Sunday, March 1, 2009

Photo gallery and concert review: California Guitar Trio and Rhett Butler at Dallas’ Granada Theater

By John P. Meyer

Photo by John P. Meyer

The wife and I had a blast at the California Guitar Trio show at the Granada Saturday night (Feb. 28) - it was our second time to see the boys from Utah, Belgium and Tokyo perform, and I doubt it will be the last. They are guitar virtuosos (virtuosi?) by anyone's standards, in addition to being engaging entertainers.

A friend clued me in to CGT a couple years ago because he knew of my affinity for King Crimson and all things Robert Fripp-related. These guys (Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideo Moriya) have strong Crimsonesque affiliations. They worked with Fripp at one of his guitar craft training sessions and by their own admission owe much to his influence.

The evening kicked off with a solo set by University of North Texas-trained (and seriously intense) jazz guitarist Rhett Butler, whose casual conversations with an appreciative audience acted as counterpoint to his fully-absorbed and deadly-serious playing style, which features a good deal of string-hammering as opposed to plucking. During his set he frequently essayed a 13-string technique involving two guitars played simultaneously: rhythm on the 7-string guitar and melody on the six-string. (You have to see it - and hear it, of course - to believe it.)

Notable among Rhett's offerings was a medley piece he referred to as The House of Für Elise, which artfully combines the Beethoven composition with The House of the Rising Sun. He also attempted (and mostly succeeded in) a performance of the difficult Eric Johnson piece, Cliffs of Dover - much to the delight of several self-proclaimed fellow pickers in the audience.

CGT took the stage following the break. Their set-and-a-half included everything devoted fans could want, along with some newer material they'd not performed at their last Dallas show, such as a piece composed recently with the assistance of King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto called - to the best of my recollection (and someone correct me if I'm getting this wrong) In the Middle of Nowhere in the Middle of Nowhere, Texas - named for the geographical coordinates of Pat's current place of residence.

Also delighting the partisan crowd were renditions of Morricone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Oldfield's Tubular Bells; Blockhead (according to Paul Richards, the first piece they all wrote together); the band's signature "rotational" version of Moonlight Sonata; and, constituting a 20-minute plus encore, their amazing effects-laden rendition of Pink Floyd's ever-spooky Echoes.

CGT closed out the encore set with Bohemian Rhapsody, after which everyone either went away delighted or joined Paul, Bert and Hideo in the Granada lobby for a bit of breeze-shooting.

Great show, guys.

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