Reading a recent thread about the connections between Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan reminded me how much I like Larry Carlton's guitar playing.

A while back I came across a great little site called Guitar Player TV @ http://guitarplayertv.com which features a large selection of free guitar tuition videos in a multitude of different styles. In addition to doing the website's introduction, Larry Carlton also has his own channel called 335 Blues - http://snipurl.com/335blues where he demonstrates how to build up a blues guitar arrangement. Even if you don't have time to watch all the videos on his channel don't miss "Stormy, 3: Soloing" where, as he says on the following video clip, he goes "to the zone" - oh so good!!

Found an interesting little article from Performing Songwriter in the jmdl library where he's talking about the importance of thinking and playing like an arranger when doing sessions. "You have to be able to improvise arrangements on the spot to be a great accompanist. It's what you do with the phrases around the vocal that can make the whole thing sound more connected."

As an example, he points to a song from one of his most memorable sessions, Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark. Carlton says, "I think there's a very good example of how to think like an arranger. When Joni sings, 'Help me, I think I'm falling,' I do a rake across the strings, and it makes her next phrase - 'in love again' - really cool because she has a chord to sit down on."

Aslo found this great video of him playing with another of Joni's guitar sidemen, Robben Ford (who I saw with the LA Express and Joni at London's New Victoria Theatre on the Miles of Aisles tour back in 1974), here playing a concert together in Tokyo - takes the soundman a while to sort out Larry's guitar sound but when he does it's ab fab!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBS7BEPb1Jk

Happy New Year to all
Paul Castle