Guitar Day

From Brooks' website:

GUITAR DAY with Brooks Williams
27 SEPTEMBER 2008
@ Artspace 15 Mill St. Greenfield, MA 01301
Teens & Adults - Intermediate to Advanced
10 am - 5 pm Fee: $25
Phone: 413-772-6811 Email: acfc@rcn.com
(Space Is Limited So Reserve Your Spot Early!)

Calling all guitarists! Fingerstyle, bluegrass, blues, rock, jazz, folk.

Come celebrate the guitar by spending a day playing together and making connections with other guitar enthusiasts from around New England. Guitar Day is a daylong guitar workshop that features technique building sessions in fingerstyle guitar, flatpicking guitar, chord wizardry and blues licks and tricks, as well as a duos and trios session where attendees collaborate on a piece of music together. This is a hand's-on workshop with lots of playing and jamming!

Workshops offered:
1. Bach's Cello Suite #1 in DADGAD: presented by Tony Astolfi. Explore an open tuning and try your hand at Tony's sublime fingerstyle arrangement of this beautiful piece!

2. Red-Haired Boy: presented by Gail Wade. Flatpick this traditional fiddle tune in standard tuning, learning both the melody and the bluegrass style chord backup.

3. Key To The Highway: presented by Brooks Williams. Rock out on this classic blues tune, learning bluesy riffs & licks.

4. St. Louis Blues: presented by Brooks Williams. Learn some new jazzy chords and swingin' rhythm to play this well-known W.C. Handy song.

5. Duos and Trios: workshop attendees will divide into groups of two or three and work on a tune together. Bring a favorite tune - or choose a tune from Brooks' extensive library of songs. This Guitar Lab will culminate in a showcase at the end of the afternoon.

The guitarist at DSOTJ

DSOTJ

When Less is More

A killer version of Merrily Kissed the Quaker:



I found this whilst seeking inspiration for the "groove" on this tune (I know the Pierre Bensusan solo guitar arrangement, with Cunla stuck on at the end). These guys rock it way harder than I have been. Why? Well, being a whole rock band helps, but there is another reason. In the Bensusan version (at least the very rigid version I've been rendering), the rhythm is totally straight:

ONE-and-a-TWO-and-a-ONE-and-a-TWO-and-a...

Your basic 6/8 Jig rhythm. But the Brandos put a little twist on it:

ONE-and-a-two-and-a-one-and-a-TWO-and-a-ONE-and-a-two-and-a-ONE-and-a-TWO-and-a-ONE...

And many variations. The 'AHA!' for me is that they get more with less by being more sparing with the rhythmic emphases. And they are always changing it up in suble ways.

Actually, Pierre puts tons of little variations in his rhythm, as well as bass line, harmonies, and ornaments:

Competing with Firetrucks

From the Amazing Things show

A photo kindly emailed to me from Al Cath:

Sheesh -- I look so serious! Despite appearances, I really had a lot of fun playing last Saturday. Al also captured an AVI from the show... it is a very big file so I am still downloading it, but maybe it will be of sufficient quality to post here (via YouTube?)

One more chance to see the guitarist this month

I am going to be playing at a music festival in Fall River, MA called "Dark Side of the June". The date is June 28, and my set will be early to mid afternoon. More details to follow... for now, just mark your calenders!