'59 Volvo - Backwoods bottleneck blues..

[bottleneckjohn]

One classic car and two vintage instruments, a good mix...




Just for the fun of it, guys!

[ricbleu]

Good stuff, guys. It's a perfect combination of instruments for getting that backwoods feel. Nice playing BJ and I liked that little slide fill. The only thing that worried me was that a thundering great Scania truck might hurtle round the corner and flatten the lot of you, Volvo included. Peace

[bottleneckjohn]

Thanks for watching Ric!
No worries about traffic, I'd say there's 5 cars per week that passes there, haha..

It was fun, this song is perfect for the oldtimer.

[ricbleu]

How many takes did you shoot to get a good one, BJ? I think I prefer the sepia version, because I think it goes with the olde timey feel. And it's always good to see someone caring for and preserving classic cars in their original state. I hate to see old cars with a whole lot of mods - lowered suspension, spoilers and air scoops etc, but that Volvo is a beauty.

Btw, John, in some of your instructional vids, you subtitle the string guage and type onto the film. On some of them you say that you are using nickel strings. Do you mean nickel plated on steel electric strings or pure nickel windings such as John Pearse and quite a few others make? When I started playing here in NZ, the only quality strings were Gibson Sonomatic which, I understand were 13s and had pure nickel windings and they had warmer tones than the later nickel on steel. I played lead guitar in a blues band in those days and someone let out the secret of throwing out the bottom E and moving each string over and then using a banjo string for top e. Banjo strings had loop ends so you had to cut the little brass ball off an old string and carefully squeezed it into the loop. But enough of that. So do you use nickel on steel or pure nickel? Thanks, John Peace

[jeffl]

Great stuff John! I love the theme & sound. Those Volvos were everywhere when I was a kid in my hometown of Madison Wisconsin, US.
Thanks for the treat.

[kiwiblues]

Nice one John, hope you guys are having a good summer.
Snowing outside my window here. Real Bluesy day!

[bottleneckjohn]

Kiwi: Thanks, man. The summer has been awful really, almost only rainy days..
But still, layed many gigs outdoors and indoors so overall it's been ok!!

Jeffl: Volvo did ship many cars abroad, cool that you had them around growing up! They were good family cars!

Ric: Man, this is THE one and only (almost)unrehearsed take... We just placed the camera, backed up the car and drove through the bend, got out and played it!!
Had planned to jump in the car and drive on but I forgot to, lol!
We never played through the song before, just talked about the vocals and jammed away!

It's just for the fun of it, I've wanted to sing this one for years since I bought the old Volvo..
I cut to sepia now and then 'cause I like the looks. It's one take all the way through, nothing serious, just for the laughs and love of blues and old cars, haha!!

My nickel strings are normal electric guitar strings, whatever they are, never knew much about strings. These are a special brand that was sold in Sweden over the years, now they've stopped selling them and I bought many packages before they ran out.

One thing though, I seldom change strings. I don't sweat much in my palms and despite my insanely hard attack sometimes, they never break?!
So most of my strings have been on the instruments a long time, I like the worn old tone!!!


Thanks for watching and commenting my friends!!

[ricbleu]

Thanks for all that info, John. Peace

[Buffalo_Bill]

So, nobody stepped out'a the woods with a shotgun, and said “You sure got a pretty mouth Boy.” ?

That worked for a scary movie, maybe you could write a funny song too.

[Bant's Bluz]

BJ, loved the video. When I was a teen I had a 62 P544 Volvo and loved it. The thing I truly appreciated about your music is clips such as these where you just show up, do it, and the end result is the end result. People with talent like that, at least in my part of the world, are a rarity.

[bigdaddyguitar]

Very nice John .

[bottleneckjohn]

Thanks guys!

BJ, loved the video. When I was a teen I had a 62 P544 Volvo and loved it. The thing I truly appreciated about your music is clips such as these where you just show up, do it, and the end result is the end result. People with talent like that, at least in my part of the world, are a rarity.

Hey Bant's Bluz, how cool that you had one of these! They did export a LOT of them to the US, many still around today I think..
Thanks for the kind comments on my music!!
That's the strongest and surely weakest side of me as a musician. I just play and see how it turns out..

[Dee]

How cool's that!?!?

Well done video and in combination with the old car it feels right!

I wish you guys would've kept it in old school black and white