Lefty Unplugged gave a wonderful performance last night at Cat Boucher's Art MusikCircus and I keep doing reports on his shows as all of them are different. As you may have seen in the article yesterday on "Singing Protest Songs," Lefty is a gifted lyricist and his guitar playing is excellent with quite diverse shades of tones in what he creates.
Lefty and I were talking yesterday before the show and he told me he plays an Eastman archtop guitar, an axe I didn't even know existed until we talked. I will talk with him more on this as he gets excellent tones from his guitars and I'm not clear on whether he is doing this through an amplifier or an amp simulator, both of which are perfectly wonderful ways to do it but I'm not clear on which one he prefers. In last night's show he was getting delicate nuances of feedback that were highly tasteful so I'm curious as to what electronics he uses.
The highlight of last night's show for me and many others who were there was "Because of You" which is a beautifully romantic song with a poignance that comes from a man with some years on him looking back over his life and then to the One True Love for whom he lives. This was the song he used to close a set that, according to him, was weak but it wasn't at all weak to anyone who heard it. This last one was so moving that people, me among them, were chanting the lyrics as he sang. He didn't just sing the song but rather he explored every place it could possibly go and it was spectacularly good. I've heard so many self-proclaimed brilliant guitarists and really they just makes my toes itch. If I'm going to a show, this is what I want to hear. The guitar wizards are largely twenty-first century remakes of The Ventures but Lefty is real, he's not imitating or competing with anyone, and his words are truth.
Don't mistake the above to mean Lefty is any kind of a slouch at guitar playing as he has marvelous skills with an excellent balance of tones. He will often set a loop with a fairly light chord base and then augment it with a much more electric lead line. One of his primary skills in guitar playing is that he knows very well the value of restraint. He's an excellent guitarist and I was going to ask him last night and may yet whether he has a Dirty Little Secret of hard rock guitar playing in his past.
When a set is really lit-up at the MusikCircus, there's only one thing to do: CONGA, CONGA, CONGA!
From left to right, this shows Cat, me, innie (one of Lefty's strum rats), and Lefty
Cat und ich tanze, tanze, tanze!
Ich küsse die Hand von mein Liebchen. Wenn du nicht glaubst das du kann ein Clown lieben, ich wisse das du hast nicht nach der Zirkus gegangen.
Lefty and I were talking yesterday before the show and he told me he plays an Eastman archtop guitar, an axe I didn't even know existed until we talked. I will talk with him more on this as he gets excellent tones from his guitars and I'm not clear on whether he is doing this through an amplifier or an amp simulator, both of which are perfectly wonderful ways to do it but I'm not clear on which one he prefers. In last night's show he was getting delicate nuances of feedback that were highly tasteful so I'm curious as to what electronics he uses.
The highlight of last night's show for me and many others who were there was "Because of You" which is a beautifully romantic song with a poignance that comes from a man with some years on him looking back over his life and then to the One True Love for whom he lives. This was the song he used to close a set that, according to him, was weak but it wasn't at all weak to anyone who heard it. This last one was so moving that people, me among them, were chanting the lyrics as he sang. He didn't just sing the song but rather he explored every place it could possibly go and it was spectacularly good. I've heard so many self-proclaimed brilliant guitarists and really they just makes my toes itch. If I'm going to a show, this is what I want to hear. The guitar wizards are largely twenty-first century remakes of The Ventures but Lefty is real, he's not imitating or competing with anyone, and his words are truth.
Don't mistake the above to mean Lefty is any kind of a slouch at guitar playing as he has marvelous skills with an excellent balance of tones. He will often set a loop with a fairly light chord base and then augment it with a much more electric lead line. One of his primary skills in guitar playing is that he knows very well the value of restraint. He's an excellent guitarist and I was going to ask him last night and may yet whether he has a Dirty Little Secret of hard rock guitar playing in his past.
When a set is really lit-up at the MusikCircus, there's only one thing to do: CONGA, CONGA, CONGA!
From left to right, this shows Cat, me, innie (one of Lefty's strum rats), and Lefty
Cat und ich tanze, tanze, tanze!
Ich küsse die Hand von mein Liebchen. Wenn du nicht glaubst das du kann ein Clown lieben, ich wisse das du hast nicht nach der Zirkus gegangen.
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