Zero To Sixty (feat. Mason Ruffner)

#123 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, Zero To Sixty, features legendary blues rocker, Mason Ruffner. #5 in Captain Beefheart’s 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing goes something like this: 

"#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."

I believe Mason is a "fur bearing" MF'r. And everybody from Dylan to Jimmy Page to Ringo Starr to Santana to John Lee Hooker (I could go on) all seem to agree. When we send a cat a track, this is our spiel: "Please play, whatever and however you feel it. You are the guest soloist and will be the last and only other element to be added to the track. So, do your thing all over the track!" Well, Mason let this track have it! I'm not gonna go all bio/blurb on you guys for this one...here's Mason's wiki and more importantly his YouTube rabbit hole. Hopefully, you'll have a chance to be driving when listening to this track really loud....be careful and enjoy!

The backing band on this track is Rich Kirch (John Lee Hooker 1984-2001) on rhythm guitar, Alvino Bennett (Dave Mason, Stevie Wonder) on drums and myself on bass. The basics were recorded at Skunkworks in Capitola CA. Mason's session was engineered by Tom Goren at Sonika Studios in Stockholm Sweden. The Grammy winning and extremely personable, Matt Winegar (Primus, Fantastic Negrito), mixed and mastered this one! 

BUENOS AIRES BLUES (feat. JIMMY RIP)

#122 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, Buenos Aires Blues, features the rock star's guitarist, Jimmy Rip. Born in New York City and raised on rock and roll radio, by the early 1980's Jimmy was one of the East Coast A-listers. At one point he had to choose between Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Television and Peter Frampton in the same week! By the 1990's Jimmy had racked up gigs with Rod Stewart, Debbie Harry, Willie Nelson, Jack Bruce, Mariah Carey, and more. He was also the co-writer and guitarist for Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit album and producer and guitarist for Jerry Lee Lewis' Last Man Standing album. After the success of his collaboration with Jagger and a couple of years on the road with Hall and Oates Jimmy decided to move to Buenos Aires. Where Jimmy says, "every kid still has a guitar over his shoulder. They’re still learning how to play, and there’s still real arguments over Page, Beck, or Hendrix. Genuine arguments. It’s a rock 'n' roll heaven!" Jimmy remains incredibly busy producing some of Argentina's top Rock acts and fronting his own band Jimmy Rip and The Trip. Speaking of trips, I really love where Jimmy takes this track, and I'm pretty sure you will too. Enjoy!

 

The backing band on this track is my Bay Area neighbor, Scott Amendola, (Nels Cline, Charlie Hunter) rocking the shit out of the drums and myself on rhythm guitar and bass. Mellifluously mixed and mastered by the infamous F-Bomb.