878 guitarists are too few to break record

Shreveport Times

A sea of guitarists flooded the lower level of Hirsch Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

But recording legend James Burton and 877 fellow pickers were not enough to break the Guinness World Record for largest guitar ensemble. That remains with a German band that had 1,802 guitarists playing "Smoke on the Water" in 2007.

The attempt, part of the James Burton International Guitar Festival, gave many a reason to dust off their guitars.

But 11-year-old Chase Rogers was able to participate because of Burton. The classical guitar the Summerfield Elementary student played Saturday was donated to his school by the James Burton Foundation.

The festival is a fundraiser for foundation, which provides technical training, music lessons and free guitars to young musicians, according to its Web site. The foundation has donated more than 1,800 guitars to Bossier and Caddo schools since it was began in 2003.

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August 21st

He's on the road to somewhere

IrishTimes.com

Musician David Byrne never goes on tour without his fold-up bicycle. His latest project is a book about his experiences on two wheels

‘I’M CHECKING it out – I got it figured out,” sang David Byrne on the Talking Heads song Cities . “There’re good points and bad points – but it all works out.” A gentle description of a city if ever there was one, but back in 1979 Byrne would deliver it with the bug-eyed zeal of a man who is never more freaked out than when confronted with the normal. Thirty years on, the manic streak has gone, replaced by a gentle laugh and shock of white hair, but those lyrics serve well as a template for his latest endeavour, Bicycle Diaries : a series of accounts of Byrne’s experiences travelling to cities around the world.

The Bicycle Diaries title isn’t there to fool you; while the 57-year-old has spent much of the last few decades touring the globe, first with Talking Heads and then as a solo artist, there have been two constants by his side: a diary, which he has kept, if not religiously then frequently, and a fold-up bicycle. The first chapter begins with Byrne cycling aimlessly around Niagra Falls, Buffalo, relaying his casual thoughts on sub-standard town planning and the life of local hero and Kodak founder George Eastman. Later on he examines Detroit, citing it as an example of what an unhealthy reliance on oil does to the average American city.

Digital music sales catching up to CDs

San Jose Mercury News

In this all-things digital era, CDs still dominate the U.S. music market — but not for long.

While CDs made up 65 percent of all music sold in the first half of 2009, digital downloads are quickly catching up, according to a report released Tuesday by researcher The NPD Group. With digital music sales increasing 15 percent to 20 percent a year — and CD sales dropping at an equal pace — purchasing tunes on discs is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Next year will be a tipping point, said Russ Crupnick, NPD vice president of entertainment industry analysis. "It will be a dead heat" between digital and CD sales, he said.

The speed with which digital sales have grown — they made up just 20 percent of music sales two years ago — have many people assuming CDs died long ago. "The assumption is that happened five years ago," Crupnick said. "In fact, at least in the United States, there are still 2½ times as many people who buy CDs as those who buy digital downloads."

Les Paul: 1915 - 2009

There can be no question that the musician of today owes a debt to Les Paul much greater than they may be able to imagine. When you consider the contribution made by one man and how he changed the direction of music, it boggles the mind. I doubt that one could name any legendary artist whose success would not have been possible without the innovations of Les Paul. A genius for the ages and we are fortunate to have lived to witness even a small part of his contribution. Thank you.

New York Times

Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. . He was 94.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation and his family announced. .

Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s.

Mr. Paul’s style encompassed the twang of country music, the harmonic richness of jazz and, later, the bite of rock ’n’ roll. For all his technological impact, though, he remained a down-home performer whose main goal, he often said, was to make people happy.

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Founder of punk's Mink DeVille dies at 58

iWon News

Willy DeVille, who founded the punk group Mink DeVille and was known for his blend of R&B, blues, Dixieland and traditional French Cajun ballads, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 58.

The Oscar-nominated songwriter died at New York's Cabrini Hospital on Thursday of pancreatic cancer, said Carol Kaye at Kayos Productions.

"The rock world has lost another one of its influential pioneers," Kaye said.

Mink DeVille, for which DeVille was the principal songwriter, was billed as one of the most original groups on the New York punk scene after an appearance at the legendary CBGB club in Greenwich Village in the 1970s.