1. Describe the early years of your musical roots and
how your talent was nurtured.

I suppose musical roots means what music was listened
to in the household during childhood, that would be,
motown, the Beatles, classic rock and Booker “T” and
the Mg’s, while my parents where entertaining friends
on card night...teenage years, I devoted a lot of my
listening time to Pink Floyd albums such as, Dark Side
of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Where Here, The Wall
album and others.

2. Where there any events, people or catalyst(s) that
were influential?

Pink Floyd is the reason I began playing guitar. The
solo at the end of “Brick in the Wall”, took me
somewhere and I decided, that I wanted to become
capable of expressing such depth and feeling. I
started playing acoustic at age 14 or 15. I was very
shy and could not play for anyone for years. After
high school, I quit playing for about five years. When
I found the speed metal movement in the mid 80’s, it
caught my interest, so I took up instruction with a
very talented fella by the name of Pat Patton. He
eventually turned me onto Jimi in the late 80’s, and
it all came together for me musically. What I mean is
that studying Hendrix, I found what it is all about.
Hendrix demonstrated in clear picture, what it means
to be a musician/artist, you gotta be the music, not
just play the music.
That's what it is all about.

3. What does your live set up consist of?

Live I use my main Foxey axe that was built in 97, a
Snarling Dogs (Blues Bawls) wah, analogman KOT pedal,
and either a 68 Fender twin that I applied Paisley
fabric to, or a Naylor super drive 60 stack (Detroit).

4. When did you build your first guitar and why did
you choose to go with the materials you used?

The first guitar was built in 88. Walnut was selected
for both looks and tone (had found that it was
sometimes a desired choice as a guitar wood). I had
reworked a BC Rich neck on the first guitar, figured
it was a safe bet to start with a working neck on my
first attempts as a luthier. The Washburn Wonderbar
was chosen because it was a surface mount trem, and
the body wood was thin...Duncan pickups, and Schaller
tuners where good quality I was told.

5. How many guitars have you customized to date? What
are they sold for?

I have built about a dozen. I am not a real “active”
luthier, however this spring I have started four
electric guitar projects, three walnut and one highly
figured sapele wood. They are all solid bodies with
the patented “foxey” shape they sell for $1200 plus.

6. What have been the highs & lows of your career so
far?

I have put myself through some rough times, selfishly
pursing my idea of what should be going on in my
career at all costs. The results where rather
disastrous. Seems that the larger the ego, the greater
the disappointments. I have since discovered things
work themselves out if you just let them happen and
continuous watching and reduction of the ego is
required for this to work.

There have been the occasional cases of insecurity on
the part of those that are in positions to assign
winners or losers, where I had been slighted due to my
abilities as a female. Those times are rare, but it
does sometimes happen,
that's just life though.

High points happen at every gig. The first timers that
say they were blown away by what they seen and heard,
as well as repeat fans that just completely get in to
the energy, the feel, and realness of the performance,
this is always a high point, and it happens at every
show. It is great to have the opportunity
to share the experience of sounds and music with
others!
The feedback from the listeners is the clue that
things are good.

7. What works for you as a songwriter when you are
composing? Describe the process from the initial
inspiration to getting it down on CD.

The initial inspiration can come from just about
anything at any time. Typically I just start playing,
practicing or jamming, and chord changes or rhythms or
melodies just happen, or other times, I actually have
an idea that I want to express, then approach the
music from that angle. I love to jam, that is a great
place for music to happen. Then after a catchy idea
solidifies, lyrics can be added. An idea can take an
incredible amount of different directions from the
time that it starts to the time that it gets recorded,
that in itself is amazing!

8. Your latest CD, “Living in the Sun” was mastered by
Denny Purcell of Georgetown Masters in Nashville. Why
did you choose to have your CD mastered by Denny
Purcell?

Living in the Sun was recorded at Studio A in Dearborn
on two inch tape. Denny Purcell at Georgetown was recommended by Marilyn and Eric Morgeson at Studio A. I was very pleased with the
results. Denny was a great guy to work with, very nice.

9. Have you had the opportunity to play with some
guitarists that you admire?

There are great players in the Detroit scene that I
have had the fortune of jamming with.

10. How many guitars do you own and which ones are
your favorites?

I have three that I consider mine, in the sense that I
would not offer them for sale. They are the first one
I built, (walnut), my main one that I made out of
albizzia wood, (very foxey), and I have a strat the
was Pat Pattons, that I painted Jimi on,
and restrung it as a lefty, which I have used in the
past during live shows to play a couple tunes left
handed. My fav is the albezzia.

11. What are some of the comments fans have said to
you while you have been on stage that reassured you
that you are indeed following your bliss?

The following are some quotes from fans: (some from
e-mails and some from hand written fan cards)

“You guys are awesome! Please add me to your list....”

“You never cease to amaze. You are a true entertainer
which, as a musician myself, is something I’m still
learning how to do....”

“I must say I was awestruck. I was wondering if it is
possible to get an autographed photo of you? I would
truly consider it an honor...”

“I was impressed. I’d like to know where and when you
are playing. I’ll tell my friends to come.....”

“I have never heard or seen a woman play guitar like
that! You are an awesome musician. I’m glad I got the
chance to meet you...”

“I’d have to say that was one of the most entertaining
nights I have seen in quite a while. If anyone out
here hasn’t had the chance to catch this act, I would
highly recommend it. Nice job, Lemon...”

“YOU ROCK!!”

“your just awesome!”

“best since Jimi”

“KICK OUT THE JAMS LADY”

12. Would you agree that music is a language?

Yeah, I would agree, it is a language and it can be
colors too. It is a great freedom to be able to
express in the language of music and channel the
energies of expressions, such as enthusiasm,
melancholy, fun, sensuality, day dreaminess...,
aggressiveness, joy, uplifting..and so on..all
different moods or expressions.

13. You were in a Jimi Hendrix tribute band. It must
have been quite an experience to learn Jimi’s licks.
Describe the emotional experience or any revelations
you may have had.

Yeah, it was and still is quite an experience. I had
always sort of liked Hendix and recall the first time
I had heard,“Purple Haze”, on the radio. The
introduction seemed so erotic to me anyway. My mom
liked some of Hendrix’s stuff, my dad didn’t, so there
was a small amount of tension there. I really didn’t
get into his music until years later when my guitar
teacher, Pat Patton, turned me onto him. That was an
odd experience in itself, because this fella, Pat, was
a great guitarist with an incredible amount of ability
and talent. I began taking lessons with him with the
interest in the melodic metal style, learning all the
modes and scales and beginning to be a speed metal
player. After some time Pat got into a Hendrix phase
where he was back into studying Jimi and decided to
get me started into Hendrix which is a completely
different type of thing. Soon after he tabbed out a
couple of tunes for me, then he let me go, which
always seemed odd to me, cause I was willing to
continue my weekly lessons (money in his pocket) and
there was so much more he could teach me. (Pat passed
away a few years later) I then spent a few years
learning Hendrix off vinyl. I didn’t really appreciate
the depth of talent and character of Jimi until I
started to discover or perceive who or what he is or
was (between the notes). There are countless
revelations that can occur when one taps into
something that is pure or real.
I suppose the most obvious revelation in this case is,

that ya gotta BE the music..then it is real and then
people will pick up on it.
And you will always be satisfied.

14. Will there be another CD out soon?

There is some exciting new material that I have been
working on. I don’t have any recording dates set at
this time.

15. Are you going to be performing at any festivals
this summer?

I am scheduled to perform in the Detroit area for some
summer events and festivals.

Check www.lemonjames.com for show dates, gig pics, vacation pictures and other information or see the female rock category of the database.

Top of page

 

© 2005 Yonge Music

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The best way to get to knowing a bunch of people is to go and listen to their music."

Woodie Guthrie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join the indieguitarists myspace group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Tell me where you live, and I will tell you how you compose".

Robert Schumann

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The tragedy in the interpetation of music of the past lies in the fact that it is confined to concert halls, congress of musicology, or conservatory classes. Music needs air, sunlight and liberty to be alive."

Wanda Landowska

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Think nothing. Wait until it is absolutely still within you. When you have attained this begin to play".

Karlheinz Stockhausen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"To play great music you must keep your eyes on a distant star".

Yehudi Menuhin

1. Is the new DVD “Real LIVE” available yet?

No, we’re suppose to do one, we still haven’t gotten around to doing all this. I take forever to do whatever I have to do. I was suppose to do a blues album for fifteen years and I still haven’t gotten around to doing it. I’m suppose to do a DVD for Jim West and I’m suppose to do a blues album as well.

2. How did your success happen?

What happened was everything sort of went backwards like I got noticed early, really young and because of that I got placed in big situations very early in my career. Basically, the dues that I paid were not quite the same as the dues that other people paid. I didn’t start at the bars and clubs and work my way. I started at the big buildings and worked my way to the bars and clubs.

3. Have you met and had a chance to play with some of the player’s who you admire?

Unfortunately, the guys that I really admired a lot made me, you know, sort of shaped my playing are dead or in another facet of the business by the time I got to the buildings where I would have played with them. Well, I did play with Johnny Winter, I did a bunch of dates with Johnny Winter and for me that was a really big thing but I was so shy and afraid to meet him that I never actually met him. I maybe nodded my head at him once, I would have really liked to have met the guy on a personal level but having done thirty, forty dates with him and never really had a conversation. The same thing happened with Carlos Santana, you know I played with him but was too shy to say anything.

I’m a real sort of retiring kind of a person, I don’t like fame, I don’t like the business, I really don’t and I never did. I sort of entered the business kicking and screaming you know what I’m saying. I just really always wanted to play with people and have a good jam or whatever. It seemed the business that I entered started to become extremely excessive at the time that I entered it. There started to be all these big festivals and everyone was into being a star, fancy clothes and that’s really not where I came from. I came from a late sixties mentality which was sort of all about musicians and concerts. By the time I got into it, it was all about hero’s and spectacles. When I got into those shows where I did actually meet some of those guys that influenced me when I was younger I really didn’t know what to say to them. I kind of figured if I talk to this guy he’s gonna think I’m one of these new fangled guys with “the spectacles”(laughs), but I’m not, you know I’m kind of an old sixties person. I usually spent a lot of time in my dressing room. I really didn’t meet to many of them on a personal level.

4. What are some of your career highlights or gigs that stand out in your mind?

Well you know, people are always telling me that the Cal jam must have been a highlight because there were three hundred thousand people and they talk about all those excessive dates in the late seventies when we did all those big, big, festivals. I have to honestly tell you that this is a cursing. I really, really didn’t have a good time with those kind of gigs. It seems like I did because you know I’m playing, we were doing our thing but its really not what I think music is all about . I think music is really like a language, it’s like a communication. You want to use it to communicate with people. When it turns into kind of like an epic and your sort of placed in a position where people are looking up to you as if you’ve got special powers or something, it makes you very unhappy to be a musician that way, if you happen to be a person like me who thinks that music is the first thing that should be important other than the fame. So to look at some gigs and say this one was a highlight or that one was a highlight, I’d probably be mentioning gigs to you that no one has ever heard of. Some gigs that I did in a smaller venue one night that really worked musically I could tell you Chicago, Cleveland, LA or Montreal. There’s been a few in Montreal like that.

5. I never heard about you having a bad night. What are your comments on this?

I had a couple of bad nights, it’s not so much that we played bad but we were maybe cast in the wrong crowd, you know, if we opened for bands where their own crowds were at. Those were nights that I prefer to forget like when I played with Queen. I did a long tour with Queen and there was a couple of nights there when we were just off the bill. It didn’t work.

6. How do you do your songwriting from the written tune to getting it on a disk?

In my case as opposed to pretty much everyone I know my material never gets written in advance it’s written when I record. Every album I’ve ever done was written at the moment we were doing the album. So you could take any of those songs on any of those records and you could pretty much know that the birth of the song was the day we did the record. We are really a jam band. We are an original jam band, so whether were in a studio or we’re live or whatever it would be like we’re suppose to record something so okay turn on the tape machine and we’ll just do what we usually do except this time someone is going to record it.

7. How is your songwriting different now that you are playing with a young violin player?

It would be the same thing, I mean the guy that I’ve got , Avi Ludmer, he’s got that same mentality I mean he’s only 22 but he’s got that same mentality. He likes to play he likes to jam. So he will be the guy that will jam with me and I’m sure we’re going to come up with a lot of stuff that’s going to be brand new. That’s just the way we do it you know ninety-nine percent of what we do is done live at first and if someone’s got a tape going well guess what its a record. (laughs)

8. Are you going to be releasing any acoustic music in the near future?

Everyone is always saying I should do acoustic numbers and do acoustic sets. Ya, its not something I usually do but when I’m at home all I play is acoustic.

9. What is your main acoustic guitar?

I just have a big wide body Guild, I don’t even know its model number. I just went to the store and said I want that. Oh, I also have an Ovation, nylon string, which I used on “Mahogany Rush Four”, for the into of the song, “The Emporer”. I still have that guitar. So between those two acoustic guitars, if I’m home like with my kids, I like to play acoustic guitar because they sing.

10. Your thoughts on family life.

Believe me, it’s better than rock & roll.

11. What is your main electric guitar?

It’s still an SG. I got a lot of different SG’s, they’re basically all SG’s. (laughs) It works for me and I mean there are things about an SG that are a bummer. SG player’s will tell you this, they don’t stay in tune, you pull on the neck the chord goes out of tune, you use the bar the strings go out of tune, but other than that they just feel light. I like a guitar that’s light weight . I don’t like to feel like I’m wearing something because, it’s like I say, for me to play a guitar its not technical at all it’s really kind of a connection between my brain and my hand.
I like for instance, when people say, language. I often say that because its like when you think about words they just come off of your tongue, you don’t have to think about how to form them and its the same thing when I think about music it just comes out of my hand on my guitar.

12. Are you a collector of vintage guitar’s?

No, no, I never was. I happen to have vintage SG’s because I happen to buy them in the late (laughs) sixties and seventies.

For more information on Frank Marino visit: http:www.mahoganyrush.com

Top of Page