Bo Diddley passed away today. What can you say? He's an icon and a member of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Just think about the number of songs that use the Bo Diddley beat
. Too many to count, it's part of Rock n' Roll's ancestral DNA.
Additional information here.
I heard about this first from a Facebook post by Paul Garay, from Inside Home Recording. Last night, guitarist Jeff Healy, passed away. It was always inspiring to watch Jeff perform, given his challenges.
Another great one that will be missed. It is truly sad because he was still so young.
Friday night, I attended another great show, featuring Guitar Craft alumni, the California Guitar Trio at the One World Theater. Without a doubt, the One World is probably the best venue in Austin to see a show. The room holds 300 people tops and has great acoustics. My seats were in 2nd row, right on center aisle. I was within spitting distance of all three members of the band, and it was amazing to see how relaxed and precise their technique was from that vantage point.
CGT played a solid 90 minutes. They played older (Melrose Avenue) and new material (Andromeda), and were joined on stage by several guests (their soundman playing a melodica and a woman playing mandolin). During one phase of the show they got the audience singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody, and of course played an encore with the most requested live song of all time, Freebird.
The highlight of the night for me was seeing them play a Bach Prelude in Circulation
, a training technique used by Robert Fripp, in the Guitar Craft courses. Of course, I am now hoping that the League of Crafty Guitarists will make it to Texas.
After the show, the Trio was available for autographs and I was able to purchase a CD of the show I had just attended. They are actually touring with a CD duplicator and were able to burn 7 disks at a time. Very cool idea.
Saw Robben Ford perform last night at the Cactus Cafe, with Roscoe Beck and Brandon Temple. Great show, great guitar work, great rhythm section.
This was the same venue that I had seen Al DiMeola recently. It was sort of the polar opposite of DiMeola's show. This time, the music took a front seat to the technique, instead of being sacrificed to the technique.
The night was highlighted by special guest appearances of Eric Johnson and David Grissom. While watching Robben play, it became suddenly apparent that Eric was a big fan of Robben's and had incorporated a lot more of his style than I had realized.
Taylor Campbell opened. He was a singer/songwriter who played acoustic guitar. He had the line of the night when he said, "When I open for Robben Ford, I'm a guitar owner, not a guitar player."
