Yesterday's (Saturday August 9, 2014) 2nd annual Lowertown Guitar Festival in Mears Park in downtown St. Paul, MN, turned out to be a fabulous and worshipful day of guitar-based music featuring Rosie Flores; Jim Campilongo; Greg Koch and his band; and, finally, Robben Ford, "the master," as Koch described him, and Ford did not disappoint, not even close.
Rosie Flores, "little but loud" as one of her songs quite accurately describes her, is a force of nature at 64 years of age, still playing and quite evidently still loving the 1950s rock 'n roll of her childhood including songs of Elvis Presley, Janice Martin and more. She is neither the greatest guitarist nor the greatest singer--despite her diminutive size, she is a shouter in the tradition Wanda Jackson, another of her idols--but she is an incredibly engaging personality and entertainer.
Later I saw her sitting in the audience watching the artists who followed, which is quite unusual and amazing in its own right. I approached her and said that my friends and I had loved her set. "Thanks for coming to St. Paul to play for us." She thanked me quite humbly, but did not forget to say, "Then come see me at Lee's Liquor Lounge on Thursday."
So, Twin Cities music fans, if you read this in time--it's Rosie Flores, force of nature, at Lee's Liquor Lounge at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, August 14, 2014. If you have not seen her, do it now.
Jim Campilongo followed with a set of instrumental music--meaning there was no singing, and so he plays his songs' main melodies along with all the fill and filigree needed to make them really come alive--sort of like Roy Buchanan playing, say, Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, by all means visit You Tube and find Roy Buchanan at Austin City Limits in 1976.)
Campilongo's second song, "Blues for Roy," was a heart-felt tribute to Buchanan, and when applause greeted Campilongo's mention of Buchanan's name, Campilongo was obviously pleased. "You remember," he said. "That's great."
Still much of his set consisted of substantially chunkier tunes reminiscent of Jeff Beck or Frank Zappa. On the other hand, "The Prettiest Girl in New York" was more in the spirit of Les Paul and Chet Atkins. So I guess eclectic is the word.
And you've got to love a guy with a sense of humor, right? You know, as exemplified by song titles like "Heaven Is Creepy" and "I'm Helen Keller and You're a Waffle Iron." He also does a song called "Manic Depression," not, as he said, the Hendrix tune but rather inspired by the Hendrix tune and meant to convey how it feels to have manic depression. Okay.
Whatever. The bottom line is that the guitar player sitting next to me, who had come all the way from Wausau, WI, left with a new Campilongo disc and nothing by Ford.
Greg Koch followed, a returnee from last year's 1st annual Lowertown Guitar Festival. The man is an awesome machine of guitar technique, but just not the singer-songwriter-entertainer to connect with normal audiences.
Fortunately, this was not a normal audience, this was an audience of guitar geeks, but also Koch has surrounded himself with a remarkable group of supporting musicians--most notably bassist-extraordinaire Roscoe Beck, but also drummer (and son) Dylan Koch, and guest guitarist-singer-songwriter David Grissom.
We saw some terrific bass players today including Campilongo's Hagar Ben Ari, but Beck is something special--a rock/funk/blues veteran/expert of longstanding. And not only that but he, according to Koch is mentoring son Dylan, who is also a student at the MacNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul, major sponsor of the event. Beck and Dylan Koch made up a truly remarkable rhythm section.
(One thing we did not see, however, was a keyboard. Not so much as a one all day long.)
So, all the more wonderful was it that Koch and band stayed on stage to accompany Robben Ford. Ford later remembered Beck as someone he had played with during his earliest days in the music industry, while Koch introduced Ford as "a close personal friend."
Whatever the reason, the quintet was tighter than tight as Ford ripped through a 90-minute set of rock 'n blues classics, beginning with Lee Dorsey's "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky," and continuing on through Ray Charles' "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and on to the end. A highlight was a Beck bass solo followed by a dynamic drum solo by Dylan Koch.
But it was Ford focus, and Ford is of course a singer as well as a guitar master so, unlike Campilongo, his guitar is meant to accompany and embellish the vocal but not play the main melody. So it's a more conventional style, to be sure, derivative like most of American rock 'n roll from 1940s and 1950s blues. But derivative is not meant here as a criticism, just a description. I mean, if Clapton is God, basically playing black blues from the 1940s and 1950s, what exactly is Ford? Well, "the master," according to Koch, and based on last night's performance, who could disagree?
I mean, I took a quick tour of You Tube yesterday and watched, mostly, Campilongo and Ford, and said that I thought Campilongo might be a better guitarist. Well, the world need Campilongo and others like him more than it needs another Ford (another Clapton). But, no, Campilongo is not a better guitarist. Ford plays riffs of such complexity and beauty, and plays them so naturally, with such apparent ease.
Naturally, yes, that's the word. And easy, that's another. Not only do Ford's riffs seems natural--perfectly crafted for the song--but his playing is remarkably natural. He makes it look easy while some, like Campilongo and Grissom, to name two, make it look more like labor, work, effort. Rosie Flores is, in fact, another who makes it look easy and natural, like burpin' and fartin.' Yeah, of course it's easy, it's what I do.
And that--natural and easy, or workmanlike--like whether music is "derivative" or "original," is not a judgement call. One's not better than the other. They are what they are. But within his oeuvre, Ford indeed proved to be "the master."
Great show. Can't wait for #3.
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