Coyote Performs ELECTRIC SOLO - Smells Good
The Hippy Coyote of American Zen was slightly despondent for several days, but he took the loss of his acoustic unemotionally. The Alvarez dreadnought 12-string acoustic guitar was acquired by Coyote in 1973, while living in LaMesa, California, in a one-bedroom apartment that looked like it was made of adobe, and had a wavy Spanish red tiled roof.
Stories of these days can be found at the American Zen website, www.AmericanZen.ORG, mostly in the LEVEL 1 section.
Although Coyote performed as an electric guitarist in the band, LOTUS, he began composing most of his songs on the Alvarez 12-string guitar. By 1975, when Coyote was the staff producer/recording engineer of Bonita Recording Studio, he was performing more with the acoustic guitar, than with his electric guitar, since there weren't many clubs to perform at in San Diego, California.
Coyote's first studio song, "Wishwood Bridge," was primarily his Alvarez 12-string, which he also used to record the double mandolins on the song. The doubled strings are similar to the doubled strings of a mandolin, so they sound similar in the studio--perhaps better, because of the larger guitar sound.
This "Wishwood Bridge" song impressed the Bonita Recording Studio owner, Dwight Squibb, so profoundly that he called Coyote, then known as Richard Del Connor, to work for him as his recording engineer, and take any sessions he was unavailable for, since Dwight was a school teacher.
One of Coyote's early mentor guitarists, and older brother of his girlfriend Leslie Rions, Dean Millikan, taught Coyote his first guitar chords and stumbled into Coyote 10 years later in 1977 to record some demos for their new band, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.
Not only did Coyote produce and record these sessions, he performed electric lead guitar on, "Ruby 2," the follow up to their recent radio hit, "Ruby," and Coyote performed the slide guitar on, "Saturday Night."
33 years later, from those first records at Bonita Recording Studio, Coyote returns to be a LEAD GUITARIST with more determination than ever. "It broke my heart to lose my Alvarez guitar, but I'd been trying for six years to launch a solo career with my acoustic guitar and couldn't get enough gigs to perform or tour, even as a soloist. Now, my guitar is gone, dead, removed from my world. What hurts me most is that I can't even afford to give it a proper burial or replace it. It disappoints me to reaize that after 36 years of performing and recording with that guitar--that I haven't earned enough money to even bury it. That guitar was with me longer than any friend, pet, girl, or family member."
This life-altering loss has caused Coyote to make some new resolutions for the rest of his life: "I will never own or perform another acoustic guitar for the rest of my life. EVERY song that I recorded since 1973 with an acoustic guitar, was recorded using my Alvarez guitar. I took the doubled strings off the guitar in 1978 and that guitar became the only guitar I needed to write or perform with. The memory of that guitar should not be overshadowed or diluted with another acoustic guitar."
The positive result of all this loss: "I have been one of the best bass players in Los Angeles and Hollywood during the 1980s. I was renowned as, "The best flute player in Utah," during the 1990s. I was only able to become a good drummer in the last few years, but I now will strive for the title of BEST ELECTRIC GUITARIST IN THE WORLD."
Monthly Press Release from Shaolin Records
Editor: Richard Del Connor
Copyright 2010 Shaolin Music
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