Talking
R
& Rock oots, Blues
In
Guitar CM ’s 2013
Speci
al
By David McPherson
Take five guys – Colin James, Grant Siemens (Corb
Lund), Colin Cripps (Blue Rodeo), Luke Doucet
(Whitehorse), and Travis Good (The Sadies) – get them
talking about their guitars, and before long, you’ve
gathered enough material to write a treatise on each
player. Over the course of a week in late March 2013,
I chatted with this handful of acclaimed Canadian
guitarists. Some, like Doucet, I had spoken with many
times before; others, like James, I interviewed for the
first time.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN • [49]
Five Guys
& Their Guitars
Besides being
passionate players,
these artists are all
gentlemen. All five are
friends and they share
a mutual respect and
admiration for each other’s
playing. There is no competition. Over
the course of several decades, they’ve
each developed a unique style. When
they’re fortunate enough to cross paths
on the road, they are happy to trade
licks and talk shop.
These five guitarists were
introduced to the electric as teenagers.
Some were self-taught; some took
lessons. Whatever their early education,
they all shared with me variations of
instrumentals and early- to late-50s
rock and rockabilly.
The hometowns and cities where
each guitarist spent their formative
years also played a key role in their
development, as did the early bands
in which they played. All five describe
the guitar as a tool that guides their
musical journey and takes them to new
landscapes. They never tire of exploring
the palette of colours they can create
using just six strings on their chosen axe,
an amplifier, and a few effects. Some are
self-admitted “gear heads.” Others are
“Tele nuts.” Some simply prefer to let
the instrument speak for itself and add
subtle textures – such as tremolo and
reverb –with pedals or amps when the
song calls for such flourishes.
Whatever colours they create or
whatever gear they choose to enhance
their muse, these fine players constantly
search for new, undiscovered sounds or
hidden chords that pop out of their heads
at the most unexpected times. While
they are busy touring they don’t practice
question, he chuckles, then rhetorically
replies, “Who doesn’t remember their
first guitar?” Good started playing
classical when he was nine years old
and took lessons from Red Shea –
Gordon Lightfoot’s longtime guitarist
who passed away in 2008. While Good
does not recall the make of his first
classical instrument, he does remember
that his first electric was cheap and
Canadian-made. “It was a piece of shit,
but man, did I love that guitar!”
From there, Good was fortunate to
get some pretty nice sounding secondhand guitars and gear from his dad and
uncles – of seminal Canadian folk/country
outfit The Good Brothers. “My dad always
loves to tell the story about how he got
me and my brother Dallas to play guitar,”
Good says. “He lined up all the amps and
the guitars in the house one day and said:
‘Don’t ever touch these!’”
Luke Doucet’s dad was also a
professional musician, but it was his
mom who gave him his first guitar for his
13th birthday.
“It was a relatively cheap plywood
guitar made somewhere in Asia,”
Doucet shares. “I can’t recall the name,
Colin James
Guitars
Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster with
Jumbo Frets (main)
Gibson Les Paul Custom
Larrivee Acoustic
National Dobro
Fender Stratocasters (various)
Amps
Fender ’65 Reissue Deluxe
Matchless Chieftain Amp
Fender Vintage Super Reverb with JBL Speakers
Leslie Model 18 Guitar Cab
Fender Bassman Amp
the following childhood memory: sitting
alone in their basements or bedrooms
with the record player spinning, and
dropping the needle over and over
again to learn particular guitar licks
from the likes of Jimmy Page, Pete
Townshend, Albert King, and Stevie Ray
Vaughn, to name just a few of their early
influences and guitar heroes.
All five musicians were also
influenced by a variety of musical
styles. Doucet, Siemens, and James’
early education was steeped in the
blues. Genres that caught Good’s
ear early were classical, country, and
bluegrass. Cripps was drawn to surf-rock
[50] • CANADIAN MUSICIAN
regularly, but in between tours, they all
take time to further hone their craft.
But enough of my rambling; let’s hear
from these five guys and their guitars.
My First Guitar
Grant Siemens was 15 when he picked
up his first electric. “It was a Kramer
Striker,” he laughs. “I still own it. It’s
the same guitar Eddie Van Halen had.
The funny thing is I wasn’t really into
Van Halen; it was an American-made
guitar that I could get for $250. It was
a wicked deal and it had a Floyd Rose
whammy bar, which I thought was cool.”
When I ask Travis Good the same
Effects
Tim Blunt Trailer Trash Custom-Built Pedal Board
Dunlop 95Q Wah
Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer
Keely Katana Boost
OCD Distortion Pedal
BOSS TR-2 Tremolo
Keely Compressor
BOSS Delay with Tap
Korg Pitch Black Tuner
Road Rage True Bypass Looper
but it was a difficult instrument to play.
The great thing about learning on a
difficult instrument is that it’s like being
on-deck in baseball where you have
a weight on the end of your bat. You
swing the heavy bat until you get up to
the plate and then the bat feels light.”
When Doucet finally moved on to
professional-grade instruments they were
easier to play. “If anyone ever asks me
Grant Siemens
Corb Lund & The Hurtin’ Albertans
Guitars
Hahn Guitars 228 (main)
‘53 Fender Dual Professional Lap Steel
Jerry Jones Baritone
Gretsch Black Phoenix
Gibson F-9 mandolin
Hamm-tone D-18 Acoustic
Amplifiers
Victoria Ivy League
Fender Blackface Princeton Reverb
Fender Silverface Princeton Reverb
Effects
Sonic Research Turbo Tuner
Strymon Flint Tremelo
Strymon EL Capistan Delay
Durham Electroncis Sex Drive
Klon KTR Overdrive
Xotic EP Booster
what’s the best way to go about learning
how to play guitar I always tell them to
start with an acoustic because they are
more difficult to play than electrics. You
don’t want to take any shortcuts.”
Colin James is not one to take
shortcuts. The six-time JUNO Award
winner, who was recently inducted into
the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame,
first learned on a difficult instrument, too.
The guitar was an acoustic owned by one
of his older brothers. “It was a lefty, so
I had to turn it upside down just to get
going on it,” he says.
The first guitar James really “had to
have” was later bought at a music store
in downtown Regina; he was in grade
six. “It was a sunburst Epiphone,” James
recalls. “I would probably laugh if I saw
it now, but it was a nice guitar.”
He doesn’t remember how long
the Epiphone was his main axe, but
he does recall his first amplifier: a
Sears Vagabond. “It was a little 410
configuration and some of the speakers
must have been ripped because it just
overdrove like crazy.”
From the moment Colin Cripps first
picked up an electric, he was crazy for
the six-string instrument. Cripps grew
up in Hamilton, ON and his first guitar
was a Telecaster copy.
“I got it from Reggie’s Music when
I was 15,” he recalls. “Subsequently, I
ended up working there. It was the first
job I ever had. I was so enamored with
guitars from day one.” Cripps worked
at the store, which is now long gone, off
and on from the time he was 14 until he
was 23. “The place had a big impact on
my early guitar obsession,” he admits.
My Hometown
Ever since the 1960s, Winnipeg has
boasted a thriving music scene. The
cold winters of the capital city seem
conducive to spawning some great
guitarists. Neil Young, Randy Bachman,
Big Dave McLean — all passed through
the “crossroads” of Portage and Main.
Doucet grew up there, James moved
there as a teen, and Siemens still calls
The Peg home.
“I love Winnipeg,” Siemens says.
“There is a great arts scene and it’s the
only affordable place for a guitar player to
live. Growing up here was a phenomenal
musical experience because everybody is
a killer player. Most of my favourite guitar
players are from Winnipeg. I’m lucky I get
to watch them every night, be friends with
them, sit down and talk with them, and
steal their ideas.”
Early in his career, Siemens
was big into Winnipeg’s blues scene,
often playing with Big Dave McLean.
Later, as he honed his craft further,
CANADIAN MUSICIAN • [51]
FIve GuyS
& Their Guitars
Siemens played with
songwriters such as
Dan Frechette and
Scott nolan. “Like most kids
in the Prairies, I started out
sitting in my basement, bored,”
he recalls. “It’s minus 40 outside,
Wells record, Hoodoo Man Blues.
“Winnipeg was a huge blues town,”
says the 17-time Maple Blues award
winner. Like Siemens later on, James
met and was influenced by Big Dave
McLean. “he taught me so much,”
the guitarist recalls. “When I moved to
Winnipeg, the blues community went
out of their way to teach me. Big Dave
and bands like hound Dog would let
me come down to these hotels on a
Saturday afternoon. I was underage, but
as long as I came onto the stage right
from my hotel room and returned there
afterwards, they would let me sit in for
a couple of songs. That really meant a
The Bella vista. The guy who owned
the place said he would hire us, but we
needed to have an adult in the band
that would be responsible for us since
they were a licensed venue. as soon as
my dad joined the band we went from
playing The Kinks, The Stones, The Who,
and Led Zeppelin to being a full-on blues
band playing the likes of Little Walter,
howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters.”
The blues was – and remains – an
important touchstone for the 39-yearold. “When I pick up the guitar now it’s
still there,” Doucet explains. “It’s one of
the things I love to do the most … just sit
for a little bit and ruminate on the blues.”
My Guitar Heroes
PHOTO: STEVE DORMER
Siemens’ guitar heroes include a pair
who played with Merle haggard: Roy
nichols and James Burton. “I also really
dig Steve Crawford, Ry Cooder, and
Keith Richards,” he comments.
as the youngest of the guitar
slingers featured here, Siemens grew up
listening to and loving Doucet, Cripps,
and The Sadies. “Those guys were all
heroes of mine, too.”
Colin Cripps
Blue Rodeo
Guitars
Fender Telecaster (1955)
Fender Telecaster (1968)
Fender Jazzmaster (1961)
Gibson SG Standard (1964)
Gibson ES-345 (1964)
Rickenbacker 360-12 (1967)
Fox Acoustic (2009)
Martin D-28 acoustic (1965)
amps
Vox AC-30 (1967)
Bernie Amp (1993)
Fender Deluxe Reverb (1966)
so what else are you going to do but play
the guitar? In grade six, you could take
band or guitar. Both of my older brothers
took band and hated it, so I took guitar.
I guess my teacher noticed something.
he hauled me aside, gave me a Muddy
Waters tape, showed me the pentatonic
scale, and kicked me out of class. So I sat
in my basement playing to that tape for
years. It just grew from there.”
When he was 16, Colin James quit
school and moved to Winnipeg from his
hometown of Regina. Immediately he
formed a blues band called The hoodoo
Men, named after his favorite Junior
[52] • CANADIAN MUSICIAN
lot to a young kid. It gave me hope and
kept me going.”
Doucet knows well the challenges
of being a young kid with bigger
aspirations – wanting to play gigs but
not being old enough to play certain
venues. Like James, the guitar slinger
was also reared on the blues. When
he was 13, his dad moved back to
Winnipeg from new Orleans. It didn’t
take long for father and son to start
playing together.
“I hired him to play in my band,”
Doucet begins. “a couple of friends and
I got a little gig at a restaurant called
EffEcts
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
Diamond Tremolo
Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer
Nice Rack Canada Boost
Malekko Spring Chicken Reverb
Dr. Scientist Reverberator
Roland GP-8 Processor
One of James’ guitar heroes was
Canadian amos Garrett. “I love amos,”
he says emphatically. “he taught me
a lot when I was a kid.” James’ other
guitar heroes include a trio of “killer
players”: albert King, albert Collins, and
Stevie Ray vaughan.
“When I first heard Stevie play on
a David Bowie record, I was convinced
I was listening to albert King,” he
recalls. “I thought, ‘Wow, Bowie got
albert King to play on his record.’ Then
I learned it was this guy from Texas
called Stevie Ray vaughan. I started
Luke Doucet
Whitehorse
Guitars
Gretsch White Falcon (2003)
Fender Telecaster (1966)
Shyboy Telecaster (2008)
Creston Telecaster (2013)
Harmony Stella Acoustic (1959)
Larrivee Parlour Acoustic (1998)
Amplifiers
Gibson GA18 (1959)
Gibson GA18 (1961)
Effects
BYOC Reverb
BYOC Analog Echo
Radial Switchbone ABY
to read a few things about him and
his guitar collection. No sooner had I
started to listen to him that I met him!
It was ridiculous,” James adds. “My
band opened up a show for him and we
became fast friends.”
For his part, James’ good friend
Cripps loved early rockabilly and rock ‘n’
roll. He discovered many guitarists thanks
to Guitar Player magazine. “I loved Buddy
Holly and Gene Vincent and that whole
mid- to late-50s scene,” he says. “I loved
the music of the guitar players that came
from that era, especially Vincent’s guitar
player Cliff Gallup. That spoke to me more
than the blues.
“Everyone has their first guitar
hero,” Cripps adds. “Mine was Pete
Townshend. It wasn’t like I wanted to
learn every Who song, but he was an
inspiration in terms of attitude.”
When Good was 18, he joined his
father and uncles in The Good Brothers.
“That was a serious crash course in
playing country and bluegrass,” he
comments. “At the time I had only been
playing electric guitar for a few years
and I had to learn to play as quick as I
could. There is nothing like learning in
front of people.”
My Playing Style
“I like the fact, maybe just because I’m
tied into the Canadian music scene
and I know a lot more people in it, but
it doesn’t seem like anyone is trying
to be like someone else,” Siemens
comments. “Everyone has a unique style
CANADIAN MUSICIAN • [53]
Five Guys
& Their Guitars
and it’s a supportive
group – probably
because there are as
many guitar players in all
of Canada as there are in LA;
that encourages you to sound
different.”
Siemens has always loved roots
music and it’s the genre that defines
his sound. “Country, blues, and the
combination of the two are definitely my
strong suits,” he says. “My playing style is
definitely a hybrid of these loves: country
and blues with a bunch of Stax [Records]
thrown in there because I’m a Stax nut.”
Doucet remembers ruminating for
a long time about the notion of having
his “own sound” until he received some
good advice from dear-old dad. “I
remember him saying, ‘Your style will
materialize on its own whether you like
it or not.’ The point he was making, and
the point I now make to other people if
they ask me the same question, is that
it’s really important to learn repertoire
from people who have come before you.
There are people out there who will say
Travis (front) & brother
Dallas Good of The Sadies.
at Columbia who signed people like
Dylan, but John Hammond Jr. was this
unbelievable acoustic-blues performer
who loved Robert Johnson and all that
stuff,” he explains. “In the ‘60s, he was
also going to become the next Mick
Jagger. He had the swagger and was my
hero.”
When Good started playing with
the whammy bar on his Gretsch guitar,
his playing style significantly changed.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” he explains. “It
had a lot to do with the guitar. It took
a long time after I bought that guitar
to even start playing it. I just thought it
looked cool. It sounded good, but it was
just so big and clunky that I couldn’t get
my head around it. Then I realized I’m
kind of big and clunky, so maybe it was
the perfect fit.”
Cripps says his style is usually
dictated by the group of musicians
playing with him at any given time.
“When you’re a kid, you’re a sponge,”
he explains. “You are so absorbed in
wanting to learn the instrument and
draw in as much as you can … you take
from all kinds of things just to figure
out if you are any good at it. You take
some stuff from here and some stuff
from there and then throw it all into this
big pot. Eventually, I end up taking my
strongest direction from the musicians
I’m playing with and the importance of
that vocabulary. Whatever style I develop
is a product of that environment.”
If Cripps had to sum up his style, he’d
call it a melding of old-school ‘70s rock
with rockabilly, and other influences from
1981 on. “The Edge defined for me the
idea of a single instrument having a single
voice,” he adds. “In some weird way, I’ve
always been a bridge between these two
camps.”
Guitars & Gear
Travis Good
The Sadies
Guitars
Gretsch Chet Atkins (1972)
Gretsch Chet Atkins (1964)
Martin D-28 (circa 1980)
Amps
Fender Vibrolux (circa 1960)
Fender Deluxe Reverb (circa 1970)
Effects
BOSS TU-3 Tuner
[54] • CANADIAN MUSICIAN
you should never learn other people’s
licks because you will just sound like
them,” he continues. “That’s bullshit!
You are never going to sound like them.
You can learn all the Robert Johnson
you want, but if you are learning Robert
Johnson, Jimmy Page, Brian Setzer, Marc
Ribot, and Martin Tielli all at the same
time, you are not going to sound like
Robert Johnson. Instead, you are going
to sound like a whole bunch of things all
mashed together. And, more likely than
not, you are going to sound like you.”
James modeled his early guitar
playing after John Hammond Jr. “His
dad was a famous record executive
“I’m a Tele nut,” says Siemens. “I’ve
always played Telecasters. My main
electric, a Hahn 228, is made by a guy
named Chihoe Hahn. It’s a well-built,
custom-made Tele-style guitar. It’s
phenomenal … just how Leo [Fender]
would have made it back in ’51.”
The Gretsch White Falcon is
Doucet’s go-to. “I love that instrument,”
he says. “I love the way it sounds and
the way it feels.”
Back to Siemens for a moment;
besides an obsession with Telecasters,
he is also a “reverb nut.”
“I love reverb and tremolo,” he says.
“If I’m going to use any kind of effects,
those are the two things I gravitate
towards. I bought this thing called the
Victoria Reverberato, which is just like
an external head that is two reverbs
and harmonic tremolos. I bring that
wherever I go. I can plug it into any amp
and I get super lush reverb and amazing
tremolo.”
Doucet is also a reverb fan. In
Five Guys
& Their Guitars
most cases, he relies
on his amp to deliver
the effect. “My amp is
a Gibson version of [the
Fender Deluxe Reverb] – an
Explorer G-18. It has a sound
that breaks up in a certain way
that is really beautiful.”
Beyond reverb, Doucet usually likes
to keep things simple these days. “I find
you can use the sound of your fingers
more if there is less happening between
the guitar and the amplifier.”
Good also favours a Gretsch when
it comes to his axe of choice. “About all
I play with The Sadies are my two old
Chet Atkins Tennesseans,” he shares.
Like Siemens, Cripps is fundamentally a Telecaster player. “I also have an
old Gibson SG. That was my main guitar
all the years I played with Kathleen
Edwards. It’s funny, it changes depending on what you think will give that
music a voice or give your approach to
it a different take. I’m known for having
a bunch of guitars and part of it is I’m
obsessed with them, but for me, the
approach has always been to use different colours for different situations.”
Good uses a pair of amps that were
handed down from family members.
“The one that was my dad’s is an
Autoharp Amp – an old Vibrolux. I also
have an old [Fender] Deluxe Reverb,
which was his guitar monitor back in the
day. When The Good Brothers started
getting proper monitors, they stopped
using amps on stage and I got them all.”
James’ first record contract
included a deal with Fender. He got
three “freebies” back in 1989 that
became his go-to guitars for many
years. Only recently has he diversified.
“I got a Gretsch Sparkle Jet around the
time of the Little Big Band II record and
I really enjoy that guitar,” he says. “I
also just got a brand new Olympic white
Strat with a matching head stock that
I’m crazy about from the Fender custom
shop. I love it.”
On Practice
For most touring musicians, practice
comes and goes. “Lately, I’ve been
practicing a couple of hours a day when
I’m not on the road,” says Siemens.
“Sometimes, after a three-month tour,
taking a break is often better practice
than practicing because it makes you
want to pick it up and play more. The
last tour I got to play with a few of my
idols: Buddy Miller, Kenny Vaughan,
and Fats Kaplin, so that inspired me to
pick up the guitar again and hone some
more skills.”
Doucet says he can go a long time
without practicing, but all the while he
is still listening and learning. “I hear
music, melodies, rhythms, and notes,”
he explains. “As long as there is music
around me, I’m able to assimilate a
fair bit of stuff and I can keep learning.
I really appreciate the regimen of
practicing. The months leading up to
and after my Sleepwalk Guitar Festival,
I find myself wanting to practice a lot
because I usually have my head rocked
pretty hard by the talent that is there.”
Good was flattered to be featured
amongst these other talented players
and says he still has a long way to go
with his guitar playing. “It’s weird,” he
concludes. “I’m playing more guitar now
than I ever have. I’m getting hooked in
my old age!”
n
David McPherson is a Toronto-based professional writer and
corporate communicator; McPherson lives by his self-penned
motto, “Music is the elixir of life.” With 14,780 songs on his
iPod and counting and a growing vintage vinyl collection,
he’s always discovering new music. Follow him on Twitter @
aspen73.
[56] • CANADIAN MUSICIAN