Added New Years Resolution-Slide Guitar

As if I don't have enough to do, I'm taking slide guitar on this year.

So I've played with some Great Musicians in my time. I've recorded a track with Professor Griff of Public Enemy, I've worked with Roger Vasquez of Ill Nino when I was in Coretez and I've had the opportunity to play onstage with Clint and Corey Lowery in Hello Demons Meet Skeletons, I did a session with Tommy Mandel, Keyboard player to Brian Adams with Sony 80's Artist/drummer Hilly Michaels, and I've met RZA on a TV show called Farmclub and I now play with only the greatest musicians in the 3 bands I get onstage with...Fear The State, Drew Stevyns Band and Samarai Cab Co. This is how I find the inspiration for playing my instrument. I get to jam with and hang with these incredible musicians. But this past week....a student brought inspiration into the studio in the way of a slide he got over the holiday.

This week we trekked out on the internet looking for "In my Time of Dying" the classic Led Zeppelin song. Anyone who knows me a bit knows I love Zep. (1st Metal Health Concert I played Zep with Stephen Pearcy of RATT. Opus heard he wanted to play some Zeppelin and grabbed me to bring to him.) I never realized how smooth the slide playing was on this Zep classic. It's amazing. When I break out the slide, it's always a little rough. It's a task to run the medal or glass across the strings and make it sound great. I've owned the brass slide, the glass slide and I've even made a slide with my brother at Amendola Trucking back in the day when I was a kid. (We got behind the work bench in the garage with 18 wheelers, got a piece of copper or lead pipe and cut it for my finger length...I think we used some steel wool and then there it was...my first slide. come to think of it...that might have been my dad who did that. I'll ask my bro and get to the bottom of it.)

So in this lesson, we got in my time of dying on the speakers...listened and played.
Incredible slide line. But I've heard it so many times before I needed a little bit more. And I thought of a story my new tech Max told me about meeting Warren Haynes in NYC recently. So I dialed up nothing else but....The Allman Brothers...and I became a fan of the slide guitar player in seconds.

In minutes I saw the Allman Brothers rehearse Statesboro Blues. I was amazed by Warren Haynes' slide playing. I was so amazed by it, it burned an imajavascript:void(0)ge in my mind I can still see 4 days later. The next thing I viewed was Statesboro Blues live. This live setting had Derek Trucks on guitar as well, where the rehearsal had Dicky Betts on Guitar.

Then we listened to Duane Allman on the end of Layla...it was incredibly sweet, as I'm sure you have heard.

All of this has made me make a new resolution. I'm learning slide this year. I need to have the ability to make that sweet sound. It's that simple.
Once I learn more, I'll pass it on.

Guitar Room is at Full Capacity

Right now I'm in what should have always been my family room...which Cadence renamed the guitar room. we just added her kitchenette set in here, as well as a VCR and her video games to the room, yet she still calls it the guitar room. Yep. My girl knows what's up. Guitars are amazing and they need their own room. Even at 3...she gets it. Actually....give her more credit...she'll be 3 on weds...so technically she is 2.

So we've re-arranged the guitar room to be more "family friendly".

So here's something....does anyone else just get their feed of news on everything via their twitter and/or facebook? I totally do. and I like it that way.
I often read Rev Run's column at twitter.com/REVRUNWISDOM and I just found Butch Walker's Blog via Pete Wentz's tweets. Butch Walker's Blog talks about how they Caroled on Xmas Eve. Kind of interesting, I thought. East Coasters may say " it's too cold to carol" but on the west coast they not only went...they crashed on the beach to watch the sunrise with a bottle of tequila.

Here...we rearrange guitar rooms to be multifaceted so we can have a change of atmosphere while we do the same activities.

Stay warm east coast. I'm going to ship off to LA sometime this month to do more Drew Stevyns Band shows. I'll also be freezing in New England with Fear The State. Check my dates at www.marcamendola.com...they constantly change and are being updated.