Six guitarists with styles as distinctive as each string of their instrument held a celebration of all things guitar Friday night at the Vic Theatre. Sponsored by the Old Town School of Folk Music, the three-hour
”Masters of the Steel String Guitar” proved to be a nirvana for lovers of the six-string.
Featured in brief sets and backed at times by a common rhythm section were acoustic bluesman John Cephas, dobro whiz Jerry Douglas, jazz giant Tal Farlow, country and bluegrass player Wayne Henderson, Hawaiian ”slack-key”
specialist Ledward Kaapana and rock and country electric guitarist Albert Lee. On paper the show may have looked like a hodgepodge of unrelated stylists, yet the concert was a testament to the guitar`s versatility, as each player`s individual style served to complement the others`.
As part of the duo of Cephas and Phil Wiggins, traditionalist Cephas`
”Piedmont” blues style is a descendent of the early black string bands mixed with a bit of delta blues. Alternating between an open-tuned dobro and a standard-tuned flat-top guitar, he showed his mastery over tension and release and sly rhythmic shifts on songs like ”Richmond Blues” and ”Guitar Man.”
Henderson, the pride of Rugby, Va., is a full-time guitar-maker who rarely plays outside of his home state. That`s a shame, as his deft fingerpicking found its way smoothly through fiddle tunes, reels and even a brief snatch of ”Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Kaapana is considered one of the finest exponents of slack-key guitar, which utilizes open tunings. His music included some beautiful, atmospheric ballads as well as an uptempo ”Sweet Georgia Brown” which found him playing the guitar in as unorthodox a manner as Chico Marx once played the piano.
Grammy-winner Douglas has taken the dobro-a guitar with a metal resonator built into it-and moved it light years beyond the bluegrass and country music ghetto it was long relegated to. Utilizing his dazzling technique Douglas blasted through a set that ranged from a bluegrass duet with Henderson to the funky ”Dacca Rock.”
The night`s two best-known names were Lee and Farlow.
Farlow is a mainstream jazz master who`s worked with everyone from Charlie Parker to Charles Mingus. Playing a beautiful blond Gibson guitar, Farlow mixed octave runs with melodic chording and blazing single string runs through a string of standards. He showed he could swing with the best of them on a bluesy ”When It`s Darkness on the Delta,” with an assist from Cephas on vocals.
British-born Lee has impeccable credentials, having played with Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris and the Everly Brothers. ”The reason I get to follow all these guys is because I`m the loudest,” joked Lee before tearing into a set that ranged from Elvis` ”That`s Alright Mama” to a smoldering ”Tiger Rag.” He really lit a fire on his final tune, ”Country Boy,” in which lightning fast notes cascaded from his fingertips while the rhythm section, augmented by Douglas, struggled to keep up with him.
