Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Did all of these Clarence White guitars you're talking about have his
patented fifth-string bender?
  

    

Hi Bill,

I play (have played) in a number of different big bands with Rich- most
recently with the monday Union 6 band which is playing the Don Piestrup
charts from the '70's.  I currently split the chair with Tony Kaye on guitar
  

    

I don't have any Deep Thoughts about the book, but I just wanted to say
that ever since I popped that old DGQ CD in my car on the way to work
the other day, "Blue Midnight" has been playing in my head night and day,
almost non-stop!  Man, there were some great tunes on that recording.
Nice work, Bill.  But, really, feel free to get out of my head any day
now, ok?!
 

Okay, one not-so-deep thought about the book:  FYI, the binding on my
copy kind of fell apart.  But on the bright side, unlike most books,
which annoy me by making me lose my place, this book lays nice & flat
when I set it on the table!
  

    
<178>
Thanks Dave. Blue Midnight is indeed a haunting tune. Hope is
un-haunts you real soon.

Sorry to hear about the binding on the book. A few of them have turned
out that way, a very few. But, if the book lays flat when you lay it
on the table, it's because of the "lay-flat cover" as it is called.
Glad to hear that, at any rate.

Funny, ya work yer butt off on the book, taking care of every detail
you can perceive, and then you give it to a printer and lose control
over everything ... like the binding.
  

    
<177>
I used to play with the Rudy Castro big band which met Wednesday
evenings at the old Union 6 hall, which was on Jones Street, in the
crotch of the tenderloin. Don wrote some good charts. 
  

    
I'll check on that, though off-hand, I think the answer is no. I've
only seen one of them 5th string benders, on an electric guitar. It was
David Nelson's, he of the New Riders and Jerry Garcia acoustic band.
  

    
Bill, isn't there a sixth option these days in publish-on-demand? We
had an author here a while back who'd done that, David Menconi, and he
was quite happy with it. I should check about the ISBN number thing on
that, though. That's something I never knew about. 
  

    
Another woman checking in here to say how much I'm enjoying this
discussion. If only I can get and read the book before you leave here,
Bill, so I can ask somethingorother 

I'm looking very much forward. I'm sure I'll enjoy the book immensely;
considering some of the groups you've played with, it's probable I've
seen/heard you perform. (uh-oh, how rude! i've just revealed that I
didn't always pay attention to the names of every player in every band
when I was younger, though I do now)

The comments about big bands are taking me back, making me nostalgic.
When I lived in Monterey, I was in three bands at once, including a
19-piece jazz band. What rush! I _loved_ it. I miss singing with all
that wonderful sound, those great arrangements. (no, we didn't have
many gigs, but as you say, it was a joy and a challenge). 

This is the best topic on the Well! 
  

    

I [played with the Rudy Castro band for about 6 years , after you , when
they moved into Don Bennet's space on Mondays.  Rudy suffered a massive
stroke a few years ago and has since retired.  THat was a fun band.  Chart
#73 was the guitar feature : Old Devil Moon.
  

    

> I've only seen one of them 5th string benders, on an electric guitar. It
> was David Nelson's, he of the New Riders and Jerry Garcia acoustic band.

Nelson still uses that, and he is a master of it.
  

    
What is a 5th string bender, if you don't mind my asking?
  

    


Lynne Terry writes:


Hi Bill -
Love your book. What fascinating experiences you have had! I have a couple
of questions for you. How did you manage to get all of those original
photographs? And were there some you really wanted but couldn't get? Any
artists that were difficult?

What do you think that Jerry Garcia would think of the rock and folk music
scene today - the 20s set?

Lynne
  

    
Alden, the Parsons-White B-Bender was an electric guitar innovation.
Clarence's acoustic playing was pretty much strictly bluegrass.   In fact,
he, Doc Watson, and Dan Crary are the players who are credited with
popularizing guitar solos in bluegrass.     The B-bender went on Clarence's
telecaster and he originated the pedal-steel emulation techniques that
became popular in country music.   Albert Lee, Ray Flacke, Amos Garrett, and
local boy Jim Campilongo have picked up the torch and are running with it.
  

    

Those who haven't got the book yet (hi Jen! long time) can see some
excerpts at:   http://www.vineyardspress.com
  

    
The B-Bender was installed by routing out about half the body of the
Telecaster and mounting a series of levers and wheels that will raise the
pitch of the B string a whole or half tone when the player presses the
guitar against the resistance of the guitar strap.   The strap pulls a lever
that's hooked up to a little reel that jacks up the pitch.   You can buy a
"Nashville Tele" off the shelf, from Fender, with the bender built-in.


http://www.stringbender.com/electric/default.html
  

    
<185>
Agreed, David. I had played with David in the NRPS and knew him as an
electric guitarist, where, as you say, he handled the 5th string bender
masterfully. Then I heard him play bluegrass, or rather Frankgrass,
with Frank Wakefield's band. He was wailin' there too, a perfect picker
on the flat-top Martin.
  

    
<176>
Again, from Craig Alyn:

"The Parsons White string-bender was only on his electric guitar the
Telecaster, which I think Marty Stewart owns now."
  

    

BTW, David Nelson has a really excellent touring band that isn't nearly as
famous as they deserve to be.  See www.nelsonband.com
  

    
<182>
Print-on-demand (POD) and Print-quantity-needed (PQN) are both terms
created by Dan Poynter, if I'm not mistaken. They both refer to digital
printing, done on glorified laser printers, which still do not have
the resolution of offset litho printing.


POD means you get an order for one book, you call up your digital
printer and tell them to print one book. The per book cost is high, and
this works when your books life has about run its course, you have
none left in inventory, and you get small orders very infrequently. 

PQN means digital printing. It works well on runs of 500 books or
less. Above that, you'd be better off with offest litho printing. Your
send your printer a .pdf file, and they print the 500 copies for you.

I look at PQN and POD as printing methods, digital printing methods,
not publishing alternatives. One could do any of the five forms of
publishing I outlined with a digital printer.

My book has many photos, and the quality of photos in particular is
not high with digital printing. I didn't want to sacrifice quality,
AND, I had a higher print run than 500, so going with PQN was not a
good choice for me. Dan is very pro PQN and POD (others are not so
crazy about it). He has a discussion of it at:

http://www.parapublishing.com/getpage.cfm?file=/resource/testproduce.html&user
id=7AC095FC85AFB6C03511C650E9421952
  

    
I'm still a little confused. Seems from the URL rik posted in 190 that
this gizmo bends the B, or second string. So what's with the '5' in
5th string bender?
  

    
<183>
Hi Jenifer, glad you're here.
And glad to hear this is the best topic on the WELL.

So you sang with three big bands at once? Wow, that must have been a
huge rush. Good for you. There's only one instrument that's hipper than
string bass and that's voice, IMHO.

You can read excerpts from the book at the publisher's website:
http://www.vineyardspress.com
  

    
<187> Thanks Lynne for your kind words.

Well, I had a few photos at the beginning, and then decided I wanted a
photo or graphic for each story. I didn't achieve that goal because of
time constraints. I did much phoning around, emailing, and web
cruising to get the material I needed. 

Finding a photo was often easy; it was getting permission to use the
photo that was tough. The Annie Leibovitz photo of Aretha took me a
full year. First, I had to find who her agent was. Then her agency had
to locate the photos. That took time as I didn't have the exact date of
the interview. When they located the session they sent me a proof
sheet, but it was not very clear, not really a photographic proof
sheet. 

Finally, after some back and forth, I chose a photo, and emailed them
about that. Then they moved their location and could not locate the
photos at all. Finally, months after that, they located the photos and
sent me a print. But to me it was worth it. I think the photo of Aretha
is Mona Lisa-enigmatic, insightful, and a bit of a hit from the past.
As I recall it took no time to get it print-ready -- no adjustments to
contrast, brightness, etc. were needed.

I was never able to get one of Dionne Warwick. I found one from about
the time that she sang happy birthday to me, but I was not satisfied at
all that the person who owned it also owned the copyright to it. I
didn't want to pay money for a permission that was not his to give.

Generally I didn't have to deal with the artists. Usually I dealt with
the photographers or their agencies. One of the photographers wanted a
fee out front plus royalties, arguing that if the book sold, he would
be partially responsible and that therefore he should get an ongoing
cut. As I recall I didn't fully buy that argument, so I found another
photographer's photo of the subject (who shall go unnamed).

The permissions phase of the book -- for lyrics, photos, drawings,
logos, playbills, posters, etc. -- took place over two years.

As to Jerry's thoughts on the current rock and folk scene, I don't
know. Perhaps other folks on the WELL have an opinion on that.
  

    
<195>
Don't have a good answer for that. Anyone else ... ?
  

    

only thing I can think of is that B is typically the 5th string if you count
low to high a guitar.
  

    
Maybe someone was counting up from the low E. 

A pro slips in with the same thought.