Before the month ends… I wanted to mark the passing of two important musical nonconformists who I admire.
On February 1st, Andy Gill; the guitarist for Gang of Four, passed away. I was lucky to see them play in Austin in the early 80’s and his guitar style has been an inspiration. Not for all, but I’ve been heavily influenced by it in my own playing. Here’s a sample …
Another iconoclast who passed away Feb 12th was Paul English. Paul was Willie Nelson’s drummer and enforcer. He was one bad ass who was once a member of the Peroxide Boys in Fort Worth, TX and according to his account … they “inspired Paul to briefly experiment with explosives as a form of payback, on behalf of the Peroxide Boys, ‘but I wasn’t very good at dynamite,’ he allowed. ‘We tried to throw dynamite into a bar for somebody else. It blew up here, and blew up over there, but only put a little hole in the roof. Didn’t do any damage. But I think they got the message.’ “
You can read more at … https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/463-watching-willie-s-back
