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Nov. 23, 2005 I had the privilege a few days ago of attending an acoustic guitar concert. A man named Richard “Rico” Stover was playing Latin American songs. I don’t know how popular he is, his cd that he was selling didn’t look very current. My first clue of course was the fact that the picture on the inside of his cd jacket was from when he still had hair. I still enjoyed it a lot though. No surprise since I am biased in favor of the guitar. To my mind there is no finer instrument to listen to. Whether it’s the gentle plucking of an acoustic six string in the hands of Agustin Barrios Mangore (please excuse the missing accent marks), the spacey whine of the electric under David Gilmore’s guidance, or the hard but precise smashing of Tom Morello, I just love all of it. What made the event special is that while I knew I liked the guitar I had never been to a concert for just that purpose. I had no idea how great it was to sit in the audience and see the musician there in front of me playing the music as I watched. Every little bit of personality and individuality that the musician put into the music was there for me to hear. I could see the effort on his face as he played, betraying the effortless sound of it. I don’t know what it is about the guitar that seems to speak to me other than to say that it seems like the guitar can speak in a way that no other instrument can. A piano is a soulful instrument under the right hands. A saxophone can express a lot with the right music. The guitar though just seems to be capable of so much more range of sound and emotion than any other. So many different types of guitar each with their own range of sound and perfect for a different style. My favorite music of course given my love of guitar is classic rock. I am happy though that in some ways, of course not in nearly the same style, alternative and other forms of rock seem to be embracing music and lyrics again and not just the cheap noise of the 80’s. Am I the only one that finds a good portion of the music from the eighties utterly forgettable? Ditto for much of the other pop, hip hop music floating around. If it floats your boat great. Maybe I am just a tortured soul but I like my music to say something, even if it is filled with mostly the angst of young adults. I’ll admit there is a lot of that in the music going around. I am given hope though when I listen to some bands like Modest Mouse and Queens of the Stone age that not everything needs to be formless crunch or entire albums of whining about tough times in our social lives. But the one common denominator in the bands that I like is in the way that the guitar is used to supplement the emotion and the intent of the lyrics and the surrounding music. Even if the atmosphere is set entirely by the guitar, at a concert where that is the only instrument. ------------ About the author: William A. Hurt is not a writer by any means, just an occasional participant in the debates that interest him. The author is currently serving over seas with the active duty military and is an active member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Help keep Church and State separate, www.ffrf.org Email: freethoughtadvocate@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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