Barking Spiders Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) I'm a huge afficionado of acoustic guitar virtuosity. I watched a Rick Beato compilations of guitar greats from the 80s - mostly hyper shredders. Dont get me wrong , Rick's YT show is about the best music related one on YT but to my ears the shredding does nowt for me. As the lovely Shania sang 'that don't impress me much' . However, twice I've been to gigs and been left slack jawed 😲, thinking how the f00k did they do that! These clips aren't the actual shows I saw but each player did these tracks. These two are the best guitar players I've seen and heard and I've heard literally thousands. Watch and listen closely and you'll see why. Over to you 👉 Edited November 21, 2020 by Barking Spiders 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Anything Martin Taylor does. Also, It Bites at the Astoria on the Once Around The World tour. Stunning gig. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
songofthewind Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Any Tommy Emmanuel gig I have been to has left me slack jawed. I spent may happy hours with Tommy round a kitchen table, when Martin ran the Kirkmichael International Guitar Festival. He is one hell of a guitarist, and very generous with his knowledge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) I saw the John McLaughlin Trio with Trilock Gurtu twice, once at the Royal Festival Hall with Jeff Berlin and once at Bristol COlston Hall with Dominique DiPiazza. The funny part of the story is that I was having bass lessons in London at the time with a guy called Dan Quinton (Otis Grand and the Dance Kings). He was also involved in some sort of music production agency work. He knew I liked Jeff Berlin so he got us tickets to see the RFH gig front and centre. Right in front on Jeff Berlin. The fact was, I was glued to McLaughlin and Gurtu throughout. I had never heard anything like these two. McLaughlin's synth guitar and Gurtu's complete concept were absolutely unbelieveable. Their respective mastery of rhythm made Berlin look like the new boy (he played great, but the other two? Wow!) I then went to see them again in Bristol and DiPiazza, who I had never heard of, blew me away again. A stunning trio wit only two recordings, one with Kai Eckhardt and the other with DiPiazza. Highly recommended. Edited November 21, 2020 by Bilbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 The first fusion album I bought was Al DiMeola's Land of the Midnight Sun and I have been a fan ever since. I kind of lost interest in his electric work as I got older but his acoustic guitar playing has been a constant source of inspiration ever since. I own an Ovation Custom Legend because of the World Sinfonia albums. Tsis is the track that I could listen to and watch again and again and again. It is called 'Orient Blue' and featured on the first WS CD. If you are intrested enough to look for more, try World Sinfonia, Heart of the Immigrants, Cielo De Terra, All Your Life, Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len_derby Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I’ve got a different take, because it wasn’t so much about the music or playing. It’s 1974, I’m 16 and starting to earn enough money to buy my own guitars. I treat them like babies and forbid my younger brother to touch them under any circumstances. The smart-donkey said ‘well, what if the house is on fire? Shall I leave it to burn?.’ I smacked him round the head (we were more primitive then). Anyway, I go to see Rory Gallagher for my first time at Derby Kings Hall. Here’s a guy with an American Fender Stratocaster - it looks like it’s been through the D-Day landings and at one point he drags it across the stage by its lead! I was horrified, slack-jawed but very entertained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knirirr Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 41 minutes ago, Rich said: Anything Martin Taylor does. Yes; I saw him do a live solo performance in a theatre in Dundee a long time ago. Perhaps it was the early 1990s. The most astonishing guitar playing I'd ever heard/seen. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newfoundfreedom Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I saw Joe Brown a few years ago at the Embassy Theatre in Skegness. I actually had no interest at all in going, but his daughter Sam was singing and my wife is a big fan of hers, so I was dragged along. I thought I was going to be bored stiff for two hours watching and listening to a load of stuff I didn't know, but as soon as Joe started playing I was utterly mesmerised by what an absolutely superb musician he was. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFry Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 John Gomm Charlie Hunter . He uses a 7string with the 3 bass strings on a separate pickup and output . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 You haven't lived until you have seen this. My wife and I went to Ronnie Scott's to see Flora Purim and Airto. I have never heard of a pandeiro and had no idea that this was what Brazilians did with them 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Prince at the O2. Pantera at the first UK Ozzfest Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band (yes really) at the New Theatre in Oxford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Then I heard thois guy at the Bracknell Jazz Festival The story was that I had gone to the Bracknell Jazz Festival to play with a quartet I was working with; a fringe event and not part of the festival per se. As is often the case, musicians get tickets to all the gigs they want to and I went to see a large orchestra playing Steve Reich tunes. Anyone who knows Reich will know that his stuff can be droney and repetitive and, having done a few late nights, I fell asleep with my back against the rear wall of the auditorium (a school hall type set up rather than a theatre. I woke to this.....this was where I heard Russo for the first time and where I heard a Hurdu Gurdy for the first time. He sounded like Hendrix!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBw2XWHnB2M 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) The focus on the flute players face is so intense - all on one leg. A dance tune in 7:8. So much great music out there and we have to listen to Kanye West .and Little Mix. I recommend you stick with this one! Edited November 21, 2020 by Bilbo 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Bilbo said: You haven't lived until you have seen this. My wife and I went to Ronnie Scott's to see Flora Purim and Airto. I have never heard of a pandeiro and had no idea that this was what Brazilians did with them 😄 Some years ago I worked with Airto and Flora, on a CD. He turned up with what appeared to be a table of cr@p from a market stall and proceeded to make the most amazing music with it all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 2 hours ago, songofthewind said: Any Tommy Emmanuel gig I have been to has left me slack jawed. I spent may happy hours with Tommy round a kitchen table, when Martin ran the Kirkmichael International Guitar Festival. He is one hell of a guitarist, and very generous with his knowledge. I used to be in a duo with an amazing Tommy Emmanuel style guitarist. IMO they were both jaw dropping. On a gig, the audience would be crammed around his side of the stage, and on my side, I'd get the latecomers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) A triple-bill at the Hammersmith Odeon, '73, I think. Billy Cobham, Shakti, Weather Report. Billy Cobham, on fine pugilistic form; an immense jazz fusion drummer, with musicians to match. Then Shakti: John McLaughlin (guitar; what else..?), Lakshminarayana Shankar (on violin...) and two percussionists, Zakir Hussain (on tabla...) and Vikku Vinayakram (on ghatam, an earthenware pot...). I gradually floated up out of my seat, transported by the ambience generated. What that bloke did with just his two hands and that simple pot made Billy Cobham look like a kindergarten child, an amateur. I was near the (very high...) ceiling when the percussionists had their 'solo' spot, with one playing a complex measure with the tabla, replied to by t'other with the pot, back and forth, faster and faster, with their rhythms and phrases becoming ever shorter until after a few minutes, they were playing in perfect unison a complex, long, polyrhythmic composition at hectic speed. There are two possibilities for achieving this. Either they rehearsed for decades, aided by witchcraft, or they are telepathic. Of these two choices, I believe that telepathy is the easier option..! Sorry to say I didn't return to my seat until after the end of the Weather Report set, good as it was; I was beyond saturation, and couldn't soak up any more. One can almost have too much of a Good Thing. Almost. Edited November 21, 2020 by Dad3353 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christhammer666 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Pretty much anything played by Julian bream 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) - Edited March 10, 2022 by Jus Lukin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I remember seeing a band called Scam69 do No More Heroes by The Stranglers where the guitarist played the keyboard line and being pretty amazed by that. Later on they did Dreaming by Blondie and the male vocalist hit all the high notes, again was amazed as those are high notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 18 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said: Actually... 1349 at The Underworld in Camden. I'd been listening to quite a lot of black metal records around that time, but to hear them produce that sheer wind-tunnel of icy noise with such precision and consistent force was an experience. Not everyone's idea of a good time, but I genuinely caught myself with my mouth hanging open at one point! *EDIT* Crikey, that was 15 years ago! I would have been 27... You were 27 in 1349 - are you Dr Who? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 My jaw hit the floor when I saw my first John Mayall, Cream, Fleetwood Mac and Jeff Beck Group gigs. . . . . and stayed on the floor for Tony Williams Lifetime, Bo Diddley and Howling Wolf. Stunning gigs seems to come along every week back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barking Spiders Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 4 hours ago, DaveFry said: John Gomm Charlie Hunter . He uses a 7string with the 3 bass strings on a separate pickup and output . Great call there! Both excellent examples 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 6 hours ago, Bilbo said: I saw the John McLaughlin Trio with Trilock Gurtu twice, once at the Royal Festival Hall with Jeff Berlin and once at Bristol COlston Hall with Dominique DiPiazza. The funny part of the story is that I was having bass lessons in London at the time with a guy called Dan Quinton (Otis Grand and the Dance Kings). He was also involved in some sort of music production agency work. He knew I liked Jeff Berlin so he got us tickets to see the RFH gig front and centre. Right in front on Jeff Berlin. The fact was, I was glued to McLaughlin and Gurtu throughout. I had never heard anything like these two. McLaughlin's synth guitar and Gurtu's complete concept were absolutely unbelieveable. Their respective mastery of rhythm made Berlin look like the new boy (he played great, but the other two? Wow!) I then went to see them again in Bristol and DiPiazza, who I had never heard of, blew me away again. A stunning trio wit only two recordings, one with Kai Eckhardt and the other with DiPiazza. Highly recommended. That’s strange Bilbo, always got the impression you weren’t a fan of McLaughlin. FWIW, I much prefer his acoustic playing to his electric. I guess for me it would be the first time I watched The Meeting of the Spirits gig: Re the Four Martins, it was actually Martin Simpson who blew me away, far more so than Martin Taylor. MS remains my favourite acoustic player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barking Spiders Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) Actually I'll amend what I wrote in the OP having just watched the Jon Gomm vid. Incredible stuff. Three other phenomenal players I'd really liked to've seen are Leo Kottke, Peter Huttlinger (RIP) and David Grier. Here's why LK's a young whippersnapper here and he's doing fast Travis picking on a 12 string to boot!. The vid's from 1970's but you get the drift Pete Huttlinger was an ultra-phenomenal fingerpicker and in his day equal to Tommy E. Check this out. He banters around till about 2.35 and then some . Like Tommy, Martin T and Leo K and he makes it looks easy and effortless. A tad different here. David Grier is one amazing pick style player, IMO the successor to Tony Rice but even a tad better mebbe. I'm 'kin useless with a pick preferring fingers so I have extra respect to guys like this who can cross- pick at speed and cleanly... Edited November 21, 2020 by Barking Spiders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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