Darren Stroud: "The Star-Spangled Banner"

ESP ALL ACCESS COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT! The USA is heading into a holiday weekend for Independence Day, so what better choice for our weekly All Access Spotlight than to show member Darren Stroud and his LTD Gary Holt GH-200 doing the national anthem of the United States, aka "The Star-Spangled Banner"? Based on a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, the song is notoriously difficult to sing well, covering a range of 19 semitones (over an octave and a half)... but to play it on guitar with style is a whole other thing. The bar was set pretty high when Jimi Hendrix did it at Woodstock in 1969, but Darren does a completely respectable job here, using the GH-200's Floyd Rose Special tremolo for some expressive note transitions and divebombs. You can check out more of Darren and his band PowerTribe at their web site.

If you're doing cool music with your ESP, ESP E-II, or LTD guitar or bass, upload a video to the ESP site and we might select you as the next ESP All Access Community Member to feature on our front page where thousands of other players can check you out! Get the details here.

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