A few years ago when I started listening to Nik Baertsch, I thought I’d never have the chance to see him perform live. And then the unexpected happened: my generous friend Ken Coffman sponsored not only a solo piano concert, but just a few months later he sponsored Nik and his entire zen funk band, RONIN, to perform in Apache Junction, AZ on March 21, 2019.

Enjoy this live solo piano performance of "Modul 26" from the album "REA" by Nik Bärtsch's Ronin. Performed live at Stilwell Pianos in Mesa, AZ. Audio by Russ Muller Sound.

The Zappa Family Trust has partnered with Eyellusion to get Frank's former bandmates back out on the road to play alongside computer-generated, three-dimensional holographic projections of multimedia elements, including Frank himself. They'll be performing brand new songs and the Frank hologram will also be adding unreleased guitar solos to songs we already know and love.

Here’s an instructional video on how I play Pat Metheny’s “San Lorenzo,” which requires a 12-string electric guitar with a custom set of strings and a very strange tuning.

Here is Sara Groves performing three live songs at Stilwell Pianos in Mesa, AZ from January 2019

Let's listen together with Markus Reuter to his latest release, a string quartet called "Heartland."

Welcome to the 6th episode of Failure to Fracture, a series that highlights my now-20-year struggle to play the hardest song I've ever encountered: "Fracture" by King Crimson. Robert Fripp, the composer and guitarist on the track, writes: "Fracture is impossible to play." What on earth does this mean?

Man Man's "Six Demon Bag" album dropped my jaw within the first few seconds of hearing it. Amazingly creative and fun. Great production and recording. Completely uninhibited.

Devin Townsend has a free ebook on creativity that's excellent and insightful. You can get it at freedevbook.com. After I read it, I wanted to talk to Devin about it and it ended up working out.

This is the third of three videos from our January 2019 conversation.

Here's Devin Townsend talking about his new Prestige signature acoustic guitar, X-JAMM concert at NAMM, what music he listens to, new and future work with Steve Vai, and more.

Devin Townsend's new album, Empath, will be released on March 29, 2019. Here he is to tell us a bit about the album, how he feels about it, and some background stories on how it was made. This is just one piece of a long interview conducted on January 12, 2019. Look for more in the coming weeks.

At first, I thought Henry Cow's "Western Culture" was the worst "music" I'd ever heard. It took me years to appreciate and understand its musical complexity and richness. It's not an album you can be indifferent about, so do you love it or hate it?

In an effort to fight boring Christmas music, I like to shake things up a bit with odd time signatures and dissonance. Here's one of my favorite Christmas songs, "O Holy Night," in 5/4 with lots of major 7ths.

Sara Groves is one of the most passionate artists I’ve ever met and she’s given her whole life to music and justice. She is unlike most any artist I’ve met in that her heart and her money go outward to her community and to those in need. She and her husband, Troy Groves, purchased a 100-year-old church and use it as a community arts center called Art House North. It’s a fantastic space with a wonderful atmosphere in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here's Mike playing 3 songs at the house concert we hosted in 2016:

1. 00:00 "Floating Face" from Boil That Dust Speck

2. 03:29 "Airport" from The Tar Tapes, Vol. 1

3. 06:26 "I Was Not Ready For You" from Dancing

Mike has played for Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Andy Partridge, Andy West, and many others. We have tons of other videos with Mike playing, talking, and just being quite wise.