5/11/13 • Solo • Private Religious • Milford, MA
5/11/13 • Radio Daze • The Gaslight • Portsmouth, NH
5/17/13 • 8pm • Solo • The End Zone • Waterville, ME
5/18/13 • The Sultans • Private Party • West Palm, FL
5/25/13 • The Sultans • Private Party • Tampa, FL
5/26/13 • New York Players • Private Party • Newton, MA
5/31/13 • Solo • Front Street Public House • Bath, ME
6/1/13 • The Sultans • Private Party • Nantucket, MA
6/6/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
6/7/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
6/8/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
6/15/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
6/20/13 • Solo • Private Fundraiser • Lincoln, RI
6/21/13 • 9pm • Solo • Twin River • Lincoln, RI
6/28/13 • 9pm • Solo • Twin River • Lincoln, RI
6/22/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
6/23/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
6/29/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
6/30/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/1/13 • 6:30pm • Solo • Andy’s • Portland, ME
7/5/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/6/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
7/7/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/11/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
7/12/13 • Solo • Crazy 8′s • South Paris, ME
7/13/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
7/14/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/19/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/20/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
7/21/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
7/28/13 • Private Party
8/1/13 • 8pm • Gulu Gulu Cafe • Salem, MA
8/4/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
8/9/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
8/11/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
8/16/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
8/17/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
8/18/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
8/22/13 • 6:30pm • Solo • Andy’s • Portland, ME
8/24/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
8/25/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
8/30/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
8/31/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
9/1/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
9/7/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
9/13/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
9/14/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
9/20/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
9/21/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
9/26/13 • 6:30pm • Solo • Andy’s • Portland, ME
9/27/13 • The Sultans • The Atlantic • Edgartown, MA
9/28/13 • The Sultans • Private Party
10/17/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
11/3/13 • Private Party • NY, NY
11/10/13 • 2pm • Twin River Casino • Lincoln, RI
11/15/13 • Solo • The End Zone • Waterville, ME
11/22/13 • Solo • Montsweag Roadhouse • Woolwich, ME
11/29/13 • Solo • The End Zone • Waterville, ME
12/20/13 • Solo • The End Zone • Waterville, ME

The next morning was the annual Tomorrow Fund Stroll, and this year the French Family Blues Band included Brendan Moore on Rhodes and Joey Antonio on bass. The event raised 100k for the Tomorrow Fund!

I grew up lucky when it comes to gear. I didn’t quite grow up in a guitar shop, but Ronnie did give me a great head start. One of the first things I learned as a kid was that the only kind of guitar amp worth playing through (besides the iconic Roland Jazz Chorus), was one powered by tubes. I knew solid state was for chumps and bass players before I knew my multiplication tables. And I was brought up a devout Fender player, Super Reverb denomination.

It wasn’t until I grew up a little that I had the opportunity to try vintage Vox, Marshall, and Hiwatt tone machines and began to develop my own tastes and arsenal. Sitting in sockets inside of all these iconic designs are glass vacuum tubes. They used to be in everything from radios (they’re still in hi fi stereo amplifiers) and tvs to radar and telephone networks.  Check out a great video about how these things are made.

Now I knew there were different types/ sizes for the different functions within an amplifier: rectifier, power, preamp… but I had no idea of all the different flavors & brands until after reading The Tube Amp Book by Aspen Pittman, and The Guitar Amplifier Player’s Guide by Dave Zimmerman who built my 50 watt Maven Peal Tuskadaro. Most amps only take a specific model tube for each function, but some like mine allow for the different types and more tonal possibilities. In the power section, different models of tubes are designed to operate with different levels of idling current running through them.  I wanted to change things up and had to re-bias my amp to do so, check it out.

I had EL-34′s installed for a Marshall “Plexi” sound. The fella I bought the amp from had been kind enough to include a pair of KT-66′s as well though, and looking for a slightly cleaner JTM-45 sound, I decided to try them out.

Look how different they look! My, what huge bottles you have! The better to rock you with my dear.

The idling current for each power tube, in this case a pair but in 100 watt amps a quartet, has to match so that things are working properly and the sound is right. Usually they’re sold in “matched” sets so that people can pop them in and out of an amp sporting a set bias without any issue, but my amp lets me control that for each individual tube. How, you ask? Well I hook up my VOM.  No, not sorority girl shortspeak for regurgitation, my voltage meter.

This ones a little more intense than you need, but it certainly gets the job done. I plug in a few cables, adjust a couple mini potentiometers for specific milliamperes, cross my fingers I haven’t done something wrong and fried my amp, and BAM I’ve got a whole new amplifier.

There’s a lot of tubes I haven’t tried yet, and I haven’t gotten into purchasing NOS (new old stock) stuff yet to inject even more vintage vibe, but I’ll keep experimenting. I’ll try not to blow anything up on the workbench in the meantime ==:::

Check out the event below, and learn more about LifeCycle here. Ronnie has pedaled in the past and we have friends doing their Ride Round Rhody this summer training as I type ==:::

A review of Old City Blues is featured in the current issue (#71) of UK magazine Blues Matters.  I’m ordering my copy from across the pond, but have the text here for you to check out ==:::

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Eric French wrote seven of the eight tracks and produced this album,  he describes “Old City Blues” as unapologetic rock n’ blues set off by an introspective acoustic streak and the CD does have a quirky feel with melodic interludes in the tracks of simple but perfectly performed guitar playing combined with the haunting backdrop of a Hammond organ as shown on the final track ‘Old City Blues’, which refers to Eric French’s second home of Boston. The real mystery is who is Mr Hyde, not a backing musician, so it must be Eric’s alter ego on this interesting take of modern blues that uses a range of rhythm and blues styles. ‘Baby Where Ya Been’, gets your feet a tapping with its dance beats and his homage to dirty traditional blues with ‘Poison In Mah Pie’. The CD lacks a distinctive narrative or rift that would make it stand out in the crowded market of talented modern blues players. Despite using different rhythms and textures there is no stand out track that defines Eric French and friends; that said it is a pleasant and pleasing CD to listen to.
by Liz Aiken

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