In '58 I saw the Everly Brothers perform on Ed Sullivan, and I was hooked. "Mom... Dad... I want a real guitar for my birthday, not some piece of plastic junk." It came, a twenty dollar (big money back then) no name guitar, but to me it was the real deal. A second gift was a book of cowboy songs with chord diagrams in the back. I was off and running with songs like Midnight Special and Goodbye Old Paint.
When the Beatles hit the Ed Sullivan Show in '64, I became mesmerized by George Harrison's instrumental solos. Check them out on YouTube if you can. George used a hybrid style of picking that I spent hours upon hours trying to pick apart. Yes, it's all so simple now, but back then, you had to listen to a 45, then slow it down to 33 so you could mop up every note. This was a turning point in my playing, as I transitioned from rhythm to lead guitar. I played in a lot of garage bands back then and made some decent money at school dances, but then again the real money came from playing the clubs, and even though I was good enough to play with older guys, I was only 13, and the drinking age back then was 18 in New York State.
A second turning point came, when in '66. I heard Stefan Grossman fingerpick his way through ragtime and cakewalk material at some now defunct Bleeker Street Café. This was after the Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary era back then, but the times they were a changing. (Jimi Hendrix was playing the Café Wha, but I didn't see him until '68.) At any rate, Stefan Grossman told me that he would be publishing a book on ragtime guitar that would feature both standard and tab notation. Tab! What the hell was that?
I must have been the first person to buy Stefan's book, and from that point on, I threw away the pick. Stefan gave great credit to his inspiration, one Reverend Gary Davis, who lived in the Bronx. I never met the good Reverend, but I bought his records, and Stefan's transcriptions made the learning curve oh-so-easy.
Next, came the ultimate challenge—Chet Atkins, Mr. Guitar himself.
Let me say this; I have my own top ten list of guitar players, and Chet Atkins is number one on it. I watched him on the Jimmy Dean Show, where he played Windy and Warm and Yankee Doodle Dixie, and I wanted to capture that style in all it's glory. Sure, I can now play those numbers behind my neck, but back then, I wasn't ready for them. A horn player told me that if I wanted to progress any further, I would have to delve into classical guitar and learn standard notation. He said—and I paraphrase—"You're pretty good, but you struggle at the typical hot spots (transitions, and breakaway rolls). Professional football players go to the gymnasium not to be professional weight lifters, but to become better athletes. Let classical music be your gymnasium, and all the songs ever placed into fake books will become your take-one repertoire."
And so, I progressed through the works of Fernando Sor, Ferdinand Carulli and Matteo Carcassi. At first, I struggled with the notation, but their teaching material had loads of repetition and reenforcement. I stuck with the program, and within two years my acquired musical insights enabled me to tackle some of Chet's easier stuff. My guitar heroes at that time included Julian Bream and John Williams (The Australian John Williams - not the Hollywood John Williams).
In the seventies and eighties, I got interested in Jazz, and would catch Larry Coryell at Slugs or Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis at Fat Tuesdays. These were the type of NYC clubs, where you could actually chit chat with the artists as well as sit ten feet away from them. Tal Farlow said to me, "Why were you looking at my left hand all the time (during the first set), you know that the sound comes from my right fingers. Concentrate on those little guys. If you develop your ear, you won't need to know what my left hand is doing. You'll just whip the notes off whatever chord position you are holding." Yeah, except Tal would hold a chord position for two beats max.
The last guitarist I saw was Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown fame at The Iridium, where Les Paul used to play on Monday nights. I've been following Kim since his days playing at the Fillmore East in the late sixties and early seventies. He came out of the mid sixties London blues scene that produced Chicken Shack, the Yardbirds and Fleetwood Mac (Yes, FM was actually a blues band back then with guitarist Peter Green serving up some might tasty licks.) If you can, check out Kim when he comes to your town. I'll put him up against any of the blues greats including Eric and Stevie Ray, but that's just my humble opinion. You will have the opportunity to see him perform up close and personal and form your own opinion.
Well, enough said... I'm checking out when Tommy Emmanuel CGP (CGP—a wink to all you Chet fans) and Ana Vidovic will be heading back to NYC so I can see them again. In the meantime, I teach myself more and more every day and am currently working on one of Bert Ligon's books on jazz improvisation.
I'm 63 now. There are no more goals. Music is a process. If something new on Guitar Tricks catches my ear, I'm there.
