Dirty Bourbon River Show

1 Let’s Grow a Beard – Week Seventeen

I pulled it out just for you…

0 Captain Beefheart’s 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing

Captain Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing

1. Listen to the birds

That’s where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren’t going anywhere.

2. Your guitar is not really a guitar

Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you’re good, you’ll land a big one.

3. Practice in front of a bush

Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn’t shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. Walk with the devil

Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the “devil box.” And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you’re brining over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. If you’re guilty of thinking, you’re out

If your brain is part of the process, you’re missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone

Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. Always carry a church key

That’s your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He’s one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song “I Need a Hundred Dollars” is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty — making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he’s doing it.

8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument

You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. Keep your guitar in a dark place

When you’re not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don’t play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

10. You gotta have a hood for your engine

Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can’t escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

RIP Captain Beefheart

0 Let’s Grow a Beard – Week Sixteen

Gettin’ kinda big…

0 Tin Men to Join CD Release Party

New Orleans greats the Tin Men to join the Dirty Bourbon River Show for their CD Release party this spring.

It’s gonna be a wild one. More info to come… Look for it.

Oh Mick and Min and all the gang all came down to see him hang
Who was it in the crowd that sang “It’s Captain Fucking Sandy”?

0 Volume II Preview: My Tiny Little Friend and I (A Cappella Snippet)

A Cappella snippet of "My Tiny Little Friend & I", from the Dirty Bourbon River Show's 3rd upcoming album, Volume Two.

Little A Cappella snippet Me & Big Charlie did of “My Tiny Little Friend & I”, a track from our 3rd upcoming album, Volume Two.

The song is 7 minutes in length, chronicling the adventures of a man & his tiny little friend as they go to the carnival, he looses his tiny little friend, and the man must then rescue him from the dark underbelly of the circus, fighting off gin-drunk big top mamas and monocled assassins in a dark, dark world, tiered with rabbit holes and strange colorful pathways of light, ducking bullets and hungry acid-riddled chimeras. Will they escape? Or be lost forever? The song features the Craft Brothers (Jack & Sam) and Booty Trove Brass Band. It is our mother fucking Bohemian Rhapsody. Look for it late this March 2011.

~ Noah

0 Let’s Grow a Beard – Week Fifteen

Got some big plans for this baby

0 Recording Volume II

Tracklisting for Volume II, the upcoming album from the Dirty Bourbon River Show

Spent all weekend in the studio finishing the last session of tracking for Volume II, due late this March 2011. Now all we have left are overdubs, mixing, mastering, and then we give it to you!

Charlie & I finally set the track listing in stone. Check it out:

1 Mad

2 The Dirty Bourbon 2nd Line

3 X

4 Old Man Time

5 The Day The Devil…

6 Train is Gone

7 Vendetta

8 My Tiny Little Friend & I pt. 1

9 My Tiny Little Friend & I pt. 2 ft. The Craft Brothers & Booty Trove Brass Band

10 Mad (Reprise)

~ Noah