Billy Bragg 'California Stars' Sheffield City Hall soundcheck 30.11.13

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We started playing 'California Stars' on our European tour in November 2013 after I was contacted by the brother of Jay Bennett, who co-wrote this song with Jeff Tweedy and Woody Guthrie for the Mermaid Avenue project. Jay passed away in 2009. His brother was coming to our show in Frankfurt - which was on the day that would have been Jay's 50th birthday - and asked to hear this song.

We were happy to oblige. Not only was Jay a great musician and friend, playing 'California Stars' gave CJ Hillman a change to utilise his B-bender Telecaster. The B-bender was invented by Gene Parsons and Clarence White of the Byrds in 1967 and it allows the guitarist to mechanically bend the B string up a whole tone to C#.

The B string is bent by simply pulling the guitar neck down. This puts pressure on the strap nut, which is attached to a spring-loaded lever at the base of the neck. The lever arm passes through the body of the guitar and is connected to the B string behind the bridge. CJ did the conversion on this cheapo Telecaster knock-off himself.

I asked Pete Dunwell, who shot this clip, to focus on CJ and his B-bender technique, which explains why Kenny and Dave don't get a look in. Sorry guys.

This version of 'California Stars' was filmed during the soundcheck at Sheffield City Hall on 31st Nov 2013 by Pete Dunwell (@petedunwell)

Billy Bragg - vocals and guitar
Luke Bullen - drums
Kenny Dickenson - keyboards and backing vocals
Dave Evans - bass and backing vocals
CJ Hillman - guitar

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