Mike Blackburn

Mike Blackburn is a fifty something unabashed fan of the guitar…., period. Starting in the early 70’s with the only two guitar lessons he ever had, Mike quickly developed a deep love for all music featuring kick ass guitar. The very first of those lessons implanted three very important ideas in his nascent brain. The first was to employ, as frequently as possible, an alternate picking technique and to initiate the start of a run either with an upstroke or a downstroke depending on the shape.

The second notion was to engage the fret hand pinky at every possible opportunity. Good stuff, but it was the third lesson that really stuck, and struck home. Philip, Mike’s teacher introduced him to two new pieces at that first sitting, “Memories of Elizabeth Reed” by the Allman Brothers and sections of the song “Phoenix” by Wishbone Ash. Mike was implored to seek out those albums, learn from them and jam the hell out of those tunes at every possible opportunity seeking out players better than he as he progressed. That was invaluable advice that sparked an interest in collecting and sharing great guitar music that continues to this day. Mike is of the opinion that many of the self developed young shredsters of today could benefit from lesson number three.

The ensuing years saw Mike set aside his dream of ever having a serious career with the guitar as he tried to balance that with ever increasing involvements in elite sports, studying for and becoming a professional civil engineer and of course marrying and raising a family. He continued to play on, collect guitars and music, and was seriously impacted over the years (usually just when he was starting to feel particularly good about his progress as a player) by three watershed events:

The first was back in ’76 when a “supposed” friend plunked the brand new Al DiMeola album “Land of The Midnight Sun” onto his turntable. After picking his jaw off the ground, Mike concluded that there must actually be some studio trickery involved in those searing immaculately picked and articulated scalular runs. The “friend” laughed and immediately pulled out the famous Stomu Yamashta “Go Live” from Paris album that also prominently featured Al. That, and a subsequent viewing of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever on the tube left Mike with no option but to pick himself off the floor, dust off his pride and to retreat to the woodshed for a few years.

The second such event occurred a couple of years later, during the frosty very early morning hours, while driving home from a gig with two guitarist friends. Suddenly the VW Beetle 2” dash mounted speaker assaulted them with the coolest sounding guitar riffing they had ever heard. They actually pulled off the road and shut down the engine to concentrate on that tune! As was usually the case in those days, they sat on pins and needles through another 20 minutes of tripe waiting for the coveted name of the artist and that “song”. As it happened to be a French Canadian FM station, the announcement finally came out as something like “Vanallen de Californie” . Mike was on the doorstep of his favorite record shop at opening that same day and discovered that the tune was in fact “I’m The One” from a little outfit called Van Halen.

The third Mike had heard snippets of the poorly produced “Steeler” album on Shrapnel records (as well as most of the other early Shrapnel “U.S. Metal Onslaught” material) but his soundpage from a now very famous issue of Guitar Player magazine had somehow been damaged. He was therefore ill prepared for the jaw dropping assault on his confidence that was the first Alcatrazz album “No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll” featuring one Yngwie Malmsteen. Mike had the good fortune of having received a promo copy of that album almost two months ahead of the official release date. Mike derived many hours of that ultimate of pleasures over the next few weeks gleefully terrorizing his friends with the awe inspiring guitar work on that album. Mike has been left slack jawed many many other times in the ensuing years and eagerly awaits the next major impact.

Through it all, Mike continued to collect and woodshed, jam and enjoy. Between the mid and late ‘90’s, Mike served for a time as axemeister columnist for the Canadian based print magazine “Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles” befriending the incomparable rock writer Martin Popoff from whom a love of rock writing was born. Mike was responsible for reviewing Shrapnel and Magna Carta stable product and had the opportunity over those years to interview many of his heroes, several in person. The mag gradually shifted their focus to a blacker, hard core metal audience so Mike packed it in until he achieved in his professional life the exalted status of semi-retirement, i.e. working when HE wants to! After a short stint with the “Classic Rock Revisited” website, Mike was turned on to the “Sea of Tranquility” website where he remains a contributor. Mike now adds the all out Guitar website to that list and looks forward to continuing to collect and review guitar oriented product as well as attending concerts and performing as many in person interviews as humanly possible in Canada.

Mike currently favours Canadian made Godin guitars, his Fender Classic shop ’52 Tele Reissue, a custom acoustic guitar from the famed Canadian luthier Anthony Karol and portable tube amps. His son is currently causing him no end of consternation (not to mention out of pocket expense) with a growing love for electronic keyboard workstations, AND solo synth sounds!!!!!!!