingly nimble fingers. Yeah. I mean,
if you're a fan of cover songs like I am, everybody
from Del McCrory Band to Robert Earl Keene to
Bob Dylan has covered this track. It's absolutely
amazing. I love the song. And I think coming
out of it, gonna go with something that pivots
a little bit more we're kind of pivoting around
a little bit here yeah and while 52 black vincent
doesn't have a lot of rockabilly i don't have
a lot more acoustic stuff sitting in my playlist
so what i'm going to do is bring out to just
one of my favorite guitar solos of all time just
because of the uniqueness of it because of the
fact that when it first came out the song was
about cats and i was like oh okay i could dig
this and then i heard the guitar tone and i was
like wow this song is cool yeah and when you're
a three piece of slim jim phantom lee rocker
and brian setzer you get the stray cats and the
stray cat strut is one of my favorite guitar
solos of all time there's something that's just
so cool there's such a swagger to it that it
blows my mind the amount of cool that one song
could emote even at five years old i knew what
cool was because of this song absolutely and
brian is a god i mean jeff beck the greatest
billy gibbons uh you know you name it the greatest
guitar players in the world paige they used to
all go out and see them all the time when they
were starting off i mean the stones wanted to
give them a record deal I mean, when they got
to London, they they they got on a plane from
New Jersey and they went to London and they were
sleeping. And I know all these guys, too, by
the way. Oh, really? Yeah, I'm closer with with
Jim than I am with. I know Lee pretty well and
Brian a little bit as well. I played gigs with
Lee and Jim before, but when they got to London,
people were losing their minds. I mean. Everyone
went out to see him, you know, whether it was
the Beatles, like whether it was Paul and Ringo
would be there or George Harrison would be there.
You know, Chrissy Hine and Joe Strummer, that
whole cool set was going to see him and they
were blown away. And Brian is influenced by a
guy named Cliff Gallop from Gene Vincent's band.
And he's also influenced heavily by Django Reinhardt,
who we played earlier. But monster, monster guitar
player. All right. What are you following up
Stray Cat Strut with? I'm going to go with a
song by Gene Vinson and the Blue Caps. And we're
going to keep it rockabilly just for one more
song. So this was Jeff Beck's first influence.
Jeff Beck has a record out. that's called Jeff
Beck and the Blue Caps. I think that's the name
of it, but it's a rockabilly record. And he plays
exactly note for note, just like Cliff Gala.
But these songs, you know, when you go back and
you listen to them, you got to put them in historical
perspectives. You can't judge them sonically
by like Pantera. You know, so you've got to like
sonically say, OK, this is what they had back
then. They had these little lamps. They were
overdrive them. That's why they sound so cool.
And the guy's playing a Gretsch guitar and he's
obviously could play the shit out of jazz. And
but he's ripping up the guitar and he's got that
echo plex and it's the slapback is bouncing perfectly.
You know, it doesn't sound muddy in this record,
man. Cliff Gallop. playing with Gene Vincent
and the Blue Caps, Race with the Devil. I don't
think rockabilly becomes what it is, like the
Stray Cats or any type of rockabilly, without
a group like Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps.
I feel like they're one of the, I don't want
to say the, but one of the founding fathers of
what modern rockabilly became. Yeah, well, there's
a song by Eddie Cochran called Something Else,
and it's the first time that you ever hear It's
almost like the first punk or heavy metal, because
it's just like no one had ever got the drum,
the kick drum playing straight eights with a
guitar and bass going. You know, that would become
cheap trick. And it was ground central for what
would become later. You know, you could look
at these guys. And you could say, oh, you know,
it's 50s. They don't have long hair yet. I mean,
long hair didn't exist at this point. None of
that stuff was happening. And let me tell you,
these were bad boys. I mean, these guys were
partying their brains out, and they were, like,
getting laid on the road. And, you know, they
were fighting, and they were all nuts. So, yeah,
Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, that's the real
deal. Well, coming out of that, I'm going to
go with one of my favorite instrumental songs
of all time, which is basically a very long guitar
solo. And it was probably one of my first introductions
to jazz, because like I had mentioned when we
were talking about Kenny Burrell, I was introduced
to Kenny Burrell through Stevie Ray Vaughan on
the Sky is Crying album. However. I had other
Stevie Ray Vaughan albums, including 1989's In
Step. And the closing track on that, which is
my favorite instrumental song of all time, is
Riviera Paradise. Yeah, I love that song. Just
a gorgeous, stunning, beautiful guitar work.
Some of the most elegant tone I've heard out
of the song. And then some of the stuff he's
doing at the end where he's just plucking. where
the guitar strings are held down and making it
musical. It breaks my heart every time I hear
the song because I think of what might have been
had he not passed. But it also is such a beautiful
footnote to his studio albums while he was on
this earth. So it's just such an amazing tune.
I love Riviera Paradise. I think that Stevie
was obviously going in a direction, listening
to more jazz. I mean, he couldn't just keep playing
12 bar blues or derivative of 12 bar blues. I
mean, that's where his soul lived, but there's
no telling what he would have gone. I think Stevie
Ray, if he would have lived, he probably would
have won a couple of jazz Grammys for best instrumental.
And, you know, that could have happened because
his guitar playing was invariably becoming more
sophisticated. I think that's what happens to
people. It's the natural progression. So yeah,
I love this. I love this song. All right. You
have two picks left and I have one. So what are
you going to follow up Riviera Paradise with?
So I'm going to follow Riviera Paradise with
a track by a guy named Roy Buchanan. Ooh, nice.
Roy Buchanan. If you've ever watched any of the
most important. Martin Scorsese films, which,
you know, for me, I'm all about Goodfellas. I
think it's like the best film I've ever seen.
And Casino is a short, you know, it comes in
a close second for Martin Scorsese stuff. Also
love the film that he did in Boston called The
Departed. And this song is in all three of those
movies. And it's his version of Sweet Dreams
by Patsy Cline. Nice. And it's a great song to
follow up what you just played, because it's
also a guitar instrumental. But Roy Buchanan
was a freak show. And there's something weird
in the water in Washington, D .C., because you
got all these great guitar players from there.
And Roy Buchanan was the first one. And Roy Buchanan
was also Merle Haggard's favorite guitar player.
And Merle Haggard had a guy named Roy Nichols.
who was a killer Telecaster player. And there's
footage on YouTube of Roy Buchanan and Roy Nichols
both playing with Merle Haggard. And it's amazing.
So Roy Buchanan was one of these guys who was
just like, you just couldn't put him in a box.
I mean, he could play blues, he could play country,
he could play jazz, and he could do it with the
best of them and burn the house down. Absolutely
iconic guitarist. One of my favorite unearthed
albums, quote unquote, was one he released called
The Prophet, the unreleased first Polydor album,
which featured Charlie Daniels, of all people,
singing on a bunch of tracks. Charlie Daniels
was actually working with Roy to try to get him
started before he put out his first solo album.
This was the album that was originally meant
to come out before 1972's Roy Buchanan, which
features Sweet Dreams. looked that one up it
was put out by hippo select in the early 2000s
i want to say 2004 different side of roy buchanan's
music and i love it all the same guy is just
an insane guitarist so i couldn't agree with
you more following up roy buchanan for my last
pick of the night i'm going to do a call back
to my first pick of the night when i picked princess
purple rain because you followed up talking about
while my guitar gently weeps the solo that prince
so elegantly played with tom petty and the rest
at the 2004 rock and roll hall of fame i'm gonna
go with the original george harrison from the
white album because there had to be a place for
prince to rise up and i'd love to get george
into this discussion there's not much that needs
to be said about this song it's paved the way
musically and i think it's the best beatles guitar
solo in my opinion i'm sure a lot of beatles
fans would argue that one but this one just holds
a special place for me Absolutely, man. I'm a
huge Beatles fan. I mean, the Stones are like
my favorite rock and roll band. I've seen them
like 28 times. And I'm about to go see them a
couple of times when I get home from this because
they're going to be playing in Houston and then
in the Jazz Fest in New Orleans, which we're
heading there too. But, you know, I was always
a Beatles fan. I'm so lucky that I had an older
hippie sister who was into the Beatles. And,
you know, once you start dissecting George's
playing. you realize like, if you go back and
listen to all things must pass, which is, you
know, it's as great a solo record is any solo
record that John or Paul put out. And he kind
of, you've got this. I mean, the only people
I know who are truly original slide players who
aren't Elmore James, who aren't the original
blue skies is Dwayne Allman and George Harrison.
Those are the two guys when they play slide,
you go. Oh, that's George Harrison. Or that's
Dwayne Allman. But yeah, this song was, I mean,
just incredible. And it's about, you know, Clapton
stealing Patty Boyd. So there's a lot of pain
in this song. You can hear it. Definitely emotion
just pouring out of that guitar. Well, Jesse,
you have the chance now to take us home with
the final song of the evening. What are you going
to wrap up the Ultimate Guitar Solos playlist
with? Well, I'm going to go, I mean, you know,
there's a record called Live at the Regal. It's
a B .B. King record. And people are losing their
shit in the crowd. I mean, the women are losing
their mind. There's a part of me that wants to
go with that, but I'm going to keep it upbeat
a little more. I'm a huge Jimmy Page fan. I could
even say that I'm more of a Jimmy Page fan than
I am a Zeppelin fan, even though I'm a big Zeppelin
nerd. I love all that stuff. And for the listeners
out there, don't let anyone tell you that you
can't like The Clash and Led Zeppelin. Don't
listen to those purists or those genre loyalists
or whatever. You can listen to punk rock and
you can listen to... the greatest classic rock
stuff it doesn't matter there's no rules there's
no rules at all and so you know i used to tell
my friends who were in the ramones in the clash
they you know that's my older brother's music
i'm like i don't care if it's freaking my great
great granddad's music it rocks my balls off
and i love it and it's like and so i went down
this jimmy page rabbit hole And I found all this
stuff that he played guitar on, which he played
guitar on Goldfinger for the James Bond movie.
And he also played guitar on Van Morrison and
them. He did the guitar on Baby, Please Don't
Go. Yes. Which is just some swinging dick, badass,
just guitar playing like, wow. But if I may include
my own self in this. I'm going to go even further.
And there's a track with me and Matt Sorum from
the cult, from Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver
on drums. His track is amazing. And Shooter Jennings
on keyboards. And Michael Devon from Whitesnake.
And Michael Devon is playing bass and singing.
And I'm playing guitar. And it's off of this
soundtrack called Chasin' Whiskey. And it's our
version of Baby, Please Don't Go. Check out the
soundtrack. It's a documentary on Jack Daniels.
So I'm pretty sure you got it in there. It's
Baby, Please Don't Go. Originally popularized
by Big Joe Williams in 1935. I know we've mentioned
him twice this night, so let's go for the trifecta.
Angus Young shreds ACDC's version on the 1984
U .S. compilation 74 Jailbreak. You have Aerosmith
honking on Bobo with Joe Perry doing a killer
lick on it. Love the song. Love your guy's version
of it. And there you have it, folks. Side B of
our Ultimate Guitar Solos mixtape, which kicked
off with Van Halen. and Eddie Van Halen, in case
you didn't know. ACDC's Whole Lotta Rosie, Angus
Young. Queen's Dragon Attack, Brian May. Yes,
I pivoted from Bohemian Rhapsody, but yeah, I
had to flip that one. Richard Thompson's 52 Black
Vincent, the acoustic version. Stray Cat's Stray
Cat Strut, Brian Setzer. Gene Vincent and his
Blue Caps, Race with the Devil, Cliff Gallop.
Stevie Ray Vaughan's Riviera Paradise. Roy Buchanan's
Sweet Dreams, The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently
Weeps, George Harrison, and Shooter Jennings,
Matt Sorum, Michael Devon, Aubie Richmond, and
my guest this evening, Jesse Dayton. Baby, please
don't go. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com to
hear all the songs we've discussed in this mix
through the playlist embedded on the episode
page. Well, Jesse, this has been an absolute
pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me on
My Weekly Mixtape. You got it, brother. Thanks
for having me. And let's hang in real life sometime.
Oh, I'd love it, man. Thank you. And remember,
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again for listening, and until next time, enjoy
the tunes.