thank you. I keep thinking it's just me, stalking this performance...the intercut with the video and the vital transmogrification of dylan is just ecstatic. I never know whether to do my dance with this, or watch those hands wring that neck like a bell. yessir, everything's gonna be like a rhapsody...

It’s insane. The song has 3 basic chords - 4 if you wanna add that 7 chord. But he’s all over that neck with his unique bass groove thing he loves to do.. his sense of rhythm is the best I’ve heard. No flash, all tasteful.

That stutter step is both innate and years of practice. The riff at 1:48....omg

Everybody sounds like themselves on any guitar.

@@AndreaAustoni Certain guitarists have a very distinctive tone characterised by their specific instrument and gear, but my point is that Blake Mills' tone is so heavily defined by his technique.

+benwa67 indeed

i've been watching this everyday for the last month

this is the only video on KZfaq

watch it again

lol...I said the exact same thing.

Everyone else was scared to! This guy nails it!

Absolutely, I remember seeing Jason Isbell’s version of it and he just nerds out about the fact it’s a vintage Strat and just plays blues licks on it

Possibly copied off Paul McCartney. I did, after seeing youtube of the Macster singing BLACKBIRD. It's just more rhythmically full body than one foot.

like Stevie Wonder

+Cran Parent yep. funny comparing h ow different the guitar sounds in his hands and jason isbells hands. It's all about that personal touch..

+dd1yr Is there an Isbell video playing that same guitar somewhere?

socks = headstock

Hahaha. I was thinking the same thing as he was playing. I thought it like if Bob Heard this he would have wished the same .haha

Looks like a Neumann TLM of some kind picking up the room/vocals. Then that's a Shure SM7B on the amp :)

+Todd Hooper What? Mills is technically great. He can play anything.

incorrect!

Which specific musicians are you referring to who have reached "the highest levels of technical proficiency but lack soul"? Certainly I could pick some choice candidates if my own for such a blanket label, though my picks might differ from yours....but I can also name other musicians who are both highly skilled AND highly musical, AND so individualistic that they are immediately recognizable with just a few notes or a couple of intro bars. Richard Thompson, for starters....David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Martin Simpson*, Bruce Cockburn, John Hiatt, Sonny Landreth, these guys being some of the folks I listen to most regularly.......all are skilled guitarists,.most are confident singers, and most are peerless songwriters as well, but they're not showboaters, and most importantly, they definitely got soul. As for this Blake Mills guy, i wasn't previously familiar with him, but after checking out a bunch of you tube performances, I remain underwhelmed. He's a good, not spectacular, guitar player, but his singing is somewhat quavery and weak, which I could maybe tolerate except that it is also timid and lacks confidence----you cannot cover a Dylan tune if you lack confidence! I'd much rather hear the Levin Helm version of this song. *For a terrific Dylan cover, listen to Martin Simpson's audio-only live version of Masters of War that you can find on you tube (the screen wallpaper says "cool as folk"), it's more effective than the original imho.

Totally agree, he is the shit. Absolutely monstrous guitarist and i adore his voice. Almost Randy Newman-esque

@@goodun6081 I prefer this guy to Sonny Landreth. That guy has no soul compared to Blake Mills. Just my opinion.

+AertPietersz hard times come no more

+greg dalessio you're the man!

+A.L. Bazzini Tuck Andress comes to mind, he's St. Vincent's uncle. Highly rhytmical and intricate, full of subtleties and most importantly highly musical playing, These guys aren't showing off. I'll add to this answer when I get back, I gotta rush to work.

+oversensitivenipples Add to it!!

Ted Greene and his books is a great way in to this sort of playing. A

+A.L. Bazzini There is a lot of overlap between Mills and Ry Cooder. Not that Mills "copies" Cooder, but they both play a sort of "complete" guitar that shares much in common with stride piano...if one was to port it over to guitar.

+David Molyneux I agree that genius Ted Green's lessons is probably the shortest way to this style. Ted lives forever!

it seems more like a '70 Fender Vibrolux Reverb

+mikelbengoetxea Sounds good to me. From what I understand Dylan never played it again after the Newport festival, and for a long time it was just owned by the pilot of the plane he flew out on (where he left his guitar). The pilot himself didn't play, so the guitar was able to stay in great condition, not really being used by any musicians until this year in Newport (and vintage strats like that, even without all the history behind them, are pretty awesome, in-demand instruments). Great to hear Blake give this one the kind of playing it deserves.

+mikelbengoetxea It's certanly a historically important instrument. But guitars that don't get played a lot tend not to have anything sonically special about them.

Brian Fallon of gaslight anthem

Justin Parks piss off

:(

Wow this got so hostile

yeeeee suk on dat haHAHAHAHAAAAAA. fuck

Sorry Justin

Magnolia Trees in the Meadow idk what that means but this was a pretty dickish comment for me to leave i’ll admit

They both are fantastic…I’m mean both guys brought it!

+Alex Padilla Hendrix didn't have a great voice compared to his playing...

+Alex Padilla HIS VOICE IS AMAZING.

Hendrix he ain't ! Nothing revolutionary in Blake Mills, not yet anyway......Hendrix took the music light years past where it was when he found it. I don't see much likelihood of that happening here (though I've been wrong before, but I have learned to trust my instincts, and my instincts say move on, nothing new here). Anyway, I don't really like these types of comparisons, but if you insist on naming the closest guy to Hendrixs' revolutionary, evolutionary musical legacy, I nominate Sonny Landreth, who has completely rewritten..... no that's not quite right, completely SHREDDED the slide-guitar "rulebook". I dont know who, or when, but eventually somebody will take up Sonnys' mantle and take the music even further, and while I can't even begin to imagine what THAT will be like, I only hope I live long enough to hear it!

I much prefer Blake Mills singing to Hendrix is mumbling about LSD and aliens. Both are great guitar players and musicians.

Nothing revolutionary? Have you watched a single video of him playing at all? He is the most original player i've seen for a LONG TIME. He's ridiculously original and that's what has got him so well known. Although, if you're mentioning Sonny Landreth, I understand now. Watch Blake Mills play slide and try mentioning Sonny's name again. That guy is nothing.