Wong Notes

• Brad Paisley on Fish, Phish, and the Origins of the "Lost" Paisley Guitar

  Welcome back for a special season finale of Wong Notes! We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry. The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of Phish—Paisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature Fender Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake pattern—which some might describe as “hippie puke”—and its surprising origin with Elvis’ guitarist James Burton.Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongVisit Brad Paisley: https://www.bradpaisley.com/Hit us up: [email protected] Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comIG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespodProduced by Jason Shadrick and Cory WongAdditional Editing by Shawn PersingerPresented by DistroKid

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• Joe Satriani is Back!

  Legendary shredder Joe Satriani was the first ever guest on Wong Notes, so it makes sense that he’s the first returning sit-in with Cory Wong. Satch is busy as ever, juggling enough projects to make a normal guitarist’s head spin. But Satriani’s not a normal guitarist.He teases a new song with Sammy Hagar, plus delves into the intricacies of Eddie Van Halen’s playing and why he can’t quite replicate it—every guitarist has their strengths and deficiencies, claims Satch. And believe it or not, Satriani didn’t figure standing in front of huge crowds to be one of his strengths when he was younger. Fate figured otherwise.Satriani goes deep on one of his favorite tools, the Sustainiac pickup, and talks about how it’s defined his playing—just like his trademark sunglasses, even in dark rooms. (“Stupid idea, right?” he jokes.)And young guitarists, listen up: Satriani has some wise words on the importance of rigorous practice while you’re budding on the instrument. The big takeaway? Learn. The. Notes.Listen to the full episode here: https://bit.ly/WongNotesGet 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongVisit Joe Satriani: https://www.satriani.com/Hit us up: [email protected] Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comIG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespodProduced by Jason Shadrick and Cory WongAdditional Editing by Shawn PersingerPresented by DistroKid

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• Don’t Call Grace Bowers a Blues-Rock Guitarist

  Grace Bowers just released her debut record, 2024’s Wine on Venus, with her band the Hodge Podge, but she’s already one the most well-known young guitarists in America. On this episode of Wong Notes, Bowers talks through the ups, downs, and detours of her whirlwind career.Bowers started out livestreaming performances on Reddit at age 13, and came into the public eye as a performer on social media, so she’s well acquainted with the limits and benefits of being an “Instagram guitarist.” She and Cory talk about session work in Nashville (Bowers loathes it), her live performance rig, and Eddie Hazel’s influence.Bowers plugs the importance of networking as a young musician: If you want gigs, you gotta go to gigs, and make acquaintances. But none of that elbow-rubbing will matter unless you’re solid on you’re instrument. “No one’s gonna hire you if you’re ass,” says Bowers. “Practice is important.”Tune in to learn why Bowers is ready to move on from Wine on Venus, her takes on Nashville versus California, and why she hates “the blues-rock label.”Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongVisit Grace Bowers: https://www.gracebowers.com/Hit us up: [email protected] Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comIG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespodProduced by Jason Shadrick and Cory WongAdditional Editing by Shawn PersingerPresented by DistroKid

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• “Crank That Sh*t Up!” Greg Koch on Teaching, Mistakes, Modeling, and Modern Blues

  You might not know Greg Koch, but we’ll bet your favorite guitarist does. In 2012, Fender called the Wisconsin blues-guitar phenom one of the top 10 best unsung guitarists, and in 2020, Guitar World listed Koch among the 15 best guitar teachers. He’s been inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame. Koch is a bonafide midwest guitar god.He joins Cory Wong on this round of Wong Notes for this meeting of the Middle-America minds, where the duo open with analysis of music culture in Wisconsin and Minnesota—Koch taught at Saint Paul’s now-shuttered McNally Smith College of Music, which Wong attended. Koch and Wong zero in on the blues roots of most modern music and talk through soloing theories: It can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be, but Koch shares that he likes to “paint himself into a corner,” then get out of it.Koch and Wong swap notes on the pressures of studio performance versus the live realm, and how to move on from mistakes made onstage in front of audiences. Plus, Koch has created scores of guitar education materials, including for Hal Leonard. Tune in to find out what makes a good guitar course, how to write a guitar book, Koch’s audio tips for crystalline live-stream sessions, and why he still prefers tube amps: “I like to crank that sh*t up!”Visit Greg Koch: https://www.gregkoch.com/Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongHit us up: [email protected] Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespodIG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespodProduced by Jason Shadrick and Cory WongAdditional Editing by Shawn PersingerPresented by...

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• The Journey of Jazz Guitarist Mike Stern

  Mike Stern has been around the block. The jazz-guitar virtuoso earned his stripes through the ’70s and ’80s in New York’s jazz scene, playing 6-string with drummer Billy Cobham before tapping in with artists like Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius—even at a time when guitar wasn’t necessarily a cornerstone piece of a jazz outfit. In this episode of Wong Notes, Stern fills Cory Wong in on the ups and downs of 50 years spent in one of the most complex and underappreciated music genres.Stern made the leap to New York from Boston when Davis invited him to join his band (back when jazz was the pop music of the day, notes Stern), but it was a rocky ride—Stern says he and many other musicians were “bottoming out” from addiction, until a friend went sober and convinced them to give sobriety a try. Stern talks about Miles’ hidden love for the guitar, and how he succeeded in fitting into non-guitar environments.Wong and Stern touch on the decline of arts spaces and cultures in America (thanks, Stern says, to misallocated funding), playing gigs where the band outnumbers the audience members, the benefits of running the same rig in every room, and how to pick the right pick—for Stern, that involves a bit of wig glue. Tune in to get the details, and be sure to check out our 2018 Rig Rundown with Stern, too.Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongVisit Mike Stern: https://www.mikestern.org/Hit us up: [email protected] Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespodIG:

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