Vincent DeMasi
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The Most Recent stories by Vincent DeMasi
- Jan Akkerman May 2008 “When you re-read guitar magazine articles about me from the ’70s, you see they had a hard time pinning down where I was coming from,” says Jan Akkerman. “I played loud and fast rock, but it wasn’t from the blues. My influences were Wes ...
- Lindsey Buckingham February 2008
Ask any guitarist about Lindsey Buckingham, and they’ll likely tell you two things: The former Fleetwood Mac denizen is a great pop guitarist, and he never plays with a pick. While both of these Wiki-ready factoids ring true, they don’t ...
- Right-Hand Man January 2008
Aside from being a fearsome flat-picker, Jake Cinninger is equally schooled in classical fingerstyle, jazz, and hot country hybrid pickin’, so when Brendan Bayliss recruited Cinninger to join the fledgling line-up of Umphrey’s McGee ...
- The Dueling Axes of Umphrey’s McGee: Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss Rewrite the Rules of Dual-Guitar Riff Rock January 2008
When it comes to dual-guitar jam bands, old-school rock puritans may be reluctant to acknowledge much life existing beyond At Fillmore East and Europe ’72 (the epic live jam benchmarks set by the Allman Brothers and ...
- Elvin Bishop November 2007
FM radio will probably best remember Elvin Bishop for the 1976 mega-hit “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” with Jefferson Starship’s Mickey Thomas on vocals. But Bishop’s influence stretches over a much larger portion of the average classic ...
- Maroon 5 September 2007
“Because of our chart success and high profile on MTV, people are quick to write Maroon 5 off as this fluffy pop entity,” says guitarist James Valentine, conveying far more bemusement than bitterness. “It’s understandable, because we ...
- Ned Evett July 2007
It’s New Year’s Eve 1989, and Ned Evett resolves that this will be the last cover gig he ever plays. As the final song comes to a cathartic conclusion, he pulverizes his Strat into a million splinters. The neck dislodges from the shattered ...
- John Abercrombie July 2007
Believe it—John Abercrombie is one of the hippest new voices in jazz guitar. Never mind that he has been a world-renowned player for 35 years, has released numerous solo albums and duo projects with Ralph Towner, and has been a member ...
- Elliott Randall July 2007
Make a list of the most iconic rock guitar solos of all time, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to rank Elliott Randall’s scorching Mixolydian mayhem on Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” somewhere near the top. Beyond his legendary work ...
- Dream Theater’s John Petrucci Carries the Torch of Prog-Shred guitar Into the New Millennium July 2007
The music scene was changing in 1992. Spandex-sporting, fretboard-tapping, whammy-bar-flailing metal Gods who had topped the charts and ruled the MTV airwaves just a few years earlier suddenly found themselves out of favor—and nearly ...