Hi – my name is Edward Bonthrone – I am a huge Elvis and James Burton fan looking for opportunities for James burton style guitar players to play with great Elvis Tribute Artists who want a near exact James Burton ‘clone’ (bad word I know but I used it for searches). Below you will find my ‘50 James Burton Guitar Solos in 15 Minutes‘ links/videos. Please contact me on epgb101@gmail.com | 07908 240 934 for Skype demo. So if you are looking for guitarists who can play like James Burton – I can travel – have passport – not tied to any country:)
Learning James Burton Solos – Guitar Player Teaching & Tutoring
If you would like to learn any James Burton solo – give me a shout and we can do it over Skype:)
HEAR MY FULL (50 SOLOS IN 15 MINS) JAMES BURTON GUITAR DEMO ON FACEBOOK >>
Note: see Comments top right of video – then click ‘See more’ (not ‘see all comments’) to see all solos time-stamps. Don’t click these – use the Facebook vid playhead slider (>) to skip solos.
MY YOUTUBE (2 SOLOS ONLY) JAMES BURTON DEMO – but does show all 50 solo time-markers you can view on the Facebook vid above to skip solos to one you like – eg Hampton Roads CCRider – my favourite!
How I Came to Like Elvis
Ever since I fist heard Elvis Presley at Christmas 1977 (one of my brothers bought the single Way Down/Pledging My Love for his twin brother as a present) I became interested in Music. I had always tinkled badly on the piano – still do. The song Way Down was curious enough – with it’s catchy chorus and strange bass singing by J.D.Sumner, but I wasn’t hooked at that point. The thing is I remember I liked it more than my brother who I inherited it from – while they went on to more ‘modern’ music – in my mind very unmelodious droning electronic noise there seemed to be a lot of in the very early 80’s I now put down to being the inevitable result of only having very rudimentary knowledge of their instruments – rather like my piano playing still is.
Over the years I had watched the Elvis light-hearted movies played on the BBC in the 70’s and 80s but nothing grabbed me. Until one night when I was suffering from an infected finger (my other brother had shut the door on my pinky so it got trapped in the hinge – ouch and wouldn’t open it until he realise I was not joking) and one night That’s The Way It Is Came on TV. I was mesmerised by the coolness of Elvis. I remember his crazy shirt and the band rehearsing while he talked to the camera – but the problem was my finger was throbbing and a hot seeing pain was now creeping up my arm. I had to leave halfway through the movie and would rather have stayed! We got to the hospital and finally the nail was lanced and the poison released and the thing cured (I still have a deformed nail).
Then one day I was in Our Price record store in Chichester and my mum asked me if I wanted a record. I went straight to Elvis section and pulled out Elvis – Twin Pack. Mum encouraged me to get this as it was better value! I was amazed at how every Elvis song seemed different and the style was changed on every track from the 50’s-70’s. And this was where my appreciation for guitar started.
Scotty Moore’s Guitar Playing
It was when I heard the hard-hitting distorted guitar of Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes that I really first got interested in the guitar sound. I still think the bouncy energy of Scotty Moore’s Blue Suede Shoes solo is incredibly hard to capture even now – even the slight ‘mistakes’ Scotty makes or fumbles on the fretboard with his heavy gauge strings sound ultra-cool and only add to the ‘liveness’. And what on earth does he do at the beginning of the second Hound Dog solo?!! Never heard anything as wild and cool as that. But later I began to listen carefully to James Burton. If you want to find guitar players like James Burton please hit me up.
James Burton’s Guitar Playing
James Burton has an even more strange bouncing energy to his solos (esp. 69-70 in Las Vegas) – different to Scotty’s but to this day a ‘twang’ I have never heard in any other player. Well it only took me 25 years to figure out why and how he did this. I assumed it must be his amp for years and tweaked mine – but nothing sounded like him. Then when I discovered what gear he was using I dismissed it as not possibly being the reason why he sounded so cool – being so entrenched in my ways and not wanting to learn a new trick or change my gear. Finally I changed my gear to match his and bingo with the bounciness! But I still I had a long way to go with his odd or unusual picking technique.
Elvis Presley style guitar player available for gigs and tours
I have realised there cannot be that many guitar players out there that not only know all Elvis’ songs (there are 600 odd) but that also has James Burton as their hobby and learned a lot of his tricks pretty well too – I don’t want to waste it. So the reason I wrote this article was to hopefully capture the attention of ETA’s (Elvis Tribute Artists) who are looking for guitar player who sound like James Burton and know his Elvis solos really well. If you are looking for a James Burton guitar ‘clone’ – or guitarists that can play exactly like James Burton or guitar players that can replicate the James Burton guitar playing technique fairly accurately please contact me:)
07908 240 934 | epgb101@gmail.com
I love God, Christ, The Bible. art, painting, playing music, improvising music, guitar (first instrument), drumming (not very good at it:), and anything musical or art related. Quick note – my articles are usually spun off in minutes so forgive any errors – hopefully you get the essence of the article and I’ll pick up mistakes later. If you want to write of 101ChristianMagazine and inspire and edify Christians with articles on faith, general news, hobbies or anything that interests you email me at: epgb101@gmail.com:)
