William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: Radio Free Albemuth ; Year: 1988; Genre: Classical/Jazz Fusion One of the odd things I have discovered concerning Stu Hamm is that only musicians seem to know who his is and wot he plays. I mean, he's played on a lot of albums from a lot of artists; mainly guitar shredders like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Most would likely know about Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, or Steve Bailey before they'd remember Stu Hamm; not to take a single thing from those axe slingers, he is just every bit as good as them in my opinion. But, when you hear his solo works he really just blows you away with not just how great of a player he is, but how inventive and original his playing and style are. After hearing much of his records I was amazed how many odd and new sounds he could make with his bass guitar. Anyway, this one comes off of one of my favourite albums of his. Radio Free Albemuth's title was taken from the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name, as well as the lion's share of...

From: Working Man – A Tribute to Rush ; Year: 1996; Genre: Progressive Rock Strangely, I did not know about this album until just recently. Basically quite a few of the heavy hitters in progressive and related genres of music at the time got together with longtime producer Rush producer Terry Brown and big fan and noted musician Mike Portnoy for this tribute. I am not sure as to why they recorded it, but probably because they all were so heavily influenced by the band and just wanted to; do you really need a reason to play some of your favourite songs anyway? This is, of course, a cover of the epic, classic instrumental piece from Rush's 1981 Moving Pictures album. It features James Murphy on guitars, Matt Guillory on keys, Deen Castronovo on drums, and Stuart Hamm on bass. It's kind of weird, but at times they do it so well I forget that I am not listening to the original until one of the musicians puts in a fill, flourish, or during a solo.   Hear YYZ on YouTube.   ...

From: Kings of Sleep ; Year: 1989; Genre: Jazz Fusion/Rock I have always personally found Stu Hamm as among the most listenable virtuoso experimental bass players out there; he seems to effortlessly incorporate all of the fun runs filled with velocity and weirdness in a very digestible song structure that even musical people of the casual persuasion will most likely enjoy it.    Hear I Want to Know on YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: Diesel - Leader Of The Pac-Man   My song pick 2 years ago today: Al Stewart - Flying Sorcery   My song pick 3 years ago today: Stone Temple Pilots - Down   My song pick 4 years ago today: Steeleye Span - Fire & Ice   My song pick 5 years ago today: Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Weed Whacker My song pick 6 years ago today: Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band- The Fire Down Below My song pick 7 years ago today: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) My song pick 8 years ago to...

From: The Urge ; Year: 1991; Genre: Rock This song is a live recording that (de)evolves into more or less a bass guitar clinic containing different melodies that most will recognize. Hear Quahogs Anyone? (119, 120 Whatever It Takes) on YouTube. My song pick 1 year ago today: Blue Öyster Cult - Tattoo Vampire My song pick 2 years ago today: Automat - The Rise My song pick 3 years ago today: Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the Gallery My song pick 4 years ago today: Pink Floyd - High Hopes My song pick 5 years ago today: Megadeth - 99 Ways to Die My song pick 6 years ago today: Bachman & Turner - That's What It Is My song pick 7 years ago today: Santo & Johnny - Harbour Lights My song pick 8 years ago today: Stone Temple Pilots - Plush My song pick 9 years ago today: Eddie Floyd - Knock on Wood My song pick 10 years ago today: Jethro Tull - Pussy Willow My song pick 11 years ago today: Bon Jovi featuring Big & Rich - We Got It Going On My song pic...

From: Radio Free Albemuth ; Year: 1988; Genre: Progressive Rock/Jazz Fusion As odd happenstance would have it I was already going to pick this song, which features both Joe Satriani and Allan Holdsworth on guitar only to find out that the legendary guitarist Holdsworth passed away a few days ago... dang; he was a major musician who played all over the place and influenced many guitarists. Even if you do not know of him by name there's a pretty good chance you've heard him play at one time or another. Anywho, about the song: Radio Free Albemuth changes up grooves and time signatures throughout with contrasting and well-defined sections that are expertly pieced together with amazing musical mastery throughout. Hear Radio Free Albemuth on YouTube. My song pick one year ago today: Central Line - Walking Into Sunshine My song pick two years ago today: Zakk Wylde - Way Beyond Empty My song pick three years ago today: XTC - Travels in Nihilon My song pick four year...

From: Kings of Sleep ; Year: 1989; Genre: Rock Last night was very busy and it still has me lagging this morning. I thought of a few songs to pick and I kept coming back to Stu Hamm, so I'm choosing this rather melodic piece of his Kings of Sleep album, which is one of my favourites of his. Hear Terminal Beach on YouTube. My song pick one year ago today: James Brown - Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto My song pick two years ago today: The Police - So Lonely My song pick three years ago today: Ben E. King - Stand By Me My song pick four years ago today: Jethro Tull - Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow My song pick five years ago today: Nightwish - Wishmaster My song pick six years ago today: The Violent Femmes - Color Me Once My song pick seven years ago today: The Who - Eminence Front My song pick eight years ago today: John Fogerty - Almost Saturday Night

From: Kings of Sleep ; Year: 1989; Genre: Hard Rock Again, I had no song in mind today, but was thinking about the music from bassist extraordinaire Stu Hamm. This is one of the more rousing ones from the Kings of Sleep album; I love Harry Cody's lead guitar playing throughout this one. Hear Call of the Wild on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Wilson Pickett - Funk Factory My song pick two years ago today: Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) - Life Still Goes On (I'm Lonely) My song pick three years ago today: Nirvana - In Bloom My song pick four years ago today: Static X - I'm With Stupid My song pick five years ago today: Ian Anderson - Eurology

1528 Stuart Hamm - Kings of Sleep From: Kings of Sleep , Year: 1989 Genre: Rock I've been listening to this album quite a bit over the last couple of days and thought that the title track in particular would make an excellent choice for this Sunday. Like a few other tracks on the album, this one was inspired by the work of author William Gibson. This one in particular was inspired by his short story The Winter Market , which is part of his popular short story collection called Burning Chrome . This is quite a beautiful track in many ways, but I especially love all of the techniques he uses on the bass guitar as a lead and accompaniment instrument throughout the song. While it is quite technical, it is still very much listenable to a casual listener. Hear Kings of Sleep on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Steeleye Span - Lovely on the Water My song pick two years ago today: Crosby, Stills & Nash - Just a Song Before I Go My song pick three years ago today: Robert Mitchum...

1453 Stuart Hamm - Simple Dreams From: Radio Free Albemuth , Year: 1988 Genre: Rock I recently checked out a bunch of stories written by Phillip K. Dick at the library and have been in the midst of reading them. Anyway, I had really no song in mind for my pick today and then I happened to remember this Stuart Hamm album, which contains a lot of music inspired by Phillip K. Dick's work. Only a couple of the songs off of this album appear to be on YouTube at this moment and one of those I already picked , so, I'm choosing the other one. This is rather pretty song, it mostly features him using tapping techniques on his bass to create neat chords and melodies. Hear Simple Dreams on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Albert Hammond - It Never Rains In Southern California My song pick two years ago today: Band of Horses - Islands on the Coast My song pick three years ago today: Jim Croce - Roller Derby Queen +

1319 Stuart Hamm - Black Ice From: Kings of Sleep, Year: 1989 I had no idea what song I was choosing today, but for some reason I just plugged in Stu Hamm's Kings of Sleep album and was greeted by this, the first track on the album. As with much of the music on the album, this one was inspired by William Gibson Cyberpunk novels; those from the Sprawl Trilogy in particular. For those who have never read or are not acquainted with his work, in his novels Black ICE was one of the types of I ntrusion C ountermeasures E lectronics; this one would chase a hacker back to his computer to destroy it and to potentially kill him. The closest real-world example of what this fictional program is would be a Firewall. Anyway, that's probably enough nerd jargon for today. This song features, as you would expect from one of the greatest bassists alive today, a kick-arse bass line. I absolutely love Buzzy Feiten's guitar work throughout this song; he lays down a splendid lead that complem...

1250 Stuart Hamm - Count Zero I've been having some off days this week due to having a head cold, so I've been somewhat erratic with my picks. Well, today I decided on plugging in some music by the bass maestro Stu Hamm. What I have always loved about his music and his subject matter is that he takes some of his inspiration from some of my favourite Sci-Fi authors/novels. Most of the material on his Kings of Sleep album was inspired by novels written by William Gibson, who is one of my favourite authors from way back. The title of this track is directly taken from the book Count Zero , which was the second novel in the Sprawl Trilogy . Of course I highly recommend the books in that trilogy if you are into Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, or Post-Modern. Anyway, enough "geeking out." This track is a rather nice instrumental, while being technical to beat hell, it's actually quite listenable to even a casual listener. Hear Count Zero on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today:...

836 ( Stuart Hamm - Flow My Tears ) Quite a few years ago I was trying to find out who were the "screamers" on bass playing behind many of the guitar greats' solo albums, mostly Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. I discovered that one of those bassists was the legendary Stu Hamm. After going over his discography I ran across one Stu Hamm solo album in particular that caught my attention for one main reason: the album's title and some of the songs made reference to some of Philip K. Dick's works, who is one of my favorite Sci-Fi/Post Modern authors. The album's name, Radio Free Albemuth is actually name of one of his books, which was published posthumously a few years before this album was released. This song, Flow My Tears , is also a reference to one of his more famous and award winning Sci-Fi works: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said ; the title was itself a reference to the 16th century piece of music credited to John Dowland; Flow My Tears . It is amazing to see...