Jim & Joe Show (Jim Campilongo and Joe Gore) "Pepper" by Jim Campilongo 

That’s the plan!

VERY psyched on that!@@joe_gore

Yes. Very yes.@@joe_gore

SOOOO true! And that’s had a lot to do with musical choices throughout my life. I started college thinking I’d focus on classical guitar performance. But as I learned more about repertoire and composition, I ran into the unavoidable fact that the classical guitar repertoire is really lightweight compared to non-guitar music. They get Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, etc. Classical guitarists get Giuliani, Sor, Aguado, Diabelli, Tárrega. The guitar composers wrote some beautiful pieces that I play to this day! But in terms of compositional substance, it’s like Muhammad Ali boxing with Pee Wee Herman. So I drifted away from guitar toward lute and early music, and then just straight composition. The same applies to my lifelong loathing of shred guitar, which is the epitome of “using music to play the guitar.” Anyway, I agree that Perlman’s 15 words convey incalculable wisdom. So thanks for quoting them!

That very show changed my approach to music, amazing!

Thank you! I love playing this piece that Jim wrote.

Kittens are way cooler than guitars.

Thanks! I love that section too! Jim composes from the heart and isn’t hung up on theory, But the geeky theorist in me appreciates how that section contrasts the A sections. The latter tend to descend, with some wider intervallic leaps. The section in question reverses that, with smaller intervals, longer note values, minor tonality, more dissonance, and greater harmonic complexity.

Jim is working on a couple of other albums right now. So these videos are sort of a slow-motion start for our duo. There will be an album next year, and I'm dying to go on the road with Jim! Never been to Shreveport, but I'd love to visit!

Aww, thanks! Jim and I are having a total blast with these. Expect an album and live shows next year!

Thanks! We’re looking forward to it as well!

Thanks for you kind words about the music. And I SO agree about Guild. Vintage Guilds are no longer super cheap, but they remain a bargain compared to old Fenders and Gibsons. I have similar thoughts about G&L and Hamer electric guitars.

Hi Erik - hope you're well! Once upon a time this was my only guitar with flatwounds. Now they're on pretty much everything I own. Perversely, I love this guitar for aggresive, high-gain playing.

Just listened to the SD song and I hear what you mean. Kinda cringey.

@@cjkoegl I talk as much trash as most guitarists. But I've made it a policy not to single out individual players for criticism when writing for publication. It's disproportionately hurtful and just bad karma. But Jim DRAGGED it out of me! (Back when I was Guitar Player's editor I used to say "If it only included stuff I like, the magazine would be six pages.")

@@joe_gore He did drag it out of you, that was clear so let's blame Jim, ha ha. I saw him in NYC around 2009 (and because of that Princeton Reverb video he mentioned) and he said to the audience between songs, "Everything I say somehow ends up becoming a lie." Hilarious. So it seems as though the devil has at least a few fingers on his shoulder 😅

With Jim I always seem to play dark-toned instruments against his brighter Tele. This is the first thing we've recorded with the Guild.

@@joe_gore it’s a gorgeous combination...as if they’re generating overtones to each other. Blooming.

Could be natural - but then, we were beat guitar buddies when we were young, so it's also as natural as coming home.

I know what you mean (though Jim has written a lot of good stuff). I loved playing this!

It's a really beautiful song, but there's something about the way it falls under the fingers that makes it really satisfying to play...which i haven't done in some time, now that I think about it! I may hafta dig up Jim's Lesson By Mail to relearn it!@@joe_gore

Thanks! Jim plays so beautifully and distinctively that I seek out highly differentiated tones and techniques - which usually means darker-toned instruments.

@@joe_gore I highly agree with your approach of adding to Jim, perhaps it could be interesting what would happen if you went even further, making your sounds even more 'dirty' - of course with the appropriate tunes and arrangements, but, with your Tom Waits history, I'm thinking both you, Jim and Tom Waits - what would that could result in? But of course I don't expect Tom here, but your sound approaches and your delicate finger style abilities could probably bring Jim's sounds into other beautiful perspectives. Saying this, while I also really like the simplicity of these recordings and arrangements, so these suggestions would really need to be tried tastefully and carefully, hopefully with good and interesting synergy results - keeping the beauty of the music you guys really can create.

It would be easier if I hated the song! But if you made an edit without the solos, it would be so much better. I get why a lot of people loathe Steel Dan, but the craftsmanship on the song is remarkable. Especially the prosody of the lyrics - the strong rhythms echoed from verse to verser ("I remember/oleander/California," "William and Mary/Guadalajara"). And there's so much cleverness (probably too much, but I like clever) in the hyperactive horn chart. The solos hurt me because the song has a lot going for it.

@@joe_gore if you and Jim are going to do shows together in the Bay Area, I'd come up to see!

¡Gracías, compañero!

Salut, mon vieux ! Yes, exactly. But isn't it more impressive when we use 500 words instead of a dozen or so? ;)

Peut etre. But in collge I was the king of the one page term paper. Not popular. Which is probably why I dropped out after two years. ;-) @@joe_gore

Joe, who mixed this, answers: It's MOSTLY amp reverb. But I added some additional plate reverb to both our guitars in the mix.

I am a renegade classical musician who dropped out of a PhD composition program to play in bands. Maybe that's why I loathe "classical" rock guitar so much. ;)

Grande parte da estética da guitarra elétrica é definida pela insegurança adolescente

@@joe_gore Pois é...

Acho que você está certo, amigo!

@@joe_gore Nos resta torcer para esse conceito mudar...

No man, we're totally blanc. :)

I thought I was going to get murdered for saying that stuff. Right now there'a a huge debate over on The Gear Page about a Johnny Marr story I wrote for Guitar PLayer 32 years ago, wherein he said "players like Yngwie Malmsteen should be forgotten." I've been getting hate mail this week because of what Johnny said in 1991.

@@joe_gore Haha, go figure with opinionated guitarists these days -- getting their finger exercises on a keyboard instead of a fretboard! :)

@@Markleford I too am guilty of that sin!

D-C#7-D D-C#7-D G-A-D-G D-A7-D Bridge: C#-Dm-C#-Dm Gm7b5-F-E7-A7

Wow thank you very much Mr.Joe Much love 🙏

Thank yooooo!

Disagreement is fun!

You said it way better than I did, Brian!

It doesn't literally have to sound like a mosquito to have that insect's most annoying traits. ;)