Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks
ENGLISH GUITARIST ALAN MURPHY left us in 1989, but his playing continues to inspire those who remember hearing it at the time, along with many who have discovered it since – as I detail in our full feature on Alan on page 90 of this issue. Originally inspired by the blues, Alan also became interested in the complex lines of Ritchie Blackmore, Allan Holdsworth and Lee Ritenour. Live music fans on the London pub circuit in the late 1970s and early 80s will testify that Alan’s playing with the Stapleton Allstars (later changing their name to SFX) was like nothing they had heard before.
Alan was already making a comfortable living as a sought-after session/sideman with artists such as Kate Bush, Chris Rea and Nick Heyward, but it was his sparkling rhythm and searing solos with Go West that first reached a mainstream audience. He would often play his best solos on the first or second take, and while his style was incredibly polished, it retained a certain edge –Alan still regarded his playing as very much blues based.
Using a thick pick and strong attack was integral to Alan’s style, but he would also execute long legato passages, requiring considerable fretting hand strength. The then-new Kahler and Floyd Rose trems aided his distinctive whammy scoops and dips.
Rather than break up this solo into phrases, I’ve transcribed it in its entirety. However, it’s advisable to isolate any tricky parts and work on those separately. The tone is pretty rich in mids and there is an extra 1980s touch in the form of a Dimension D (subtle stereo chorus) style plug-in added at the mixing stage. Alan liked to experiment with active pickups and direct tones to get super-wide and bright, clean rhythm tones, and while his lead tones were more strai
