Suburban Bird of Prey

I managed to capture this photograph of a bird of prey—I am unsure exactly what kind of bird this is—over my house in suburbia. Photograph taken on Nikon D60.

52 guitarists—the summary and the apology

For over three years now I’ve been trying my best to put together an annual list which I cleverly called the 52 series. It started with 52 guitars, followed by 52 amplifiers, 52 pedals and this year’s 52 guitarists. Last year I struggled to keep up with the weekly posts and this year is off to a very bad start as well. I will not go into the details of why, but I sadly need to admit defeat at this stage and recognise that I am not going to be able to further commit to the weekly article series.

The series stops today.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the 52 guitarists list itself had been written, I just needed to write about each entry weekly—something I can no longer do. So, the best I can do is share with you now the entire list as it would have played out during the year. For those who were reading these with me, I thank you for your feedback to date and hope to see you around on Twitter. My Facebook page is going to close down as well—it is also something I can no longer commit to.

I have no idea what this website will become, but it will be updated a lot less frequently for a while until I can dedicate the time this site needs to remain relevant. Hopefully in time I’ll work out a way to get my mojo back. 52 guitarists—the summary and the apology

Melbourne street art

Melbourne street art in the form of spray painted grafitti in one of the many laneways in this beautiful city. Photograph taken on Nikon S7000.

52 guitarists, week 16—Joe Satriani

Back in the early 1980s, my parents were certain that my new-found interest in heavy metal music was going to cause me to either join a satanic cult or commit suicide. No matter what I did or said, they were convinced bad things were going to happen to me if I continued down this guitar-driven path of doom. That was until a few years later when they heard me listening to Joe Satriani—the track Always With Me, Always With You in particular.

This was the first distorted guitarist my parents heard that made my attraction to guitar understandable to them. From that point on, my life at home while listening to heavy guitar filled music was much easier. I gained some freedom and my Mum purchased the Surfing With The Alien CD. So I’d say Joe Satriani and I both had a small win back then. 52 guitarists, week 16—Joe Satriani

52 guitarists, week 15—Prince

Confession time. I had fallen behind a little bit again in my 52 Guitarists series and then news hit of Prince’s passing. That threw a spanner in my works for a few reasons. Firstly, Prince was the next intended entry in this series—the list of 52 has already been compiled and has been for some time now. Secondly, I didn’t want to appear to be attempting to benefit with this article through Prince’s passing. Finally, the 52 Guitarists series to date had only featured living guitarists and I really didn’t want to change that with Prince. There are guitarists to come in the list that are deceased of course, but they’ve been deceased for quite some time now.

I decided to take some some time before publishing this article out of respect and also to reconsider my approach to this particular entry. On that note I eventually decided to write the entry almost as I’d intended on writing it prior to Prince’s passing. So with that in mind, let’s look at the reasons I consider Prince to be an incredibly inspirational guitarist. 52 guitarists, week 15—Prince