New Video - "Wonderful Land" C6 tuning

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 23 May 2023 6:17 am

Just posted on YouTube. I'm playing a Deluxe 8, but only 6 strings were on the instrument when I recorded this. So this arrangement can be played on a 6-string lap steel, standard C6 tuning. This is my favorite Shadows tune.

----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMh32C6n-hY

Mike A Holland · Post by **Mike A Holland** » 23 May 2023 11:12 am

Great version Doug. This tune has been longing to get the Steel guitar version and I have been tempted on a few occasions to do it. But now I dont need to bother

! These 60s guitar instrumentals are a perfect fit for your style of playing and tone...... excellent. You should make an album of this music. Just great!

Jim Mckay · Post by **Jim Mckay** » 23 May 2023 11:42 am

Good music Doug. Always a crowd pleaser

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 23 May 2023 2:05 pm

Thanks Mike and Jim. I've been kind of obsessed with The Shadows music in recent years. The band was unknown here in the USA back in the 60s and 70s. They got no airplay here. We had The Ventures for instrumental surf/guitar.

Then came the internet and everything changed. I have to say, I think The Shadows early recordings were a cut above The Ventures in production, arrangements, and overall sound. A great band.

David Matzenik · Post by **David Matzenik** » 23 May 2023 2:28 pm

Very nice version. I remember the early 1960s when I got tired of that Shadows/Ventures clean guitar sound, I guess it just needed a rest. Now, I find it hard to listen to distorted guitars. They are used on so many commercials now that the impact is lost, on me anyway.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 23 May 2023 2:45 pm

I know exactly what you're saying, David. After about 1968, clean guitar tone (and everything else from the 50s) was considered old-fashioned and corny. But it seems like clean tones are making a comeback. i.e. Fender reissue tube amps, spring reverb stomp boxes, Fender guitar's "surf green" finish.

Keith Glendinning · Post by **Keith Glendinning** » 23 May 2023 11:41 pm

“Wonderful” playing Doug, the Shadows are still one of my favourite bands.
I played this tune and Apache on my Daphne Blue Strat in a bar in Galveston in the mid 60’s. Very few of the people there had heard of the Shadows.
I was an Engineer in the Merchant Navy at the time.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 May 2023 7:49 am

Thanks Keith, it's interesting to hear that you played this and other Shadows tunes on guitar back in the 60s. I was a teenager in the 60s, learning to play guitar, but I was focused on The Ventures. Didn't discover The Shadows until many years later. They were unknown in the US back in the day, unfortunately.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 24 May 2023 1:34 pm

Great tune (new to me) and fabulous tone and playing, Doug!

Here's "Flaming Arrow" a Fathoms tune that would be great in your style ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X17fRlz ... L&index=10

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 May 2023 4:44 pm

Ah yes, Frankie Blandino & The Fathoms from Boston... a very authentic surf guitar sound. I met Frankie at a gig here in Northampton a few years ago. He was playing a Stringmaster that night. He's the real deal, guitar and steel guitar.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 May 2023 4:58 pm

BTW you might enjoy hearing the original "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1dmBUBu9P4

This song was #1 in the UK for 8 weeks in 1962. I love that era of instrumental hits. Pre-Beatles, from about the late 50s until the mid-60s.