Too many years ago to count, I moved to Tulsa with a rock and roll band intent on playing the clubs. Yeah. That worked out.
There were some capital-G guitarists back then, but it was the leading edge of the change. Guitar-bangers like me got kicked to the curb in favor of folks that were taking lead guitar playing from a picka-picka style to something approaching virtuosity. We’d heard Plant and Clapton and Zappa. (Yeah. Frank Zappa. YouTube him. He WAS that good.) These guys were the exceptions.
Only, at some point – they weren’t anymore. Sure they had their experience and signature licks and people looked to them to imitate. One day everybody with a Strat woke up and could make their fingers fly and they just needed a singer to front their fretwork.
It’s the Summer Solstice. Longest day of the year. Maybe the hottest so far, too. There are plenty of folks gathered in the Rose District this evening, sampling food truck provisions and looking over the festival wares: tie-dye tees, craftwork, and jewelry. There’s an old Royal typewriter under a canopy with a tag. $40. A little steep, I think, for a non-starter.
But the guy up on the stage? Kicked off his set with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that mimicked Hendrix in a mighty-fine fashion, then – midway through it – drifted off into some other machinegun musical assault. I’m thinking right off the bat that the guy has picked up a guitar before this evening. Once or twice.
In fact, back in the days when I was doing a sideman bit for DeWayne (a gifted guitarist in his own right: RIP), this guy playing on a flatbed on Main Street could have been knocking them dead at the Fillmore. (You can Google that venue, you whippersnappers.)
It makes me wonder just how many excellent guitar pickers are huddled in their living rooms hacking away and doing it ten times better than all but the cream of the crop did it not so many years ago. (Okay. Okay. So, it was a good while ago. The point is, the state of guitar playing has evolved greatly from back then to now.)
Don’t know how the first Summer Solstice festival in the Rose District will measure up, but between the heat, the hot licks, and the hot dogs, a bunch of folks ought to leave happy when it’s all sung and done.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!