brother 1
Zac and I are twins, it’s true. We’ve grown up doing everything together from being homeschooled, playing basketball, taking piano lessons, learning to play guitar, playing church music, going to hard core shows, starting bands, to now drinking whiskey together at the swinging doors by our house. Zac gets Makers Mark and I get Jameson. Zac’s always been the talented one and I’ve always been the disciplined one. His musical skills have forever surpassed mine in prowess and I have here and there maybe appeared as good because of my dedication.
These days he’s beating me at both. He practices 3-6 hours a day, takes guitar lessons, gigs every weekend for several hours at a time with his blues band and when he’s not doing those things he’s sitting at his laptop watching youtube videos of Danny Gatton. He wants to be the best his fingers, mind, body and soul will allow him to be. And there’s no doubt his endless research and habitual gear shopping routine has led him to some of the most amazing guitar tone that can be mustered out of six strings.
I post this today because Zac just did some recording with his blues band. Kory Kruckenberg (VU.recording), who made my newest album, came over for a weekend to do live sessions with Zac and the Booze Fighters. Kory is a genius and was able to capture the high energy, equisite tones and down ‘n dirty vibe that the Booze Fighters possess and still make the album sound like studio work. It’s really good stuff. Neither Zac, nor I grew up singing, in fact we were both deathly afraid of it. It has taken a lot of work and encouragement to get us to sing in front of people, Zac more recently. I’m really proud of how far him, David and Alex have come as a team. I think they are stellar.
Check out the tracks on their myspace. I think Born Under a Bad Sign is my favorite new one they have up. It’s super dirty. And they have a sweet gig this week opening for Robin Trower at the Knitting Factory where you should be able to pick up a hard copy of the new songs.
