(At least) three major guitar magazines are calling it quits

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

Tape Op is a magazine that is still good. It's also free, either online or a print copy. You just have to sign up with an email. This month they have interviews with John Wood, Joe Boyd, the RZA, and a bunch of others, most of whom are pretty obscure. The interviews are real interviews, about recording geekery

They even sent it to me in Germany for free for a while. Tons of real info. What impressed me was that PE's samples where triggered live and not by a sequencer.

[DawgBone]

Beautiful thoughts. Thanks!!

Michael Hill is one of my favorite blues composers, players, and singers. His lyrics are pure poetry, and some of his writing could be the subject of multiple PhD theses. My favorite line of his is this: “Maybe someday our heroes will get paid while they’re alive.”

I wonder how he feels about freebie interviews with lines like that.

[jameslovestal]

Tip of the hat... thoughtful and well written! (Just coming in on this post before reading to the end... treading lightly now!).

In spite of the strong emotions in this thread, it's still very clear that our lives would be very different and much less satisfying if someone had not given more than they received in return for their efforts to bring music into the world.

Well said. The overall topic of an artist\musician having to put in hours upon hours of unpaid hard work to keep up or improve their skill set was more fully explored at another thread in this forum. I'm in IT and here in the USA most companies pay their IT staff to continue to improve their skill set.

For musicians this just isn't the case. If one feels this is unfair to such a degree it causes bitterness about their profession, maybe they should have chosen another profession.

[rpjazzguitar]

Albert King was on the cover of GP in Sept 77. FWIW.

I don't have a problem with a magazine requesting an unpaid interview. And I don't have a problem with the prospective interviewee refusing.

I subscribed to GP from the mid 70s to the last issue, with some breaks in the 80s. I have them all and have reread them a few times. It's an amazing body of work, covering most of a century of development of the guitar (counting articles early in the magazine's tenure covering older players).

My personal favorite was Tommy Tedesco's column. Took you right into the studio -- you could feel it. Beautifully written, as if an old friend was telling a secret.