Topic: Guitar Town -- Copper Mtn
I went to the show to see players I haven't seen before: Sonny Landreth, Joe Satriani, Mark Selby. I'd heard Joe Bonamassa courtesy of Kai Turner's "Strictly Blues" show on KRFX in Denver. Cool, get a chance to hear someone "new". I showed up late and missed 10 minutes of Joe Bonamassa's set. Joe's in the middle of one of his solos -- the bends and hammer-ons bouncing off the ski slope as I plunk down my folding chair at center stage. Then he leans over to the mic and starts singing and I am astounded as I hear a blues-man's voice: rough, in-tune(!) and immediately blending with his guitar. Did I mention I was late? My folding chair is kicking me and saying: "dumbass". Joe stole the show. His band's performance overflowed with soul, raw blues power and the elusive something that's largely been missing since a helicopter crashed in Wisconsin in 1990. There were more wailing (or, "ailing" as altitude took its toll on the soloists) "air guitars" for his set than for any of the other acts. The mix was perfect -- nice balance and not so loud as to cause the partially-graying portion of the audience to "duck and cover". I saw SRV at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia years ago and the grin on my face while Joe was playing was as alligator-wide as when Stevie took center stage and taught the audience Electric Blues 101.
I've played guitar for 35 years and listened to a lot of players. There are a lot of good guitarists: fast, furious, innovative. The ones I love to listen to over and over again, have a deep emotional relationship with their music. Their lyrics can be poetry, but the melodies and the trips up and down the fret board are their despair, their longing, their wonder, their laughter, their joy -- being expressed as music. I think it was Bela Fleck some years ago that said something like: "I'm a musician, I just happen to play banjo". Others have probably said something similar. The fantastic thing about playing guitar is that it can be as original and expressive as each guitarist. Joe takes "The Blues" and it becomes "Joe's Blues". Man, oh-man, oh-man, oh-man, never gonna be late again...