Backyard recording of Dylan's MAN OF PEACE from his INFIDELS lp; transformed into an acoustic blues...

6-string Blues

Simon Says...
ARTIST BIO: Started playing guitar young, also piano, bass, drums and singing, also harmonica. Began tape recording and taking Classical Guitar lessons in Gamlin's Pianos music shop in the centre of Cardiff, capital city of Wales. Began to write songs and go to gigs aged 13 or so, also to jam frequently around town. I was given a reel-to-reel and took some jazz lessons, continually jamming guitar and bass and going out drinking. Got me a steel-string and a four-track...not much changed ever since! I'm now 42 years old and a lot wiser, which means I don't drink much...fell ill a couple of years ago and emerged with Nerve Damage (painful) to the left arm, also the bicep, forearm and shoulder muscles had wasted away. Undaunted by the negativity of some experts who said I was henceforth stuck unable to play guitar ever again, I received physiotherapy here in West Wales where I now live and worked hard to redevelop the muscles and feeling in the left arm and, especially, left hand. But the Doctors were half-right. Because I can't turn my arm at the wrist properly or move the hand up and down the neck, I've had to develop a capacity to play over-the-top of the neck, as opposed to underneath, with my fretting hand. It ain't easy! But I love music, and hope to make sounds for the rest of my life.


Yo, I'm Simon Guitar John, and I Love Good Music, and Mine is usually a kind of keyboard-and-guitar based blues-rock, sometimes Acoustic, often Psychedelic.. I had many different influences, mainly British and American, and very diverse, taking in everything from Romantic Classical to Punk Rock. I grew up listening to British Radio, and watching British TV.

The "Guitar" in my Name is just to identify me, there's a few different "Simon John"s on the web who play music. I'm not especially fast or fluent on the guitar, there's thousands of people who can play better than me, but at one point in my life, when I'd just come out of a Coma, one of the Doctors said "Son, you'll never play again" so I've been busy proving the guy wrong ever since. My Guitar-playing is limited, but I always give it my best shot, same when I'm playing Bass, or Piano, or Singing, even Harmonica. 


I get rhythms from a Drum Machine, play a bit of Piano Keyboards, play a little Bass, I can write Lyrics and Sing with various Guitars, and Record it all myself. 43yrs old.. 6ft tall, weighing in at 27 stone. Raised in South Wales UK, I started playing guitar, piano and harmonica at an early age; also recording, too. There are a variety of styles here; my music is multi-genre. Despite all this. I've only recently gone Digital...I bought an 8-track machine a few months back.
Check out my other sites, especially my Youtube channel simonguitarjohn (AshTrayTV).

Jump right in...

6-string Blues

SIMON "GUITAR" JOHN