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JOHNNY
ROTH |
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I’ve
been playing guitar for about 35 years. I grew up in Pennsylvania
with a very musical family which helped my learning curve quite a
bit. My father, a drummer, and my two brothers, a drummer and keyboardist,
all had their own bands so I had quite a lot of exposure to their
musical exploits. I actually didn’t get interested in guitar
until I graduated high school and from then on that’s all I wanted
to do. After about 6 months of nonstop practicing I got into my first
local band. And playing in a band is just about one of the quickest
ways to learn.
My newest
CD Vu Jah De’ was recorded mostly at my home studio in
Pennsylvania. I moved to Florida in August of 2008 and finished recording
and mixing the final tracks there. I enjoy playing and recording all
of the instrument parts myself because that way I can take my time
and make changes to any parts without worrying about stepping on someone
else’s toes. But, sometimes it becomes a very long and tedious
task for me recording that way. And, I have limitations on bass and
keys so I’m considering bringing in other musicians in the future.
Although, on Vu Jah De’ I did use my brother Barry on
drums for two tracks. Everything I do is all instrumental so obviously
I don’t have to worry about vocal tracks. I would also like to
expand my writing to include a lot more room for improvisation. That’s
where having other more proficient musicians on my recordings would
be a major plus.
My 1956
Les Paul has been and always will be my number one guitar. On Vu
Jah De’ I used it for every track except “Funki Taki”
on which I used a Takamine electric acoustic. I use my ‘56 Les
Paul for both slide and straight playing. I leave it in standard tuning
for slide and the action is just slightly higher than normal. I rarely
ever use an alternate tuning. As for my amps I used a Carvin Bel Air
on the songs “Blue Funk Con-Fusion” and “Vu Jah De’”.
I went direct from guitar to amp with no pedals or effects for all
of the songs except “Lakota” and “Slow Burn”.
For those two I used a Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive into a Randall
RM50 amp. For the rest of the tracks I used various amps and really
can’t remember what I used because I had so many different amps
that I was experimenting with.
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The
CD cover of the new Johnny Roth CD Vu Jah De
is some pretty hairy stuff, but the the music inside is easy as
pie to dig into. Roth made instrumental rock guitar enthusiasts happy
with his 2003 album, Still Not Talkin’ and five years
later, Vu Jah De carries his guitar sound forward. Roth cites
Carlton and Ritenour as big guitar influences yet one can also detect
shades of Cropper and Betts amid the all instrumental fare on Vu
Jah De. Once again producing, engineering, mixing and playing
all the instruments, Roth does receive a big of help on the title
track and “North Delta Heat” from his brother, drummer Barry
Roth. Even with his scaled down budget, Roth proves masterful
with plenty of chompin’ at the bit guitar instros on the boards.
