Vanderbilt’s old, ivy-covered campus took a friendly beating over the weekend when Philly’s resident hip-hop megastars the Roots came to town. Surrounded on all sides by stately dormitories, the annual Rites of Spring music festival cranked beneath the shade of Vandy’s ancient trees, and soon hundreds of beer cans were embedded into the stampeded Alumni Lawn. It was BYOB, after all, and coolers were carted in by the hundreds, as some 10,000 concert-goers poured into the gates Friday and Saturday nights to witness the Roots, and fellow Gibson artists Wolfmother, Drive-By Truckers, Amos Lee, and Mat Kearney. Held on the Vandy campus for more than 30 years now, Rites of Spring has distinguished itself by showcasing an ever-eclectic and exciting lineup. This year was no different.

Though well-regarded for his solo work, Joe Perry will go down in history as the lead guitarist for the mighty Aerosmith.

When former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter’s excellent new album Shrunken Heads landed on the Gibson Backstage Pass desk, we picked up the phone and called Bill Whitten and let him know how great it is. Whitten, the driving force behind Grand Mal—hands-down one of the best bands in New York City, by a New York mile—was the obvious choice to talk to Hunter.

While the children at the Mexican bakery in Brooklyn stare with curiosity at the rock ’n’ roll Rasputin hunched over the counter sipping coffee from a blue paper cup, the staff and locals greet Michael Gerner with warm hellos. The VietNam frontman smiles and speaks through his (Rick) Rubenesque beard in a humble, down-to-earth tone,giving no hint that he is a rock star in the making, currently on the cover of Fader, and featured in Rolling Stone. Slowly and deliberately, but with bemused enthusiasm, he discusses the band’s long and winding tour of duty.

“Who wouldn’t want to be compared to Led Zeppelin?” asks Matt Whyte, guitarist and primary songwriter for Earl Greyhound, Brooklyn's newly minted purveyors of blistering blues-rock. “It’s flattering without a doubt, and it’s not like it’s putting us in a position where it’s going to affect the music we make.” Earl Greyhound’s rough-and-tumble, Zeppelin-reminiscent cuts, the stuff of last year’s Soft Targets, have propelled the trio out of New York’s hipster metropolis and into headlining slots at rock clubs across the U.S. Within the space of 11 songs, Earl Greyhound recharge the sweat and grit of ’70s rock with galloping drum beats, chugging guitars, and hypnotic keyboard lines, made arresting with brooding refrains and the keen, hymn-like harmonizing of Whyte and bassist Kamara Thomas.

The time: the early 1960s. The place: a television studio. The occasion: the taping of TVGospel Time, a national program, before a live audience. A modestly dressed middle-aged woman takes the stage, launching into an improvised rendition of “Up Above My Head,” a church standard, accompanying herself on electric guitar. Behind her the white-robed mem- bers of a full gospel choir clap their hands in time to the music.

Since materializing out of Australia as one of the most buzzed about rock bands, Wolfmother have ensnared the imagination and nostalgia of a cross-generation of fans. During near nightly sets of walloping hard rock, Wolfmother guitarist and leader Andrew Stockdale tornadoes across stage, a blur of arms, legs, and teased ’fro. Juiced with frenetic energy, the guitarist perpetually brandishes one of two cherished guitars, his ES-335 Dot Reissue or his Bigsby-equipped SG.

It was Sam Phillips who named him Johnny, while pressing the labels for the "Hey Porter b/w Cry Cry Cry" debut single on Sun Records in 1955. Phillips changed Cash's name without asking. He thought "Johnny" sounded younger, better for the Memphis teenagers who kept their ears pressed to transistor radios as if they were about to receive secret instructions. Phillips must have figured he had better do something. That low bass moan humming under the staccato guitar twang sounded anything but youthful. Haunted? Yes. Desperate? Yes. But not young--not the skipping, rockabilly bounce of Elvis careening through "That's All Right." This was something else entirely. "Soon your sugar daddies will all be gone / You'll wake up some cold day and find you're alone / You'll cry cry cry." It was the birth of the Man in Black, but not the man himself.

World Wide sales for musical instrument product categories in which Gibson Guitar compete have dropped more than 20% in the US and most of the world in the first quarter of 2009. While Gibson has continued to gain market share, the extent of the slowdown in retail purchases, and the uncertainty of when this market will recover mandates that Gibson makes changes to insure the size of our organization is appropriate for the anticipated sales levels. This large drop in purchases is being experienced in virtually all consumer product categories.

Free MP3 Of The Day: Hill Country Revue "Alice Mae"