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Steve McTaggart & Benson Road

Steve McTaggart : Blues-rocking the South Pacific

About Me



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Listen to Buddy Guy and Junior Wells play "Help me" From "Chicago, the Blues, Today" (1965 I think) I and you will know what Im looking for.I remember the first time I wanted to play this kind of music. I was 11 years old and my older sister was moving to Australia. Sad, I know but she left behind her record collection including the “Most Of the Animals” album. Eric Burden doing John Lee hooker tunes. What more could you ask for, in New Zealand, in the 1960’s, The first record I brought was Sgt Peppers. Next came Eric Clapton and Hendrix. I bought my first Fender Stratocaster at age 18 and it was all down hill from there. Hearing Peter Green play "Need your Love so Bad" changed my life. All of the notes you could ever need were in that song. The rest is my history.
I have been playing in Various R&B/Blues bands around Auckland and Sydney for the last 30 years. I was in in The Sovereigns, The Steve McTaggart Blues band, Mike and the Stingrays, The Stillettos, then Blueprint with the exellent Peter Reeks on K'boards and Bass and Richard Linklater on drums.
My last band before Benson road was the Roundhouse Jazz Quartet with the multi instrumentalist Tony Ramsay on Piano and Don Weller on Bass, again with Richard on drums. These guys now perform as Roundhouse, as a trio and are great. Check them out.
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/9/2006
Band Website: myspace.com/bluesguitargang
Band Members:
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Band members Steve McTaggart& Benson Road
Stephen McTaggart :Guitar & Vocals Blueprint: Stephen McTaggart :Guitar & Vocals Peter Reeks: Keyboards, Bass and Vocals ,Richard Linklater: Drums Roundhouse Jazz Quartet: Stephen McTaggart :Guitar & Vocals Tony Ramsay Keyboards, Bass and Vocals Don Weller: Bass and Vocals
Influences:Stephen likes the following...Peter Green, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton. Stevie Ray, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Beatles, Jeff Beck, Chicken Shack, Alan Lavis, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Freddy, Albert, BB King, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Rory Gallagher, Roy Buchanan, and Jimi Hendrix (its hard to know where to stop)
Sounds Like: Sounds like For Blues, it sounds a bit like Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac mixed with Jimmie Vaughn mixed with Bluesbreakers Eric clapton with a little Freddie King thrown in for good measure. For the Jazz/blues stuff, Its equal parts Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, George Benson and Wes Montgomery. But most important of all is having the right tone!!!
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoEuIJQo0_I The man is bitter here....
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Mon, 26 May 2008 09:02:00 PST

Chittlin Circuit Magazine and Radio does feature on Mike Dollins

..> Chittlin' Circuit Magazine and Radio just did a great write up on Mike Dollins,This is great news and actually great treatment,  from such a large promoter of blues, jazz, soul, R&B a...
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:27:00 PST

Mark Kerr's Podcast show featuring Steve McTaggart

Hi guys, Just a quick note to let you know that Steve McTaggart is featuring alongside those great guitar players in The Blues Guitar gang on Mark Kerr's Blues Nation Show #13. Here's t...
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:21:00 PST

Steve McTaggart featured on Blues and Jazz web site

Steve McTaggart has been featured on Mike Dollins' excellent Blues and Jazz news web page. It is a great honour to be featured alongside Johhny Mannion and other Blues and Jazz  greats. I thank M...
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 04:48:00 PST

Strat owners volume loss

You strat owners out there!!! Do you have that annoying drop in volume on you high e string? I Use 10-46 and put an 11 on the top this helps a bit. I really dont want to use a humbucker.I have a 73 su...
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:49:00 PST

Guitar tones (how unusual)

I have the slight problem of having a good amp and guitar (64 Blackface Fender Twin) which sounds great for clean tones but to get a spanking blues tone you have to put in on 7.... kind of loud for mo...
Posted by Steve McTaggart & Benson Road on Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:11:00 PST