July Playlist: The Mortal Aluminum Neck, by John Davis & The Cicadas

July Playlist: The Mortal Aluminum Neck

by John Davis & The Cicadas

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	1.	Dive Bomb 03:16
	2.	Leave Quickly 03:02
	3.	How to Sew 02:12
	4.	Three Falling 04:26
	5.	Flute Guitar 02:51
	6.	Your Face In Dirt 03:08
	7.	Brittle 02:34
	8.	Shift Plateaus 07:02
	9.	Let Death In the Cycle 01:30
	10.	Hesitating Hunter 02:54
	11.	Openly Grieving 03:52
	12.	The Latter Parts of Grief 03:42
	13.	Lazy Day Coming 03:28
	14.	Tell Me Quickly In the Dark 01:02

about

For this month's playlist, I improvised using a homemade aluminum neck guitar with a Telecaster style body that has been lent to me by Joyful Noise Records. It was made by a fellow named Jonathan, who worked for JNR for years before passing away within the past year. As Folk Implosion started our new record, Jonathan's family offered through JNR to lend us items from his guitar collection to use if we wished to in his memory, because our band meant a lot to him when he was getting into music. I picked a Peavey T-60 and this, his own creation, pictured in the photo.

You'll find a few titles related to death and grieving. I lost my dad in July. It made me feel good to help Jonathan's family's a bit with their grieving process as I continue working through my own.

I have never owned or even played an aluminum necked guitar and was curious to try one. It ended up getting used on three songs on the FI session because it was so different from the other guitars I was using. I usually don't like Stratocasters because they have too much "spank" for my taste - but I liked this guitar because it had way MORE "spank" - so much more that it became kind of like a different effect altogether. Spank is a term used to describe how it sounds when the string hits the neck of the guitar really hard and attenuates the notes. When I said I don't like the spank of Strats Lou said "But you love Telecasters, which have lots of spank too." This is true. So I guess all spanks aren't the same - some, like this custom creation, I like, and some I don't.

Having said all that, on these particular improvisations, I was also exploring different settings on a couple of pedals, so you can't hear the guitar's own tone quite as much as you can on what was recorded for the album. I hope you enjoy nevertheless.

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released August 21, 2022

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John Davis & The Cicadas Durham, North Carolina

John Davis is a musician who works solo, with Folk Implosion, with a backing band called the Cicadas, and with Dennis Callaci. He also works on defending and transforming public education as a teacher - organizer with the Durham Association of Educators. ... more

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