Hey this is Brad Davis and you're listening to the Musicality Podcast. Ever
wondered why some people seem to have a gift for music have you ever wished that
you could play by ear sing in tune improvise and jam you're in the right
place time to turn those wishes into reality
welcome to the Musicality Podcast with your host Christopher Sutton. Hi this is
Christopher founder of Musical U and welcome to the Musicality Podcast. Today
I'm talking with Brad Davis a guitar icon in the world of country and
bluegrass music as you'll hear on this episode brad has had an amazing career
as a go to stage and session player in Nashville he's played on Grammy winning
albums and worked with artists like Willie Nelson Sheryl Crow Earl Scruggs
Emmy lou Harris and Johnny Cash he's also an artist in his own right
recording critically acclaimed albums under his own name and writing songs
that have been recorded by well-known artists like Tim McGraw and Billy Bob
Thornton with that resume you might be expecting a lot of swagger and pride but
Brad is actually one of the most down-to-earth and humble musicians I've
ever had the pleasure of meeting I found that really inspiring this episode is a
bit longer than most because there was just so much to learn from Brad we
talked about how he got started and what it took to rise rapidly through the
ranks and perform with some of the biggest names in the world how he was
forging his own path from the beginning and how to do that without getting lost
and stalling out like so many who tried to go their own way he also shared a lot
of killer insights for the guitarists in our audience like how and why his Double
Down up guitar technique can be like having a second language alongside the
traditional down up technique don't miss the videos we'll put in the show notes
to see this in action we talked about how he's able to hone in on exactly the
right region of the strings for his right hand to bring out the best sound
on any guitar and which of your two hands is the most important to train for
technique and even as a busy recording artist and record
JUSA he's still doing this 15 minutes every day himself
this conversation is quite a blend of guitar specifics and deep insights on
career and collaboration in music so if you're not a guitarist please don't be
put off and in fact if you pay attention I think a lot of Brad's comments about
guitar can actually be highly instructive for any musician oh and
don't miss brad revealing the embarrassing nickname he earned around
Nashville and why my name is Christopher Sutton and visit the musicality podcast
from musical you welcome to the show Brad thank you for joining us today
it's good to be here and I'm thanks for a servants and digital coffee for me
appreciate I'd love to hear and you've had an incredible career in music you
know the people you've collaborated with and the success you've had I'd love to
hear in your own words what that journeys been like how did you first get
started and what was your what was it like to develop as a musician over the
years and have such career success in different areas you know I started at an
early age and you've got a little bit of that information that's kind of be in in
this podcast but I started early because I got inspired
you know John Denver Norman Blake Doc Watson Eddie Van Halen John you know
there's there were several Tony rice obviously Clarence white anyway there
were several batches of players that inspired me and I think they inspired me
on a broad range it wasn't like we were like the one I like I like the 14 or the
20 or the 30 and that was a problem for me a little bit I think because it
spread me kind of wide but I think as people listen to this to get better I
had to grab the 100 I had to grab one piece and had to had had to eat that and
digest that one first and once I was done I could kind of I had a little if
you want to call it a little stripe on the shoulder and went on to the next one
that went to the next one and the next one so I had to do that but I think they
all influenced me audibly you know as a player
made me go wow this is great it's such a big garden and I want all the vegetables
in the garden but I've got it I've got to eat you know this thing first and and
to get back to the to the tomatoes and you know that it was because I was kind
of that kind of an idea played played in the Metroplex for years you know
developing listening to different musicians and when I first heard van
Halen I didn't see them I only heard them on the radio and so I heard this
would be to be the db2 tapping thing that that email inhaling does and I'd
listen to it prior to that one was inspired I thought wow that's really
wild he's probably doing that with a pic so I didn't know any different I thought
I'm gonna take my pic and try to mimic that sound the best I can so um I did so
and came up with this technique called double tone up and so it's I asked all
my heroes Tony rice and curry at Doc Watson you know all of the players
Norman Blake all those players out there that I loved so much and still do do you
do this and they know don't do that that's not that's not good don't do that
and so I thought well it sounds really cool well acquit sounds and even my
instructor he got me started and I showed him his technique and he said
don't do that that's that's weird don't you need go down I'm down down up
down up and I go well I know I need to go down up down up down up but I want to
add something else I wanna this is neat it sounds great and basically when I met
our drummer he said well that's a rudiment but that's a rudiment for a
drummer and that's how we would practice with our sticks on a pad we go you know
that that we back and forth with our sticks left and right and I thought wow
that's really crazy man you know I love the rhythm and a Samba rhythm freak I
love rhythms you know I'm really a freak about rhythms and that's probably why I
play a lot of other instruments besides guitar and I'm not just a guitar guy but
but it led me to believe that I got something too kind of unique and in that
I saw van Halen live and I thought wow I totally missed the boat
this guy's got his tongue sticking out like seven inches and he's tapping on
the guitar on this huge stage of this massive crowd and I totally missed it
he's tapping you know I'm doing it with a pic so I
said man I really messed up on this but you know anyway so I kind of got a
little discouraged with it for a while and then started working on fiddle tunes
with it and taking like a traditional Philippines and basically putting the
technique in with that and if I found a place where I was having an issue on
speed I would plug it in so what happened is that the technique came to
me from listening to Van Halen but I didn't have any licks no one knew about
that dump never heard of it for them do that this is terrible that's awful don't
try to integrate that so that's all I got from everybody so basically I had no
lick so I just muted my left hand and I got a metronome as I was learning and
playing all kinds of other music and songs and I would take a little bit of
time each day to go that that just on the strings muted no left hand so what
it did it has allowed me to focus so that kind of helped me later on and now
in yours as I do instructional material to tell people to focus on this right
hand if they don't get the right hand down they might as well just quit
because the left hand will always follow and so I worked really hard just on that
rudiment to get it super fast and and actually it's a great way to practice if
you're at home and the TV's on your wife's watching Hallmark and you don't
want to disturb her you can cover the neck with a towel and you can practice
you know and still and still get your brownie points my year it's the house so
it works really great so that technique basically when I saw
van Halen do it I thought wow this is really crazy I totally messed up and
then it got integrated into Phil Tunes and I started using it live with we had
a group Davis and company in a couple of this local group so we had down through
the years and it started you know started garnering some wow you know what
do you do your hand is not moving what are you doing there and I said once
going down down up down down up down up you know and then the technique got a
little bit more expanded and I started to flip it upside down and I started to
also instead of flipping it upside down I started adding some standard down ups
and front and back and basically the down down-up was a train car and almost
basically going to either use the train car by itself I was going to add a
couple of links in front of the train car
it to expand the lick or double the train car or you know that kind of
theory and just a pretty simplistic way to look at it but it allowed me to kind
of figure out mathematically how I was going to try to try to broaden this and
I'm not a technical guy I'll learn by ear however I'm imagining - Texas A&M
and I and I do audio production for A&M so I've had to kind of quantify
analytically and academically the things that I know to teach well in that arena
I've always made fun of PhDs and you know for years but I have a high respect
for them and and I should have always had a high respect for because I'm kind
of sitting in that thing as artist-in-residence and they do treat me
with respect because I know more about what I do then they do at this
particular College but so but the technique is really giving me a little
bit of a calling card even though my down-up down-up is is fundamentally
necessary for survival you have to have down-up down-up down-up Steve Kaufman
has a camp and I got asked her one year to teach only because the students asked
well Steve does not like my technique I love Steve death he's a very talented
player and won a lot of contests and he's brilliant the things that he's done
for our industry but he does not like my technique at all because his technique
he teaches his down-up down-up down-up and you have to use a certain pick and
that's really important until you decide you want to maybe integrate French into
your language or Spanish in your language or you know that I look at
double down up this is another language just like you if you had a jazz or
sweeping it's another language in there when you already speak so it's always
been impressed with me that someone's bilingual or their quod lingual or
whatever you know it blows me away like wow no I know one man that saw enough so
if you have that on a guitar it's it's kind of like wow that's amazing so I
really wanted to to integrate that in and I got asked to the camp one year and
it didn't turn out well I haven't been asked back because they it's like having
candy when you show them something like the Double Down
that's so simple down and down that's all it is and you repeat that a million
times over it's like starting the motor you go and this right hand just does
down down up down down up you know and you just rotate that like a stylist
across the strings no one were to put it is important and that's a little bit of
a technique and a little bit of takes a little bit of time to do that but the
thing is is that it's it they hear and they go wow that's amazing but that does
not sound like this guy and that to me Christopher I mean if I can do anything
in this business is having a thumbprint if I do anything if I can just have a
thumbprint so I go that guy sounded different that that's payoff total
payoff for me yet yeah so it ended up being something that made me have two
guns in the holster so I had a right a left gun at this point I had my down
down-up down-up of a man and the double down up and so when I got I did a
session in Abilene Texas and stop me if you need to but I did a session in
Abilene Texas with Ricky Skaggs bandleader at the time Gary Smith and I
was excited wow this is great Carrie Smith there they were hot Ricky's
hit just came out that was really big on the country charts and and I I was a fan
obviously was a bluegrass er and moved in the country so I was like wow this is
great so I got asked man you're fantastic we'd love for you to sing
harmony and play rhythm and then say would be great man while I was going to
North Texas State University at the time which is now University of Texas that
was an art major I was trying to get a backup in case I moved to Nashville I'll
have some kind of a cup but I would jam with a one o'clock band during my breaks
in the hallway okay we had we had a lot of fun man and I got to meet Clint strum
the guitar player for Merle Oh hundred four years and anyway I got to to really
kind of get a little taste of some other stuff at that point but I got a chance
to work for Skaggs and and my professor said go you'll never get this
opportunity again leave go do it you have one year left
go do it so I'd love to got there got my apartment and said I'm coming up and
it's a great great we'll set up the meeting with
Ricki and then I kind of knew worth the re-edited met him a couple times at
bluegrass festivals and neat thing about a bluegrass festival I think is that you
can actually walk up and meet people it's getting a little bit different
people have managers and I'm in the same boat I have agents and people that
represent me and they do that for reason to to keep safe and not wear you out and
that kind of thing but you can actually get close to folks and that's kind of
nice and so I kind of admit Ricky Pryor you know maybe a couple years ago and so
I got to town in two weeks went by no phone call I get my apartment I'm in
Nashville's is pretty big deal I just moved I'm 20 years old I'm like wow you
know this is great no phone call and I'm just at the apartment you know I'm
thinking what's up with this so I had country boy I think that was a song that
had just gone and I just got number one for Ricky and I had it on the coda phone
you know I'm back and we had cut of funds and I had just blistering fast I
played it and said it's Brad Davis if you want me to leave a message kind of
thing and so I had that on my Kota phone which
leads to something right after this I wanted to tell you about that and then I
got a call two weeks later and and Gary Smith said you don't have the job and I
was like well you kidding me I've told my family we had you had left University
you moved to city you'd waited a few weeks and only to be told that no
actually you don't have the gig Oh terrible man I mean you know it was like
wow wow you mean I've told it I told the entire world that I've got this job and
I don't so what am i a liar that's anyway kweilyn patent had been offered
the job no Whalen was a very good singer and very talented artist and songwriter
and it they had offered a team he turned it down
and so they offered it to me and so when I got to town wailing I said you know I
think I want that job and so called Ricky back and Ricky said okay well uh
you know call Brad tell him you're out so I was like uh gonna be kidding me man
this is awful so I had about caught about three days of just sure dark
depression you know I remember her hey and it was great for me it was the
probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me
because it it gave me some really thick skin
and I think I guess the positive thing is if you can get through that and just
get on the other side and go okay dust yourself off and go okay I'll guess I'll
work at Walmart no big deal you know whatever it takes so I got a job at
Opryland market land was hiring at that point and I did not have I mean I play
guitar learn to play guitar I was what I was best at so I got there all the
guitar our positions were taken and they said well you can take fiddle Nessa's
well I'm pretty darn good on mandolin but I don't really play fiddle that well
and so I bought a $200 fiddle with this pawnshop
I had tuners on it so I could tune it easier than the regular tuners and so I
started working on fiddle because they all they wanted was that scratchy
riverboat fiddle they didn't need anything like super detail so thank God
for me it was really just basic fiddle and that was this bee who did it you
know doing the old simple stuff as you walk on the riverboat there and at
Opryland and I did that for about six months and uh and then I got to call
from I got to call from Gary's brother Jack Smith and Jack was the bandleader
for the Forster sisters and they were signed to Warner Brothers and it had
three number ones and we're getting ready to do their fourth number one and
they jack said I just got a call from her brother
he says you didn't get the job with Skaggs and so I was pretty broke apart
about that you know and he said but if that's you playing on this machine
you're hired and I was like hard to do what and he
said play lead guitar that's a WoW lead guitar wow this is amazing you know so
you never know things always work out so it was for the Foresters sisters and
they just had their hit just in case you ever changed your mind just in case I
guess what they called it um so so I get the job and we opened for
Conway Twitty in arenas I mean so I go from a quiet bluegrass player to massive
volumes you know and huge crowds the guy who left the gig was a really
good flat picker Roy curry and good friend of mine and I don't know if he
had any play and get me on the gig but he was amazing and I saw videos of him
and I was like and I gotta step it up you know these guys this guy's good man
so all I had to do was learn the material and mimic it exactly the way he
played it for at least a couple months and I've learned this over time and then
you morph it into your own thing and they like you they're comfortable and
but you gotta you gotta you gotta give them what they're used to you really do
and so so I did it I stepped into the gig I didn't have electric guitar at the
time I went down I bought one of the pawn shop and a pedal and they are
having the rig the electric rig goes on stage and so they made us wear these
baggy black pleated pants and these shirts and with the band had to match
but I was glad because my legs were shaking man I didn't anybody you know my
legs were shaking so the bag here the pants were better
but it was scary you know I had to learn all of these lead parts and I had a good
ear because I've been learning bluegrass I've been learning up records we didn't
have a a more you know a slow mo box we didn't have any that stuff that's
strictly off album so we had to listen multiple times and this is I teach a
class with this as we as we roll along you know at the time I teach a class
where you get you get played a lick or a phrase and you've got him you got to
memorize it instantly and my ear was good enough to learn this stuff
note-for-note and to actually know where the timber was and where he played it at
you know I'd go like no that's not right he's up here and you know most guitar
players and people always need to remember this they're gonna go for the
easiest place possible they are gonna go the easiest route we are lazy musicians
I say that loosely because I'm always on time and I'm a 5 a.m. kind of guy and I
say that about everybody else loosely as well but it's the old joke right but the
thing is you want to go to the easiest possible spot to play that so you got to
think no I'll never be able to figure that out there's no way no I think go to
the easiest fat man you think it's gonna be at and start there and then go to the
next spot that obviously would be an octave higher
just not--that's the same notice just up the neck as an ATAR we've got that
availability to go up the neck and play the same thing so you always got to
think about it's not gonna be that tough it's not gonna be that hard and the
reason I say that is years later if I can interject I got hired to play with
jon jorgenson quintet and it was a pile of material
that i had never ever looked at in my entire life
yeah I mean cords I mean I knew some jazz chords but I could fake my way but
I really didn't know what it was all about it's that and I'm just going to
interject quickly on this because I had no idea and I thought oh my gosh how am
I gonna do this and I had to basically go to that simple part a simple area
that I thought this guy was playing the rhythm at and I had to get there first
and get my head wrapped around and then I could expand on it because it's
overwhelming I mean you you get 15 CDs on Friday night at 8 o'clock you do a
two-hour rehearsal the bus leaves Saturday at midnight and that's all
rehearsal you've got and you've got to learn all of these songs note-for-note
to go and start doing a show you're at the Knitting Factory in New York on
Sunday I mean so you're freaking out you're gonna like I'm not gonna sleep
I'm just not gonna sleep at all I'm gonna just drink coffee and stay at the
learning stuff so you got to think about those easy spots but you know it was
playing with the Foresters Sisters was great I I had my technique my main thing
was to not really try to integrate it but it was trying to mimic the guy that
I was coming in to replace we opened for Conway Twitty for a year and then we
opened for Kenny and Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton big stages huge venues and
so it was a bit of a shock to me you know when I first came in on this thing
I was there five years and and it gave me a chance to kind of say I'm one soul
and so that was really what helped a lot I actually had a where he playing with
playing with so-and-so you know and so that that helped a lot in town he gave
me a lot of credibility and it was it was a tough
for ladies and it was a four-cylinder PMS motor and they wouldn't mind me
saying that one day ii would love you that same day to it hate you then it was
a tough gig you know you had to deal with that dynamic but it really helped
me doing with people I think it helped me to know when to say things I not the
same things I'd be a little bit more have a really good bedside manner about
things and it kept humble because they were on you all the time if you made a
mistake they all four would look across the stage and I'm thinking I'll do that
no one knows I made the mistake no one knows and now they do so so what
it did is it so I know there's a whole I hate to interrupt I know there's a whole
extra phase we haven't even covered to your musical journey but I think it's
fascinating that you were able to kind of jump in and swim at the deep end like
that cool and scary as an instructor yourself yeah as an instructor yourself
I'm sure you've encountered this with students where they're torn between
wanting to follow a course or follow what they're told to do versus finding
their own path and learning in their own way and it sounds like you were very
much kind of forging your own path learning by ear figuring out your own
technique where did the confidence to do that come from and do you have any
insight on what made that work because you know there are so many students who
go that route and just kind of wander in the wilderness without really making
progress I think the one thing that made that work was it was a fiddle player
named Solomon Vernon Solomon was his name and he was a fiddle player
traditional Texas field player and had a jam session one time he grabbed my pinky
and he grabbed a pair of nips for four strings you know the trim has strings
off and was threatening to cut my pinkie off and he said you don't use it so I'm
taking it off I don't see you using it at all I said okay fine man that's great
I'll use it you know I'll try to use so anyway I started using it and he he said
you know take that fiddle tune and you know it and see yeah you're real
confident oh man I got this and see so you got to get one key confident you
should take one tune that you know the melody so well that you can hum it all
the way through the Part A and Part B if you can't hum the melody all the way
through you should cook another song pick one son that you really of the
melody learned really well and then you take that song and you any suggest
learning it and D you already know it just throw it in D so now the challenge
is not so hard right so you're you kind of know what
you're doing you're kind of a little bit familiar with it and you throw it in G
and these throw it and throw it about five different keys and when you do that
your confidence level quad triples I mean okay I can't tell you what it does
for you but it will absolutely turn you into Superman to where you feel like wow
man I you know I can it's almost like speaking five languages you know and see
a lot of times you get the jam session ago we're gonna do soldiers joy and so
it's either into your G or seat one of the two keys
so what keep your gonna do it we're gonna do it and see so yeah do it and
see the federal players I can see but if you modulate pull to know the key all of
a sudden you're almost looked as being a little bit of a bluegrass professor
you've jumped it up a notch you popped it up into this next realm you know and
everybody's going I don't know an A but this guy does and so all of a sudden
your confidence level shoots way up and that's the first way to do it let's take
something very simple and you may want to take something as simple I've got
some classes I do that are beginner classes and we're getting ready to do a
buttload of new stuff with Alverez and based on this type of thing where you
may want to take jingle bells as Christmas take something you know by the
back of your hand and you know them the melody and learn it in about five
different keys just just in front of it you know jingle bells jingle bells
that's it just learn that about five two pinkies take a little bit at a time
bite off a little bit at a time I do know this that in my own playing um
seven days a week in the studio and I love producing I love riding riding so I
got in the business that's actually the main reason I was going to get into
business was to write songs love to write songs and but I have a studio here
because I really didn't know if I was gonna have work we came back to Texas
for a sick father-in-law to be with him and and I'd left Sam Bush at the time
which we'll get into that later but they also do commit career suicide
I said well you know he's only gonna last six months so we moved back here
set up a studio so we're seven days a week here but at the same time I'm busy
I try to take at least 10 minutes or 15 minutes a day and I in and I practice
RPP rhythm pick pattern and my double down up so I practiced those things with
a muted left hand I do not use my left hand and notes and because they don't
have time I don't have time to focus what's gonna happen Christopher is I'll
get and I'll get a song idea and then all of a sudden I'm off to an hour
obsession and I don't have time for that but I'm not gonna be able to shut that
down and I'll have to record it on the phone and try to keep some notes so I
can come back to it later and makes it frustrating so I practice a muted left
hand and the RPP pattern is quickly is taken just basically the first stage is
G C and D and L ng you're gonna play down up down up down up down up and
you're gonna do six four three two six four three two one you're holding the G
chord and so basically that's going to give you down up down up 6 4 3 2 6 4 3 2
and it gives you basically the pattern rhythm
however it's like taking a photo and blown it up five times and seeing all
the pixels it allows you to get inside the network of the rhythm and see the
pre you know that all the skeleton of what you're doing when you play fast
it's kind of its kind of loose and you kind of you want to make sure you
maintain the groove but when you slow down you you're able to grab more notes
and so you're able to spread that photo really wide and you're opening up the
pixels and you're able to grab them each note individually so I practice on that
G is 6 4 3 2 and C is 5 4 3 2 obviously we start with a bass note on C at the
top which is the low section of the guitar that's the top where the strings
are and then D start 4 3 2 4 3 2 1 and so those patterns are debt that
that's that you know run through them and I'll do the muted left-hand and then
I'll do my double down up so those those patterns help you keep fresh now
someone's gonna ask how to use them on other chords
absolutely if the basin starts on the sixth string throw an F or E or whatever
you want to same thing with C a minor you got it I mean it's pretty easy to
figure out you know in mess with different chords using the RPP but the
RVP will keep your right hand so dialed in for down up down up down up and your
rhythm it'll-it'll it'll make a different player absolutely but if you
do it's a little each day you know and don't fight off too much it makes a huge
difference but um but it basically you know that technique of playing down up
down up and I will have to come in see if Kaufmann on that is essential I mean
it's like having socks on before you put your shoes on you gotta have it you
cannot move forward without it I wouldn't want to just have a double down
up it would be monotonous it wouldn't sound great it would be like way too
many notes it's not that musical you have to really work hard to make it
musical yes problem the left hand comes in on that particular part of the
equation so I think that's a great example maybe of how you approach this
whole thing of you know sticking to the coolest verses forging your own path in
that clearly you are that's funny you said bluegrass professor there I think
that's a great Freight you know you're you found your own path and you were
constantly learning and learning by ear but clearly you were doing it in a very
intentional methodical and disciplined way I mean for someone who's had your
success to still be practicing technique fifteen minutes a day is quite a quite a
sign of how seriously you take it and how thoughtful you are in developing
your musicality and maintaining the abilities you've developed
yeah and it's it's the free throw I mean the ball players never stop practicing a
free throw basketball players talk and I'm not a sports guy I don't have time
for sports but I know they always practice the free throws they never stop
never stop and so I look at this as being the free throw it helps me on
electric as well and the one thing that it does this is really important for for
players and I'm so in love with the idea of helping others it's fun man I love it
it's rewarding and if anybody gets anything out of this interview hopefully
it'll be this but the guitar is got attention from
because a guitar from the bottom of the fretboard all the way back to the bridge
there's attention and obviously towards the towards the bottom of the fretboard
it's real loose and towards the bridge that's tighter everybody's different
everybody feels attention different everybody wants a different tension they
require a different tension for balance and it's all basically based on your
balance how is your balance so when you play something you don't crash you've
got a great steady right hand and a lot of times people to practice and go I
can't get it any faster than this I'm as slow as I can I practice it's 60 beats a
minute when I do my my RPP it's that slow it's extremely methodical and slow
and so it's almost as someone has said before it's like Chinese water torture
you hear that drop hitting you in the head it's like this is gonna drive me
crazy man so what I do is I use a use of drum machine program to do because you
know a metronome would kill you after a while you'd want to you don't want to
you know want to exit the planet if you had to do that every day but it's it's
nice having a drum machine because it gives you a little bit of a vibe on how
to read the 1 and 3 you know the kick snare you know kick hat snare kick hat
snare and it gives you a chance to learn how to read that and helps a little bit
better and playing with other people but 60 beats a minute
and slow it's really slow but the one thing about the RPP is that when you
take it and you practice it it helps you based on this tension thing I was
talking about it's real spongy towards the fretboard and real type towards the
bridge same thing on electric guitar they're all the same so you got to
figure out where you're at where's your best spot where is you know when you can
when golfers go to play and they're on TV they try to find that spot then go
this is my zone and they're in it and if they can grab that zone and hit the ball
they know they're gonna be able to control and hit it wherever they want
see it's the same thing about guitar if you can just get yourself in this spot
you can you can basically do what you brain wants you to do you're trying to
do for enjoyment or for work or whatever the RPP will help you do that when you
when you do left hand muted you're basically let's say you do it for G 6 4
3 2 you're gonna start at the bridge and you're either going to post or
you're gonna float your right hand is going to post your float everybody's
different everybody likes to do it different I'm worth a lot because I'm do
electric guitar on sessions and I'm doing mandolin I'm doing acoustic guitar
and bass arm I'm constantly doing almost all of those because I have to depending
on the instrument in a type of style that I'm working on but it forces you to
move the hand towards the spongy part of the loose tension of the strings then
try the six four three two and go whoo I don't like that at all so you pull it
back a little bit and you go that's a little better you pull so you'll find
that gauge that where you feel really comfortable and as you do the RPP it
forces you your hand to go to that same spot every time every single time and so
if I get a guitar thrown at me that I don't know the guitar my right hands
gonna find that spot I mean it's it's almost like it's a radar man it's like a
computer my right hand goes right to that spot and someone says my guitars
never sound that good the only reason is because I go to that spot that I'm
comfortable in and I know I can dial in that tone my ear hears the tone I'm
after my right hand goes for the weighted part of the strings both of
those come together kind of like our audio and our video here and that that
basically helps you zero the laser man on your spot that you need to have that
awesome feel where you're totally relaxed and you're you're barely hanging
on the pic I barely hold a pic barely hold it now if I've got a banjo player
I'm jam and I'll grab it and I'll hold it a little tighter because I'm gonna
have to get a little more muscle on the acoustic but for the for the most part
when I'm doing double down ups I'm barely hanging on the pic just barely
holding it I want to be in that super relaxed zone and a lot of people go man
you're you're beating the heck out of that guitar it sounds like you're this
wham you know I go I'm not I mean I'm playing lightly and I remember meet and
levon Helm I was on tour with the box masters and Billy Bob Thornton and levon
Helm were actually really good friends and we went to his midnight ramble which
is so cool in New York man we got to go twice of that but I saw leave on play
and leave on play but you thought he was killing those drums man thought he was
beating them to death he was barely hitting them but you when you saw him
you thought wow it's the same idea same idea you know barely
that's why people say your hand never moves when you're doing the double
it's like how are you doing that you know it just barely moves I said man I'm
going the easiest route possible I want to move as little as possible
and and and make his little effort so I can last longer while I'm doing what I'm
doing and so it it always goes back to that thing that I joke about you know
musicians are lazy I'll go for the easiest path to the goal and that's true
and I know a lot of times you go oh no there's a lot of players that are really
advanced and yeah there are you know there are they're not as popular I mean
you know the guys that are simple the ones that actually for some reason are
more popular me look at cash cash was not a great guitar player he was an
innovator ami Lou Harris not a great guitar player innovator you got Martin
off Fleur not like an amazing room or sit on a blow your head off but Manny's
got a technique that you just go whoa I mean I learned it I mimicked it for
years because I was amazed by it's all you know so I'm just saying simplicity
is so important and as a bluegrass player it's funny coming from me a guy
plays a lot of notes on a dull tone up I got a schooling when I got with the
Forster sisters I got a schooling on you know I thought man I played Skaggs I'll
go I could play a lot of notes even though it's a rhythm player I had had I
think Grant grandeur ideas about playing a lot of notes and having fun but with
the Forrester sisters it was like you gotta play what you got to play and then
we need a break I need four measures I don't want you to play anything but in
fact you could smoke a cigarette shut up and smoke the cigarette give me a break
you know so I learned that early on and I think what taught me a lot about that
was the music I was I was having to learn by ear the the the lead plane that
was on that record and Skinner and Wallace out of muscle shoals had
produced this record that I actually had jumped on the road with the fortress and
so they had some great players on I mean amazing Muscle Shoals players on this
record ray flack actually was one of the players from from the UK one of my
favorite players of all time and so I had to learn you know his what he was
doing you know and so there was a lot of space in there it was tastefully done
things were left out and it reminds me of horn players I'm
such a horn freak about their technique because they breathe Brad I dad and dad
the dad dad they come back and they take a breath you know so the ticking of
breath and so they're allowing things to kind of breathe like a like a real a
real living thing and so that's why I want like a smart plan to be and I know
that sounds crazy a lot of people on there me listen and go oh that guy plays
notes all the time and he's like the note guy and yes there are times when
it's appropriate within the DoubleDown up technique if you do play a lot of
notes that here's the challenge with that as somebody who's advanced at it
and then doing as long as I have you have to create the notes become the bed
and what happens on top of the notes as you create melody on top of that and so
the melody on top of this by that that's like having the car run it so the cars
running in the background and on top you're having a conversation with your
mother and so you can either talk a lot or you could listen she could listen and
it's kind of that kind of a vibe but that motors running in the background so
that's kind of way to double down on visits it's per and in the background
then you're hitting notes that are basically creating almost simultaneous
notes are the same note and so you're not getting a lot of color you're
maintaining this neutral kind of thing and on top of that you're going by that
that and that and that and that so you're that's that's the easiest way
I can describe it and so it's almost like having a drummer back there plan
and you've got our single halls guys who have become friends with on their horn
section the drummer's factor bats he's hitting that and they're going bottom
day that's punch and they're doing the same thing they're playing this drum
beat they play a phrase they stay out they play so it's an exact same concept
mathematically as the double down ups you know a lot of times you hear all
those notes he goes oh god this is just so much to handle so I had to figure out
a way to create this mode or you know obviously the drums are playing in
abandoned you don't thank God quit it's killing me
you like that the drums are playing the bass is playing with it the horns are
playing with the pianos playing with it and it sounds good so you don't say get
rid of that you like that so I wanted to create that type of an idea based on
what I already knew about bands that would not offend a listener you know
it's over you a touring with the forest assesses and where did things go from
there I like like on those tours you know I had a chance to meet a lot of
great players or rub elbows and those connections are endlessly valuable I had
heard that Marty Stewart had fired ray flack it had been a problem somewhere
you know maybe personality probably never know we know he's one of the best
players in the world so no question there but personalities are important so
a wininet gig I really wanted that gig and I've been playing electric for about
five years it wasn't great at it but I was pretty good so I wanted that gig so
I told a friend of mine I'm gonna try out for that gig they said oh you don't
want that gig there man they're wild on the road these guys are crazy they're
nuts and and he's hard to work with and blah blah blah and so I said well I'm
gonna try out for it man you know so I went to the audition and the guy that
told me not to show up was in the line of the audition about ten ahead of me
there were 31 guys I was 31 I was a last guy there that day so everybody tried
out a lot of really good players amazing players and the only problem with that
gig is that these players thought they'd be playing lead guitar wide open all the
time and that wasn't the gig the gig was up to support Marty Stewart for first
and foremost so a lot of really hotshot telly players try it out and they did
not get the job maybe because it were he could tell they were unwilling to
support him I don't know or attitude or whatever but nonetheless it were like
some of the best of the very best and so I was the last guy in I brought in my
aunt my guitar and Marty Stewart I wanted to kill him that day and I told
him that later because he said we're gonna take all the songs that you
learned on the CD we're gonna sharp and flatten them as we roll along randomly
so get ready so it's like you kidding me man this is incredibly the worst thing
in the world that he's mad because some of these songs had to be played in
certain keys because they just had to this just the way they were written and
they didn't sound and so I said well I'm gonna tell you
first off that this is probably gonna really suck and it's gonna take it right
off the bat it's gonna suck but it's your show and if you want to sharp and
flat these and try me out I'll do the very best I can and anyway so we went
through it and some things were great some things were not so great he said
can you flat pick and I said I can flat pick I can flat fit so we played so
destroy in a couple of the songs and and no problem there because I knew the
songs you know so he caught back so really guy and I said what do you mean
on the guy idea cuz I knew some of these players that were in line they were
amazing he said I don't need an attitude I don't need the best telly player in
the world I need a player that I can train and
mold and then we'll take lessons from richard Bennett and I don't know if
you're familiar with richard Bennett but richard Bennett produced guitar town for
Steve Earle he was with Neil Diamond for 19 years and right now since the
recording industries kind of had a lull in Nashville he's on the road with dire
straits well Mark Knopfler he's Mark Knopfler's second guitar player
Richard's amazing amazing so I had to go to his house two days a week and take a
lesson his wife was from Britain and she would make a cup of tea every morning of
course you know spots of tea time she felt that it was really amazing and I
just really cherish those moments and Richard would say here's the intro you
can learn the rest of it I said no no no no no no no I have a cassette player
because that's were really hot at that time I said I'm gonna put it on record
I'm gonna set it down here I want the whole song from front to back every song
I don't want to just shoot man he went through every song and played it and I
sucked that stuff up like a sponge so what happened is he gave me a chance to
fit into this Marty gig Marty Stewart gig as the guy that actually played just
like the record I was playing all I'm just like Richard and anything that ray
did I copied note-for-note so it really gave me an advantage so I
went on tour with Marty and we we ended we started at the man famous Club in LA
shoot Palomino Palomino club and I showed up
we've been rehearsing all the way out there and I was a good singer but I was
doing singing and playing at the same time and so I was pretty unhappy with
what I was doing because the band was so loud I couldn't hear and so I had to
really get my head wrapped around how do I survive in this loud environment it's
where I can hear and do the best job I can and so on the way out there Johnny
Cash was there that night this was this was the hillbilly hot hill hillbilly
bands what it was called first of all and then it ended up changing to the
rock-and-roll Cowboys when some of the members changed and left and went on to
other things but I stayed with that band but it was a
cash that night Dwight Yoakam and Tony Brown from MCA records was there so we
play the first show and then I overheard Tony Brown telling Marty Stewart man
this guy's awful man he can't hardly sing and barely plays the parts right
you know and I was just I was scared to death you know basic services can be and
so I thought leave man you know I gotta step it off
I gotta get better and so I I started practicing you know we had hotel rooms
on the road and we had our own hotel rooms at times and so I would just
practice and practice and practice and practice you know millions of hours on
these songs you know trying to make sure I had him down and so I was there for
you know quite a while and with Marty Stewart you get fired and then you get
hired back it's kind of like working for Johnny Cash one of those kind of things
and and sometimes you'd quit that's it but it was kind of like a family you
know you'd come back I remember my first year with Marty Stewart he came up to us
about a week before Christmas and said I'm taking a year off see you guys next
year and I at that particular point and it was probably actually about my third
year in our fourth year in I'd been I got married in Nashville met my wife
there and had our first kid and bought a man and all of a sudden were we had a
year off and they'll pay all these smokes so I ended up diving into session
work pretty heavy but anybody gave me a name
sure kinda gave me a name and Mari was fantastic in the fact that he say Tony
Brown would say you know you use your band you're gonna use you know you use a
Harry Stinson on drums and Matt Rollings on piano and and Stuart Smith on guitar
level and all this stuff that he wanted done for the record label because Marty
Stewart took Steve Earle slopped that's how more he got into MCA records Steve
Earle had had some serious medical issues and couldn't pull himself out or
where he was at and so they gave the entire slot to Marty and it fit
perfectly because Steve Irwin oyster kind of the same kind of outlaw thing so
you know I basically you know I did a lot of session work and Marty gave me
the the Marty always used to so 20 Brent would say you can't use the band he
would say I'm using my band or I'm not going to record so I gotta hand it to
him he was he was just an amazing coach an amazing advocate for us then we would
play on Johnny Cash albums we would play with Sheryl Crow Inglaterra I mean
Dwight Yoakam even Steve Earle when he got back on his feet I mean all kinds of
great opportunities Willie Nelson Bob Dylan I mean things that Marty would
bring us and on and the reason why he was so confident is because I was
nicknamed the whipping post in Nashville behind my back I didn't know this but I
basically they said that because I would pretty much do whatever Marty it was
Marty's kick I mean I was hired to help Marty and do what he wanted me to do and
if you wanted me to do this that's what my job was
I draw us to do that and if I didn't want to do that I should leave but he
knew that in confident they can say I need Emmylou Harris is playing guitar
today and she's gonna play rhythm and her guitar plan is really cool but we're
probably not gonna be able to keep that on the track we're probably gonna have
to replace that and but nonetheless Amy's got an amazing style so more you
said I want you to watch her and I want you to replicate it as we as we
retracted and we mean your guitar to be her guitar on the track so I watched her
and figured out exactly where her hand was where it was on the guitar and
grabbed the same type of Gibson and and basically had her guitar and one ear
louder than the rest of the band so that I can basically mimic that and so that's
the kind of thing you were thrown into was to really step it up and try to try
to do the part that you needed to do anyway so I was a whipping post I think
for years they called me that but I left at one point and and went to work for
the sweethearts of the rodeo and they had a bluegrass band and so I left I
went to work for them and just needed a change I needed I entered the wind
filled guitar championship knowing I wouldn't win with my double down up so I
had them in a certain level and I wanted to kind of show that off and I you know
my wife so you're you know you're probably gonna whaling on that you know
it's the thinking that they're gonna hate me are they gonna love one or two
things are very traditional and so I remember getting on stage and had the
crowd standing ovations but the judges were not happy because it was not doing
a standard technique and they can tell so but I've made an impression the guy
who wanted next year said you're the guy that got the standing ovation in the
black leather jacket that played the stubble down on stuff he said I won that
year you should have won I was like no no no you were fantastic
and you won and that's with that I got there for me I got there for me I needed
to do that then when I left Marty Stewart I went down there to just kind
of say I gotta I gotta do something for myself but I got a job with the
sweethearts and was able to record on their records and try my brad bender I
had patented the Brad bender and it was a vendor that you know what working for
Marty Stewart bends on guitars you're gonna get kind of sucked into it so I
patented that and was able to work out the kinks on stage during touring and
that kind of thing with them froze her for about two years named Marty Stewart
hired me back and I came back with the Rock and Roll Cowboys at that point and
was there for a good while I know most feels fantastic we had big venues we we
co-headline with Travis Tritt so there were arenas and it was fantastic
great experience for me and got a lot more a lot more credibility in an
accession world because I was asked back to a gig and paid more money and it you
know it makes you look better and I wasn't fired at that point I'd actually
left I was trying to leave without get fired mori we just
we go everybody's fired you're out of here sorry back but that was kind of a
normal thing but you gave me a chance to work with a lot of great people that
Rose Maddox for the Maddox brothers in Los Angeles I never would have worked
with him I never would have met Billy Bob Thornton I never would have met cash
or do ye oakum or the list goes on of the people that I met with Marty stir
because Marty stir across a lot of bounds he dated Kirstie Alley for years
when he was working with Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash so he was kind of in that he
wasn't this country he wasn't that I don't know that world folk art conical
thing and so he he crossed a lot of boundaries and when he introduced me to
Billy Bob Thornton we became good friends for some reason we just we met
in contact there and I got to a certain point where it was time to leave the
rock-and-roll Cowboys and Billy Bob was going on tour in the UK we had a
six-month tour in Europe he had some film work to do and so we formed that
band and I was able to jump in since I had someone's credibility in the studio
for Marty Stewart I was able to jump in and help co-produced the record so it
was like really awesome marty was on board to produce the first one for Luke
Louis's mercury and then he got kind of busy and and his career started taking
off again and so he had to bail out and and I hopped in the seat it was a
awesome opportunity and and Christopher at Billy's house it was like a big pink
he bought Slash's house which was owned by sussel B DeMille on Sunset and
Roxbury Drive and slash had put a studio in there lifted the house off and put a
studio in there for Guns N'Roses incredible at 1010 million dollar house
then he lifted up five feet can you imagine what that cost I want to think
about it so Billy Bob and Angelina Jolie bought that house and so Marty was
producing there and that's how I met him and there at the cave and then I
engineered there for about seven years I didn't live in LA but Billy Bob Thornton
had a room in his house and it was my room and I would just pop in that's how
close we've been over the years and I was able to produce but I met I met the
guy who are pretty Simon and Garfunkel there Robbie Robbins with the band
I met John Hyatt and Tommy char from sticks I mean all these people that I
met I would never met ever you know and you know my
thing is I'm always been around the business so long it's not like oh I got
would you please sign this for my wife or what I never said that and I probably
should have a precious how about how about a selfie man never said that I
never always acted like that one of the guys I'm running on the board I'm not
gonna pay attention to that and make them feel comfortable and probably
missed out on a lot of opportunities but I just never felt like it's the right
thing to do you know the bagram but anyway well I think I've probably got to
jump in and ask a couple of questions that I think are on everyone's mind
because you've mentioned such incredible stars there and there can be a few
musicians who have collaborated with so many incredible people over the years as
you have and I'm sure the audience is wondering a couple of things one is you
know what what was it like to work with people like you know Willie Nelson
Sheryl Crow Johnny Cash the the top of the top what do you what was most
striking about them what set them apart from other musicians would you say and
the other I think is how how is it that you've been able to have such incredible
success and be I mean you said the the flipping post but I think you could
equally be called a chameleon or a secret weapon you know you've been
behind the scenes in these incredible records that we all know and love what
is it in you apart from I think clearly you're a very humble guy and maybe
you're underselling yourself to a large extent but what is it that let you
collaborate with such big people you know I I didn't know what that was but
you got them you've got a look at that as part of your value you know in the
business as a producer or a session guy or a live musician whatever part of the
tree you're taking the limb on and I have to sit on all those trees or a
teacher or an instructor and and I realized what it was when I got with
Billy Bob Thornton I did I couldn't really didn't know you know what is it I
knew I'm doing my best job with Marty Stewart and I'm doing exactly what he
wants me to do and I do it with enthusiasm and accurate done and I'll
listen and if I've got a good idea suggest it and he'll go yeah that's okay
not right now we'll do that maybe I know this session you know whatever he was
always great about telling you straight up what to do but I realize this with
Billy Bob Thornton is that there's an energy that you can honestly kind of you
know project out there and and that energy like you know can either be there
or not and you can be too scared to have that
energy available for those that are around you or you can be confident and
in making sure that energy gets out there and it's not something you think
about I'm gonna love an injury out on this session because I know that
so-and-so is a hard guy to work with but I know that anytime I work with somebody
famous it's it's difficult because of the way the business is structured and I
remember I remember and this is an example really quickly if I can say this
I was producing Tommy Shaw's record his acoustic record mmm and excuse me and I
wanted Alison Krauss to play on my solo record not known Alison a long time and
and she wanted to do it but management would not allow her to do that because
it was just not a cool thing for her to do that I was with an indie label and it
made sense but I waited and waited and waited and they were playing the game
playing the game and finally when she can't do it that day and and so I you've
been through all that you kind of know the drill from A to Z how people are
treated and she wanted to do it and honestly did anyway so Tommy Shaw called
her to come in and actually I called her to come in and sing on Tommy's record
cause tommy was a fan so I was in a different position at that point I was
the producer of the record she was coming in to sing I was not the artist
wanting her to sing on my record so the tables were turned quite a bit so she
walked in and she said you know the phone call had come from my office at
that point but but she really didn't know I was producing so she said he's
producing a Brad Davis perhaps producing oh gosh shocked you know and so she's
saying and Tommy was so enamored that he said I love that I love it and she goes
I don't know I think I should probably do that again and I pretty much stepped
out and decide on the side of the of the console there and let Tommy sit in the
producer seat because he's well-qualified
way more experienced than me and but she looked around the corner of the console
where I was sitting she said what do you think you think I should do this again
because Tommy would have taken anything she's saying and I it was such a
pleasure to say you need to sing it again
that part was not good enough you need to hit it again and she knew she did she
totally do it but she needed to hear something honest back but the thing is
is that you know when I work with Billy Bob and and and you know that energy I
put out with what Tommy as well and I think that's why I learned it from Billy
and I learned I met Tommy at Billy's and so it kind of progressed as Tommy was a
Billy was be Allison we'll see I got the work with those people in that order
I learned that Billy was was so charged when we got in the studio because I was
so excited about working and creating we would sit shake hands and go we're not
going to sleep for five days are you okay with that and I go and go man you
know I'm younger than you not by much but this is gonna kill me because that
appointment then kind of go man I'm tired of staying up all night long you
know I mean I was not in my 50s but it was tough and so we would we would stay
up and just kind of get you for you know at yuphoria ahead and we'd be like okay
whew this is great and we work and then sometimes we would just crash on the
floor and on the couch and and then get back up and start again it was almost
like being a big pink you know basically the stories that I read without the dope
cuz I didn't you'd open Billy's he's clean he doesn't do any dope and so it
was almost you know that type of a deal where you can you can show that
excitement or know when to turn it on and a lot of times with these players
you said what was it like working with those guys they they knew they knew the
same thing that I'm talking about they knew how walk into a room and they the
radar could read it immediately whether or not they should be reserved and kind
of hold their composure or if they should say man that's amazing let's rock
and roll they knew whether or not to turn that
flip that switch and so it's the same thing I'll get in the studio with
someone and I'll know I'll go I need to watch my excitement I need to just be a
little careful here because it's gonna make the session go the
direction and that's something you can't teach it's not a book on it it's you
almost have to be in those situations work if it's really bad in this session
you know it immediately and it's not gonna turn out well you're gonna
basically call a session and call it off and maybe do it another day or get
another engineer or another producer and I've been in those situations and boy
they're really really tough you could crack ice in a situation like that but
you know if you know how to Sheryl Crow walked into the room and obviously very
confident very confident and she's working with players that she already
knows same within me Lou Harris everybody knows everybody you know I
probably was less known of anybody our band Marty's band you know Cheryl really
didn't know us and Emmy Lou Khanna knew me Steve role I've worked in a couple
times Dwight Yoakam had met him at the
Palomino club so yes a couple things they kind of knew us but I did not say
hey Dwight you know none of that you know I always say to myself because if I
stay reserved when they walked in they sense confidence they didn't sense me
going oh yeah that's good to see you know none of that went on it was almost
like if they waved at me I'd say you know I'd say hey what's going on but I
was doing my gig and I'm there to do a job and to be a professional and so I
didn't want to you know show any signs of non non confidence you know I wanted
to make sure I'm very confident and remember Marty Stewart said we're gonna
get you a 51 Telecaster and I said why have 51 because I didn't know I couldn't
pay for he said well we'll find it I'll pay for it you pay me little each each
week out of your pay but you need that because when we go in the studio the
very first time with Tony Brown it's gonna be like a $300,000 record $400,000
record very serious deal he said he's gonna hit the button on the talkback and
he's gonna say Davis what kind of guitar do you got in there and if you said you
had a PV nothing gets PV but you know it's a they got to be a Fender Strat or
Telecaster to be warranted as great you know because Tony was with the Elvis you
know back in the years back in the day played piano so he said if you have a 51
Telecaster he will leave you alone okay fine great so that's happened it
happened exactly the way you said it did he left anyone who's playing guitar
today anymore - Brad Davis personas like on you know
we could have somebody better in the studio like Stuart Smith or or Brent
Rowan or one of those guys and says Davis what kind of guitar you got
and I said 1951 Telecaster never set it on the word I was totally cool so a lot
of it you know had to be with your gear to some degree and then the other had to
be with Bosch to basically your demeanor you know but I always knew with Billy
Bob that I could turn on that excitement and and and I think you know Steve are
all are walking like the Tasmanian devil he had no barometer at all he was
spinning the whole time because that's just the way Steve is but Amy would come
in with her you know just come lay back checking things out you could always see
how they read rather room and that was really important and I think I think
it's super important to be humble definitely I mean I would rather walk
into a room and someone not even not play and let the guitar do all the
talking that's more fun than ever saying how good I am you know and it's always
more fun to let that happen naturally but there's no reason why you shouldn't
be home well because you know there's just no reason for I mean it's just
waste of time to do it any other way to nap listen well I think that humility
has been recognized and rewarded you know between your album credits your
success with your own records and recently with a signature guitar from
Alvarez next time they also put your flag in the studio the answer will be of
Brad Davis tell us about that collaboration that's crazy well you know
talk a meeting I bought my Fender and and when they split apart big problems
with administration that talk emini just tried to hang on and pull things
together at the same time I make him live and I got two kids in college so I
got to make a living and I can't not make a living so I'm very very slow to
come away from someone who's treating me so well after many years but I thought I
can't stay with this and hunt for another gig with another company and so
I have to break ties right now talking meaning so all the talk of meeting
executives in an administration went to Alvarez unbeknownst to my knowledge
because they needed a gig and so I got a call from robert e lee with
used to be was talking meaning he's down with st. Lucie music and he said Brad
I'm with Alvarez now I hadn't thought about Alvarez in 30 years I haven't
given him a thought I can tell you and he said where I'm working with Alvarez
we've got amazing luthier his name's Chris and he's fantastic and I just
think you really need to check it out because Jack Pearson from the Allman
Brothers is with him and I thought man he's one of my favorite guitar players
yeah anyway so I gave it a listen they sent me a prototype just a rough what
they thought I would like and it was amazing I mean it was as good as my my
my 50 60 18 it was as good as any guitar studio and so I said what was a couple
changes I want to make you know I'd want to change the bracing slightly and it
changed the tone a little bit I'm looking for something light and
something but heirloom Abul if I can use that word that would be like an heirloom
guitar but I'll give use it in the studio and use alive and anyway and I
don't want my name on it I want my initials on it but not my name
because somebody may not put my name on it so anyway they sent me the prototype
we kind of talked for a while and it was just I told my wife if I don't accept
this I may never get asked again I mean I'm 54 and then I may lose my
value so I need to say yes and go with this so the guitar was built with just a
B and a D and I don't know if you've seen that shifty in the video but it's
just a being a deep real sample and they wanted something fancy and I understand
that I just wanted something simple this is being a D and so Chris with what
Alvarez had to bring the guitar over the guitar is from their vintage stash so
it's over 50 years old and so paperwork was slow getting it together it was all
illegal it's totally illegal until on paperwork's done so he had to fly from
London to Japan he's in London where he's located you had five from London to
Japan pick up the guitar and then fly to the state's hoping that I would like
this guitar it's a pretty big gamble so I just you know they showed up here at
the studio they actually came to commerce man st. Louis guys and our
and we called the press and wasn't gonna do that but I had a friend of mine so
you need to call them you know call the newspaper you know so big deal else and
I know it's a peace deal so they came out brought the guitar I strummed it and
it was like I've been looking for this guitar for 30 years and I was so blown
away how good it sounded in what's crazy Christopher's our getaway
and I'll play one of my other guitars and I'll come back to this and it's that
we play it you just go wow it's us you know because it's a you know Alvarez is
not a it's not a Martin it's not a Gibson it's not those kind of guitars
but you your brain sometimes makes you think that Martin's are great even if
they're not great that that particular Martin is the best thing you've ever
heard and I understand the mental mental thing about that all the pioneer
advertising for so many years we've had to deal with and Gibson - great Martin's
are great no doubt I've got each one of each of many of each of those but when I
play this again that you play it it's just amazing you hear it recorded and
you think wow this is really an amazing guitar man so they're gonna make 2,000
of the $3,500 models and then thousands of a $5.99 copy that'll be super good
quality tops and backs and sides but it won't be heirloom level wood that's over
50 years old and it'll be a $5.99 production model that'll be a copy which
is the smartest thing I've ever heard anybody get talking we need to do that
and they wouldn't but that's smart because not everybody can afford a
guitar like that I know I can't on a regular basis before it gets ours that
expensive because I'm full-time in the business and you just don't go blowing
3,500 bucks on a guitar man but anyway it's it's amazing and I'm so
glad to have it so glad to be part of the team so now what we're doing is
we're going to be doing monthly videos and instructional stuff without res on a
regular basis and they're they're jumping into s support for touring so
our first show I say our first show I'm so used to being a side guy and being
with the band the first show I'm doing is gonna be February the 16th at for
David's Pub and Dallas and we're gonna debut the guitar and hopefully have some
of the production models available so it can be a lot of fun and it's called a
brad davis guitar cafe and what I'm gonna do have been confused for years I
love so many kinds of music so many different kinds it's been a problem for
me so what I want to do is do a show that's going to incorporate any all the
music that I do on acoustic which would be true
to the 80s tribute to David Bowie I don't know if you heard any of those
cuts that that I did a lot of the the cuts that we did with CMH records so I'm
in love with them because I grew up with them and then we're also gonna take and
do a lot of original material which stems from blues all the way to
classical I'm getting ready to do a classical play on bluegrass classical
play on 4c mhm I'll start on that next week and we'll start with one song the
team here musically you have been absolutely loving those bluegrass
tribute albums you've done we're gonna put a link in the show notes so everyone
can hear but I'd love to hear a bit more about how you create one of those
bluegrass arrangements I've taped the original track and I
throw it into Pro Tools I know that's the only way to do it because I think a
lot of they've tried to do the classical many times and failed excuse me and a
lot of classical players made that I mean bluegrass players may think well
I'll write a chart on this we'll try to cut it live well that will never work
you've got to have the original piece in there if you're gonna do a tribute you
almost gotta copy it note for note I mean you almost have to with regards to
certain areas as a songwriter that I know I have legal flexibility to kind of
bend it a little bit but I do that I'll put the original track inside of Pro
Tools and I'll track with that as being my my pilot I did a Pearl Jam tribute
which never came out legality we couldn't get it released
because of legal issues I've tracked with him and they sped up you know they
breathe they speed up and slow down and same thing with Mumford & Sons I had to
do it a tribute for those guys and they sped up and slowed down on the record
Babel and it and I fell in love with those guys and now I think everybody in
the business now well actually ever that everybody outside the business that owns
a guitar they believe that to be bluegrass now because that's such a big
deal I mean they made it on Rolling Stones or huge and they're still touring
and I love their music it's exciting it's different it's messed up it's got a
dent in it and I love things that have some kind of a thumbprint I don't want
anything perfect you know I want something that's kind of unique so that
that music has to be done with since I died I just believe there's no
other way to do it and these classical things have been tried five times it
seemed ancient failed though they're very reluctant to try it one more time
however they know that I'm pretty committed to making things sound just
like the original and so that's what we're gonna start with with dun dun dun
dun dun dun that'll be our first song that we try and I'll do it a little out
of time I'll do the guitar work to a drum track
I'll get that track locked into a drum track and then I'll do the guitar and
I'll try to figure out what part what instrument is gonna be doing and that
takes probably about a week's worth of work you know just figuring that out and
then I I do the parts I can do I'll play banjo on it and bass and mandolin I'll
probably hire a fiddle player because I'm not that good on so don't like my
fiddle playing that much so hire somebody on the fiddle it maybe possibly
dobro but it'll be a lot of fun that would be next to come out on the market
fantastic well we have covered so much there and I
must thank you for being so generous with your time and with sharing I think
you have such a striking and admirable attitude to all the work you've done and
clearly fame fame and success have not come to your head and I think there's so
much our audience can learn and I can learn from listening to you explain how
that journey has been for you how you've managed to bridge you know technique
development forging your own path having the right attitude walking into the
studio or onto stage and just always retaining that humility and willingness
to learn so thank you so much Brad for joining us today thanks for having me I
really appreciate it the musicality podcast is brought to you by musical you
at musical - you calm I loved this conversation as you will have noticed I
didn't say all that much myself this time I had chatted with Brad a little
bit beforehand about the kinds of things we might cover in the interview and
really it seemed best to just let him take it away anytime I thought I might
interject or steer the conversation he'd say something else fascinating and I
just couldn't bring myself to interrupt there was so much packed in there let's
recap the big points Brad learned by ear from the beginning mimicking the players
he admired most interestingly he found that even mistakes like wrongly guessing
how Eddie Van Halen played so fast can lead to success - in that case his
developing a unique and now widely known style of bluegrass picking that
DoubleDown up technique from the early days learning by listening to the
artists he admired through rapidly digesting and replicating repertoire to
be able to go on stage and on tour with big names - becoming a trusted studio
musician who could act like a chameleon and provide exactly the style of playing
required to match each artist and record Brad's ear was as important as his hands
on the guitar I thought it was fascinating to hear how brad forged his
own path rather than just learning the status quo in all the traditional
methods and how he avoided the normal pitfall that comes with doing that which
is to wander around blindly and not really progress and he did that by being
very intentional methodical and diligent about the way he learned brad is very
aware of how he's developed his craft and the insights and practice along the
way that led to him becoming such an in-demand artist his dedication to
honing his craft shows strongly in how he's still practicing guitar technique
15 minutes every day even though anyone who listens to him would think he has
certainly mastered it at the stage he's not that good by luck or because he was
blessed with a magical gift he is that good because he has consciously decided
to become and stay that good I think what stood out most to me from this
conversation was Brad's humility it would be so easy with the incredible
track record he has had to be big-headed and have a huge ego around his skill and
talent and all his success but as you just heard he is practically the exact
opposite of that listening to Brad talk you wouldn't guess this is a man who's
recorded with Johnny Cash or appeared on a Grammy award-winning album but hearing
him tell it it seems clear that it's exactly that humility and willingness to
be open to doing what's needed rather than behaving out of ego that has
allowed him to have such consistent success Brad said that what stood out
about working with the big names boils down to attitude and ability to read to
the room and then adjust your communication accordingly I felt a bit
starstruck just hearing Brad mentioned some of the musicians he's worked with
but he has managed to bring just the right down-to-earth attitude to all his
work adjusting to the energy of the musicians and fitting in in the perfect
chameleon-like way if you enjoyed this episode I know you'll be curious to hear
and see Brad in action so do check out his website at brad davis music calm and
in the show notes for this episode at musicality podcast calm we'll have links
to his music and videos of him demonstrating double down up and the
brad bender device thanks for listening to this episode stay tuned for our next
one where we'll be talking about what lets Brad transform 80s pop classics
into bluegrass recordings the skill of arranging music thank you for listening
to the musicality podcast this episode and
but your musical journey continues head over to musicality podcast.com where you
will find the links and resources mentioned in this episode as well as
bonus Khan
For more infomation >> Setting up a worksharing project in Revit [Revit + Stabicad] - Duration: 3:26. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét