2015 TEXAS TORNADOS - · PDF filePLAYING THE BASS GUITAR ... Mooney and Tab Benoit. But since...

BUDDY 13JUNE 2015

with a Fender Vibrolux whenthe room is big enough to ac-commodate two amps.

Glenn FukunagaPLAYING THE BASS GUITARand doing it exceptionally wellhas given Glenn Fukunaga anall-but-magical life in popularmusic. The Austin-based playerhas not only become one of thevery musical city’s premier bass-ists on recordings and perfor-mances with top artists in theTexas music scene, but he hasalso played with such legendsand stars from an array of musi-cal styles as Chuck Berry, BobDylan, Robert Plant, Dr. John,The Dixie Chicks, James Cotton,Freddy Fender, Brian Setzer, EarlKing, Flaco Jimenez, JuniorWells, David Amram and others.And now with a first album allhis own, Not A Word, Fukunagaopens a delightful and a bit sur-

prising new chapter in his musi-cal career.

As the name implies, Not AWord is an instrumental album,and quite different from the rootsstyles of the artists Fukunagausually backs. Deftly balanced atthe place where 1950s to early’60s be-bop jazz met fusion, it’sjazz that plays to the song withan almost painterly sensibility.Its origins begin when Glennheard famed jazz pianist, com-poser and arranger Bill Evans onAustin’s KUT-FM public radiostation about a decade ago. “Itchanged my life, and I startedreading books about him andbuying his CDs,” Fukunaga ex-plained.

He has appeared on “TheTonight Show, “Late Night withDavid Letterman” and CMT’s“Crossroads;” toured Europe andJapan multiple times, and playedseveral major festivals. Just some

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of the talents from the Texasmusic community that Fukunagahas worked with in the record-ing studio and onstage includeJimmie Vaughan, TheFlatlanders, Alejandro Escovedo,Charlie and Will Sexton, ShawnColvin, Angela Strehli, KevinWelch, Sue Foley, Ray WylieHubbard, Tish Hinojosa, PatGreen, Toni Price, Iain Matthews,Cory Morrow and many others.He has also toured with MasonRuffner and played with suchother Louisiana artists as JohnMooney and Tab Benoit.

But since Fukunaga arrivedin Austin in 1974, he has thrivedas one of the city’s busiest andmost reliable bass players. Glennalso recorded with Bob Dylan inNew Orleans as part of the ses-sions for his Oh Mercy album.The only song he played on thathas seen the light of day yet is“Series of Dreams,” included ontwo Bootleg Series collections.Producer Daniel Lanois has saidthe song should have been the open-ing track on Oh Mercy.

Fukunaga played bass on halfof the acclaimed Home album byThe Dixie Chicks and performedwith them on late-night TV ap-pearances, a live concert releasedon DVD, and “Crossroads” withJames Taylor. His most recentgig with a superstar was in 2011,when he and others backed Rob-ert Plant in Marfa.

Fukunaga is a Fender en-dorser and use a Fender JazzBass and a Fender Jazz AmericanDeluxe 5 string. He uses aBreedlove acoustic bass guitar inmy instrumental group and A J.Horst upright mainly in the stu-dio, and play through a GK MBFusion or a British Ashdown EVO300 through a 2-10 Avatar cabor a 4-10 Avatar cab.

Lance LopezLANCE LOPEZ WAS BORN INShreveport, Louisiana, Septem-ber 30, 1977. Receiving his firstguitar and a Mel Bay chord bookas a Christmas gift from his fa-ther. At the age of 10, Lancediscovered Jimi Hendrix and hefound the influence he wouldfollow and study for many yearsto come. In June 1990, Lancemoved with his mother to Dallaswhere he saw B.B. King and StevieRay Vaughan jam togetheronstage at the 1990 Benson& Hedges Blues Festival – thiswould instill his lifelong pursuitof studying and playing theBlues.

Lance moved with his fatherto New Orleans in 1992 andbegan playing professionally inclubs all over the area. A yearlater they moved to SouthwestFlorida where he played with hisown band all over the state.

In 1994 Lance moved back toDallas and within six monthswas hired by soul blues legendJohnnie Taylor and was playingthe ‘Chitlin Circuit’ at the age of17. A year later he was hired bymodern blues great LuckyPeterson and he was touring theworld. By the age of 20 he wouldbe Peterson’s Musical Director/Band Leader for several worldtours.

During his time withPeterson, Lance befriended leg-endary drummer/vocalist BuddyMiles. They began working onmany projects, which includedLance briefly playing guitar inthe Buddy Miles Express as wellas Miles producing Lance’s de-but album which was released in1999.

By 2000, Lance was touringthe world with his own band andrecording for GrooveyardRecords, an independent guitarmusic label in upstate New York.Some of his most notable andinfluential work can be foundon: 2004’s Wall Of Soul, 2006’sSimplify Your Vision and 2007’sHigher Ground which featuredone of his most popular record-ings “El Paso Sugar.”

Lance recorded 2009’s Salva-tion From Sundown and 2012’sHandmade Music for MIG Musicin Germany- both with legend-ary producer Jim Gaines.

In 2013 Lance began work-ing with Italian producer FabrizioGrossi in Los Angeles on an up-coming project Dr. Z & The Su-personic Blues Machine featuringGrossi on bass and session drum-mer superstar Kenny Aronoff ondrums. Also in 2013, Lance be-gan working with Paul Nelson,Johnny Winter’s manager/pro-ducer and began touring veryextensively with Winter. In late2014 Lance was contacted byformer Rick Derringer andJohnny Winter drummerTommy Curiale to join the newSouthern Hard Rock band TwoWolf, with former Blackfoot bass-ist Greg T. Walker.

Another accomplishmentLopez is proud of is getting so-ber, going out and speaking atschools about taking “one day ata time.”

“Eric Gales and I have a say-ing, ‘Just for today.’ It means notgetting overwhelmed with all thecraziness.”

Lance continues to tour withhis trio (bassist Patrick Smithand drummer Landis Chisenhall)all over Texas and the region andplans for international and na-tional touring are in place for2016.

Lance is currently working

on a new studio album with PaulNelson as producer. He just re-leased Lance Lopez: Live in NYCwhich was recorded at JohnnyWinter’s 70th Birthday party inNew York City.

Guitars: Gibson Explorer120, Gibson Firebird, Gibson SG,Paul Reed Smith SC-245, PaulReed Smith SE Angelus Acous-tic, CustomS t r a t o c a s t e rwith left-handed neck.

A m p s :Bogner Amplifi-cation Helios100 w/4x12Bogner Cabwith CelestionC r e a m b a c kS p e a k e r s ,M o j a v eA m p w o r k sScorpion w/2x12 cab with 1WGS 30speaker & 1Celestion G-1230 speaker,Paul Reed Smith Dallas Amp w/4x10 cab with Celestion G-10greenback speakers

Pedals: Korg PitchblackTuner, Fulltone Clyde StandardWah Wah, Mojo Hand FX Cross-town Fuzz, Mojo Hand FX RookRoyale, Wampler Faux TapeEcho.

Marty MuseMARTY MUSE IS AN AUSTIN-based steel guitarist with a widerange of experience in the musicindustry. His pedal steel, lap steel,and dobro playing can be foundon the recordings of many of thetop artists for more than 20 years.

The past 15 of those years hehas spent touring and recordingwith Texas music icon RobertEarl Keen, providing that dis-tinct REK sound across the coun-try. You can find his work onalmost all of Robert Earl Keen’s21st century releases, startingwith Gravitational Forces throughthis year’s Happy Prisoner collec-tion of bluegrass covers.

Comfortable playing in manydifferent genres, he has recordedwith a stylistically-diverse groupof artists from Jello Biafra to

Dwight Yoakum and allmusicians in between.Muse’s pedal steel work isgorgeously smooth andtwangy without trippingover the line. In a categorythat includes LloydMaines as one of its es-teemed members, Muse isalso gifted at adding theright sound at the righttime to provide that es-sential element to anyTexas music landscape.

Both a well-traveledtouring musician and ac-complished sessionplayer, Muse has playedwith Bruce and CharlieRobison, The Derailers,Dale Watson Kelly Willis,Doug Sahm, Jim Lauder-dale, Jack Ingram, AsleepAt The Wheel, DonWalser, the aforemen-tioned Jello Biafra,Alejandro Escovedo,

Johnny Gimble, Eliza Gilkyson,Jimmie Dale Gilmore, TishHinojosa, Max Stalling, TracyLawrence, Aaron Watson and somany others that there isn’tenough toner in the printer tolist them all.

In 2011, Muse also releasedhis own CD titled Before TheDawn. In addition to his illustri-

ous musical career, Muse alsospearheaded Steel for Peace as achampion of music’s power tounite people across all barriersand to raise funds for charitywork in Afghanistan and Paki-stan.

Muse crafts his sound withvintage lap and pedal steels, us-ing a Sho-Bud Pro-II and twinSupros both on the road and instudio. Profoundly interested inthe details and tools of his craft,Muse shares both his love of theinstrument and deeply-rootedknowledge with his fans and fol-lowers from Barcelona to Nige-ria… and of course all over Texas.

For the casual observer, per-haps the only endorsement re-quired for enshrinement as apedal steel player in Texas wouldcome from none other than Tor-nado icon, producer and musi-cian Lloyd Maines.

When asked about nominat-ing his fellow steel player, Mainessaid, “Marty Muse has such agreat tone and great touch on thepedal steel and dobro. He’s atotal pro.” There are few thatwould argue with Maines’ stampof quality. ■

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