No. 263, November 2014

Band of Brothers

Dave and Phil Alvin find Common Ground in Big Bill Broonzy

BY KENNY BERKOWITZ

Ode to Billy Joe

Billy Joe Shaver may be ‘long in the tooth,’ but he’ll never be short of tall tales

BY KENNY BERKOWITZ

SPECIAL FOCUS

Plugging In

How to get a bigger sound out of your acoustic guitar

NEWS

The Beat

Shakey Graves’ latest battle cry, And the War Came

News Spotlight

The view from Newport

Songcraft

Alynda Lee Segarra sticks to her roots in Hurray for the Riff Raff

Basics

Sweet and lowdown bass patterns

Weekly Workout

Pick up your playing with dropped-D tuning

Here’s How

Keep a practice log to track your progress

Playlist

Ani DiFranco get a reaction for Allergic to Water, plus new releases by Greensky Bluegrass, Jesse Winchester, Pieta Brown, Ron Jackson, and the final album by late-Dobro giant Mike Auldridge

Shop Talk

Rick Turner’s ‘renaissance’ relationship with Michael Kelly Guitars

Makers and Shakers

Ronin Guitars, salvaging the redwood-guitar market

Review: Blueridge BR-65KCE

An affordable guitar for the performing singer-songwriter

Review:Breedlove Solo Bass

Acoustic bass keeps the beat

Review: TC-Helicon Play Acoustic

Reshape the sound of your guitar and vocals

In the Stores

Planet Waves NS Micro Universal Tuner, and Pro-Arte Carbon Classical Guitar Strings