"THE SPANISH TWO-STEP"...by LSG

 

"Dad, show me how to play Yakety Axe".

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"Well if you can learn this one..." and proceeds to play a song that I wouldn't learn the the name of it until I met Dan Furmanik who quickly recognized, "That's the Spanish Two Step" as he whips out a fiddle and saws out the tune.

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As I was explaining to Dan, that was the first song I learned how to "pick" on guitar. My dad was amazed at how quick I picked up on it he said. Dad then proceeded to show me "Yakety Axe" that was popularized by Boots Randolph but he called it "Yakety Sax" as he played it on the saxophone. Some people might know it as the "Benny Hill" theme.

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I didn't learn to play the guitar in the traditional way. I didn't learn to read guitar music (tablature) or practice scales or learn sheet music. My dad showed me "country style" picking and my oldest brother showed me the "blues" scale and the "country" scale that lives four frets behind the "blues" scale. Dad said "it's all patterns and once you learn it in one spot (key) it's good up and down the neck".

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The biggest influence on my lead playing was being dumped by my first love. I was the worst boyfriend ever, I didn't know how to be in love and made the young man mistake of thinking she was MINE, the whole jealous, overbearing, controlling- everything a woman wants in their man, NOT! What an asshole I was, she still hates my guts to this day. That "first cut is the deepest" thing.

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I sat in my room for countless hours, heartbroken and jamming along to Hank Williams, Sr and the Allman Brothers Band very first album.

 

"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Cold, Cold Heart" and "Don't Want You No More" into "It's Not My Cross To Bear" mixed with liquor, weed, guitar licks and tears.

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That's the formative years of my lead guitar style and a big influence on my vocal approach.