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Fretboard Journal
The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 151
Support our sponsors: Amplified Parts; Grez Guitars; Better Help, and Emerald City Guitars!
It’s the 151st episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps!
Thanks, as always, for being a part of the world’s finest call-in tube amp repair show.
Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.
Some of the topics discussed this week:
1:03:05 What’s on Skip’s bench: A pile of Standel amps; Vacaville’s Pacific Hardware (redux); a baffler of sorts
8:28 Tom Gunterman (Instagram); Kevin from Ohio; Joe Walsh
11:30 Our sponsors: Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts! Marshall Capris; Christopher Guest
19:07 Julian Lage and Leo Kottke (tour dates here)
22:45 The Fretboard Summit August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago: https://fretboardsummit.org
23:57 What to do with the unused bass control on a modded Vibrochamp?
31:38 Weak tremolo on a late 1970s Fender Deluxe Reverb; optocouplers
36:36 The Bastard Instrument (Amazon link); the Ampeg book
44:57 A Teisco Melody amp; Takt amps; installing an isolation transformer
55:49 ESR / Multifunction testers
59:51 Channel jumping on a black panel Fender; Yellow Jacket tube converters (Amplified Parts link, we’ll revisit this on our next episode…sorry)
1:05:30 The Soundmaster 600; Traynor YGM-3; Fender PS-400 and the Allman Brothers
Above: Listener Joel’s Teisco Melody amp
Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.
Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
Don’t forget, we have a Patreon page. Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.
The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 151 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Podcast 508: Summer School Electronics Founder Mark Turley
Summer School Electronics founder Mark Turley joins us this week to discuss the history of his pedal company, his day job as a schoolteacher, our Fretboard Summit gathering, and so much more.
In what has become an annual tradition, Summer School will be debuting a new, wild pedal at our Summit. For the first time ever, Mark will also teach a pedal-making class during our festival. Space is limited, but you’ll go home with the ultimate Summit souvenir…a new pedal that you created!
Register for our Summit:
https://fretboardsummit.org/ (August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago!)
To RSVP for Mark’s pedal build class: https://www.summerschoolelectronics.com/shop/p/fretboard-summit-pedal-building-class
We are brought to you by:
Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com
(Use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first order)
Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com
Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).
The post Podcast 508: Summer School Electronics Founder Mark Turley first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
A First Timer’s Guide to the Chicago Fretboard Summit 2025
Our annual Fretboard Summit takes place August 21-23, 2025 at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music.
Wondering what the heck the Fretboard Summit is?
You’ve come to the right place. We’ve created this first-timer’s guide to help you wrap your head around the proverbial tailpiece of this special gathering. Our 2025 Summit will be our sixth, and largest, to date.
What is the Fretboard Summit?
It’s a hang, a conference, and a music festival rolled into one.
Basically, it’s our take on the ultimate guitar geek weekend, where you can meet the heroes we celebrate on our pages and podcasts (players and builders); see some ridiculously cool concert lineups; try out (and buy) some insanely unique guitars; learn a bunch; and make some new friends.
It’s also one of the only open-to-the-public conventions that features a who’s-who of legendary guitar and gear makers. And, yes, you can actually meet them all.
Why?
Because we wanted to celebrate the community around the Fretboard Journal. Acoustic and electric. We also wanted you to be able to meet all these great personalities we interview and showcase in our magazine.
You don’t need to be a serious collector, gigging musician, or virtuoso to attend. Just have an open mind and you’ll have a blast.
Who is playing this year?
An eclectic bunch of artists you’ve probably read about in our magazine and a few we can’t wait to turn you on to.
We’re still making announcements and additions to the lineup (a few are secrets we can’t divulge quite yet), but we can tell you that Charlie Hunter and Ella Feingold will be there, performing and teaching. Ella is a funk guitar god who was recently featured on our podcast. It remains one of the most downloaded episodes we’ve ever done. Charlie will be playing a solo blues set honoring Blind Blake. It’ll be amazing. We’ll also hear about their new duo record.
We also know that jazz guitar great Jonathan Stout is coming back, as is FJ favorite Ryan Richter (pictured above). This year, Ryan is bringing Dylan Day and Harrison Whitford – two of LA’s best session guitarists – out to the Summit. We’ll hear from all three. Fretboard Journal Assistant Editor Sofia Wolfson is going to teach a songwriting class. We’ve also got sessions on everything from the Fender history to African guitar.
Last but not least, you will be playing. This is a festival made for musicians of all stripes. Beyond all the included guitar workshops, there are unlimited opportunities to play, jam with friends, or try out new guitar gear. We have soundproof rooms if you want to rock out (or just try guitars in private).
Space is limited because this is about as interactive as festivals get. We want you to get hands-on time with cool gear.
What is the Old Town School of Folk Music?
A Chicago institution. Founded in 1957 the Old Town School of Folk Music provides a wide range of music, dance, theater, and visual arts courses to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. It’s a magical 501(c)(3) not-for-profit with an expansive campus featuring two buildings across the street from one another. We take over both facilities and fill them to the brim with sessions, workshops, jam rooms, and demo spaces.
When you picture Chicago, you may think of Wrigley Field or some busy downtown street or that one Wilco cover with the two buildings. The neighborhood that Old Town is in is easily walkable and there are dozens of nearby cafes, shops and restaurants. It’s like the cool neighborhood in your town, but in Chicago.
Who attends the Summit?
An eclectic mix of guitar fanatics (of all abilities), collectors, luthiers, industry members, and working musicians from around the world. Our crowd tends to be more eclectic and diverse than you’d think – young and old, all genders. But we all connect over a love for guitars.
Having said that: We limit Summit all-access passes to just a few hundred. We want everyone who attends to see the concerts, meet their heroes, and have fun without crowds. So if you want to come, it’s best to register soon before it sells out.
Who will I meet?
That’s up to you!
This year’s Summit has some of the most respected names in guitar craft: You can meet the crews behind Martin, Collings, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Beard, Yamaha, Gallagher, and Chase Bliss. It’s a rare opportunity to talk to lutherie legends like Andy Powers (Taylor Guitars), Richard Hoover (SCGC) and Wayne Henderson.
We have interective exhibits – a
In 2023, Bill Frisell led a guitar orchestra that anyone could join; the year prior the Milk Carton Kids all taught us how to harmonize. We also attract some of the biggest YouTube and podcast influencers around (Rhett Shull will be there, along with Emily from Get Offset and many others).
Best of all, you’ll meet a bunch of great players who probably aren’t currently on your radar…and fellow collectors.
What does a day look like?
Each day has over 12 hours of programming planned. We don’t expect you to catch it all (that would be crazy), but it’s there for you.
Get to Old Town School on Friday morning (August 23) at around 9 or 10 a.m., get your pass, browse the schedule and decide whether you want to browse guitars at the lutherie showcase or attend a workshop. Proceed however you like. The Old Town campus has two buildings and it’s a little daunting at first, but just consider it a giant guitar funhouse. (Someone from the FJ or OTS will be at the front registration desk to help you if you have any questions.)
I encourage pass holders to take their time and not expect to attend everything. Some of the coolest music moments happen in the lobbies or just by sticking around a sponsor booth for a while.
There’s a lunch break every day where attendees and their new friends grab a bite nearby. I like the Indian place about a block away, but there burgers, dumplings, cafes and more within about 300 yards of the venue. You’ll see lots of Summit badges at neighboring restaurants. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself. In the afternoon, there’s a whole new slate of afternoon sessions.
Concerts tend to start after dinner in the two theaters: The historic Maurer Concert Hall (capacity 420) is where our bigger names play, while across-the-street at Szold Hall you can catch some of the more adventurous programming. Your pass gets you into everything. You can come and go as you please.
What are the workshops like?
Once you find a class or session you’d like to attend, just show up. No reservation is needed with your all-access pass. Some classes are intimate affairs, some have 20-50 people. We put the bigger draw workshops in the big theater, but there’s typically room for everyone. We’ve had live podcast tapings, serious master classes on guitar technique, AMAs with guitar celebrities and more.
If you want to leave a session early, just politely get up and go. There are usually two to three sessions going every hour so you can try something else.
What styles of music are represented?
Rock, bluegrass, roots music, blues, jazz, folk, singer-songwriters, and all points in between. Basically, the pages of the FJ coming to life.
How expensive is it?
We’ve preserved our pricing from last year: Three-day passes are $400.
This includes everything, all-day-long: Admission to all the evening concerts, all the instructional workshops, opportunities to win some truly cool guitars in our raffles, the ability to buy Summit exclusive gear, networking events, a great swag bag, and surprises.
You also get early and unlimited access to the lutherie showcase featuring over 70 guitarmakers.
Even without the rest of the Summit programming, this is arguably the largest handmade and boutique guitar showcase in North America.
Walkable dining options abound near the venue at every price point. You can stay wherever you like (see below).
Where should I stay?
We get asked this a lot.
Honestly, you can stay wherever you like in Chicago. Probably aim for a hotel or Airbnb that fits your price range somewhere north of downtown Chicago and south of downtown Evanston. If the reviews online look good and it fits your price range, go for it. (Checking your cab fare ahead of time using an online calculator is also a good idea.)
All Summit activities take place at Old Town School, from morning to night. So once you’re there each day, there’s no need to go anywhere else. Hotel Zachary near Wrigley is an Old Town staff favorite, but you really can’t go wrong if the Tripadvisor reviews and room rate meet your standards.
If you’re on a guitar forum or have friends into guitars, post about the Summit and see if you can go in on an Airbnb. There are many in the vicinity of Old Town, but they tend to get reserved quickly.
New this year: We’re setting up a What’s App channel for attendees to connect on ride shares, lodging or just horse trade guitars.
What guitar should I bring?
Over half of our attendees don’t even bother bringing a guitar, but we’ve also seen plenty of pre-war dreadnoughts, Taylors, homemade creations, and all points in-between. We’ve seen plenty of new and old electrics, too.
Our Truth About Vintage Amps Podcast Room – filled to the brim with great, rare and obscure vintage amps – always has a few electrics to use, too.
Yes, there is a fully secure guitar check-in room if you want to drop an instrument to run errands or eat.
What brands and builders are attending in 2025?
It’s a long list that includes Martin, Collings, Yamaha, Henriksen, Chase Bliss, D’Addario, Gallagher, Beard, and Taylor. We’ve also got smaller-batch builders like Mike Baranik, 3Bender, Huss & Dalton, Bruce Guitars, Cedar Mountain mandolins, Sam Guidry, Shock the Fox,Grez, Greenfield, Cardinal, R. Robinson, Mule, Paul Woolson, and dozens more. The full lineup of exhibitors is here.
Also, if you’re in the Chicago area and just want to go guitar shopping and not attend any of the panels, concerts, parties or workshops, we’ll offer single-day lutherie showcase passes soon.
How do I sign up?
Register today at www.fretboardsummit.org. And holler if you have any questions.
Still trying to picture this event? Check out these totally unsolicited videos posted by some of our past attendees…
The post A First Timer’s Guide to the Chicago Fretboard Summit 2025 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Podcast 507: Skip Heller Returns
Musician, composer, and writer Skip Heller was one of the Fretboard Journal’s earliest subjects, contributors, and podcast guests.
On this week’s show, we catch up with Skip to talk about his new exotica album, ‘Mojave After Dark.’ We chat about his early pieces for the magazine – including the story on John Hartford he penned for our fourth edition – and so much more. Skip has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to music. You may just want to take notes.
https://skiphellersvoodoo5.bandcamp.com/album/mojave-after-dark
We are brought to you by:
Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com
(Use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first order)
Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com
Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).
https://fretboardsummit.org/ (August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago!)
The post Podcast 507: Skip Heller Returns first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Bill Frisell – “Isfahan”
For his latest Fretboard Journal session, Bill Frisell plays the Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington classic “Isfahan.”
On this track, Bill borrowed the Fretboard Journal’s Grez Grand Tour guitar. He’s playing straight into a Carr Sportsman amp.
Filmed June 23, 2025 at the Fretboard Journal’s Seattle headquarters.
The post Bill Frisell – “Isfahan” first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Steel: Dave Biller
On Episode 13 of Steel, we catch up with guitarist and steel player Dave Biller. Based in Austin since the ’90s, Dave’s played with everyone from Johnny Bush and Ray Price to Jimmie Vaughan and Charley Crockett.
There aren’t many musicians who can play a classic country E9 gig in the afternoon, hit a jazz club on six-string that night, and then compose a piece for a chamber orchestra the next day…but Dave can.
We talk about his winding musical path through rock, metal, jazz, and country; his various musical obsessions, including John Coltrane, Jimmy Day, and Django Reinhardt; and the hotel room conversation that led him to spend a decade immersing himself fully in pedal steel.
Read more about Dave and hear some of his music at the links below:
Read more about Dave at the following links:
Steel is brought to you by the Fretboard Journal magazine and is mixed by Armen Bazarian.
The post Steel: Dave Biller first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Luthier on Luthier: Andy Manson
For episode 103 of the podcast, we speak with legendary guitar maker Andy Manson.
Andy shares stories from his early days of building and tells us about his commitment to traditional construction techniques and how his craft has evolved over the years.
Andy also discusses some of his most iconic instruments, how his approach has shifted with age, and the benefits of Thai massage.
Link: https://www.andymanson.com
The post Luthier on Luthier: Andy Manson first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Caitlin Canty Brings It All Back Home
Caitlin Canty’s guitar seems to have been around forever – it’s a battle-scarred Recording King Jumbo from 1939 – and her songs are the same way. Her melodies draw from the blues and folk tradition but in startlingly fresh ways and with lyrics as vivid and precise as Raymond Carver short stories. “They seem to exist without having been forced into existence,” says guitarist Rich Hinman, her frequent collaborator. Canty delivers them in a voice that’s clear, smart, ardent, sometimes aching yet always restrained, so that every quiver, burr and microtonal bend cuts deep.
Plenty of us already know Canty well. At 43, she has been building her sparkling indie-folk catalogue for 20 years: five full-length albums, four EPs, and million-streaming singles like her 2020 masterpiece, “Where is the Heart of My Country.” But for the rest, here’s your chance. Canty’s new album, Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove, which is available to buy now and starts streaming Oct. 2, may be her best yet. To understand what makes this one special, it helps to know what the artist has been up to.
Canty’s last appearance in the Fretboard Journal multiverse came in March 2018, when she was set to release her winsome third LP, Motel Bouquet, produced by Noam Pikelny. (The Punch Brothers virtuoso put down his banjo to play slinky Telecaster on the album). In Seattle for a gig, Canty and Pikelny stopped by the FJ offices to tape a podcast. When Jason Verlinde asked them how they knew each other, they told him, sort of, but left out the part about falling in love and impending marriage. Canty didn’t want to exploit their romance to promote her music.
The seven years since have been tumultuous and wildly productive. In March 2020, the couple survived the Great East Nashville Tornado, which cut a swath of destruction down their block but somehow spared their house. They weathered the pandemic and brought their first baby boy into the world. In 2023, Canty released Quiet Flame, a glowing acoustic album produced by Chris Eldridge. It backed Canty with God’s-own’s East Nashville string band: multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz, fiddler Brittany Haas, and double bassist Paul Kowert. Around the same time, Canty and Pikelny left Nashville for a remote mountaintop cabin in Vermont, not far from the house where Canty grew up, where her mother grew up, and where her parents still live.
While Pikelny rode the Punch Brothers train and co-founded the bluegrass supergroup Mighty Poplar, Canty steered her own course below the music-industry radar, making transformative art for a hard-won fanbase without the help of a record label or manager. She mails out albums and merch from a little Vermont post office, tends to her bicoastal following on Substack and Patreon, and gigs whenever she can. “I need to perform my songs,” she says, “but I can’t drop my life to tour everywhere under the sun. Because now there’s another baby to care for.”
In March 2024, six weeks before giving birth to her second child and already so big she could barely hold her guitar, Canty booked four days at Sam Kassirer’s 1790 farmhouse studio in Maine and made an album that sounds like New England – flintier, bluesier, harder-edged than Quiet Flame or Motel Bouquet. Night Owl is a return to the percussive electric vibe of Reckless Skyline, the critically acclaimed album Canty recorded in Massachusetts in 2015. This time she co-produced (with Kassirer, who also played keys) and cut the tracks live with a band drawn from the New England scene where she got her start – Hinman and drummer Ray Rizzo, who both play with Kassirer in Josh Ritter’s Royal City Band; bassist Jeremy Moses Curtis and harmony vocalist Matt Lorenz (Suitcase Junket), who both played on Reckless Skyline. “I had one chance to get the songs down before the baby came,” she says.
“Caitlin was so pregnant when we made this record,” says Hinman, who has toured with Canty off and on for a decade. “But she was just trucking right through it. She’s really tough that way. It was kind of amazing.”
“I was sort of terrified when she showed up with three guitars and a carful of groceries,” says Kassirer. “But I couldn’t believe the energy coming off of this person. She gets right to work. She knows exactly who she is and what she wants. And before you know it, we’re listening to a playback and she’s smiling and saying, ‘Man, it really sounds like me.’ That made me so happy.”
“She’s scrappy,” says Hinman. “She just does it herself. I don’t think she came into music with any expectation that it would be different. She keeps her operation lean and portable but always has what she needs to do a beautiful job. I mean, I’ve seen her pull a Fender Pro Junior amp out of her suitcase.”
Canty’s albums tend to pair her voice and guitar with a musical foil: Pikelny’s Tele on Motel Bouquet, Haas’s incandescent fiddle on Quiet Flame. Hinman fills that role here with a mighty arsenal – a 1936 Roy Smeck Deluxe (a fine match for Canty’s old Recording King), a 1980s Tokai Strat strung with flatwounds, a Show-Pro pedal steel, and a baritone Tele. Across all those flavors and textures, he provides just what the songs need to reinforce the sense that they are found objects, not made ones.
“There are a lot of before and after moments in my life,” Canty says. “And they’re embedded in these songs. Before the tornado, after the tornado. Before I had a baby, after I had a baby. When I lived in Nashville, when I lived in Vermont.”
They say parenthood turns you into a morning person the way being chased by a bear turns you into a runner. Night Owl explores themes of motherhood and the search for home, but Canty is wary of saying so, partly because she doesn’t want to exclude people who aren’t parents, and partly because of fear. “The crazy thing about becoming a mom? I’ve seen great artists take a step back to have kids, and they get swallowed up and don’t return. So that was always scary to me. But parenting is such a big part of my life right now – as a touring musician and as a writer – so of course the songs are steeped in the realities of being a mother. But I don’t want to lead with that fact because it would narrow their meaning.”
The songs derive undeniable power from the deep experience of grown-up living, from life changes that refract through them in unexpected ways. The album’s title track, for example, begins with a very Vermont idea – “I might stay in the mountains/Never come down never come down” – but Canty wrote it in the flatlands of Middle Tennessee before she knew she’d be moving back north. “We started coming up to Vermont from Nashville during the pandemic for two months at a time, and I immediately felt like I’d never left. And then Noam fell in love with it here. So we started coming four months at a time, and finally left Nashville to be here full-time.
“We’re living in the literal clouds,” she says. “On a dirt road on top of a mountain. We see the full night moon coming up over the mountains, and we see it set the next morning on the other side – amazing. We’re very far from people, so we don’t have to listen to everybody mow their lawns around the clock. And the slower march of time here is helpful when the whole world feels like it’s on fire. But there’s a lot we miss about Nashville. It felt like home, too.” So on “Night Owl,” she doesn’t want to “leave the street where I met you/And leave the stair where we fell in love.” And in “Dear Home Again,” a slo-mo Celtic dirge with a thick, foreboding drone produced by Kassirer’s pump organ and Rizzo’s water-filled singing bowls, Canty sings about “setting off on a deep ocean” in a voice that cuts through the fog with sweet memories of “swaying fields … gentle woods … and laughing stream” while wondering “Oh will I see my dear home again?”
“I mean it quite literally,” she says. “What is home? Can you get back to it? The
idea of home is always morphing: my literal house, my neighborhood that was unrecognizable after a tornado, my country that does not look like the place I thought it was. Where will my boys call home? How long before the place you call home changes? I don’t know. To be determined.”
Taken together, the first three songs on “Night Owl” trace a progression from passion recalled to passion rekindled to passion squandered. The recollection comes in “Hotter than Hell,” the album’s first song and lead single, a rousing anthem of scorching young love that deserves to blare from car radios all summer long.
Way back in the mountains
Black cherry wood
Hotter than hell
Your heart in my hand
The thunder of blood
Drumming through the land
My body the land
The song gets across both the urgency of live-wire passion and the tattoo it leaves behind years later, “after the fever breaks.” Making his Tokai Strat sound like a lap steel, Hinman delivers a thick, broken-fever slide solo that staggers before it soars, gathering strength for a searing final flight that sets up a shattering bridge: Canty’s burnished voice tangled with Lorenz’s harmonies, the barest hint of rasp creeping in on the last word of the couplet to tell you she’s not making this up:
Years flash by faster than you think they will
The sweat on your neck I can taste it still
Passion rekindled is the subject of “Open the Window,” an R&B number about two people doing the dishes until one of them makes a demand: “Open the window, let the night roll in/tell me you love me, could stand to hear it again/Listen to the song/Spin me round the kitchen.” Kassirer suggested to Canty that she put down her guitar for this one and she sings with real power, letting herself go, trusting her upper register. Kassirer caught the performance live and spare with lots of room reverb, a B-3 throb and a 335 solo, and no backing vocals. He was going for a Muddy Waters’ Folk Singervibe, and got it.
That gives way to a story of passion squandered by familiarity, a slow waltz, powered by Kassirer’s muted piano, about a relationship gone so wrong that “we’d have to be strangers to be lovers again.” Imagining a life where she’d left him, she concludes, “I’d miss my dog the most.” Ouch.
After that three-song journey, the record clears the air with a busting-from-the-gate rocker called “Electric Guitar,” a wake-up call for anyone who ever put aside their dream to raise a family. “Did you put down that electric guitar you bought but never played?” The song came to Canty the day her toddler discovered her long-neglected early-‘60s Kay Speed Demon hollowbody in its dusty case under the bed. She held it upright so he could pluck it like a double bass and then, while he investigated the empty case, she tuned it up and started writing the song. She finished it at a 2021 songwriters’ retreat in New Hampshire, where she played it for friends one night, then came down to breakfast the next morning and heard them singing it together. (And yes, she strummed the hell out of her Speed Demon when she tracked the song at Kassirer’s studio.) “Electric Guitar” is one of the tougher songs on the record, along with “High on a Lie” (a guided tour through states of self-delusion) and “Bird Dog” (a swaggering rocker about being fed up with heartbreak). But with Canty, sometimes the softest songs hit hardest.
“Heartache Don’t Live Here,” the only co-write on the record (she composed it with singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson) is a stately song of liberation, a peaceful stroll through an old house that feels bigger and brighter since someone who’s never mentioned moved out. Old acoustic guitars chime and Canty sings, “Those old blues they still do come knocking/Nobody answers the door/That burden can just keep on walking/Heartache don’t live here no more.”
The emotional centerpiece of the album, “Don’t Worry About Nothing” is as gentle as anything on Quiet Flame. A fingerpicked lullaby – a hug disguised as a song – begins with Canty consoling her little boy after a bully wrecks his building-block castle, then pivots to Canty’s mother consoling her. “Don’t worry about nothing/a new day keeps coming/even the morning learned how to break.”
“I started writing it as a mom to my little one,” she says, “but the rest of the song is entirely written from my mom to me. In her voice, what she said to me after the tornado was a huge life event for us. So, don’t worry about nothing? Well, there clearly are some major real-life things to worry about, whether it’s a tornado or a pandemic or the results of an election. But the message is, Don’t let your mind get eaten by whatever’s chasing you. And so that’s my mom: She’s weathered some of the worst things that can happen, and she is the happiest, most stable person I’ve ever known. And so very wise.”
Even by Canty’s standards, the song is deliberately undersung, plainspoken and lovely. “Well, it feels like it’s my mom’s voice, so, yeah, Cathy Canty wouldn’t be out there showing off.” And neither would Cathy Canty’s daughter.
The post Caitlin Canty Brings It All Back Home first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Podcast 506: Emma Harner
Meet Emma Harner, an incredibly talented artist from Nebraska who, unbelievably, has only been playing guitar since the pandemic.
Emma’s complex playing, a mix of math rock and acoustic fingerpicking, and arresting vocals have earned her over 200,000 followers on Instagram and accolades from numerous guitar heroes.
During our chat, we talk about her guitar journey, including her time at Berklee, working at Guitar Center, her favorite tuning, her love for Radiohead, why she won’t be covering Nick Drake or Adrianne Lenker any time soon, her new single, and so much more. It’s a great conversation and Emma’s first interview to date.
Follow Emma:
https://emmaharner.com
https://www.instagram.com/emmaharner/
https://substack.com/@emmaharner
Above photo: Sydney Tate
We are brought to you by:
Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com
(Use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first order)
Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com
Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).
https://fretboardsummit.org/ (August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago!)
https://www.fretboardjournal.com
The post Podcast 506: Emma Harner first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 149
Support our sponsors: Amplified Parts; Grez Guitars; Better Help, and Emerald City Guitars!
Acclaimed guitarist Jim Campilongo joins Skip and Jason to talk about his music and gear journey, vinyl treasures, George Barnes playing “Little Rock Getaway” (link), Vance Terry & Jimmy Rivers, Silverface Princeton Reverb love; Celestion G-10 speakers; Laika and the Cosmonauts; and so much more. Plus frozen meatballs!
Follow Jim Campilongo: https://www.jimcampilongo.com/
Jim’s Lessons: https://www.jimcampilongo.com/lessons.html
Above photo: Manish Gosalia
Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.
Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
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The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 149 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Guitar for Introverts: Andy Pitcher
For our long-awaited 7th episode, we speak with Andy Pitcher, a Brooklyn-based guitarist steeped in the world of improvisation and composition.
We discuss his early introductions to music and how the guitar found its way to him; growing up in the shadow of New York City; the guitar as an emotional support system; and much more.
To learn more about Andy and his music: https://www.andypitcher.com/
The Fretboard Journal did an earlier podcast with Andy here that is also worth checking out: https://www.fretboardjournal.com/podcasts/podcast-498-andy-pitcher/
Guitar for Introverts is hosted by Jamie Stillway for the Fretboard Journal network of guitar podcasts.
The post Guitar for Introverts: Andy Pitcher first appeared on Fretboard Journal.