Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

News about Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush. Announcements only.
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Wild Willy
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Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by Wild Willy »

Just picked up the new Guitar Player, been a long time since I did that! Hendrix on the cover of course and Frank Marino's name in the upper left which is nice to see.

Frank is one of the artists featured and the "index" reads "Frank Marino, the Canadian guitar god, Hendrix devotee and leader of Mahogany Rush, gets some career CPR from the web". (that's us!:mrgreen: )

The rather short article by Jimmy Leslie is entitled "Not-So-Slight Return, a massive fan base resurrects Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush" :clap

Not anything new in the article to us fans, but I thank them for doing a piece on Frank Marino. It has a couple pictures of him and mentions this website, so we may get a few more fans finding their way in here. :headbanger

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Last edited by Wild Willy on Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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fatherofseven
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by fatherofseven »

Cool. His name is next to Ani Difranco's; she played Lincoln last month...can Frank be far behind? 8)
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by garyd »

hum,guess i'll have to pick up a copy of this one. i think the last time i did was about 1978
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by maddmarty »

The interview with Frank is up now, over at http://www.guitarplayer.com/story.asp?s ... ycode=5805
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by Wild Willy »

Here it is:

Guitar Player Magazine - April 2005

Not-So-Slight Return

Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush

By Jimmy Leslie | April 2005

“I always knew we had fans, I just didn’t know I’d find half a million of them on the Web,” says Mahogany Rush’s Frank Marino. “There’s a big Internet underground of people who knew about us from word of mouth, our history of live gigs, and the fact I’ve been putting out records for 30 years. We were never a radio act, but I guess there’s a lot of people out there who like music that’s not radio friendly.”

The virtuosic Canadian guitarist hung up his trademark 1961 double-cutaway Gibson Les Paul in 1993, because he felt it was time to “go home and do something else for a while.” But after discovering a fan-operated Web site—mahoganyrush.com—he was inspired to re-emerge in 2001 by independently releasing Eye of the Storm. Later on, the online acquaintances Marino had acquired by participating in message boards and chats turned into real-life friendships when he began meeting them at his in-concert odysseys of improvisation—one of which is documented in spectacular fashion on the recent RealLIVE [Just A Minute]. The disc covers the stylistic ground of Marino’s entire career, from the spacey/jazzy spiritual sojourns of his more modern records, to the heavy-handed psychedelic blues-rock of his early years.

The Frank Marino legend began when he recovered from an intense acid trip at the age of 13. A drummer since the age of five, Marino took to the acoustic guitar he found in the asylum while he was recovering, playing constantly to keep his mind from wandering back into the trip that inspired the name of his band, Mahogany Rush.

“The guitar was truly a therapeutic thing for me during that time,” he says, “I would sit down with it for hours just to keep my sanity.”

Marino’s gifts as a guitarist were so quickly apparent that he was offered a record deal with complete creative control at the age of 16. He dedicated his first album, 1973’s Maxoom, to Jimi Hendrix, and a myth began to spread that Hendrix’s essence had entered Marino’s soul during his acid experience. Marino denied the fable, pointing out that Hendrix was still alive and licking when the incident occurred in 1968, but the story continued to haunt him throughout his career.

“There were a lot of bad years when all the press could see was the Hendrix thing,” he sighs. “They labeled me a Hendrix clone, and I never quite understood that, because there are plenty more influences apparent in my guitar playing. Besides Jimi, my biggest influence was John Cipollina from Quicksilver Messenger Service. Then add Johnny Winter, Carlos Santana, Duane Allman, George Benson, and Larry Carlton, and you’ll see pretty much the whole picture.”

Marino’s jazz influences set him apart from the blues-rock pack both in harmonic terms, and in the highly improvisational approach of Mahogany Rush that still exists to this day. “We genuinely listen to each other,” he says. “I’ve had songs turn into hoedowns, just because they happened to go in that direction. A real jam band is always listening intently to the music with each musician trying to fit in with the other guys to create music on the fly.”

Because Marino has always been truly tone obsessed, his guitar rigs tend to be extremely complicated affairs. In fact, one entire pedalboard is assigned to hold the expression pedals that control the parameters of the effects on another pedalboard. Marino also modifies all of his effects himself, and he tinkers with the preamps on his Fender Twins until the resulting tone is absolutely smooth and pristine. His guitars are four pre-1962 double-cutaway Gibson Les Pauls—two of which still contain the original PAF pickups, while the other two use DiMarzio Virtual Vintage humbuckers. He also owns a custom “hollow” SG-style guitar.

“These days, I actually use very few pedals, and the ones I do use are bypassed 95 percent of the time,” he says. “I always have reverb going, though. I never play dry.”

While Marino employs some slick techniques on RealLIVE—such as behind-the-bridge picking and faux slide riffs—he’s most proud of his ability to emulate backwards guitar parts. In the pre-digital-audio days, tracking backwards lines required flipping over the tape reels, rehearsing and recording to a chord progression that was playing back in reverse, and then returning the reels to their original position. Things are much easier in the days of reverse reverb and delay processors—not to mention DAWs that require a mouse click or two to make an audio signal play backwards—but it’s still impressive when a guitarist can do the trick live in real time, which Marino does on “He’s Calling” and “Strange Universe.”

“I do it with nothing but a volume pedal, a delay, and an amp,” he says proudly. “First, I learn all the licks backwards. Then I play them live through a DeArmond volume pedal and the delay program on a Lexicon MPX 1. The delay is set for a time of one to two seconds with a single repeat, and only the delayed signal is audible. As soon as the delay plays back the backwards-sounding line—which now has an envelope on it because I opened the volume pedal as I played the part—I start composing and playing the following lick. When the two licks link together in succession, the volume swells and notes really sound like a taped-guitar part rolling backwards.”

Marino’s career is clearly moving forward once again, and this time it’s on his own terms. “I’ve always been an anti-business, anti-establishment guy—a holdover from the late ’60s,” he quips. “And modern technology and the Web have allowed me to do a record because I want to, rather than having to do one for a label. Now, I’m actually happy about coming back to the music business. I’m working with Just A Minute Records to re-release some of my old albums, produce a DVD, and record a blues CD. I’m also going to tour extensively with Mahogany Rush in 2005—and wait until you hear our violin player, Avi Ludmer, who is only 22 years old. The violin adds a great new element, and it’s going to take our music in new directions.” g
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by stick »

Frickin' ehhh!!!............Lets get this party goin'!!
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by fatherofseven »

Yes. I like that "tour extensively" bit. On with the action...
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by Atreyu »

As always Thanx for sharing Willy!!! :clap
"Doubt destroys faith, but hope feeds it"...Frank Marino...
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by Strap327 »

and he's coming to califfornia with a guitar in his hand yep this is very good were waitin here in the wine country :headbanger 8)
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re: Guitar Player - April 2005 Issue

Post by mandrakeroot »

Nice one, Frank and Jimi in the same breath and not an acid trip story in sight (one day).

It's good to see there is some global recognition coming back again.
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