DANNY KIRWAN'S BLUES
Learn a handful of tasty licks in the style of this unsung British blues revivalist — complete with a backing track you can jam over
A — let’s face it, people! — rare lesson dedicated to the late, great Fleetwood Mac guitarist
THE LATE DANNY KIRWAN WAS SO TALENTED that — when he was a mere 18 years old — he was invited to join Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac on the strength of his performances with a pub band, Boilerhouse. Danny immediately made the leap to playing on international concert stages, becoming a foil to Green and playing harmony guitars on Fleetwood Mac’s much-loved classic, “Albatross,” plus bringing his fiery and highly refined bend vibrato technique and love of different styles such as jazz to slightly lesserknown tracks like “Jigsaw Puzzle Blues.”
KIRWAN’S UNIQUE STYLE HELPED SHAPE FLEETWOOD MAC’S EARLY SEVENTIES OUTPUT, INCLUDING KILN HOUSE, FUTUREGAMES AND BARETREES
Sadly, Kirwan — whose vocals and guitar playing would shape Fleetwood Mac’s early Seventies output, including Kiln House, Future Games and Bare Trees — died in June 2018 at age 68.
Kirwan was a huge fan of Green’s playing before being asked to join Fleetwood Mac, and you can hear a little of this in the directness of his blues phrasing. However, his style in many ways pointed the way ahead for the band. Kirwan used a more distorted tone, as became much more the norm by the 1970s. He is most associated with playing a Gibson Les Paul, but this isn’t essential. But opt for a humbucke-requipped guitar, if you can. You’ll need a powerful but clear tone, using a bit of overdrive and some spring-style reverb. No other effects are needed — apart from the aforementioned bend vibratos! As the old saying goes, “tone is in the hands.”
1. WHAT’S O-KIRWAN
As you’ll see, the licks presented in this lesson are not about expanding your vocabulary to include exotic scales. All of them are played in the context of a minor blues progression in the key of B minor and use notes from the B minor pentatonic scale
F#,
(B, D, E, A). This is all about expressiveness, especially the vibrato! Be prepared to spend time perfecting Kirwan’s wide, fast method, but be careful not to overdo it. The “trick,” as it were, is to first bend the note up the target pitch, which is usually a whole step (as indicated by the number “1” above the arrowhead in the tab), which matches the pitch of an unbent note two frets higher. Hold the bend briefly then proceed to partially release it, by about a quarter tone (less than a half step, which is the equivalent of one fret). You then restore the bend to its prescribed target pitch and repeat the partial release/ rebend sequence several times in a rapid but even rhythm. When fingering the bends in bars 1 and 2, be sure to use your 3rd finger, supported one fret below by the 2nd finger, and hook your thumb around the top side of the neck for leverage.
2. SUSTAINED NOTES
It sure is fun and exciting to hold these kinds of sustained notes through a cranked amplifier on stage with a rocking band behind you, and this is the feeling we’re chasing with this example. Add finger vibrato and a little reverb to complete the picture, and make sure to support your string bends with at least two fingers. Use the same bend vibrato technique detailed above for the shaken bends in bars 1 and 2 of this example. The non-bend finger vibratos in bars 3 and 4 are performed as a series of micro-bends — by repeatedly bending the fretted note up by about a quarter note in a fairly quick but even rhythm.
3. MELODY WITH 16THS
Inserting occasional pairs of 16th notes like this creates an exciting feeling of movement and rhythmic animation. But this is still all about being melodic and not playing “widdly” runs up and down the fretboard. Notice that we’re sticking pretty close to the same register in all these examples. Kirwan was fluent across the fretboard, but he also had a tasteful, judicious sense of restraint and was a master of making the best out of one or two scale shapes. Also, note the use of a pre-bent vibrato in bar 2 here, as indicated by the vertical arrow. The object is to silently and precisely bend the fretted A note up a whole step to B, using your aural and tactile (touch, or muscle) memory to zero-in on the target pitch without hearing it. You then pick the string and proceed to apply the partial release/re-bend technique detailed earlier to dip slightly below the