Part of my day today was spent with Melvan Whittington, who was in the guitar shop picking up one of his guitars. Melvan, for those of you who don’t know, played his very first gig in Love on October 29, 1972. And he continued that job as Arthur Lee’s Lead Guitarist for 20+ years. Even after Baby Lemonade became Arthur’s band of choice, Melvan still played a few gigs every now and again and played on some recordings. (for Love rarity collectors, there is, somewhere, a version of GIRL ON FIRE with Melvan playing an alternate guitar solo. I remember Arthur telling me he was gonna bring Melvan down if I didn’t come to the last session before the song was mixed. I did miss that session and Melvan did play on it. I believe my solo made it to the mix simply because that was the one Arthur and (Studio Engineer) Dave Brown thought worked best with the tune. And at that point, neither of them knew who did which solo because I don’t think it was ever written down! And for years I thought it was Melvan! But Melvan is a bad a** muthaf*cker on guitar so you should be able to tell right away it’s not me!

After Melvan left Hannah’s folks (who are visiting) stopped by the shop. Hannah’s dad is a really good Bluegrass Guitarist and I think he really dug the selection Truetone has. Oh, before me forgets, Dave Jenkins loaned me the Love Story movie and wow, what a great job those guys did with that film.

I am so excited and energized thinking about the fall tour. Am working hard to nail all the parts in a way that sounds good live but also I have to see to it my pedals are working properly. Speaking of pedals, Phil Hussey and I are working on another pedal, one that we think is quite necc. for regular gigging guitarist (and heck, even bassist…) but more on that in the very near future…

So, on this late night, with my eyes burning from being tired (and spending some considerable time having fun at CPK -“Calif. Pizza Kitch., ya”ll, with Hannah and her folks), I sign off with respect and goodwill….

Mike Randle