Music INSIGHT
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The Invisible Band Mike Erwin’s Rocking Acoustic Show
By Ben Nunnally
Y
ou’re at a Mike Erwin show with your eyes closed bear with me, it’s a thought experiment - and you
can hear the band playing. There’s an acoustic guitar pumping out a rhythm, this bluesy, powerful riff that
would fit in the ballsiest truck commercials. The drummer
is stomping out a 4/4 beat on the bass drum, demanding
head nods in time with the beat at the least. Over all that,
Erwin plays a scorching solo on his acoustic guitar, a driving, screaming lead. As you start to stomp along, you realize: these guys are awesome.
Now open your eyes: there’s Mike on stage ripping that
solo, but there’s no drummer, no rhythm guitarist in sight,
but all the stomping and driving guitar keep on rolling beneath Mike’s solo. It’s all musical smoke and mirrors. It’s a
rocking acoustic show.
“I call it the ‘Econo-band,’” jokes Erwin, talking about the array of pedals that he uses during “Rocking Acoustic Show”
sets to create a band, which can not only repeat sections
of his playing to use as a bed for songs, but even generate
extra voices to harmonize with him when he sings.
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Pedals, sometimes called stompboxes, are electronic devices that the user can manipulate with their feet while
they’re using their hands for instrumentation. Erwin’s harmonizer pedal lets him start playing a section of a song, record it and loop it over and over to create a rhythm section
to improvise ???)%?e?????????????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1??????!?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????+?qA????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t??????????q%?e???????????)??????????????t)????e????????????????????????????????!???????????)???????????????????????????????????Êe?????????????)??? ??????????????I?????????????????????????)??????Q???-??????????????????????????????????)??????????????????????????????????????????()9??????????$()%9M% !P((