Kevin Dukes
Tracks- Post
- Blog
- Video
- Twitter
- Flickr
- Bio
- Discs, Tours, Vids
- Contact
Loading,
0
% complete-
Sets
- 5 tracks (22:51)Gone on the River is the first solo project from veteran sideman/session guitarist Kevin Dukes. Five tracks covering the teritory between the bars on the banks of the Mississippi river in his hometown of Natchez, MS and the studios of Los Angeles.
Joining in the journey are Scott Plunkett, Dave LeBolt and Tim Heintz on keys, Matt Bragg and Mike Elizondo on bass, Dave Pearlman on Pedal Steel and composer Joel Goldsmith lending orchestration to The Devil's Punchbowl.
-
Posts
- May 01, 12Making the top ten in style :
Bad cars: Top 10 worst cars of all time
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-top-ten-worst-cars-pictures,0,6577113.photogallery - Apr 16, 12Greg Kurstin (@GregKurstin)Posted at 1:35 PM April 16, 2012on Twitter
- Apr 16, 12
Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2012/04/coachella_awkward_dance_moves_gif.php - Apr 06, 12
Dan Fredman (@dfredman)
You should hear @kevindukes play ukelele!! RT @GregKurstin: Listening to the awesome lap steel and dobro trax @kevindukes played!”
-
Posts
- Aug 24, 11
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A year and a half ago when I began writing and tracking this collection of tunes I had no idea that i would read Lee Sandlin’s brilliant book “Wicked River” and be inspired to name the EP after one of its’ chapters. Neither could I have predicted that it would clear release into the iTunes music store just as the Mississippi would be cresting in my hometown of Natchez at a level that would eclipse the great flood of 1927.We’re all very aware now of the level of damage that has been done by the flood waters this season and those of us who are from those areas can only watch at a distance with a heightened level of understanding and sympathy for those who have been directly affected.I couldn’t announce the release of this EP without paying allegiance to my homeland and fellow Mississippians, our neighbors and their recent trials. While I’m excited to finally get this collection released, I’m also pleased to have an opportunity to put it to greater use by donating the proceeds of the first weeks sales to the Red Cross in support of their efforts in the flood regions and the areas hit so hard by the recent storms.You can get your copy at any of the retailers below:eMusic: emusic.com/album/Kevin-Dukes-Gone-On-The-River-MP3-Download/12523563.html Zune: http://social.zune.net/album/Kevin-Dukes/Gone-On-The-River/234bc706-0100-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933/details?cache=trueNokia Music Store on your Nokia mobile phoneNapster.comIMVU.comI hope you all enjoy hearing it as much as I did making it.KDCredits:Electric, Acoustic, Dobro and Gut String Guitars: Kevin DukesBass: Mike Elizondo, Matt Bragg, Kevin DukesKeyboards: Tim Heintz, Scott Plunkett, Dave LeBolt, Joel Goldsmith, Kevin DukesPedal Steel: Dave PearlmanOrchestration: Joel GoldsmithDrum & Percussion Performances: Michael BlairDrum & Percussion Editing: Kevin DukesAll tracks engineered by the performers in their personal recording studios.All titles engineered and mixed by Kevin Dukes at The RanchAll titles written by Kevin Dukes, Crooked Letter Music, BMICover art by Josie Portillo, www.portilloillustration.com - Aug 24, 11
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Isn’t this great? Liner Notes you can adjust to suit the current state of your eyeballs willingness to focus. Bon Jovi has recently said Steve Jobs killed the music business, which I don’t really get, but I do know Steve in his infinite wisdom killed the CD liner note and thank God.I do miss the LP album jacket art work and all the cool info you’d get off the inside of a fold out-LP size cover, but come on; miss CDs? Not hardly. So in the absence of a hard copy release of any sort for the upcoming solo EP, I’m starting with the blog so you early adopters can get all the inside info on the tracks and who’s on them.All the tracks on the Gone On The River are built on the grooves and sounds of drummer and percussionist Michael Blair. Quoting from the liner notes of his Twisted Grooves collection:“A rough, dirty neo-blues style with awkward rhythms and hard edges. A highly personal instrument set-up includes a mix of regular drums and odd bits and pieces like trash cans, bedroom furniture and rusty bicycle frames. The combination of Michael’s timing, expression, and junkyard sounds create a rich range of musical textures.”Sounded like exactly what I was looking for. I wanted this project to sound like it was struggling to get somewhere, not like it had arrived.Anna’s Bottom features the bassist from my first band in LA, Matt Bragg and keyboardist Scott Plunkett, who I met in Boz Scagg’s band, the first major label artist to offer me a job. Matt and I played almost every college and a dozen clubs in the LA area with our original band. We also got a serious education playing with Richard Tee and Steve Gadd in Richie’s solo project. One of our bands’ mentors was the great Chuck Rainey of Steely Dan fame and the classic Sanford and Son theme, who gave Matt one of the first Yamaha Chuck Rainey model basses to come off the line. You can hear Matt with Sista Monica and L. A. Big Daddy’s on the blues circuit around the states and Europe.Scott and I went on to work together with Don Henley and our own original band which also served as the backing band for Peter Cetera and Mandy Barnett. The brilliance of Scott is that he has the brain of a computer scientist and the heart and soul of a stadium rock B3 god. I have stood onstage beside Scott in theaters as he wrangled complex arrangements out of a pre Midi wall of synthesizers/pianos/and keyboards, later as he stood on a riser playing a controller that was triggering banks of synths and samplers underneath the stage in an arena and at outdoor festivals as he climbed on top of a B3 and proceeded to play the final encore with both hands and both feet. Scott can be heard on Stevie Nicks upcoming album and with Chris Isaak’s band on the road and on their new CD.Devil’s Punchbowl is book ended by the orchestration of Joel Goldsmith and the bass of Mike Elizondo. Joel was the first composer to hire me for a film score, although he was the engineer on that session. I’ve worked with Joel since on dozens of his TV series and films and been honored to be included on tracks of his with some of the legends of the LA musical community, not the least of which being his father, composer Jerry Goldsmith. He’s finally getting around to cutting his own solo project and I’m looking forward to returning the favor when he does some recording in my home state of Mississippi.I met Mike through mutual friends at a church we had both wound up attending. LA is one of the few towns on the planet where you can show up to church and wind up playing with a guy who has No. 1 hits on the radio and AAA grade session chops. He has since drug me around town into other church bands and we’ve drug each other around the mountains of California and Colorado cycling and mountain biking. I did the demos for his Carrie Underwood tracks which included the hit Cowboy Casanova last year in my remote studio in Natchez, MS. (otherwise known as my parents dining room). Mike produced the current Avenge Sevenfold album and is working with Michelle Branch on her upcoming album.Black Cat Moan features keyboard tracks from Dave LeBolt who is as equally hard to pin down as Plunkett. Dave had been with Billy Joel for a few tours when I joined that band. His role was similar to Scott’s in that during that era, the pop stars of our generation had years of hits with a wide variety of production on them and It fell to the keyboardist to cover all those textures. The bay under the stage that held all his gear and mine was as big as a garage and was the home of the “Dudes Club”, manned by our crew under the watchful eye of Mark Farner of Grand Funk from and old concert poster. Dave soon moved west, went to work for DigiDesign (makers of ProTools, the industry standard of recording hardware and software) as an artist consultant and eventually wound up running the company. He’s since found his way to LA and back to his roots writing and producing music and luckily for me, playing keys full time. He’s currently scoring the upcoming feature “Getting Back To Zero”.Gone On The River again features Mike on bass and yours truly on electric, acoustic, dobro and extraneous keys and programing. Listening back to it now as I write the these notes I can hear bits and pieces of the bizarre mix of influences that have shaped my playing and writing through the years. The pop records i fell asleep to with a transistor radio under my pillow as a kid meets Texas blues, Brit Jazz Rock and the tech of lap top recording. And a dozen random points in between.Madeline and The King When I moved to LA everyone presumed because I had a southern accent, I surely must play country music. Truth was I had never played any country until I took advantage of that misunderstanding and started taking gigs with country bands out in the Valley. Pedal Steel guitarist Dave Pearlman & I met playing the legendary Palomino with a local band that opened for Ricky Scaggs, Jerry Lee Lewis, Vince Gill and his wife, prior their individual successes in Nashville and everybody else that came through the west coast in the early 80s. Dave had been a serious staple of the LA country scene throughout the 70s which is how I, as a June Bug-Wanna Be in Mississippi, wound up seeing him with Dan Fogelberg at the only major rock venue in the state before i moved to LA. After running a premier boutique recording studio full of vintage gear for a decade he now builds his own custom mics that more than faithfully capture the textures and vibe of the rare classics.Keyboardist Tim Heintz ties this project together from several different angles. We first met when he subbed for Plunkett on a Don Henley benefit show at the Long Beach Arena. That was a tough band to drop into on several levels, not the least of which was the fact that that chair pretty much drove the bus of that show. Banks of keys, drum machines and sequencers to program, run and coordinate... and by the way, rock it up for a stadium full of folks at the same time. Through the years we continued to wind up together on sessions and as Tim’s production career took off he continued to find excuses for us to work together, to the degree that when he and his family decided to move to South Africa and run an aids orphanage on the border of the Zulu Nation, we worked together via FTP and iChat bouncing files halfway around the world and back again for a year and a half. Tim is still the busiest guy I know, bouncing from one production to another, running the church band, producing his kids band, managing the horses and still finding time for the occasional beer at our local craft brewers.In the Virtual Back Cover segment of Liner Notes I’ll spill the tech details for the gear geeks among us and provide the links where you can get your copies. Can’t wait for you all to hear it. - Aug 24, 11
Monday, October 5, 2009
Earlier this year I went to Cleveland to help Kate Voegele and her band tweak their show for their summer tour supporting her latest album, A Fine Mess. Producer Mike Elizondo had taken Kate a bit beyond the more traditional sounds and arrangements of the first album and management wanted to make sure all was on track to bring as much of that to the live show as possible.Kate’s guitarist and MD Sam Getz was quite capable of covering the parts and the sounds, the challenge was getting a rig assembled that would reliably do it night after night, radio show to concert hall, without breaking the bank and the crew’s will to live.I saw Sam’s display case (yes, display case) of vintage pedals, his wall of boutique amps and I thought it would be impossible to sell him on downscaling to a DI rig. It’s marvelous what a few beers at the Winking Lizard can do. The next night we went out to Guitar Center and Sam took home a Line 6 X3 Live.The band looked more than a bit skeptical when Sam fired it up the following rehearsal. After the first run through of the single 99 Times, Kate’s drummer started dogging Sam about lip syncing. The guitar tone, complete with mix effects, was so dead on in the In Ears that he thought Sam was playing along to a backing track.Here’s the story in his own words:How did you approach the first Kate tour in terms of gear and recreating the sounds on the album?The guitar tones on her first record were pretty strait forward. Mostly delay and some chorus, but it's funny how fast you can fill up a pedal board just to get a few different tones. I had to carry a smaller pedalboard for fly dates which limited my options a bit. I was using a couple different amps and would mic up a 4x12 cab off stage so that I could crank the amps to their sweet spot... I was definitely taking around a lot of gear.On her new record there are a lot of variations on the effects which meant I was going to need an even bigger rig... You couldn't have introduced me to the X3 at a better time!What were your reservations about using a modeling rig, going DI only?Well first of all I had never played through a modeling rig that I felt sounded as good as my vintage or boutique amps, even if I did find an amp sound that I liked in a modeling unit, I couldn't get passed the cabinet & mic simulation. A year ago I would have never thought I would be using an amp modeler on stage, but now that they've got the cab and mic modeling down, I actually really enjoy my tones.What were the biggest benefits of using the X3?Portability and consistency! For the first time ever I was able to plug into the exact same rig every night on every leg of the tour and on one-offs where I used to have to rely on rental amps. You always get something different, so I was constantly having to reset my overdrives and FX's to work with whatever back line provided .Also, since we were using in-ear monitors the X3 sounded great coming DI into my In Ears with no bleed from drums or mic distortion.What did you miss most about your amp and pedal board?I think what I missed most was physically having an analog amp and pedalboard there on stage. Being able to just reach down and quickly adjust one effect.In the end, did the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?I would have to say yes. Although I couldn't tweak my individual effects quite as easily, I found that I didn't need to tweak as much because I had every section of every song pre set and stored in the Gear Box editor. And the X3 Live is surprisingly easy to tweak compared to other modelers I've messed with.How did Kate , the band and the crew adapt to your switch to DI?They were shocked at first... Kate was impressed that I actually gave in and was trying something digital. Mark Tobik who is Kate's bass player is my gear buddy. We sit on the tour bus every night looking for vintage gear and boutique effects. In fact it was funny because on this last tour it was the bass player who had the biggest pedalboard.He thought I had gone crazy leaving behind all my stomp boxes, but was sold after our first rehearsal with it. He couldn't believe how close everything sounded to the record! Our front of house engineer Paul Babikian used to love throwing vintage mic's on my amps, so he was disappointed at first when I told him not to bring out his old 409's cause "I'm going direct". After he got over that, he totally understood why I wanted to bring out the X3 instead of my previous rig. He said "it sounds natural; like it's really pushing air out of those XLR outs"!What were your favorite features of the X3?I love the delays! I've always been a fan of Line 6 Echo Farm plug-in, and the DL4 has been on my pedalboard for years. Since we play to a click, I can have the craziest delays dialed in, in tempo, for each song! I used the Tube Echo & Stereo Delay a lot!Something else that makes the X3 so valuable to me is that I can easily plug it into my laptop via usb where I have all my tones saved. If we change the set I can move the song order around on the X3 so my patches all line up with the setlist. I can also put those patches into another Pod. It’s super easy for me and I’m usually pretty slow when it comes to using computers.What's your wish list for modeling devices, things that would make it a no brainer to switch to completely.I think the only thing that keeps me from using the X3 all the time is that I'm kind of a "gear head" and I love using old amps and effects: when it's convenient enough... but Line 6 is doing a great job of delivering those tones when it just doesn't make sense to haul around all those different devices.What are you up to next?I'll be on the road with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers this fall promoting the new album "The Bear" which comes out September 8th. www.SK6ers.comI've also been in the studio a lot lately finishing up a record that's been about 2 years in the making... It's a project i have with a few of my friends at home in Cleveland called The Vig. - Aug 24, 11
Monday, June 1, 2009
A couple of years ago I bought a Sheryl Crowe live DVD after hearing it blasting at Fry’s. Sheryl’s always great and that version of her band was one of my favorite rock bands of all time.On the first run through I had it spinning while I did a little clean up around the studio. I forget the song, but a tune that had pedal steel on the original record came up and somebody was copping the part dead on. I stopped what I was doing to wait and see who (or what) was playing pedal steel and it turned out to be Peter Stroud playing slide on a Palm Pedal Tele. I had to have one.I had an old Tele body and hardware lying around from the Gator Ax experiment so I had Erik Goehrisch of Lush Guitars tackle the job of finding a Bigsby Palm Pedal and putting it all together. It took more than a year for Erik to track one down but he finally found one and here’s the finished product.He added one of his necks, replaced my fried Tele bridge pickup with a noiseless Seymour Duncan and it’s become my favorite guitar to pick up when I have a spare minute to play for fun. I’ve also used it for some esoteric pedal steel effects on some tracks, most recently on a pub demo for a Mike Elizondo and Carrie Underwood co-write.Now I just need an excuse to learn some of those Tele Hero-Brad Paisley riffs and I’ll really be putting the thing to use.Check out Erik and Lush guitars @ http://www.lushguitars.com/ - Aug 24, 11
Saturday, November 22, 2008
As I began reviewing the parade of guitar gear that’s come through my garage/studio/cartage company warehouse in the last installment of The Rant, the above inquiry came wafting through the MySpace ether. I love hearing from fans and I’m always happy to hear that something I played or made some noise with was well received. That said, I’m still amazed how gear I considered barely serviceable could be viewed by another as an illusive specimen of tonal significance, to be tracked down, tagged and reproduced with delicate, exacting care.I’ve ranted about the “kluge” approach we guitarist have taken to live sonic manipulation. How our effects pedals and racks full of gear were in their initial designs mere imitations of studio devices, solid state and tubular. At best, even with studio quality gear mounted in refrigerator sized cartage racks, they were wired up to make noise through a guitar cab in ways that would have never been a first choice (or second or third) for the designers.My rack, mentioned in the above MySpace mail was no dif. I always hated the effect the rack had on the amps and was never satisfied with the tone. The versatility it provided was it’s only strength. That combined with the fact that it’s weaknesses weren’t that apparent in hardly any house mix of the day.Strange then to get this lovely email from Craig who wants to know the secret of the solo sound on this vid. I’ve been trying to forget that sound for 20 years and now he wants it back! I’m both flattered and flummoxed. Since these were the early days of Guitar Rack Geekdom, I’m also equally confused as to what the actual rig may have been. I was constantly changing gear and routing to try to get the most pure guitar tone out of the system as possible. As memory serves, it was probably the following version of the ever morphing beast that was gapher taped and labeled “Guitar : Dukes”Guitar: Charvel Custom ShopEffects: Eventide Harmonizer (forget the model), Yamaha Echoes (and a lot of other stuff that wasn’t used in this tune)Amps: Mesa Boogie Head (pre for solos), Seymour Duncan Pair (Clean and Crunch sounds, Stereo Splitting) and a pair of Howard Dumble 1 x 12 cabinets with EVs.Yet for all my whining about what the rig did and didn’t do, I suppose it’s all beside the point when that kluge of a rig can elicit this kind of response 20 years later: - Aug 24, 11
Friday, July 4, 2008
Ok, I know I’ve made my Windows friends sick with my Mac prostletizing and I’ve far too many times come off per the above. And with that confession out of the way, I’ll jump right back in again, neck deep.I’ve been a Mac geek from day one. At Joel Goldsmith’s insistence I bought his first Mac SE when he moved up a notch and have been hooked since. Recently when I finally caved in and got an iPhone after years of semi happy Palm and Treo use, I was at once thrilled with the comfort of the interface and ease of sync, and at the same time starting to feel a little like I was being swallowed into the cult. Macbook? Check. G5 tower recording rig? Check. Couple of iPods, guest Powerbook in the living room, separate back up tower, printer rig, airport wifi network and music system inside and out, powerbook retro fitted into a picture frame spinning family photos day and night? Check, check freaking, check.I also within the last year made the jump to Logic. It’s on the laptop and the tower. I tossed Reason, I rarely touch Digital Performer anymore. This weekend I took on an MD gig and needed to get some basic rhythm section charting going that I can catalogue and edit more easily than the chicken scratch versions I’ve been doing all these years. I downloaded all the usual suspects. Allegro, Songwriter, Notepad, Finale and then Sibelius. None of which were very intuitive, all of which would be stand alone apps with semi to hugely painful learning curves and all representing a $200 to $600 worth of check book hurt.After a week of due diligence, I finally cracked open Logic again, (yet another Apple product) and decided to give it’s notation page a second look. 2 hours later I had a very neat, 2 page cart that looked very cool. For a brief moment I winced at what seemed to be yet another robotic step towards complete compliance with the Mac Borg and then I got the hell over it real fast.I’d just spent a week’s worth of spare time with the best notation options on the market and never really got anywhere with any of them. So what if my solution was yet more Apple? It worked. Fast. And really well. And it cost me nothing. It came with the recording software I was already using everyday, which also comes with a boatload of other add ons that would cost into the thousands sold as separate stand alones.So here’s to total, unashamed, Mac Geek-dom. As long as Jobs and company keep delivering, I’ll happily put up with the side effects of discipleship. Forgive me if I get a little moon eyed and pointy headed from time to time. - Aug 24, 11
Thursday, June 12, 2008
OK, I’ve said it. Knuckle dragging, flint rock rocking, Fred Flintstone club swinging (mahogany back and sides?) slope headed, Neanderthals. And I include myself, so put down that pointy chiseled stone object you just picked up. I’ve been headed this way for a while, but several events on recent sessions and things said in recent conversations put my tweak meter in the red. And I do ashamedly admit it goes in the red a little too easily, but that’s another entry.I play a little golf, I ride a lotta bike. Let’s have a look at golf club technology over the last 50 years: Major improvements in materials, weighting, surface construction... a lot of cool stuff that makes the ball go further and straighter. Pro Tour golf courses are now being lengthened and redesigned to challenge the modern pro who can drop a 7 iron 210 yards on the stick when the clubs’ intended distance was 150 yards 50 years ago. Now, John Daily can hit a driver 400 yards, on a rope, off the top of a Pabst can, on no sleep, after a 6 pack for breakfast.Bikes? When I started riding in the early 90s, Mountain Biking was in it’s formative years. Steel frames were the poo. If your front shock went up and down at all, you were a happy guy. Especially if you could focus your bouncing eyeballs enough to see the edge of the trail with all the jarring. Now, the pros, and all ametures who can afford it, ride full carbon fiber rigs with 5 inches of front and rear travel. Barco loungers bombing down the hills, isolated from any intrusion of the rutty fire road and rocky trail by cutting edge, post space age technology. And it weighs as much as a European, Tour de France, Greyhound like road rocket did 10 years ago. They’re Mo Fo fast.And now, on to the new millennia Guitarist. “Dude, check my 1966 335. It’s got the original pickups and tuners” . ...?And you sound like 1966. Trust me, when Eric, George, Keith, BB, Alvin and all those other dudes were playing those guitars in 66, they weren’t trying to sound like 1926. They were playing State of the Art, creating Art. With a capitolA.Pedals... don’t get me started. Distortion/Front End pedals were originally invented to make crappily designed amps sound better. Your amp doesn’t overdrive at a volume that won’t get you fired from your club gig? Try a Fuzz Face. Your Bass/Guitar sound is a little freaking “plinky” coming out of that humongo amp (that’s gonna get you fired) cause you turned it down (so you don’t get fired) ? Try a Dyna Comp! That’ll smooth out your sound so you can stand to listen to yourself for the next 5 hours.Those were very cool remedies for real technical problems, but they were work arounds. The original sounds from the records that we were trying to cop on our gigs with our limited gear were not just amps and guitars. They were guitars played through amp (and multiple amps) but then compressed going to tape where they were again compressed by the tape, then compressed again in the mix and finally compressed once more in Mastering. Then to get all that to our ears and make us fall in love with “that sound”, it was compressed to the max by the local radio station pre broadcast and jammed through a cheesy car stereo or bedroom rig which did it’s own magic, where we fell headlong into that hidden world of Stairways to Heaven and Cars On Hills, La Granges, parties in Marvin’s back yard somewhere in distant LA, spectacular club fires on distant lake shores across the oceans.Then we hit the 80s. OK, whammy-i-tis was widespread and I admit I was infected. Guitar rack systems distorted the line between what was really the engineers job and the performers job but... and a major“but” here; if we had been in the golf biz or cycling world, we would have made elegant slight corrections and marched ahead with technological confidence and artistic purpose. Instead, we shoved our guitar geek necks back up our, or shall I say in the sand and retreated. As of 2008, we have major manufacturers reproducing the sounds of the 60s (with optional relic-ed finishes!) and a boutique business selling even more esoteric reproductions of crap gone by than you can shake a stick at. You can fill a guitar geek store full of it and manage to afford rent in downtown Santa Monica, CA.Here’s the deal: When we all bought the first Boss Overdrive we new it was a kluge: It was the best way available to make our club amp sound like a Marshall that we had heard on a record. Prob was, they sounded thin and nasally; not so Marshall-esque. No bottom end, no thump. To make those boxes musical we had one of a couple of guys around town mod them to give us back our sound. Roland eventually caught on and changed the design to make them more appealing.That was years ago. A friend just recently told me he had gotten a new OD1 and had taken it to a dude to have it mod-ed to the “original specs”. You mean no low end? Too much compression? Exaggerated upper mids? Wow. He paid for that.Here’s the crux of my position: When will the guys come along in our world that will take the Roland boxes, the Line 6 stuff and all the computer options that let you create amazing sounds and manipulate them via multiple controllers and really change the way guitar is played like Jimmy did with the state of the art boxes of his day? Like our keyboard counterparts have been doing with their lap tops and controllers for a decade? Why are we guitarists so heads up our butts?I refer you to the South Park “Smug” episode. There is a strong correlation between our tube burning species and the “Smugs” of the Bay Area and their addiction to their familiar. It’s just geek snobbery. It’s not based in practicality or economics. Or Art. We have fallen in love with our own effortless flatulence.Pardon me while I go get in a ride on something designed within the last decade. - Aug 24, 11
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Amp builder extraordinaire John Kasha is back in the fray after a decades absence spent in the ether of the computer networking industry. He has some very cool cabs and multi channel amps in the new line, but my favorite model in the spirit of “smaller wattage-cranked to the max” as opposed to “larger heads coasting on idle” is The Brick. 2 channels with a boost switch on the 2nd channel, running at a mighty Class A 18 watts.The clean channel has a great natural tube compression at reasonable volumes with a glossy high end that doesn’t get spikey at even the higher settings. My favorite fuzz boxes sound great in front of it and they hold their character well even when cranking the channel volume into the break up range.The crank channel is another beast unto itself. Pushed to the max it has that Kasha “burn tone” that we all loved back in the day, but set at lower levels it’s has a nice fat and warm sound that is reminiscent of the Marshall 20 watt head my buddy Ed Tree used to loan me with the smooth high end of the better of the AC30s I used when I was with Jackson Browne. All in a very portable head cab that’s already getting kudos on sessions in town and from clients and friends in my studio in the valley.It hasn’t made an appearance at a live gig yet as I’m pretty addicted to the Line6 X3 into the Kasha Dubbel Royale at the moment, but I’m looking for a good excuse to build a small pedal board to use with it for some of the more casual live things I get myself into from time to time.Check back for a progress report in a few. - Aug 24, 11
Thursday, June 21, 2007
James’ comments on his Whitebook from Rolling Stone circa Mid 70s. You can see mine in the gear section on the Acoustics page...The next guitar I bought was made by Mark Whitebook . He lives south of L.A. now and hasn’t made guitars in a while. But he was the best. He made me a sort ofMartin-style guitar, like a dreadnought-style, except that his workmanship and the tolerances to which he made these things were extremely fine. They were just great instruments. I’ve got four of his guitars now.Collecting them?He made them for me, because I kept pestering him. He has difficulty making them, because he’s sensitive to the dust and the fine spray and stuff that’s involved in making guitars. And also he put in suck an immense amount oftime that he was just below subsistence level when he was trying to be a professional guitar maker. He shaves all his parts down real fine, so it’s extremely work-intensive. John McLaughlin turned me on to him. He had a cedar-topped Whitebook, and I asked Mark to make me one, too. And that’s the one I still use today - a cedar top and a rosewood body.Were these designed to Whitebook’s specifications, or did you have some input as to what you wanted the guitar to play and sound like?Well, he and I had a number of long talks about how I played and what I liked, what sort of fretboard, what kind of neck shape, what kind of string tensions I’d be using, and how much force I’d be using on the guitar. It was a back and forth dialog for a number of years to come up with it. He is very responsive. I think it is partly a Martin design, but he changes the strutting a little bit underneath it. There are a number of innovations with the intersection of the supports underneath the soundboard ad stuff that he’s responsible for that are real good.Were the specific features of the Whitebook guitars things that you or he borrowed from other models?Well, we really didn’t discuss the tone. That was kind of agreed on by both of us. I don’t know what goes into getting the best tone out of a guitar. I think you want to go for as light and delicate and responsive a soundboard aspossible - on that responds evenly to the range of the guitar. The only variables we could talk about were the gauge strings and how high I like my action and the width and shape of the neck.Did you request a Gibson-type neck radius?Yeah, that’s what I had been using, a Gibson with wider frets and kind of a round neck. Eventually, we settled on something in between that round neck and the triangular shape of a Martin neck, with the thinner frets that Martinputs on. It’s about average width for a steel-string neck.Did you record and perform live with the Whitebook guitars?Yes. Nowadays I’m back to using the cedar one. It’s really whichever one the engineer or soundman prefers. Recently, the cedar one has been finding a lot of favor. And I usually do guitar and vocals live at the same time. We seldom overdub either guitar or vocal - we try not to, anyway. This past time I’ve been so weak with lyrics, and I had laryngitis when we started to record this thing, so I find myself in theunfortunate position of having to overdub lead vocals in many cases. I don’t like to do it; it doesn’t have the same feel for me
-
Posts
-
Tweets
- Ringside seat for an over cooked corner #TOC. Not sure who the rider was, but he was scrambling to reconnect. http://t.co/SnKB8Vq6
- "Assisting" Styleman at the TOC, Glendora Road junction. http://t.co/gvmx5rXW
- View from the LifeCycle this AM http://t.co/NpAlMKru
- Great quite:RT @LAWeeklyMusic: Ana Tijoux: "Recording is like flirting with your songs. Touring is the relationship"
- From the U must be kidding file: just got carded at the stadium. Beautiful night in the ravine. http://t.co/fP6p9hQH
- If only my training diet could look like that: RT“@ClaytonKersh22: Pazookie trio to celebrate a great win!
- @GregKurstin HBD Greg!
- @tim9house mostly
- That would be "Deez Nuts"May 05, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Beautiful morning in Ahmanson/Chesebro on a brief semi flat stretch of trail. http://t.co/xIRJYIyU
- Awaits ride Cacao coma w/Styleman & El Z http://t.co/xtEoO3uV
- RIP Joel: http://t.co/pd8QJEDg
- Ditto: RT @lancearmstrong: For those who complain about workout/training tweets. Fyi, I'm sitting on my ass drinking an ice cold beer.
- Just found this on SnagFilms, really cool story: The Ballad of Bering Strait http://t.co/HJ3sX7pO
- Sunset Strip The Movie on 20/20. The Dane going to bed: "don't get sucked into that Hollywood stuff" me: "we already did!"
- I'm in that club: "It's pretty clear that bad haircuts have played an important role in my work." Trent Reznor at the ASCAP Pop Awards
- Retweet: @GregKurstin "So excited to see everybody's laptop play coachella!" http://t.co/cnt4FdLR
- Top ten reasons public dancing should require a license., from Coachella: http://t.co/lVF9MlvF
-
Studio
-
Posts
- Feb 27, 12
Profile
Kevin Dukes is a songwriter, arranger and producer based in Los Angeles, CA. As a guitarist he has recorded and performed with a virtual “who’s who” of popular music including Kelly Clarkson, Shania Twain, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, John Fogerty, Don Henley, Boz Scaggs, & Chicago. As a session musician he has performed on hundreds of television and film soundtracks and themes, and over 1,000 commercial and advertising soundtracks. Employing his skills as a songwriter Kevin has composed music and lyrics for Platinum status recording artists Chicago and Meredith Brooks, Integrity Records Gold Record status artists Don Moen and The Tommy Coomes Band.
COMMERCIALS, SOUNDTRACKS AND PRODUCTION
Aside song placements on internationally released albums and feature films Kevin’s compositions have been heard around the world via placements by SONY, Arista, RCA,BMG, Universal publishing and LA Post Music in television soundtracks and films from Canada to Australia and Sweden to Israel. Among them The Sopranos, The Late Late Show, Days of Thunder, Prime Time Country, The Price is Right, Ripleys' Believe It or Not, Comedy Central, Garage Take Over and VH1 Classic.
Kevin has worked in the recording studios of Los Angeles as a guitarist, writer and producer, on more than a thousand national and regional commercials for the most prominent music production houses in the world. Spots have included all the major automobile companies, Nike, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, AT&T, Microsoft, Intel, Coors, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, 7UP and others too numerous to mention.
As a guitarist, bassist and multi instrumentalist he has also appeared on many film and television scores and soundtracks including Pretty in Pink, Airplane, Steve Martin’s The Man With Two Brains, Tom Cruise’ Days Of Thunder, and Tom Selleck’s Mr. Baseball, The Untouchables, Diamonds, Home Alone , Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, Touched by an Angel, Beverly Hills 90210, Yes Dear, Star Trek: First Contact, Martial Law, Stargate, Rattled, and The Outer Limits with composers Joel Goldsmith, Chris Stone, Jerry Goldsmith, and Steve Tyrell.
As a result of his experience as a performing and recording guitarist Kevin has worked with Line6 Musical Instruments on their Variax line of modeling guitars, the DT and Spider series of amplifiers and the HD and XT series of amp and pedal modeling pedal boards.He has also worked with Yamaha Guitar Design and with the Sound Design Division of Yamaha Musical Instruments as a consultant with YGD on the Pacifica and Weddington lines of guitars as well as on several lines of Yamaha guitar amplifiers and effects processors. He currently endorses Line6 making use of their extensive line of amplifier and effects modeling devices as well as the Variax line of electric, acoustic and classical modeling guitars.
A consummate musician, Kevin operates his own studio, where he plays all instruments, programs keyboards and drums, and engineers and mixes the tracks.
-
Posts
- Feb 27, 12
DISCOGRAPHY HIGHLITES AS A GUITARIST
Kelly Clarkson: Stronger
Sarah Evans: Three Chords and The Truth
Jackson Browne: Lives In The Balance
Jackson Browne: World In Motion
Dolly Parton: Rainbow
Billy Joel: Koncert
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: A Very Special Christmas
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Playback
Don Henley: The “Michael” Soundtrack
Chicago: Days Of Thunder
Michael Bolton: All That Matters
Michael Bolton: Everybody’s Crazy
Joe Walsh: You Bought It , You Name It
Jennifer Paige: Always You
Jennifer Paige: Positively Somewhere
Deana Carter: Did I Shave My Legs For This? (Single)
Donny Osmond: Christmas At Home
The Muppets: (with Vince Gill, Sting, Don Henley, Linda Rondstat, etc)
The Simpsons Sing The Blues: (with Joe Walsh and BB King, etc)
Juice Newton: Can’t Wait All Night
First Call: Razon de Cantar
Bill Champlin: No Wasted Moments
Kiki Ebsen: Love Loud
DISCOGRAPHY HIGHLITES AS A SONGWRITER
Chicago: Days Of Thunder Soundtrack
Chicago: 21
Uncommon Valor: Brothers In The Night
Meredith Brooks: Blurring The Edges
Don Moen: Like Eagles
Tommy Coomes Band
TOURS
Boz Scaggs: Japan
Don Henley: Boys of Summer
Jackson Brown: Lives In the Balance World Tour
Billy Joel: The Bridge World Tour
Billy Joel: Koncert World Tour
Jackson Browne: World In Motion World Tour
Boz Scaggs: Far East
Jackson Brown: Amnesty International
Boz Scaggs: Follow That Man World Tour
Peter Cetera: World Tour
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
In Concert: Chevy Chase and Richard Tee Band
Thicke of the Night: House Band and Various Musical Guest
Japanese National Television: Boz Scaggs, Electronics Worlds Fair, Tokyo
Soul Train: Don Henley
MTV Farm Aid: Don Henley
The Young And The Restless: Michael McDonald
Solid Gold: Michael McDonald
Rock Palast: German Television, live to Europe and the U.S.S.R.: Jackson Brown
MTV Amnesty International: Live world wide from Giant Stadium: Jackson Brown
HBO: Billy Joel Live from Russia
CBS: Billy Joel Russian Tour Documentary
MTV: Billy Joel Tour Documentary
The Arsenio Hall Show: Jackson Brown
Amnesty International: San Tiago, Chile, Live to South America and Spain: Jackson Brown
HBO Anniversary Show: Bette Midler
The Tonight Show: Mark Cohn
Japanese National Television: Boz Scaggs, Live In Tokyo
Good Morning America: Boz Scaggs
The Tonight Show: Boz Scaggs
Crook and Chase: Peter Cetera
The Tonight Show: Shania Twain
The Country Music Awards: Shania Twain
