Unknown Master of Many

5 String Blues- Roy Buchanan MP3

She Once Lived Here- Roy Buchanan MP3
4/20/11

beeradvocate.com- A-

Victory Hop Devil IPA- Community Beverage, Queens, NY- 12 oz. bottle into Brandy Snifter- 6.7% ABV- Poured a reddish brown which was a bit surprising to me. I guess I expected a lighter colored ale. About 1 1/2 fingers worth of head that was fairly dense. Medium to light amount of lacing. Real nice creamy mouthfeel. I stress the mouth is real nice on this, some of the stouts I have experienced were not nearly as creamy as this. Very hoppy ale, but not as distinctively cirtusy as I have come to expect from a lot of IPA's. And the citrus I do smell in there may lean more towards oranges than the typical grapefruit. Maltier than a lot of IPA''s I've had. This is a real bitter beer and the bitterness really leaves my tongue and lips buzzing. Maybe this is a "hop bomb" that "crushes the palate" I have read about. Strange sensation. Chewy. Good brew, don't know if I would get it again but I did buy a si pack of this time around, which is a bit unorthodox, because I tend to buy bombers or growlers for blogging purposes.


Hunkered down for some woodshedding...

On the turntable is Second Album- Roy Buchanan- Inspired by a really good blog post found at theadioslounge.blogspot about Roy Buchanan I pulled this LP out. The post include some wonderful footage from a documentary done for PBS in the 70's called The Worlds Greatest Unknown Guitarist. The clip included him playing with Merle Haggard and The Strangers. Awesome. According to wikipedia this was his best selling LP. Born in Arkansas he cut his teeth playing in R&B groups in the early sixties honing his skills with guys like Ronnie Hawkins and mentoring a young Robbie Robertson of the band. Buchanan's gritty economical style is certainly evident in Robertson's technique. Buchanan was a master of the Fender Telecaster and incorporated peerless "volume swells" and squelchy pull-off's in his playing of which both are apparent on the track "5 String Blues" included above. Incorporating the style of the Delta, Chicago and Bakersfield into his playing, a master of many genres, but unfortunately is largely unknown theses days outside the guitar geek community.Members of the backing band are mentioned on the back cover but none of the names ring a bell to me. Unfortunately the band on this record lacks some grit in my opinion and the album suffers a bit as a result. However that does not diminish the finely crafted playing of Mr. Buchanan and is still an enjoyable listen. If only he had recorded in Muscle Shoals...that would have been one sweet album.