I w’steelas looking forward to this ‘themed’ evening of the Art of Back and Lead Guitar with two fine guitarists from the LV. Jimmy Meyer backs up Steve Brosky (The Broz) and Alan Landes works with my friend Jack Murray in the Midnight Creeps. Different styles and that proved to be very interesting.
Jimmy used his Martin with a stomp box and some delay for a full sound. He is a manic guitarist, using fast and facile leads that are fairly awesome. He did a great solo rendition of Classical Gas that left us all gasping for air. His style is pretty much ‘foot to the floor’ dynamics and I can see how it works with the more laid-back style of Steve Brosky, though I wonder if it doesn’t overpower Steve. I guess it’s part of the reason that the duo gets lots of work in the Valley, playing several times every week in bars.
Alan Landes hit it right away when I asked what does he do when playing with new folks (like tonight). He said, “I listen.” And that is the difference. He played a nice Gibson acoustic as well as an electric Telly. Great tone on the electric with some very tasty ‘steel guitar’ licks which he got to feature on some Hank Williams. He did a nice solo version of the Beatle’s I Will on acoustic guitar.
We had some nice discussion on what goes into playing lead with some good chat with the audience as well. I mixed in Blue Heartland, House of the Rising Sun, Hey Good Looking and finished with Pay Bo Diddley, with Alan adding the perfect Bo Diddley tremolo sound. It was spot on. I think the audience got to see the flash bang of Jimmy and the cool subtlety of Alan’s work.
Several folks came up afterwards who said they enjoyed craftsmen discussing their craft. That’s the whole point.