Hello Everybody how are you..? hope all is well...2 topics Ill cover today number one..is Texas Joe's choice of guitars and why the Hell ..I choose to use these crazy looking instruments...and number 2 ..what the heck is EANDO..? oh wow thats..?!!?!??!!! kool.... EANDO..wow those girls are pretty and they sing amazing ..where did you find them Texas Joe..?
Ok folks heres the scoop...for many years ...since about 1979..I have loved the look of electric guitars and I have played electric guitas..and loved them immensley...they are like a close friend to me..and they help me express myself ..in such an original way that it boggles my mind and keeps me coming back for more...the sound is never ending...and it is a reason why I choose to liveand love life. ..and I thank God for blessing me with the talent to play and make music on Electric guitars...I have always had an original bent to my style of playing music...and all 3 of us Eloy and Noe also agreed early on we were going to concentrate more on original music than on covers...playing other peoples songs...was not our way of having fun and playing rock and roll..making up our own songs from the very beginning seemed to fill us with a hell of alot more joy..it was great and it still is great !
saying all this ...brings me to the point of my choice of electric guitar for my personnal use...and here are some examples and ill explain why....
above is my First Wire Instruments SleepWalker model guitar....made by luthier Earnie Bailey..a wizard of tone in my opinion..very low serial number on my guitar.. handmade in Fox Island Washington..it has exotic Koa wood wings and ebony fingerboard..it is slightly heavy but it has a huge sound.! very ballsy great for hard rock..!
it has a Great Art Deco 2 Tone Color Vibe in its looks very classy...Blue and Koa Wood sweet.
The pickups ( little chome square things with 12 screws under the strings) are the microphones of the guitar these impart an amazing amount of the personnality of the guitar and are handmade by an old buddy named T.V.JONES..from our days back in L.A. who now lives in Seattle..Earnie uses his pickups and they look very cool..and sound fantastic...
The guitars impart a very original look to them...almost no guitar commerically available even comes close to looking like Wire Inst. Sleepwalkers...and that is a huge reason I ,Texas Joe Valles love the idea of playing these guitars ..Wire Inst. is a fairly new company..Earnie's designs are 1st rate..and future-istic.Kind of Star Wars (from the Ewoks Forest on Endor) Hippie Ewok...meets Andrew Llyod Wright..design..very very non conventional and that is what I love and like in an instrument..and these SleepWalkers have it in abundance..!!
As I have grown older..I very much want to stand out from the pack (I have always tried)and the same old same old when it comes to my music..with songs like (Mari Left on A Spaceship called Mexico..anyone..?) down to the choice of guitars I use...I have used and played Fenders and Gibsons..P.R.S. Ibanez..and tons of other guitars..even more crazy guitars like..Steinberger..and Parker...but with these Sleepwalker guitars(by the way Texas Joe is one of the very few guitarists in Texas to own a Sleepwalker..) There is nomistaking me for another guitar player and people will pay atention to the guy with the strange and beautiful guitar..ha ha ! and that is it.... simple or not is the whole point..! of using a beautiful and strange nonconventional design...in electric guitar...
by the way The Old Garnet Tube amp Heads in the background..are also something that is not commonly used in American rock and roll bands let alone a Texas Band..Gar "Gillies" Garnet (R.I.P.) sent me the T Shirt and I wear it with pride these are great amps and sound tuff and sweet ! This set up was used in the studio on our new song for the Witch Tree album song titled Thick and Thin..its a very powerful and beautiful sound..you can hear the song Thick and Thin here
www.vallesflyingmachine.bandcamp.com
to listen to these beautiful guitars and amps in action..the only other thing I used was a Hermida Zendrive to punch up the sound a bit..
below is a picture of my second Wire Instruments Sleepwalker..in action...
this Sleepwalker has a Metalflake Blue Sparkle..paint job on the wings and a Clear Flame maple body ..it has Lace Sensor Pickups..and is lighter..and has a more "bright sound " to it..hence great for live use....youll notice a Marshall 4x12 cabinet in the background..that is my choice of guitar cabinet for my tone...it has been for more than 20 years !
Another Wire Instrumets Guitar I have fallen in love with and this guitar has helped me immensley in my songwriting is Earnie's 12 string model called The Moon Ray 12..
see below..
it is a wild wild and non conformist, non traditional looking guitar..it looks like something that fell off a spaceship & space aliens surf with..! ha ha !
it has a tropical fish look to it ...but let me tell you this guitar is a dream to play, wow it looks like a dream ! Texas Joe walks to the beat of a differant drum..and when it comes to writing songs and choosing guitars will always walk his own path.!
Speaking of drums..thats Eloy in the back playing one of his beautiful sounding Ludwig Drum kits he took this set out for a live gig..but it sounds realy nice in the studio. This picture was taken in McAllen Texas August of 2010..at a club gig...Valles Flying Machine....always Rockin' always Rollin!!!
and now a differant subject....when Texas Joe believe's in something and can help..especially in music..ill try my best to help...I have always said if an all girl group came out of South Texas it would be a rare occurrance but it would be a smash hit and something very kool! well this is looking to be something akin to that idea...
And now for the subject of EANDO...and what the heck is Texas Joe doing with these girls anyway.?
well One day in September a friend of mine told me his uncle had opened a little cafe in Brownsville Texas and I should drop by and check it out..well reluctantly I did (I was not gonna go by..) as I was sitting there drinking a tea..these young pretty girls walk in and were carrying guitars...and I said to myself humm this might prove intresting..well...I hung around to watch them play...........
I was stunned at how good they were..
they have a look..a sound..and ..great songs..and PLAYED GUITAR !!! how many girls play guitar in South Texas..? my point exactly..!!! so I have tried dilligently to help them in anyway I can. I believe they have great songs,a great look,beautiful voices and they rock ! the most important part of the whole deal...Ill keep trying to help in thier carreer as long as they want me around...but my main focus has an always will be The Valles Flying Machine...cant wait to get Witch Tree out on cd as we will tour all across America like we have never done before to promote this album..and all our other work..I only hope I can take Eando along on some of the bigger shows we will see....ok for now need to get going....have a nice day ..and plz visit ..listen and purchase osme of our songs..it helps like crazy believe it or not..just go here...
www.vallesflyingmachine.bandcamp.com
we are on ITUNES ALSO! ILL GET THE LINK LATER..
anyway have a great day ...im off to the rock and roll races...
sincerely
texas joe valles