Episodes
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There probably arenât too many artists out there as busy as Mark Tremonti. Aside from his celebrated careers in alt-rock mainstays Creed and Alter Bridge, the guitarist, songwriter, and singer organizes guitar and songwriting clinics while on tour; has a line of signature PRS gear; and cut a 14-track charity record, Mark Tremonti Sings Sinatra. Did we mention heâs aiming to become a pinball kingpin, too?
Tremonti joins Cory Wong on this episode of Wong Notes to dig into his musical trajectory since the late â90s, when he blasted to the top of the charts with Creed. The band drew comparisons to other grunge-era staples like Pearl Jam, which irritated Tremonti but pleased Stapp. Tremonti discusses the gulf between the bandâs popularity and the critical backlash they received: âPeople can be cruel, but itâs part of the world. You gotta deal with it.â
Tremonti analyzes what makes a good riff and why everything in âthe middleâ is boring to him, and unveils his songwriting and demoing routines. (âI think melody is the most important part of everything,â he says.) But his biggest passion project these days is his step into classic crooner music. Inspired by his daughter to do a charity project to benefit the down syndrome community, Tremonti recorded a Frank Sinatra covers album, complete with more than a dozen musicians who played with Olâ Blue Eyes himself.
Tune in to hear all about Tremontiâs artistic life, plus a peek at what happens during his pre-show guitar and songwriting clinics on Creedâs fall 2024 tour. Expecting him to demonstrate some ferocious warmups? Think again: âI play like grandmaâs in the room,â says Tremonti.
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âSkunkâ Baxter has had an interesting career. The Washington, D.C.-born musician was one of Steely Danâs founding members in the early 1970s, and played on some of their most iconic numbers, like Canât Buy a Thrillâsâ âReelinâ in the Yearsâ and âDo It Again,â or Pretzel Logicâs âRikki Donât Lose That Number.â Then, he moved on to join the Doobie Brothers, from roughly 1974 to 1979, where he fatefully invited Michael McDonald into the band. After that stint, he became a go-to session player for artists like Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Donna Summer, and a touring performer for Elton John and Linda Ronstadt, among others.
That was just the beginning. Baxterâs interest and background in electronics, science, and recording technology gained him a position in the U.S. defense industry. Turns out, a lot of digital music gear shared similar principles with emergent defense tech. âBasically, a radar is just an electric guitar on steroids,â says Baxter, noting the same four fundamental forces at work over everything in our universe.
Wong and Baxter trades notes on how to navigate studio sessions (âJust shut the hell up,â offers Baxter), early conversions of pitch into digital signals, and how Baxter cut his solo on Donna Summerâs âHot Stuffâ on a $25 guitar. And can mediating between artists and producers feel like high-stakes hostage negotiations? Sometimes.
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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Episodes manquant?
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Jason Newsted spent 15 years holding down the low end in Metallica, playing bass for the band from 1986 through 2001. That era included records like âŠAnd Justice For All and MetallicaâAKA The Black Albumâplus the iconic S&M live album with the San Francisco Symphony.
But that was just the beginning for Newsted, an artistic polymath who has since pursued a life of balance and creative freedom. On this episode of Wong Notes, he opens up to Cory Wong about why he left Metallica, and details the âOlympianâ physicality and discipline that hard international touring requires. Newsted needed a break; the band wanted to keep going. âYou gotta sometimes give it a minute,â he says.
Newsted shares his thoughts on Dave Mustaine and his predecessor Cliff Burton, and goes deep on the issue of cellphone usage at concerts. (Spoiler alert: He doesnât like it very much, and heâs got good reasons for his disdain.) But Newsted isnât just a performer. He talks about his painting and the way that practice differs from music-making, plus his private artistic journeys with theremin, mandolin, and sequencers and loopersârabbit holes he might not have gone down if he stayed in Metallica. âI donât say no to any medium,â he says.
Maybe leaving Metallica created the need to explore. âI did not get to fulfill that journey,â he says, âso Iâm making up for it.â
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We know what youâre thinking: Dave Navarro is gonna talk about the onstage brawl. But Cory Wong starts this episode of Wong Notes with an important caveat. This show was recorded long before the awful breakdown and confrontation between Navarro and Janeâs Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, so donât expect any salacious gossip. But that just makes this episode all the more interesting.
Navarro talks Wong through his formative influences, from Hendrix, Zeppelin, and the Doors to Maiden, heavy metal, and goth. That melting pot, he says, became one of Janeâs Addictionâs calling cards: âPerry and Eric [Avery] ended up in a band that is influenced by bands they hate,â laughs Navarro, who geeks out on Rush and prog-rock.
Navarro discusses how Janeâs Addiction has a propensity for jamming live, a practice developed out of a mutual appreciation for nontraditional song structures. But the delineations can sometimes go wrong. âWe do run into trainwrecks,â says Farrell. âSometimes weâll find ourselves in a part that weâre vibing on, and weâll keep going, and Perry doesnât know what weâre doing. Heâll come in and itâs in the wrong place, and weâre fucking him up.â
Tune in to hear Navarro talk his ârabbit hole de jourâ practice style, how to exercise your fingers and your brain, and a lead technique he calls âthe Navarro smear.â All this and more on this latest episode of Wong Notes.
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Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the worldâand what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: âWhen I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.â Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
Itâs a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didnât know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits heâs a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: âIâm not chasing tone, Iâm pursuing inspiration.â
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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This time on Wong Notes, guitar legend Kurt Rosenwinkel joins Cory Wong to go deep on all things jazz. The genre has always been a haven for free-thinkers and adventurers, so itâs little surprise when Rosenwinkel reveals that heâs incorporated a Fractal FM9 into his live rigâthough itâs still working in tandem with a good olâ Fender tube amp.
Rosenwinkel divulges the details on his âsofter, darkerâ attack, which combined with his approach to toneâincluding a fair bit of top-end roll-offâconstitutes a big piece of his signature sound. Rosenwinkelâs forthcoming live record, The Next Step Band (Live at Smalls 1996), captures this sound in the place that formed it: New York City. Rosenwinkel takes Wong back to the halcyon days of the cityâs kinetic 1990s âhardcoreâ bebop and free-jazz scene, where Mitch Bordenâs legendary Smalls Jazz Club was an artistic hotbed (and crash pad) for players of all stripes.
Nowadays, more and more artists are forming their connections online rather in a jazz club. But can TikTok and Instagram replace an all-night jazz joint for up-and-coming players?
Tune in, and be sure to check out Kurtâs career-spanning new Ultimate Book of Compositions.
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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The legendary shred maestroâbest known for his work as a solo artist and as a member of Return to Forever and other high-profile, hot-shot collabsâdrops by to chat with Cory about his new epic full-length, Twentyfour. It features âsixteen brand-new compositions and theyâre all very involved. I hope I donât have to do this again.â
One of Di Meolaâs biggest projects is, of course, the guitar trio he shared with John McLaughlin and Paco de LucĂa and their thrilling 1981 record, Friday Night in San Francisco, which elevated the acoustic guitar ensemble to the level of high art. Di Meola shares the behind-the-scenes stories of that tour and the 2022 archival release from the next nightâs concert, Saturday Night in San Francisco. He calls the ensembleâs dynamic a âreal healthy competitionâ and explains, âI knew I was up against two guys who were relentless in their delivery of phenomenal ideas. When they finished a solo, it was like, âOh my god, what am I gonna come up with.â
No chat with Di Meola, who famously opened up his kitchen in the post-lockdown part of the pandemic, would be complete without a survey of Southern Italian food. Why is sfogliatelle the maestroâs favorite pastry, and where does he get his? If heâs on tour and thereâs nowhere to eat but an Olive Garden, whatâs his order? And much, much more.
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Marcus King has already been through the wringer, but heâs on the come-up. His hotly anticipated third LP, Mood Swings, drops this Friday, April 5, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the earnest, honest 28-year old South Carolinian goes deep on his career with Cory Wong.
The two shredders open by swapping notes on how touring has changed post-pandemic. Costs are way up, but theyâre managing to make it work. King reveals to Wong that on his upcoming tour, heâs wrangled a few sizeable, must-have creature comforts into the trailersâtune in to find out what King brings on the road.
King walks us through his custom amp and cabinet setups, detailing why he prefers 10" speakers to 12", how he became friends with Orange Amplifiers founder Cliff Cooper, and the family history that led to his signature Gibson Marcus King 1962 ES-345, complete with sideways vibrola.
He and Wong get down to the nitty-gritty, too. Marcus talks about pressure to conform to certain genre communities, his struggles with self-medicating, and how sometimes, music feels like the only medicine weâve got on hand.
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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The ascendant roots shredder shares intimate details from his musical upbringing and gets philosophical on the past and future of bluegrass.
Millennial folk philosopher Billy Strings joins this episode of Wong Notes. The Grammy-winning acoustic picker is an open bookânothing is off limits with Billy, from recounting his days selling magic mushrooms in exchange for passing grades in math class, to an emotional drunk-driving revelation that might have saved his life.
Now, Strings can recount war stories of playing with his heroes in the bluegrass scene, and learning important lessons from the greats about respect while onstage. Strings is at the intersection of the old and the new, often stuck between the traditionalists and the new era of American folk music. He says he doesnât belong to one or the other; his music is more of âa goulash of all the things put together.â Speaking of which, Billy and Cory connect for a brilliant mashup of Coryâs funk stylings and Billyâs bluegrass flatpicking, proving that music really can be a universal language.
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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This time on Wong Notes, Cory is joined by his Vulfpeck and Fearless Flyers copilot Joe Dart. Wong doesnât waste any time, diving in by asking Dart, by now renowned as a modern bass wizard with flawless fundamentals, how he developed he signature âvoiceâ on the bass. As Dart explains, it came from listening to players who had their own distinct âvoice,â who sound like âtheyâre singing a part within the song,â he says. These âphilosophers of the low-end,â like Flea, imprinted the value of total intention and feeling in every note, as if any single one could be your last.
Dart throws it back to his first bassâa Samickâand remembers how itâs ridiculously high action was like weight training for the rest of his career. He still likes his strings suspended up higher than most, which allows his âbrute forceâ slapping. Wong and Dart trade notes on practice regimes, and Dart offers advice for young players: Learn your scales, sure, but most importantly, âplay with as many different people as you can.â Plus, Dart breaks down his differing approaches to instrumental and vocal tracks.
Later on, the bandmates ponder the mental trap of the social media comparison game, and wonder at how algorithms impact which music rises to the top of the heap. What does Dart hope to remembered for? With any luck, heâll have works as iconic as his grandfatherâs, Israel Baker, whose violin playing youâll recognize not just from collabs with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, but some of the most famous film scores and TV show theme songs.
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Multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato has had a lot on his plate since taking over as bandleader for Jon Batiste on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in late 2022, but has been enjoying every minute of it. "I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, with exactly the people I'm supposed to be there with," he tells Cory on this episode of Wong Notes. Of course, given his role there is a fulltime gig, the release of his second solo album, Reflections, last August was kind of a big deal. Its music was largely inspired by things Cato was forced to confront when the pandemic hit, including "self-analysis, putting on the mask, the egotistical parts of attraction and love songs, and things of that nature," he shares.
Early on in the conversation, Louis answers Cory's question about how his approach to chord voicings is so different from the norm. A lot of it comes from his childhood influence of Ron Kenoly's praise and worship music, featuring Abe Laboriel Sr. on bass. His first guitar was from a yard sale and had just four strings, and his experience learning Laboriel's bass lines on it still informs how he approaches voice leading on the guitar today. There was also his mother, the pianist, from whom he absorbed into his guitar methods the piano style of playing octaves in the left hand and triads in the right.
After Louis shares about what makes his creativity tick as a multi-instrumentalist, he and Cory get into the meat of the biggest mistakes a guitar player can make. A lot of it, for Cato, has to do a lack of dynamics and inflection, or playing 10 notes where you should just play two, he says. Towards the end of the ep, Louis hops on a drumset in the room to illustrate how drummers can also create a "jerky" beat if they don't stick with just straight or just swingin'. Listen to the full ep to get a deep dive into the mind of the Late Show bandleader.
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Session drum ace Aaron Sterling might have fusion roots, but his bread-and-butter work lives at the top of the charts, whereâs heâs featured on tracks by artists such as John Mayer, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Lana Del Rey. He tells Cory what brought him to Los Angeles, why heâs âmeant to be in the studioâ instead of the stage, and he shares the surreal story of playing with EVH in a floristâs parking lot for Tracy Morgan.
Sterling defines his approach to recording in his studio as a âpedalboard approachâ and explains:
âWhen guitar players started getting more pedals, in the old days, and then they started getting a pedalboard. And then thereâs the rack. This was this evolution where you guys started controlling more and more of your sound and it was less waiting for a mixer to do interesting things later. And you were just like, âHereâs the sound.â You have your own plugin, you have all this stuff that youâre doing to control your sound so that thereâs less work later.I got inspired by that concept when I started recording, even before I had my own studio, to give an engineer the most amount of stuff thatâs done. So that when I started recording myself, my philosophy was always the pedalboard philosophy, which is Iâll give you the sounds, Iâm not just gonna play the drums and let you do stuff later. I donât wanna think of myself as a drummer. Iâll think of myself as a creator using drums to give you sounds that hopefully are the right thing for the song.âStick around for the drummerâs opinion of the Beatlesâ âNow and Thenâ and learn why he prefers large cymbals.
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Cory Wong sits down with indie-rock bandleader Margaret Glaspy for an in-depth dialogue on artistry, celebrity, and the wisdom of Bruce Lee.
Glaspy shares how she cut her latest record, Echo The Diamond, live off the floor, with most of the âhomeworkâ happening beforehand and studio performances happening in-the-moment. âIt really felt like air blew through the studio and then the record was made,â she says. âWhat youâre hearing is mostly what happening.â The songs are like photographs of a particular moment, rather than an essential, unchanging thing; Glaspy says she values the âdying artâ of taking risks in music.
Glaspy runs down how she and husband Julian Lage work on each otherâs projects, and highlights one of their key criteria in assessing performances: are you your best guitar player right now? âWould you hire yourself or fire yourself?â poses Glaspy.
The conversation turns to Glaspyâs rig on the recordâshe played through a Magic Amps rendition of a black-panel Fender Princeton, plus a Fender Champ comboâbefore revealing that these days, sheâs bypassing her tuner pedal and letting the audience hear the process between songs. âLetâs not hide whatâs needed to make this actually go,â she laughs.Wong and Glaspy swap notes on Bruce Leeâs winning combo of talent and work ethic (and how one of his quotes inspired Glaspyâs record) before finishing with a fascinating philosophical dissection of artistry, pop culture, and celebrity. âThe business of celebrity intertwines them in a way thatâs hard to escape,â says Glaspy, who sees a clash between surface-level fantasy and bone-deep darkness in pop culture.
Tune in to the episode to learn all the gems from Echo The Diamond.
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"I don't consider myself a jazz musician," says guitarist Charlie Hunter on this episode of Wong Notesâessentially refuting how he's known in the music world. "I am maybe jazz adjacent." Most listeners probably wouldn't agree, but if nothing else, Hunter is experimental. He's known for playing a guitar that's strung with both bass and electric guitar strings, that has two pickupsâone for bass and one for guitarâand two input jacks, which go to separate amps for the respective sounds.
As the conversation unfolds, Charlie shares with Cory about the importance of interdependence, especially in jamming. "All I want to do is be a part of an extension of [the drummer's] beat," he explains. "Everything has to take a backseat to that." He compares the level of resources he had with young musicians todayâback then, for better or for worse, all he had was a metronome and the discipline exemplified by the older musicians he played with. Something else that shapes modern musical culture, he says, is globalization: Having access to every genre and the music of every guitar player can make it harder for people learning to pick a specialty.
Charlie goes on to share about how he got his stripes largely from his time performing as a street musician in Europe. "I would not trade those three, four years of being a street musician for anything," he says, describing the experience as a kind of boot camp. His first lessons were in playing 12 hours a day on an unfamiliar instrument at the timeâacoustic bassâon the streets of Zurich.
Towards the end of the interview, Charlie and Cory reflect together on the values of bonding with your musical community in person, something that's more of a challenge with the rise of internet culture. However, Charlie has lately been using Instagram as a vehicle to share the music of Blind Blake, someone who he thinks is "literally better than any of us [on guitar]."
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Coryâs cast is off and heâs here to tell you to âgo get hipâ to Bruno Major! The soulful, jazzy British singer-songwriter shares why he prefers to record in his bedroom than a studio to create his ârelatively lo-fiâ music. âItâs far more important to be transmitting a privacy than an audio quality,â Major says. But heâs quick to point out that you can get good audio quality recording at home and discloses his gear of choiceâshoutout to the Shure SM7B. Together, they discuss the state of record labels and streaming in 2023ââif youâre making good music,â Major says, âitâll find a homeââworking with other artistsââI think what I bring to the table is probably harmonic knowledge and an ability with wordsâŠ. I canât really do it on cueââand mental health.
On his journey from his early days as a shred-headââI just wanted to play really fast all the timeââinto classical and jazz playing, and eventually to becoming a singer and songwriter, Major elaborates:
âIf you look at something like Grant Green. Grant Green is basically playing glorified blues licks over a jazz aesthetic. Heâs doing very simple stuff but itâs still incredible jazz guitar because he has his own thing. He has his own voice. And crucially, he has incredible time. I kind of found my voice as a guitar player through the medium of songwriting in a strange way. Because my guitar playing on my songs is what makes my guitar playing.â
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"When you switch the gear of what you're operating on from the memorized information to the gear of intuitive, faithful response, it's a whole different frequency that's emitted from the hands and from the soul," country shredder Daniel Donato expresses on this episode of Wong Notes. He's talking about what makes for powerful improvisation, and if you know anything about the guitarist, you know this insight around the topic is coming from someone who's a master on their instrument.
Throughout his conversation with Cory, Donato shares his uniquely intellectual philosophies about music, explaining what it means to exploit versus explore creatively, how lessons in faith and trust of his bandmates came to supersede his knowledge around music, and how "listening and alignment" of one vision is most important when jamming with others. He also sheds light on his experiences working with producers Robben Ford and Vance Powell, and the different collaborative dynamics he had with both.
Following an emphatic statement from Cory that he has always, always been loyal to Dave Matthews Band, and a comment from Daniel on how a drummer really is at the core of a successful jam, Daniel elaborates: "The song is a vehicle for a spirit." He says Carter Beauford's performance on "Ants Marching" on DMB's first live album, Remember Two Things, which features an extended 2 and 4 pattern in the intro, perfectly serves the song. "I need players that are very spiritually and emotionally vulnerable," says Donato, "and willing to do things that are abstract and left-field that wouldn't be intuitive."
Clearly an admirer of Cory's work, Daniel has some questions for him towards the end of the interview. Then, Cory quizzes Daniel on gear that he finds essential. His response? Whatever feels like the right pick to you, Mogami cables, and, if money isn't an object, a Fender black-panel. Tune in for the full Donato experience.
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Wolfgang Van Halen joins Cory for the season 7 premiere of Wong Notes! Chatting before the release of Mammoth II, the duo discuss guitar trios, 5150 studios, cloning, touring with Metallica, plus: Whoâs that playing wah on the record? Whatâs WVHâs rig? And much more.
On his new record, WVH has lots to share. When it comes to writing and recording rhythm tracks, heâs says, âItâs all groove.â Later, he adds, âIâve always championed myself as more of a rhythm player than anything.â
And on whatâs next for EVH gear, he promises that thereâs much more in store.
But the most profound thoughts come when the pair go deep on music. WVH shares his soloing philosophy, which he learned from his father:
âSomething I follow ⊠when I write guitar solos that my dad taught me ⊠is you can shred all you want, but if you canât sing the solo, then itâs usually not working. Thereâs always a moment ⊠that you can do the wankery of a shreddy solo, but itâs important to be able to hum the melody, you know? That usually, with the way that I write solos ⊠is really deliberate in the way that I write ⊠Iâm a pretty poor off-the-cuff soloist, I like to really plan things out and have it be this nice piece. It kind of forms up with a melody, then it crescendos, then by the end it wraps up with ⊠maybe a tapping section or a shreddy sort of passage. Basically, the main thing is you should be able to hum it. The melody should be in your head.â
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Soulive, Lettuce, Tedeschi Trucks, and most recently, Stanton Moore and Branford Marsalisâthat's a short list of some of the acts Eric Krasno plays and has played with throughout his career. From one funk guitarist to another, Cory sits down with Eric to talk what it means to play the right amount of notes when jamming, what it takes for Eric to absorb and learn so many different genres, and the impact the jam band community has on its musicians. Thanks for listening to this season of Wong Notes, and be sure to catch the next!
Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong
Visit Eric Krasno: https://www.erickrasno.com/
Hit us up: [email protected]
Visit Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.com
Visit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespod
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespod
Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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"If you keep your head and your ass in the same place, that'll happen on its own," says Jason Isbell on how he gets the most out of his live performances. On the heels of a new HBO documentary, he and Cory sit down for a deep discussion, talking creating genuine art that can also turn into hits, Muscle Shoals, and the intersection between "guitarist" and "songwriter"âas well as "for life" gear choices.
Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong
Visit Jason Isbell: http://jasonisbell.com
Hit us up: [email protected]
Visit Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.com
Visit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespod
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespod
Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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The Extreme guitarist shares his pedal philosophyâincluding how a visit from EVH inspired him to use a phaser on the new recordâand talks about ripping with Rihanna at the Super Bowl and more.
Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong
Visit Nuno Bettencourt: https://extreme-band.com/
Hit us up: [email protected]
Visit Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.com
Visit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespod
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespod
Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
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