The Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker has shared a brand new guitar tutorial, providing instruction on tips on how to play “New Orleans Is Sinking,” the extremely improvisational blues-inspired monitor that grew to become one of many band’s most enduring anthems. The clip was filmed at The Tragically Hip’s legendary Bathouse Studio.
On this in-depth tutorial, Rob walks followers and aspiring musicians by means of his guitar half, sharing the origins of the riffs, his strategy to rhythm, and the way the music developed within the early days of The Hip. The video closes with a fan Q&A, the place Rob solutions questions on his musical inspirations, his gear, and the way he achieved that iconic tone.
Baker begins the clip by speaking in regards to the band’s rehearsal house within the Nineteen Eighties. “Sometime in the late 80s, maybe ’87, ’86, we had a rehearsal space in the west end of Kingston, in an old abandoned meat locker,” he defined. “When we weren’t playing gigs, we were jamming. One night we were jamming with the song ‘Shaking All Over,’ which we never really played on stage as a band…When you play a song for 20 minutes it transforms into something entirely different. It morphed into something and then Gord [Downie] started singing lyrics. The song kind of wrote itself: ‘New Orleans Is Sinking.’”
A cornerstone of 1989’s As much as Right here, “New Orleans Is Sinking” helped put The Tragically Hip on the map. Up To Right here marked a significant breakthrough for the band, spawning two No.1 radio singles: “Blow At High Dough” and the aforementioned “New Orleans Is Sinking.” The document earned the group—comprised of Baker (guitar), Downie (vocals), Johnny Fay (drums), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Gord Sinclair (bass)— a nomination for “Most Promising Artist” on the 1990 JUNO Awards.
Though Gord Downie’s tragic loss of life in 2017 closed the curtain on the band, in recent times they’ve labored to reissue and restore highlights from their early profession, just like the debut they recorded in Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios. These tutorials of basic tracks proceed so as to add to the band’s unimpeachable legacy.
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