Indie folk duo wins over heavy metal rock fans

BALMORAL resident Julie Stenton and friend Kat Borghetti don’t do things by the book.

From the way they formed their band to the way they write their songs, they’d rather follow their instincts. And it’s worked a treat.

On Wednesday the two-woman band Ruby For Lucy will launch its first album Catching Bream, and they are already looking forward to writing new songs for the next one.

Stenton, 29, said: “Actually making music is the most exciting part (of the process). We like to have fun with it.”

The pair met three years ago through an online music website. Stenton had placed an ad looking for someone to write original music with; Borghetti answered.

Some email banter revealed they shared more than the desire to write music. They also both worked in advertising, were the same age, and (at the time) lived around the corner from each other in Glebe.

“And we realised we had opposite talents,” Borghetti added.

She said Stenton was a “wordsmith”, while Stenton described Borghetti as a “gun on the guitar”.

They said their songs tended to evolve organically, bit by bit.

“Usually I come up with a bit of a tune, and some lyrics,” Stenton said.

“Then Kat comes on board and makes it so much better.”

Borghetti said: “I try to make (the music) sound like the words. It’s almost like if the words are the question, the music is the answer.”

Although they describe their music as indie folk, the pair said it often had a pop feel.

“You just write what comes naturally and whatever it is, it is,” Borghetti said.

Whatever it is, it brought a pub full of screaming heavy metal rock fans to the floor during one surprising gig.

Borghetti said: “We started playing, and everyone just sat on the floor to listen.”

The girls said their unusual approach to music was part of what it meant for them.

“It’s an escape and there are no boundaries,” Borghetti said.

Catching Bream launches on Wednesday at 10pm at The Vanguard, Newtown.

The Results: Blues Music Awards 2010

The 31st annual Blues Music Awards were held on Thursday May 6 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee. In advance of the main event, numerous legends of blues music including master songsmith Lonnie Brooks, harp maestro Charlie Musselwhite and queen of slide Bonnie Raitt were inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Then came over seven hours of appreciation and celebration for one of the most influential forces in modern music: the Blues.

And the Winners are

Without further ado, herewith this year's winners:

The Blues DVD of the year award went to Delmark's "It Aint Over", which celebrates the record label's 55 year history by documenting a show at Buddy Guy's Legends club in Chicago and features Jimmy Johnson, Lurrie Bell and Zora Young amongst others. The next award announced was for Comtemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year, which went to "The Phenomenal" Ruthie Foster.

A couple of album release categories were next on the roster, the Historical Blues Album of year going to "Authorized Bootleg" (Muddy Waters Live) on Chess and Rock Blues Album of the year sliding over to The Derek Trucks Band for "Already Free", Trucks also picking up the Instrumentalist of the Year - Guitar award. Duke Robillard won the Traditional Blues Male Artist and the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year prize, presented by Pinetop himself, went to Eden Brent.

Bob Stroger received the next award for Instrumentalist of the Year - Bass and New Orleans Grammy winner Irma Thomas added another award to her cabinet, picking up the trophy for Soul Blues Female. Said to be the inspiration for much of Belushi/Akroyd's Blues Brother act (and having the first album "Briefcase Full of Blues" dedicated to him), Curtis Salgado secured Soul Blues Male Artist of the year while Cedric Burnside and Buckwheat Zydeco were given Instrumentalist of the Year awards for drums and "other" respectively.

Basic to Learn Blues Guitar

guitar blues guitar style is very popular, and if you decide to learn blues guitar is following in the footsteps of some of the greatest guitarists of all time. In this article we take a look at the basic steps are involved if you want to learn to play the blues.

1. Learn the basics

Anyone who wants to learn to play blues guitar in the first place need to acquire ownership of the basics of the guitar that are common to all styles. Once you have control over these, then you’re ready to learn more specialized techniques blues guitar.

So first, you need to know:

How strings and tune your guitar to standard tuning (EADGBE)
The correct posture and hand positions of the left hand and right hand
How to make simple chords
How to hold a guitar playing pick up and play simple patterns
How to play single notes and simple melodies
How to read tablature (and preferably simple musical notation as well, although this is not essential)
Once you can do these, you can begin to learn guitar blues.

2. Playing Rhythm Blues

As with other types of guitar music, blues, learning guitar when it is best to start by learning rhythm guitar techniques, and after graduation to keep playing.

involves learning to play blues rhythm chords and rhythmic patterns that are most characteristic of the blues. The standard 12 bar blues is the most common, and this is the pattern that you should learn first. The 12 bar blues just is composed of three lines, each with four bars. The chords I, IV and V (and its variations such as sevenths) are used – so, for example, an easy pattern of 12 bar blues in the key of my appearance:

E / E / E / E /
A / A7 / E / W /
B7 / A7 / E / E /

The 12 bar blues can be played in any key, but the keys of A and E are especially popular.

blues patterns also has a bar eight, 16 and 24 bar blues bar.

It is easier to begin practicing these chords sequences using a strum per beat, and the incorporation of the rhythms that are characteristic of the blues, such as patterns shuffle and slow blues rhythms.

3. Playing Lead

Once you got the hang of blues rhythm guitar, it’s time to learn some blues scales and graduate to playing solo.

blues guitar solos are based on the five note pentatonic scale – major and minor scales can be used, but the smaller scale is more characteristic of the blues sound.

The music of blues guitar also uses so-called Blue Note “, which is usually a decrease (planes) in fifth place, although diminished sevenths diminished and can also be used. These blue notes help to give greater expression to music .