00:00hey hey hey blues fans this is your number one blues man larry mccray and i'm here in new york
00:12city a guitar world and uh i'm i want to shout out to you at uh something for you that absolutely
00:19changed my life changed my approach about blues it's no secrets but it's just something that was
00:25an epiphany for me that changed things for me and i want to share some of that with you this
00:29morning one of my favorite things uh that i learned was what i call the albert king wide bend so
00:37you hear players like stevie ray vaughn albert king you know use it a lot stevie was probably one of the
00:43closest uh albert prodigies ever i mean you know he really it really registered and touched him to
00:50his throat but one of the things what they were doing
00:52that's the albert wide bend
00:58so instead of on your e string you go to your b string a step and a half above and you push it
01:08until it comes all the way
01:10see so it's very wide so when you get this part of it
01:17it can sound like like the airplane is coming down it's falling down but another thing that he
01:25used with that being also once albert would do that sometimes he would do
01:29albert king
01:43so my whole point being is instead of maybe always
02:03it's it's a wider bend
02:05mr albert king
02:22you know the mount rushmore of the blues for me
02:29would be bb king albert king albert collins and freddie king
02:34so we just did one of albert's wide bends that's probably
02:37one of the things that registered the most with me from albert king
02:41is his wide bend as we said before
02:43he's getting three notes
02:50and to have that control
02:54is a very difficult bend so study a little albert king and i think you
03:01will appreciate that a lot more now my next one would be bb king
03:06still working in the key of a bb one of his most things that registered
03:11to me one of bb's wide bends is
03:13and did bb king
03:22you know so
03:32mr bb king that's one of my favorite bb wide bends
03:46moving on down the line to the rushmore
03:55mr albert collins albert had a very very different style
04:01he tuned to a e minor chord
04:05so automatically he was tuned different and and and capable
04:10to change his key
04:11and one night i picked up his guitar i said you mind if i just try that
04:15for a little bit and i tried it man and it didn't take me but about 30 seconds
04:19to hand it right back to because then none of my boxes work on his guitar
04:24but um in my effort to try to sound and emulate some of his sound
04:30you know he had this thing with the capo being on he would always
04:33you would always
04:37hear that
04:39you know like that so it's it's kind of hard in my tuning
04:45but you can use your octave so i go like this
04:52to try to get the same effect
04:55so he would go
04:58that was all about that
05:09you know that type of thing so
05:12so what i got going right there i'm using my octave starting on the d string
05:23and then i'm going to the seven
05:27see you're pulling off there
05:35mr albacala
05:49so that thing there
05:58albacala
06:24ice man
06:37all right that was albert moving on down the line to mr freddy king
06:50freddy had this thing freddy used the claws
06:56use the claw hammer picks and he would
06:59one of freddy's favorite thing
07:03mr freddy king
07:30freddy was all about the wide bend
07:52usually in it was somewhere
08:00so i mean you know another thing
08:04that i feel that um
08:06was very prevalent in my own life
08:09i'm southern raised i was from arkansas
08:11uh in the 60s
08:13and during that time that's the kind of music that
08:16that that you heard the most of and that's what made me
08:19what registered the most with me outside of guitar music
08:23another one of my strongest influences was junior walker
08:26in terms of his approach to his solos
08:29and his heart
08:30and passion for the music
08:32and so i try to use as much of that stuff
08:35as i can to um
08:38junior had this thing
08:41which felt very warm to me
08:49mr jr walker
09:14mostly going into a four that knows really
09:19so those are those are my guys right there
09:36those are my go-tos
09:37and outside of those guys i turned to gospel vocal
09:41for guitar inspiration because
09:44your guitar can reach places that you can't go with your voice
09:47i'm a baritone and i sang in a very low register
09:50but i like to
09:51and you know use your instrument
09:54to be inspired to go places that you can't go with your voice
09:58so
09:59sliding those notes when you can
10:14all about the blues
10:22i hope it's been helpful
10:23my name is larry mccray
10:25and it's me signing off from guitar world
10:28don't forget
10:29vocals are the key
10:31to your inspiration
10:32listen to you some good gospel
10:34leave me the views
10:35raising hell out there
10:36don't make no difference
10:37you want to play some good blues
10:38get you some gospel inspiration
10:40because it will
10:41make your guitar dazzle i think
10:43i got a new album out there
10:45on the ktba label
10:46produced by mr joe bonamassa and josh smith
10:49it's called heartbreak city
10:51some of the standout tunes on there
10:53i think would be bye bye blues
10:55look on the bright side
10:56and everything falls on me
10:58not a bad track on the record
10:59i don't believe
11:00check it out
11:01you
11:02and it's a great deal
11:07and i think it's only that
11:08if you've done an album out there
11:10you
11:11can't take a picture
11:12the name of the song right now
11:13they should play that
11:14and there's a good thing
11:15to see
11:15heard
11:15the song right now
11:16you
11:17something
11:17what's going on out there
11:17so
11:18it's all about
11:18you
11:18can't take a picture
11:19and see
11:20what's going on out there
11:20so
11:21what's going on out there
11:22is
11:22what's going to do
11:24I'm going on out there
11:24like
11:26it's going to be
11:27're
11:28what's going on there
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