Discovering the Blues
I haven't smiled this hard in a looooooong time. Lucas Brar puts a smile on my face this morning, and it was good.
Most aspiring practitioners of the art of guitar early on stumble upon the phenomenon of the blues. There’s an exception though, if your parents sweep you into playing at a very young age, alas, odds are that Frederic Noad, and junior sized nylon string guitars are in your future.
That isn’t terrible, because that gives us people like Ana Vidovik, John Williams1, Julian Bream and Segovia.
But like a bad movie with Ralph Macchio2, even they can stumble on to the phenomenon of the Blues.
My discovery of the day is a player named Lucas Brar, and he created this five minute introduction to the blues, including a 5-stage path (I am stuck on stage three, and I am fine with that).
I truly laughed aloud enough to surprise my dog this morning. It is that fun, and funny.
Just delightful!
Bonus content, here’s the Guitar Duel from the movie Crossroads.
No, not the Star Wars composer, the guitarist who is fabulous
If you don’t make the connection, there was a movie called “Crossroads” that tells the tale of a classical wizard whose passion is the blues. He goes on the hunt for the “lost” Robert Johnson song. THe movie is awful, but all the blues parts were played by Ry Cooder, and that was good. Also the duel at the end with Steve Vai is killer.
John Williams
The music of Barrios. My favorite album. You left out Christopher Parkening.. Julian Bream was also a lutenist. He would play both instruments in concert. Saw him several times. And of course, Segovia. The Master. Also saw him 3 or 4 times in San Francisco. All of them. Grew up listening to guitar. My father played. And then in mid-life, along came Yngwie, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, SRV, Albert King, BB King, Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, and on and on. Many more.
Made my day! You're getting us ready to march!!!