two rock-instrumental virtuosos play nineteen classic tunes

T H E DU O -TO N E S
no amps • no drums • no bass
just acoustic guitars pure, essential surf music
like you’ve never heard it before
Paul Johnson
Co-founder of pioneer surf
band the Belairs and writer of
their ’62 hit, Mr. Moto; in recent
years a touring member of the
Surfaris (Wipeout).
Last Date
Kamikaze
California Dreamin’
Pipeline
Song for My Father
Beach City Bop
The Lonely Bull
The Wedge
More Love, More Power
Last Night in Waikiki
TH E D UO-TONES
SURF MUSIC UNPLUGGED
Gil Orr
An active member for over three
decades in what many consider
to be the ultimate surf band, the
Chantays (“Pipeline”).
Crystal-T
Mr. Moto
Baja
Apache
Walk, Don’t
Run
Baja Nights
Hide Away
Outside
Scratchy
S URF MUS IC UNPLUGGED
TWO ROCK-INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSOS
PLAY NINETEEN CLASSIC TUNES
1) Crystal–T
11) Kamikaze
2) Mr. Moto
12) California Dreamin’
(Orr/Spickard/Carman/Welch/Lewis)
(Paul Johnson)
3) Baja
(Lee Hazelwood)
4) Apache
(Lordan)
5) Walk, Don’t Run
(Smith)
6) Baja Nights
(Orr)
7) Hide Away
(King/Thompson)
8) Outside
(Orr)
9) Scratchy
(Chisman/McPhail/Wammack)
10) Last Date
(Cramer)
(Paul Johnson)
produced by
Paul Johnson
executive producer: Gordon McClelland
cover art & lettering: Kerne Erickson
album layout & design:
Paul Johnson & Carolin Priebe
Duo-tones’ photos: Gordon McClelland
(for session credits, see accompanying page)
thanks be to God!
(Phillips/Gilliam)
13) Pipeline
(Spickard/Carman)
14) Song for my Father
(Silver)
15) Beach City Bop
(Paul Johnson)
16) The Lonely Bull
(Lake)
17) The Wedge
(Dale)
18) More Love, More Power
(Del Hierro)
• bonus track w/Don Nuzzu, ukelele
19) Last Night in Waikiki
(Nuzzo/Johnson/Orr)
The Lost Art of RHYTHM Guitar — Paul Johnson
Classical guitar master Andrés Segovia often referred to his instrument as “my little
orchestra." His playing conveyed all the essential elements (the melody, harmony
and rhythm) of the symphonic works he adapted for solo guitar, and he achieved
voicings that approximate what an entire orchestra might produce. The man understood the breadth of the guitar’s range of musical expression.
In today’s rock music, the guitar has reached new heights as a melodic instrument; but as the drums and synths have become hotter in the mix, the guitar has
taken back seat in the harmony department and it has been all but forgotten as
a rhythm instrument. Rarely today does one hear a guitar performing rhythm
duties to its full potential.
I have always favored a dual-guitar approach to music, with a prominent rhythm
guitar. My first band (the Belairs) began as a duo; before we had drums or bass,
we had to find a way to make our tunes sound as complete as possible with just
our two guitars. As the "rhythm" player, I developed a style incorporating full
chords, bass notes, a downbeat and an upbeat (a wrist-action snap on the strings
to sub for the missing snare drum) plus a growing ability to work in some syncopation as my youthful skills increased.
This style came to be a salient feature in the emerging surf music genre; every
band had the requisite two guitars, and a good rhythm guitarist was worth his
weight in gold! Sure, the bands had bass and drums, but these instruments
played under the guitars—not on top of them; it was the rhythmic interplay
between the two guitars that generally took center-stage.
Though the trend has moved away from this kind of model for a band, I have
continued to approach the guitar as a duo instrument. I can’t help it—it’s
engrained in me; I must have another guitarist (or a multi-track recorder) to play with in order to make my kind of music! And as I love to
play both lead and rhythm parts, I always rejoice to come upon another guitarist with a similar aptitude.
Gil Orr and I got casually acquainted at shows our bands played together in the early ‘90s. (He had been playing for many years with the
Chantays and I had been with the Surfaris since about 1990.) When we chanced into a jam session together in about ’95, we discovered
that we must have been cut from the same cloth! As the last two men left standing after hours of jamming, we were fully energized, firing
licks backand forth and trading leads—each of us just as happy to be playing good, solid rhythm behind the other guy as we were to be
playing lead. I don’t need to tell you that in Gil I had found one of the truly great rhythm (as well as lead) players—you’ll hear that for
yourself on this CD. And it’s no wonder that ever since that jam session, we have continued to play together and develop our “duo”
approach to this music.
With this album, we have chosen the all-acoustic route to highlight the intricacies of dual-guitar interplay that lie at the root of the surfinstrumental genre; in the process, we hope to bring some long-overdue attention to the lost art of rhythm guitar.
And so, with apologies to Mr. Segovia, we invite you now to sit back and enjoy “our little surf band.”
About the recording of “Surf Music Unplugged”
This album was recorded during the final week of 1999 on an ADAT 8-track; the mixing and editing were completed in January 2000. The
studio facility for all of this was California Magnetics in San Diego, California—Don Nuzzo, proprietor and set-up engineer. Session engineering,
mixing and editing were done by Paul Johnson (with some kibitzing from Nuzzo, Gil Orr and Gordon McClelland).
Johnson played his little Martin 000-16 and sat in a small room facing Orr (about 6 feet away) who was playing his Ovation CS-257. Each
guitar was individually miked with a Neuman KM-84,
and a bi-directional Neuman U-87 was set equidistant
between the two musicians to capture room ambience.
This third mike was mixed to the center and the other
two to the left and right; thus, if your wires are not
crossed, you should hear Johnson coming primarily
from your left speaker and Orr from your right.
Overdubs were kept to bare minimum to preserve
the unique chemistry of these live performances. In
“Apache,” “More Love…” and the improv sections of
“Beach City Bop” and “Crystal-T,” Johnson and Orr
recorded dual rhythm parts first and Johnson added
lead parts later; he also doubled a few lead lines in
“Baja” and “Kamikaze,” and he added his lead to
“Last Night in Waikiki” after Orr’s guitar and Nuzzo’s
uke were recorded together live. Aside from this, it’s
all just the two guitars performing live, with no other
“punching in,” though in some cases the better parts
from alternate takes were edited together to achieve
the optimum finished track.
Mastering: Steve Weatherby, Golden Track Studios