"Jeff's Waltz" - a tribute to Jeff Beck

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 10 Feb 2015 6:19 pm

This is tune I composed and recorded for a tribute CD to Jeff Beck. I think it's cool that it is the first track on the CD.

Being a tribute to Mr. Beck, I tried to capture his spirit, vibe and raucousness in my own playing. It is probably everything that most steel guitar players would want to avoid, but the seed for this kind of playing was planted in me by David Lindley and later mutated with all the other crazy music I've loved my whole life. Call it Fusion, I guess.

Anyway, the solo and the melody were played on my Clinesmith Joaquin model through a Sano amp equipped with Altec speakers and with some effects. The solo was played in two parts. I had a lot of fun with it. My buddy, Matt King, played keys and I played bass and handled the electronica-based drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwGPwCEXA6A

I don't think this link is available to our friends in Europe.

The CD (which is a double CD) on German Jazz label ESC Records also features Jim Campilongo, Scott Henderson, Max Middleton and a number of other great players. I was proud to be a part of it.

Jon Sawyer · Post by **Jon Sawyer** » 10 Feb 2015 6:29 pm

I love it, and can totally hear the Jeff Beck spirit in your playing. Great stuff!

John Mulligan · Post by **John Mulligan** » 10 Feb 2015 6:31 pm

It's not even available in Canada...darn. I'd love to hear it.

Joseph Napolitano · Post by **Joseph Napolitano** » 10 Feb 2015 6:39 pm

Really enjoyed it. Reminded me of his Blow by Blow and Wired albums.

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 10 Feb 2015 6:42 pm

you nailed the Beck vibe on that one Mike - i like the surprise change in there, about blew me out of my chair!

Stephen Abruzzo · Post by **Stephen Abruzzo** » 10 Feb 2015 7:18 pm

Very nice Mike. I think you caught Jeff's vibe pretty good. With the way you did your vibrato at certain times, it was eerily reminiscent of how Jeff rides his trem bar.

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 10 Feb 2015 8:38 pm

Top notch, Mike: Writing, arranging, playing, the whole enchilada.
You really nailed it!

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 10 Feb 2015 9:12 pm

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 10 Feb 2015 9:25 pm

very cool!!!

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 11 Feb 2015 3:07 am

Dave Ristrim's take on "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" has always set a high water mark for me as far as rock steel goes. There's a good bit of awareness of Beck's playing across the board among different genres - he was one of Les Paul's favorite players, and is apparently referenced within studios by movie directors and composers as a basic touchstone. "Play it like Jeff Beck" would be a bit unnerving, I suspect.

Beck himself finds the various instructional methods and explanations of his style pretty amusing, as he can't play like himself with any degree of prediction, though it is pretty well documented that he works a lot harder on his playing than he pretends to. "Playing the fool" in interviews works as well for musicians as politicians, it would seem. Big ears, at the very, very least. I'll have to listen to the other samples a bit to see if it's a buy, there's so many great original people out there and a lot of these tributes fall kinda flat - I can just listen to Jeff Beck, after all. I'd like to hear Mike Neer drop a tab of Jeff Beck and then play MIKE NEER, that'd be a sure shot.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 11 Feb 2015 11:11 am

Thanks for taking the time to listen.

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 11 Feb 2015 12:36 pm

really nice Mike!

Jack Stanton · Post by **Jack Stanton** » 11 Feb 2015 2:57 pm

Great job, Mike!

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 12 Feb 2015 3:06 am

The changes are him right off. I love it.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 12 Feb 2015 8:53 am

Much appreciated.

Susan Alcorn · Post by **Susan Alcorn** » 12 Feb 2015 11:51 am

Beautiful, Mike! I love how each one of your notes has its own personality.

Jon Sawyer · Post by **Jon Sawyer** » 12 Feb 2015 4:01 pm

Mike, do you know where a hard copy can be ordered? All I can find available for purchase are MP3 files from Amazon.

Cheers!

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 13 Feb 2015 6:12 am

Susan, that's the nicest compliment I could have received, thank you. I try to enunciate my notes like words--that's the goal.

Jon, I don't know that there is an American distributor yet. It can purchased through Amazon (Germany, UK, Italy, etc.) or from a record shop like this: http://www.zweitausendeins.de/verschied ... -beck.html

I don't know that it will be very widely available.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 13 Feb 2015 7:49 am

The video has been removed. I was confused as to the uploader. It said "Various Artists - Topic" and content generated by YouTube. My guess is ESC Records didn't appreciate it. Anyway, if you had a chance to hear it, thanks for listening.