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Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story
Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story is a portrait,
and has surprisingly little lick-related information. What it does is tell the story of how the
skinny kid with a beat-up dreadnought guitar
turned into one of the most important guitarists in bluegrass. It also describes the visionary
who gave us an entirely new genre of music,
New Acoustic, the drive it needed to excel
beyond anyone’s imagination.
The story is told in three ways: in Rice’s words,
as told to Tim Stafford; in stories retold by
bandmates—J.D. Crowe, Bela Fleck, Ricky
Skaggs, David Grisman, etc., family, friends
and fans; and in Caroline Wright’s journal.
Wright is a music journalist who spent time on
the road with Rice in 2003 and 2005. She gives
a clear, in-the-moment picture of who Rice is
now. The anecdotes from friends give another
perspective on the events Tony describes in his
own words. Rice himself seems utterly honest
about his life, and comes across as a grateful,
polite, peaceful, humble guy.
Rice also describes all the recordings he made,
tells their stories, and gives insight into the creative processes behind them, which, for Rice
fans, is a treasure trove of information. If you
don’t know who Tony Rice is, this book would
be an amazing guide for exploring the recordings that made acoustic music history. —GDP
List $24.99
wordofmouthpress.us
Neil Young: Long May You Run:
The Illustrated History
By Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff
From “For What It’s
Worth” to “Rockin’ in the
Free World,” Neil Young’s
music has mattered. He’s
had a lasting impact in
acoustic folk with “Heart
of Gold” and “Old Man,”
and made it OK for rock
music to have intricate
vocal harmonies in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s
“Ohio,” “Southern Man,” and “Our House.” He
was also given the title “Godfather of Grunge”
after the release of Freedom in 1989—an album
that not only saw a resurgence of his popularity, but became a precursor to the Northwest
grunge scene. While Young’s had some commercially unsuccessful efforts—see his country-fied
Old Ways, electronic-driven Trans, and rockabilly-filled Everybody’s Rockin’—he’s done it his way.
Compiled by music journalists Daniel Durchholz
and Gary Graff, Neil Young: Long May You
Run: The Illustrated History is the first complete, photo-centric guide to the Canadian
rocker. It chronicles his career, from Young’s
beginnings in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the Squires
(including images of their 1948 Buick Roadmaster
hearse touring car) to shots of Young performing
on the Chrome Dreams tour in 2007. In addition to iconic photos capturing Young on stage
with Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, and accepting
his solo Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in
’ 95, this book weaves a thoughtful narrative that
accentuates Young’s importance in rock music
yet accurately portrays the artist as he is—very
simplistic. The book also includes quotes from
artists, including Nancy Wilson of Heart, Eddie
Vedder of Pearl Jam, and Billy Talbot, bassist of
Neil Young’s backing band, Crazy Horse, that all
help construct a vivid depiction of Young.
The book’s pages are littered with concert
tickets, show posters, a complete discography, and rare, behind-the-scenes photos of
Young, giving it a bit of a scrapbook feel.
With 223 pages of content dedicated to Neil
Young, this is a great package that visually
encapsulates his legendary career. —CK
List $30
voyageurpress.com
Vicki Genfan’s
3D Acoustic Guitar
Vicki Genfan is an
acoustic sensation. She’s funky,
precise, inventive, creative,
smart, funny and
fearless about
exploring the
world of acoustic guitar. In this meaty TrueFire
DVD, Genfan offers up some of her own compositions for dissection, covering top tapping,
thumb slapping, harmonic tapping, harmonic
brushing, and using harmonic tapping to get
single-note lines. Additionally, she helps you dig
into five of the 31 tunings she has in her arsenal, and covers 12 steps that you can take to
approach a new tuning, either to compose your
own music or to come up with new accompaniments for songs other people have written.
Genfan goes into as much detail as you
could want to show the techniques she has
pioneered and adopted to create her own
remarkable style, but with the handy fast
forward button, you can skip stuff that you
already know without fear that you’ll miss
something important. She covers two of her
own compositions and then plunges into the
tunings section which is solid gold for acoustic
players interested in going beyond Drop D
and D–A–D–G–A–D.
The TrueFire screen has several elements
besides the video box, including a text section with a synopsis of what Genfan is going
over in each section, a tuner, a metronome,
and links that will take you to TrueFire’s website to visit the Jambox, Forum, Support,
Store, and set up a profile for yourself.
The performances on this video are worth
the price of admission by themselves—just
watching Genfan do what she does up close
and personal is an education. Genfan is
articulate and generous with tips and technique, making a DVD that is a must-have for
acoustic instrumentalists. —GDP
Street $34
truefire.com
