TomFest

One of the more faithful covers I've seen. Very well done.

I always liked "Suitcase". Not one of their better known tunes, but a good rocker.

Pretty cool looking, but I'm surprised Rickenbacker doesn't quash that. CEO John Hall protects the Rickenbacker patents vigorously.

I like low powered tube amps. I bought my Fender Deluxe Reverb used, about 35 years ago and it is a great amp. At 22 watts, it's the most powerful amp I have. I have a Vox AC-15TBX that I got about 15 years ago and when we gig out, that's the one I use these days. But at home and when the band practices, I'm using a Fender Champ. It's only 3 or 4 watts but actually plenty loud. At band practice, I can only put it on about 5 at most and it drives the tubes into some nice natural breakup. I could live with just the Champ and my Telecaster and be a happy camper. Those are all combo amps, but I also have a Marshall head and 4x12 cab. It's also low powered at 5 watts, but gets very crunchy. I play that one when I need to get my Angus Young on. :-)

Gotta add B.B. King's "Lucille" in there, and also one of the greatest guitars ever made, the Gibson Les Paul Standard Sunburst - aka "The Burst". Greatest in value for sure. The first guys that were famous for them were Peter Green, Eric Clapton, and Mike Bloomfield followed by Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons and on and on...

It's a good version for sure, thanks for sharing. I have a love/hate with this tour. The album and performances I loved, but Howie looking shockingly bad, I did not. RIP Howie.

I recently picked up a DVD of Tommy James at the Bitter End in New York. It's from 2006 and the guy could still bring it. An excellent show packed with hits.

My first "good" guitar was an Ovation 1611 in tobacco sunburst. Looked just like the one Jim is playing there.

I have that songbook. This guy inspired me to buy my first guitar.

Well deserved honor for the master wordsmith. His lyrics continue to amaze, and put to music.....equals Nobel Prize.

Favorite that Dylan sang? Or favorite Dylan song covered by somebody else? I'll take both categories and go with "Like A Rolling Stone" and "All Along The Watchtower". But I could easily pick many others for each category.

Nurk - I'm drooling here. Do you have any pictures of the bunch of them together? You probably have too many to fit in one picture.

I didn't play an instrument in school, unless you count the "recorder". And that was for a very short time. I bought my first guitar - a nylon string $27 special because of Jim Croce. Loved his style of playing and singing, and still do. So it was always guitar for me, and I pick one up and bang on it nearly every day.

Part way down this page are the 3 different "booster" plugs I think you're referring to. I've never seen one though. http://www.bigmuffpage.com/The_Tonebender_Timeline_2.html

Clapton wouldn't be a bad place to start. Certainly motivated me to get my first Strat. I remember my oldest son asking me to show him how to play "Sunshine Of Your Love". But overall, they're going to gravitate to the music and artists that they like.

Definitely many similarities between the 2. Paul admitted it was modeled after a Presley song. He didn't say which, but clearly it's this one. I love Elvis' version from the '68 comeback special.

I'm a big fan of low powered amps. I play most of the time with my band using an old tweed Fender Champ. We mic it through the PA when necessary, but for parties and whatnot, it's plenty loud, and I usually only run it on about 5. I'd be tempted to put something low powered in there that you can turn up and push those tubes into some natural distortion. That's if you're going with a tube amp. Super Beatles were solid state, and loud enough to peel paint. :-)

That was great. Sometimes the best stuff happens when you're just horsing around.

One thing about Tom is that he doesn't like repeating himself - or repeating something everyone else is doing, or has done. I suspect some of that played into NOT having a 40th Anniversary Tour. Everyone and their brother has already done that. So on the basis of that, I wouldn't expect anything like a "Wildflowers" tour where they play the record start to finish. That would be awesome, but I just don't see it. I hope I'm wrong though.

Hey, you expressed yourself just fine. And congratulations on the Gold Medal for soccer - and for putting on a beautiful Olympic competition in Brazil. Well done!

I really enjoyed the swimming and the gymnastics, and there are some amazing track and field competitors. Before the Olympics started, there was a lot of negative publicity about what's been going on in Rio with protests and with pollution in the water, and about the Zika virus, but I have to say none of that has really turned out to be a problem, and the competition has been really fun to watch.

There is a soundboard recording of this show up on Dime. I've never seen/heard a Dirty Knobs soundboard before. It's really good!

Good song. I'm always struck by how much Peter Asher looks like Austin Powers.

If anyone is interested, I recorded the 3 songs they performed live in the studio at NPR "World Cafe", and I'm happy to share them out. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you a link to download the MP3 files from my dropbox. The 3 songs are: Hope Hungry No More Save Your Water

Ah yes - technology, the gift that keeps on giving. Happy Birthday Nurk!