Another guitar thread.
 

Saw two great guitar players last week. First was Joe Bonamassa. As the younger elder statesman of the Blues, Joe is great, a fine player. Great band and he pulled out some absolutely stellar vintage guitars, a 59 LP, 57 Strat, 52 Tele and my fave of the night a 60's Firebird, all going through a minimal set up of pedals into 2 vintage Fender Bassman and 2 Tweed combos. Minimalist. Joe, though, ultimately though leaves me uninspired.

Guthrie Govan, on the hand, is a space alien sent from planet Guitar. Been a long time fan, but never seen him play before. I have never seen anyone so connected, so at one, with the guitar. Composition, technique, musicality, total control. And he can play anything. The three piece "Aristocrats" are currently somewhere in latin Amercia, and heading for the US, so if you get the chance, do go and see them, typically in small venues to very dedicated following. Marco Minneman on drums may also blow your mind.

Here is a little bit of Guthrie.

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I've only tuned into Joe resently, he plays and sings beyond his years. Not surprising as he was playing with the likes of B B King by his early teens.

His concert at the Greek in L A is awesome, great players with him in the band.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ac96E4DgwM

I'll give a listen to Guthrie tonight, nice discription of his playing.

Cheers Richard

Both players just ooze technical excellence, each in their own style. I have a great appreciation for their mad skills on guitar and both are at the top of their game right now. I am glad to see Joe scale it back to a more roots blues tone and I love listening to Guthrie during a lesson explaining his philosophy and choices.

Still, as I write this neither one is in my regular listening playlist. Jeff Beck, Jimi, SRV, BB King, Robben Ford, Peter Green, David Gilmour are the players that move me. No accounting for taste I guess.

Well, that's the great thing. Like beers, youre guitar doesn't mind if you have another guitar(ist) ....all the players you note are faves of mine too, and Gilmour is a great example. Someone who never plays anything flash, but everything is so perfectly placed- the reason they call him God's Guitar player.

The contrast, seeing these guys on consecutive nights was stark to me. I understand Joe, I cant play like him, but I get how he does it. I dont understand how GG does it all, in my mind, he is not just another shredmeister. He plays in almost every idiom, and watching him live, you realise he is often playing in several at once, chicken pickn, neo classical, flamenco, blues- all going on almost at once, and all, most importantly, with such musicality....I think he is astounding.

Guthrie is indeed otherworldly. Another guitarist from down under is at a similar technical level but mostly plays acoustic. Tommy Emmanuel. I saw Tommy last year in LA and was simply floored for 2 hours as he tore up that Maton in ways that should not be possible. These are the Mozarts of our time.

Side note: One of my performance driving students last week was Herman Li of Dragonforce who is no slouch on guitar either. We talked about a Steve Vai show he went to a few nights earlier and compared learning a difficult corner to learning a difficult riff. Same exact method to get it down and do it with precision.


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I am familiar with those boys in Dragonforce. They sure can play. I went a few years back to a TommyE masterclass, it was as you would expect, jaw dropping. Ive heard Tommy play many times in many formats- too see him and brother Phil together is something else. I have a 1996 (very early)T ommyE Maton. I sound just like him when I play it.

A bit of guitar fun + eye candy, Tommy and Guthrie "together"....


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Reminds me of early Return to Forever

I saw The Aristocrats here last summer. Guthrie is just ridiculous. Actually, all of them are. Bonamassa does nothing for me, but I love his dedication to tone and vintage gear.

Love that Joe is a gear and vintage nerd also- but Ive never liked his tones. All his stuff with Black Country- just wished Gary Moore had been in that band. Actually there is a vid kicking about of Joe doing "Lazy" with a spanking good strat sound.

Holy smokes. What a compilation, There is lightening and magic in those fingers

Cheers Richard

As amazing as Guthrie is, his bandmates are at least as good. Marco's drum solo was the best I've ever seen and I've seen everyone. He did this amazing one-handed roll with all kinds of accents while reading a newspaper with his other hand. I remember seeing the documentary on Dream Theater's auditions to replace Mike Portnoy and Marco didn't make the cut. I'm glad he didn't, as he's more where he belongs with The Aristocrats.