Doyle Dykes

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This past Wednesday night one of our local shops had Doyle in for a show/Taylor demo. I have heard others babble about how fabulous Doyle is, and in his own way he is as much a vurtuoso as Andres Segovia. He can make a guitar speak so many different languages!! Awesome is such a overused word, but there is not a better description to me.

How many people can play an entire tune in chimes and harmonics!!

I have only had one other $5.00 concert that was this great and that was Johnny Shines! I could write a thousand words but I would have still just said Awesome!!

However, the highlite of the show were the three songs he did with his daughter Haley!! She is described as a Christian Bluegrass artist. In the long run I will listen to her CD more than her father because of her beautiful voice and her beautiful touch on the mandolin!!

Here are links to her web page and her MySpace site where you can hear four of her songs. Be sure and check the songs out Mark!!


http://www.haleymusic.net/news.htm


http://www.myspace.com/haleyonline
 

West R Lee

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:lol: Impossible to describe, isn't he P. I sat about 15 feet away from him at my church. Packed house of about 1500 people, and he played continuously for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Afterwards, I was torn between being inspired by him and thinking, why even try to play.....give it up! :wink:

I was able to meet Doyle and talk for a short time with him. One topic that has come up here from time to time has been guys mentioning that they have small hands and therefore have a difficult time fretting. My hands are probably average, but almost wrapped completly around Doyle's hand. He is a very small man.

It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the ocean!

West
 

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coastie99 said:
Mr. P ~ said:


I have only had one other $5.00 concert that was this great and that was Johnny Shines! I could write a thousand words but I would have still just said Awesome!!


PLEASE ! Feel free.

Johnny Shines, my hero.

I may have told this story before, but it is worth more than one time around!!

I think it was 1973 during college, and Johnny was schedule to play in a room used by the theater classes to practice plays. The room was about half the size of a basketball court and had homemade three tiered bleachers made from 2x8 lumber bolted together. Most people were sitting on the floor and there was a small 8x8 foot stage about 8 inches tall. On the stage were two Peavy column speakers, a folding chair and two microphones.

Everybody is jabbering and Johnny walks in with a guitar case wearing a turtle neck sweater, a sports coat with a bear claw hanging around his neck. Nobody introduced him, he had no entourage, he just took out his guitar and sat down. Still nobody really paying much attention it seemed.

Then he played his first note to tune and the crowd fell instantly silent and in unison all turned to face him. He froze in mid stroke, stared out at the crowd his lower lip quivering and big alligator tears rolling down his cheeks. In a soft but shaky voice he said, "Man, this is the first time people have come to listen to me in a really long time,....Thank you, my name is Johnny Shines". Then he started to play and just kind of tuned as he went.

Three and a half hours later he finally quit from exhaustion I guess. He talked a lot about the history of the songs he played, he told stories about Robert Johnson and other blues greats he had played with. He was also stunned at the crowds knowledge of his songs, as people kept shouting requests all of which he honored right away.

He stayed afterward and explained how he played certain things, handed his guitar to people to try the licks, he answered questions about songs , the Chicago blues scene and experiences playing in the delta.

I think I would trade one of my guitars for a video tape of that afternoon, but nobody filmed it.

Doyles concert was better because it is fresh on my mind and I got exposed to Haley, but if I saw a tape of both shows, I would probably choose Johnny to take home with me!!
:roll:
 

Guildmark

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I got turned on to Johnny Shines by coastie after an appropriate dressing down for my ignorance.

You should hear me rant these days: "What d'ya mean you never heard of Johnny Shines! And you call yourself a blues fan?! Oh, Lord, help me! I am surrounded by Philistines!"

Great tale, Mr. P~! I had not read that one before. Thanks for the telling.
 

Mr. P ~

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Glad you enjoyed it my friend, wish you could've been there. That happened at Mississippi State as you probably guessed. 8)
 

coastie99

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Darryl Hattenhauer said:
There are some great interviews with Johnny Shines in that series on the blues that Martin Scorcese did for PBS.

I remember Blues Revue and Living Blues being pretty excited about that series when it was in the making, and then being somewhat disappointed when it was aired.

Be that as it may, I'd like to see it; the archival footage would surely be worth the price of admission.

Does anybody know if it's available on DVD, please ?
 

iamru02

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Good post Mr. P, and that was some good stuff on Haleys space.

Being the blues nut that I am, I enjoyed the story about Johnny Shines. I would have loved to seen him up close like that.
He is interviewed in a Docudrama called "Can't You Hear The Wind Howl", about the life of Robert Johnson. Narrated by Danny Glover and Robert Johnson is played by one of my favorite modern bluesmen "Keb Mo". The movie covers as much of RJ's life as possible, the facts and the Fable's. Johnny Shines tells of his days with Robert Johnson. Good stuff for sure.

thanks again for the links.
 

california

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Mr. P ~ said:
This past Wednesday night one of our local shops had Doyle in for a show/Taylor demo. I have heard others babble about how fabulous Doyle is, and in his own way he is as much a vurtuoso as Andres Segovia. He can make a guitar speak so many different languages!! Awesome is such a overused word, but there is not a better description to me.

How many people can play an entire tune in chimes and harmonics!!

I have only had one other $5.00 concert that was this great and that was Johnny Shines! I could write a thousand words but I would have still just said Awesome!!

However, the highlite of the show were the three songs he did with his daughter Haley!! She is described as a Christian Bluegrass artist. In the long run I will listen to her CD more than her father because of her beautiful voice and her beautiful touch on the mandolin!!


I saw Doyle last week at an event in West Los Angeles, the way Mr. P. describes it is right on, two hours of sheer excitement.

There was one very special moment that deserves a mention. Doyle's "workshop", really a concert, was held outdoors in a performance space in a public park. This being Los Angeles, there were several homeless people milling about.

Towards the end, when Doyle and Haley were onstage introducing a song that they sang for some disadvantaged kids in England and talking about what it means to him to perform for special audiences -- children, hospitals, etc., a homeless Mexican man walked (staggered?) up to the stage, went right up to Doyle and asked him to play "La Cucaracha". Unlike most performers who Probably would have blown the guy off, Doyle not only played for him, but threw in a couple of other songs as well in a kind of improvised medley. When Doyle finished, the man held up his arms to the audience, we all applauded and he walked off. A couple of minutes later, he came back, and bless Doyle, he did a short reprise.

Like Mr. P., I was blown away by Doyle's and Haley's talent. But even more impressive was the exhibition of class that he showed on stage that night. The homeless buy may never now how special that little performance was, but all of us there will remember it for a long time to come.[IMG:480:384]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r147/california91207/LTG/DoyleDykes.jpg[/img]
 

Mr. P ~

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There are probably a lot of stories like that about Doyle. He is one of those Genuine people we all hope to meet.
 
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