Joey Stuckey “King of Strings”
Americana Highways brings you this premiere of Joey Stuckey’s song “King of Strings,” which is the title track from his forthcoming EP set for release on October 23. King of Strings was produced by Joey Stuckey, recorded and mixed by Tom Camuso (all tracks except “Temple in the Wind”), mixed by David Raven (on “Temple in the Wind”), and mastered by Jessica Thompson. Director of photography and artwork was Jack Hackett.
“King of Strings” is Joey Stuckey on vocals and guitar; Dusty Wakeman on bass; and David Raven on drums.
As Joey tells us about the song’s evolution to originally being penned for Dwayne Allman, and then later rewritten in tribute to Les Paul: “I moved to Macon, GA, where I serve as the official Music ambassador, when I was 15 years old. I had never heard of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Wet Willie or any of the great Southern rock and jam bands. While Macon is not the birthplace of the Allman Brothers, they spent over a decade here and did much of their seminal work during the 70s when they still called Macon home.
“I was asked by a local music festival called Sky Dog to write a song about how important Dwayne Allman‘s guitar playing was to me as a Southern musician. My tribute to him was a song called ‘King of Strings.’
“However, there are many such revolutionary guitarists that deserve that moniker from Joe Pass to Jimi Hendrix and beyond. When I got the opportunity to be the first artist to record at the Les Paul Studio in Hollywood, California on his original 1957 eight-channel all tube mixing console, I realized that I needed to pay homage to Les as well and that he was every bit a “king of strings” as Dwayne.
“The guitar that has been a staple of my arsenal since I was about 20 years old and I stole my dad‘s is the 1979 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty. I was so inspired and honored to be at the Les Paul Studio to create my new EP that it just felt wrong not to honor him in song form so I reworked “King of Strings” and recorded this new version. I also brought my Black Beauty with me so it could go to Mecca with the rest of us.”
This easygoing tribute starts out with “Feeling sentimental, like the first time I heard “Smoke Rings” by Les Paul and Mary Ford, hanging on every word.” Joey Stuckey pays homage to guitar greats who are heroes to a whole lot of folks, for very good reason.
In addition to an intimate hometown show in Macon, Joey will celebrate the EP’s release with a special concert at the Hamel Music Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on October 17. Tour dates here: https://www.joeystuckey.com
You can find the music here: https://found.ee/joeystuckey-kingofstrings