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June 2026
In This Issue:
- New #1 Hit From the 'Stones
- Celebrating American Music
- Garth Brooks at the Top
- New Music Documentaries
- Get Your Kicks: Route 66 Turns 100
- Tay Story
- Lessons Payments Due Now
June Lesson Payments
Lesson tuition is $124/monthly, due the first week of the month. If you haven't yet made your payment please do so. Thank you! Payment link is below.
Some of you still have not paid for previous months lessons, so check your records and please make that payment now as well.
New Students Needed
I'm always looking to add new students. If you have any friends who might be interested, please send them my way. Thanks!
Celebrating American Music
Shipping up to Boston
Bruce Springsteen hosted a two-night star-studded celebration of America's 250th and American Music at Monmouth University in NJ last Thursday and Friday nights.
Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us included a wide variety of guest artists including The Dropkick Murphys, who performed their classic Shipping Up to Boston (video above). The lyrics to that song, and many other songs by the band, were written by folk legend Woody Guthrie.
Others on stage during the two-night trip through American music history included Kenny Chesney, Roseanne Cash, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, Darlene Love, Steve Van Zandt, Dion, and Public Enemy.
I Don't Want to Go Home
My friend Bev was at the concert and she took this video.
It's the concert finale with The Boss, Jon Bon Jovi, Flava Flav, Steve Van Zandt performing a Jersey Shore anthem, "I Don't Want to Go Home."
It was Jon Bon Jovi's first public appearance in New Jersey since 2018, due to his vocal injury and surgery.
Bruce opened the Friday concert with a pair of Elvis songs: Jailhouse Rock and Burning Love.
Bev is a lifelong fan who has seen Springsteen perform countless times, and once even chatted with him on the streets of Jersey!
Bev absolutely loved the show, of course!
I look forward to this entire event hopefully being released on video soon.
Springsteen Center for American Music
The concert was also a celebration of the opening of the brand new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music.
Check it out in the short video tour above.
It opens to the public June 13.
I would love to visit this place someday!
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones - In The Stars
It's The Summer of 2026 and the World's Greatest Rock Band has a new Number One hit song, and a new album coming out this month.
Mick, Keef, and Ronnie are portrayed in the music video above by their young doppelgangers, as dozens of young rockers get down to the classic sounds of their latest hit song.
The Rolling Stones formed in 1962, and it's amazing that after 64 years they are still relevant enough to have a hit song in 2026! It's a track featuring the classic 'Stones swagger and a killer riff. 2026 Mick still sounds like 1970's Mick! The video features many Easter egg references to Rolling Stones history for long-time fans to spot.
In The Stars is the debut single from their new album, called Foreign Tongues, out June 17.
The album features at least one track with their late drummer Charlie Watts, and another with Paul McCartney.
Fun Fact: The Music video is not created by AI.
I thought it was at first. Then I watched the behind-the-scenes video. Those are real people in the room, and it is a REAL London-based band called Hot Property portraying the young 'Stones. CGI seems to have been used to alter the faces of the look-alikes to look more like the Stones.
Cool song, fun video! It's only rock and roll, but I like it.
The Rolling Stones - Angry
The 'Stones most recently topped the charts with this gem in 2023, from their album Hackney Diamonds. Instant Classic.
And that video! Billboards on Sunset Boulevard feature the young Rolling Stones in their different eras, as a beautiful blonde cruises by in a red convertible.
Like so many Stones songs, it also features the I - IV - I guitar riff that I call the "70's riff" because it was used on so many songs of the era.
Check out my tab chart for this song below. Keith famously uses an open G tuning, but I've tabbed it here in standard tuning.
Video
How the Stones Made "Beast of Burden"
I have fond memories of this song from the Stones 1978 album Some Girls. Check out the video above as the engineer on the session explains the arrangement and the guitar-weaving magic of Keef and Ronnie, which is present on so many of the classic Stones songs.
The verse and main riff follow a I V vi IV chord progression.
Middle-school memory: Every listen takes me back to October, 1978, slow-dancing to this song with a pretty girl named Terri, on whom I had a major schoolboy crush.
1976 - The Runaways
June 1, 1976 - Fifty years ago a teenage all-girl rock band called The Runaways released their debut album. The band featured future rock icons Joan Jett and Lita Ford.
The group only lasted a short while before imploding.
They helped pave the way for future girl bands like The Go-Gos and The Bangles.
Get Your Kicks on Route 66
Summer travel plans? America's Highway, Route 66 turns 100 years old this year. The famous highway runs from Chicago to LA. The road famously defined the American road trip for decades. It was called the "Main Street of America."
The 2400-mile route wound it's way through eight states on it's way it's final stop at the Santa Monica Pier.
A vast assortment of quirky roadside attractions, restaurants, and motels gave the trip plenty of character.
A trip on Route 66 was also worthy of this classic song written by Bobby Troup. The most famous version in the video above was by Nat King Cole, released in 1946.
Diamond Garth
Country music superstar Garth Brooks is the first artist in history to have ten albums each certified "Diamond" sales by the RIAA. Diamond status means sales of at least ten million copies. (times 10 albums!)
Garth Brooks has sold more albums than any other music artist, including The Beatles, Elvis, or Taylor Swift.
That's Garth and his wife Trisha Yearwood with Garth's new Diamond Record Award display.
New Rock Doc Trailers
Gregg Allman Documentary
A new documentary about the life and music of soulful southern rock pioneer Gregg Allman is coming to a theater near you on June 17th. Gregg and his brother Duane founded The Allman Brothers Band in 1969. My all-time favorite band. Duane died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 1972. Gregg passed away in 2017.
Movie ticket info here: https://www.greggallmandocumentary.com/home/
Peter Frampton Documentary
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Peter Frampton's iconic live album, and this documentary is a great way to celebrate the guitarist and one of the biggest selling live albums of all time.
Check out the movie trailer above.
I had Frampton Comes Alive on 8-track tape. I played it frequently on my car stereo when I got my license. You remember those days. Coaxial speakers on the back dash. Matchbook folded up and jammed under the tape so it wouldn't drag.
Do you feel like I do?
Earth, Wind & Fire Documentary
New documentary directed by Questlove tells the trippy, cosmic story of funk/soul/R&B legends Earth, Wind and Fire.
I was lucky to see them perform 25 years ago. They were fantastic. Bassist Verdine White was a dynamo onstage.
Streaming now on HBO.
Iron Maiden Documentary
My favorite metal band is the subject of a new documentary called "Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition."
Since forming in 1975, Iron Maiden have released 41 albums, played thousands of live shows and become one of the most popular metal bands in the world. Their highly literate songs feature musical complexity and instrumental virtuosity.
They are like the Rush of metal bands. Highly influential. Every modern metal band was likely influenced by them.
Fun fact: Lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a seasoned commercial airline pilot. The band had a special Boeing 757 commissioned, which they christened Ed Force One, after the band's zombie mascot Eddie.
Bruce piloted the plane to gigs for many years.
Maiden Memories: In June 1985, I saw Iron Maiden perform at a muddy racetrack in Wisconsin.
Video
Taylor Swift - Toy Story 5
Learning this news was the happiest news of the year: there's a new Toy Story movie!
Toy Story 5 opens June 19!
If it's anything like the first four movies, it'll have you laughing and crying.
Can you believe it's been over 30 years since the first Toy Story?
Taylor Swift has written a new song for the movie. The style and sound of the song is a reminder of Taylor's country roots.
See the video above.
I'm not crying. You're crying.
June Tuition Payment
$124.00
Payment is due the first week of each month. Thank you for paying on time. If you haven't paid for last month, please make that payment now as well.