Hey Nineteen - in style

The genius of Steely Dan was to write killer tunes, and invite guest players to match the vibe. Kent Nishimura would have been a great choice for a guest had he been born a lot earlier

I have a soft spot for the genre that is titled “Yacht Rock” in no small part because one of my favorite 1970’s “art” bands is Steely Dan. I am not sure where I first heard a Steely Dan song, but when I learned the main riff and several lead breaks of the song they recorded with Larry Carlton, for the 1976 album “The Royal Scam”, it just resonated. No, it was not my staple of the time of hard rack and neo-classical metal, it had this killer jazzy solo courtesy of the abovementioned Carlton, it just jammed.

That led to me buying a couple of ‘Dan albums, and diggin’ their music more and more.

Today, they are lumped into the generic cheese category that is Yacht Rock. Why the hate on Yacht Rock? I recently read of a fellow ‘stacker who dissed on the cornerstone of YR, Christopher Cross. Fun fact, when Blackmore had a bad reaction to a flu shot in the early 70’s, and Deep Purple didn’t want to cancel the show. Guess who stepped in to save the show? Yeah, that same Christopher Cross.

Ok, that was a long-ish way to get to the main event. The TL;DR is that I am a huge fan of the work of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and their special guests, and one of my favorite tunes is one of the Steely Dan songs that got a lot of airplay, Hey Nineteen.

Now, I have shared more than a couple arrangements for solo guitar by the phenomenal Kent Nisimura. And this one is no different.

I hope you enjoy this!

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