SURF MUSIC UNPLUGGED THE DUO-TONES

Paul JohnsonCo-founder of pioneer surf band the Belairs and writer of their ’62 hit, Mr. Moto; in recent years a touring member of the Surfaris (Wipeout).

Gil orrAn active member for over three decades in what many consider to be the ultimate surf band, the Chantays (“Pipeline”).

T W O R O C K - I N S T R U M E N T A L V I R T U O S O SP L A Y N I N E T E E N C L A S S I C T U N E S

no amps • no drums • no bassjust acoustic guitars pure, essential surf music

like you’ve never heard it before

Crystal-tMr. Moto

Baja

apaChe

Walk, Don’t run

Baja nights

hiDe aWay

outsiDe

sCratChy

last Date

kaMikaze

California DreaMin’pipeline

song for My father

BeaCh City Bop

the lonely Bull

the WeDge

More love, More poWer

last night in Waikiki

SURF

MUS

IC U

NPLU

GGED

T

HE D

UO-T

ONES

1) Crystal–T (Orr/Spickard/Carman/Welch/Lewis)

2) Mr. Moto (Paul Johnson)

3) Baja (Lee Hazelwood)

4) Apache (Lordan)

5) Walk, Don’t Run (Smith)

6) Baja Nights (Orr)

7) Hide Away (King/Thompson)

8) Outside (Orr)

9) Scratchy (Chisman/McPhail/Wammack)

10) Last Date (Cramer)

11) Kamikaze (Paul Johnson)

12) California Dreamin’ (Phillips/Gilliam)

13) Pipeline (Spickard/Carman)

14) Song for my Father (Silver)

15) Beach City Bop (Paul Johnson)

16) The Lonely Bull (Lake)

17) The Wedge (Dale)

18) More Love, More Power (Del Hierro)

• bonus track w/Don Nuzzu, ukelele19) Last Night in Waikiki (Nuzzo/Johnson/Orr)

produced by paul Johnsonexecutive producer: Gordon McClelland

cover art & lettering: Kerne Ericksonalbum layout & design:

Paul Johnson & Carolin PriebeDuo-tones’ photos: Gordon McClelland

(for session credits, see accompanying page)

thanks be to God!

The Lost Art of RHYTHM Guitar — Paul JohnsonClassical guitar master Andrés Segovia often referred to his instrument as “my little orchestra." His playing conveyed all the essential elements (the melody, harmony and rhythm) of the symphonic works he adapted for solo guitar, and he achieved voicings that approximate what an entire orchestra might produce. The man under-stood the breadth of the guitar’s range of musical expression.

In today’s rock music, the guitar has reached new heights as a melodic instru-ment; but as the drums and synths have become hotter in the mix, the guitar has taken back seat in the harmony department and it has been all but forgotten as a rhythm instrument. Rarely today does one hear a guitar performing rhythm duties to its full potential.

I have always favored a dual-guitar approach to music, with a prominent rhythm guitar. My first band (the Belairs) began as a duo; before we had drums or bass, we had to find a way to make our tunes sound as complete as possible with just our two guitars. As the "rhythm" player, I developed a style incorporating full chords, bass notes, a downbeat and an upbeat (a wrist-action snap on the strings to sub for the missing snare drum) plus a growing ability to work in some syncopa-tion as my youthful skills increased.

This style came to be a salient feature in the emerging surf music genre; every band had the requisite two guitars, and a good rhythm guitarist was worth his weight in gold! Sure, the bands had bass and drums, but these instruments played under the guitars—not on top of them; it was the rhythmic interplay between the two guitars that generally took center-stage.

Though the trend has moved away from this kind of model for a band, I have continued to approach the guitar as a duo instrument. I can’t help it—it’s engrained in me; I must have another guitarist (or a multi-track recorder) to play with in order to make my kind of music! And as I love to play both lead and rhythm parts, I always rejoice to come upon another guitarist with a similar aptitude.

Gil Orr and I got casually acquainted at shows our bands played together in the early ‘90s. (He had been playing for many years with the Chantays and I had been with the Surfaris since about 1990.) When we chanced into a jam session together in about ’95, we discovered that we must have been cut from the same cloth! As the last two men left standing after hours of jamming, we were fully energized, firing licks backand forth and trading leads—each of us just as happy to be playing good, solid rhythm behind the other guy as we were to be playing lead. I don’t need to tell you that in Gil I had found one of the truly great rhythm (as well as lead) players—you’ll hear that for yourself on this CD. And it’s no wonder that ever since that jam session, we have continued to play together and develop our “duo” approach to this music.

With this album, we have chosen the all-acoustic route to highlight the intricacies of dual-guitar interplay that lie at the root of the surf-instrumental genre; in the process, we hope to bring some long-overdue attention to the lost art of rhythm guitar.

And so, with apologies to Mr. Segovia, we invite you now to sit back and enjoy “our little surf band.”

About the recording of “Surf Music Unplugged”This album was recorded during the final week of 1999 on an ADAT 8-track; the mixing and editing were completed in January 2000. The studio facility for all of this was California Magnetics in San Diego, California—Don Nuzzo, proprietor and set-up engineer. Session engineering, mixing and editing were done by Paul Johnson (with some kibitzing from Nuzzo, Gil Orr and Gordon McClelland).

Johnson played his little Martin 000-16 and sat in a small room facing Orr (about 6 feet away) who was playing his Ovation CS-257. Each guitar was individually miked with a Neuman KM-84, and a bi-directional Neuman U-87 was set equidistant between the two musicians to capture room ambience. This third mike was mixed to the center and the other two to the left and right; thus, if your wires are not crossed, you should hear Johnson coming primarily from your left speaker and Orr from your right.

Overdubs were kept to bare minimum to preserve the unique chemistry of these live performances. In “Apache,” “More Love…” and the improv sections of “Beach City Bop” and “Crystal-T,” Johnson and Orr recorded dual rhythm parts first and Johnson added lead parts later; he also doubled a few lead lines in “Baja” and “Kamikaze,” and he added his lead to “Last Night in Waikiki” after Orr’s guitar and Nuzzo’s uke were recorded together live. Aside from this, it’s all just the two guitars performing live, with no other “punching in,” though in some cases the better parts from alternate takes were edited together to achieve the optimum finished track.

Mastering: Steve Weatherby, Golden Track Studios