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One of the better one-chord workouts: Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush's "Try for Freedom"


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I forgot I had this on a CD-R of instrumentals I'd burned, and the Real Live album (2004) from which it was culled is not in the regular library on accounta the cover's autographed. It was an unexpected pleasure to re-discover this nugget.

This song has several things going for it: The tone is unique (YMMV) and I think Marino was using a custom-made SG-shaped guitar that was (partially?) hollow,  and it had f-holes, thus the resonant but bright sound. Also, Marino's licks command attention, slowly building in intensity but never getting frenetic, and sounding at times like Middle Eastern-influenced stuff rather than blues riffs. Then there's the interesting passage towards the end where he does a repetitive line that climbs upward, and he switches the lick by a half-step each time---there's prolly a musical term for that kind of riffing but I wouldn't know what it is.

Another nice touch is a solo, chord-based version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" that introduces "Try for Freedom". It's reflective and sweet. Here's a link to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow":

 

...and here's the connection to "Try for Freedom". You're welcome in advance:

 

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I’d forgotten about Mahogany Rush!! Thanks for that!! He is definitely using one or several of the “ian” scales. I’ll let those who know such things chip in on that!!  

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One of my top five.

It is, what use to be a Gibson SG Special.

Plugged and re routed for a strat pickup set.

Maestro set way back for additional string length

Fingerboard has a finish on it.

Frank is very approachable.

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^^^The treble pickup on the SG w/ Strat electronics is reversed (for a right-handed player) to evoke a more "Hendrixian" tone, since Hendrix played lefty on a right-handed instrument,  as Marino explained to me in Mobile in 2007. He had that one, a couple of custom-made hollow SG style guitars,  his iconic SG from the days of Cal Jam 2, and others on tour when I interviewed him in person.

One of the highlights of that concert, for me, was when the other guitar player switched to violin. Fit the presentation like a glove. Here's a link to  the gear-centric 2007 article from the Mobile concert (lotsa photos):

https://www.vintageguitar.com/3484/frank-marino-2/

And here's the 2005 article that cited Real Live in detail:

https://www.vintageguitar.com/3422/frank-marino/

I'd also interviewed Marino in '98; ain't got a link to that one but the later two interviews are enlightening.

FWMOW, Frank Marino epitomizes the difference between "rock star" and "musician". He's always been in the latter category.

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