Ahhhhh, California! It always does me good to make a trip out to The Golden State! This time was no different.
Being September, that means it’s time for Guitar Player Magazine’s annual buffet of guitar goodness: Guitar Player Live!
For me the festivities began at 5a.m. E.S.T. Friday and a trip to the airport. Other than a bit of a delay in Charlotte due to cloudy conditions in San Francisco, the trip out was uneventful. Gotta love sitting on the tarmac for a couple hours waiting to take off! Upon landing, I discovered that my cell phone, which I’d turned completely off, had mysteriously completely discharged it’s battery. So when I went to call the driver for my pickup, no dice. Thankfully, though, most airports have generously installed many electrical outlets in the terminal so it’s no problem to plug in.
After arriving in Livermore and checking into the hotel, the fatigue of an already long day set in and a little nap seemed like a good idea, so I lied down for a snooze. Woke up a couple hours later feeling like complete ass, wishing I hadn’t decided on a nap, LOL! I’d like to be able to write that Friday night was a fun filled party adventure of magnificent proportions but I, instead, chose to chill at the hotel & prepare for playing Saturday. I ran into one of the finalists a few times, Charlie Crowe. Charlie’s a geat guy, from Nashville. He’s done quite a bit of touring with some big names, including Brooks And Dunn. We enjoyed some back n forth about various aspects of the industry that we so love, LOL! Good times!
Saturday morning I woke up pretty early, still on East Coast time I guess. I took a quick shower & headed down to the lobby area to take advantage of the awesome complimentary breakfast. If you’re ever in the Livermore, Ca area, I can’t recommened the Courtyard Livermore highly enough. Nice hotel and their free breakfast is off the hook, one of the best I’ve seen.
While I was waiting on my food I had the good fortune to meet Jodee Frawley, one of the finalists in this year’s Guitar Superstar competition and her companion. We talked a little about my experience in the contest the prior year as well as some of the good stuff that’s happened for me as a result. I really enjoyed our little talk.
After eating I headed back to my room to practice a little in preparation for the songs I’d be playing over the course of the afternoon/evening. After a couple hours of that I took another quick shower, called a cab and headed over to The Bankhead Theater, the site of Guitar Player Live. Upon arrival, I immediately ran into Lauren Gerber, the Sales Operations Director for NewBay Media, the Publisher of Guitar Player Magazine. Lauren’s always been extremely helpful, always quick to share a smile and help with whatever I need. She showed me to my green room & set me up with my access passes for the day.
After this I headed outside to explore all the guitar-related goodness. Once outside I immediately ran into my pal Dave Benziger, a fellow finalist in last year’s GPGS Finals. We yapped back n forth a little. I was scheduled to play a couple songs with a band called Points North, which features guitarist Eric Barnett, a finalist in the competition the year before me. When I saw Eric walk by I (hopefully) politely excused myself from Dave & scooted to catch up to him to find out the details of our jam. During this time I also ran into Danny Jones, another fellow Finalist in ’09.
About halfway through Points North’s set they called me up to jam a couple songs. They had learned one of my songs, Facecheck, so we played that, then an instrumental rendition of Hendrix’ classic Little Wing. T’was a good time, the band is GREAT! There are a few pics on Facebook from this jam that a few kind folks have posted. I definitely wanna give a shout out and thanks to Eric, Damien and Kevin for letting me get up and make some noise!!! I hope we can do it again. Also I want to thank Jim Douglas from Prime Time Entertainment for setting me up with a sweet Marshall rig to use for this performance!
After this jam I packed up my stuff and headed inside to soundcheck for my spot before the competition. Mesa/Boogie was one of the sponsors of the event and provided the backline. I, as with last year, chose Boogie’s stellar Stiletto to play through. Anyone who knows me knows I’m more of a Marshall guy, but Boogie’s Stiletto is definitely a sweet amp. EL34 Power, wide range of tonal possibilities, sounds really great. So I Plugged in, twisted some knobs and we ran through my song for the evening, which was Greaseball.
The event started at 7 this year, so I didn’t have to wait too long before it was time to play. During this down time I was fortunate enough to get to meet and talk with George Lynch from Dokken/Lynch Mob, one of my all time favorite guitarists. After exchanging some pleasant conversation it was about time for the event to start. After the opening greeting by Guitar Player Editor in Cheif Mike Molenda and the host for the evening, radio personality Nikki Blakk, it was time to jam. I’d chosen Greaseball to play this year cause I wanted something relatively short, something that rocks, kinda sets a pace - get in, rock it and get out. With this criteria, Greaseball’s the obvious choice. Once again, the crowd was great, lots of noise. And just like that, it was done, LOL! These jams always go by so quickly! But the band, which is called Thud Factor, did a great job with my song & it was a lot of fun. I think I played ok, but I gotta wait till the video is available to see for sure ;-)
After that it was time for the main event. All ten finalists are AMAZING guitarists! Before going any farther, I wanna give a holler to all ten - these players went out there and gave their heart and soul in a very daunting situation. The finalists were Angel Vivaldi, Dan Kumar, Jodee Frawlee, Karim Khorsheed, Don Alder, Kevin Zugschwert, Chris Delis, Charlie Crowe, and Val Kostadinov. The tenth finalist was chosen by ‘Peoples’ Choice’ vote. This was Eric Clemenzi. Again, all are fantastic musicians and all deserve to be extremely proud of their accomplishment!
At the end of the thing, the winner of the whole shebang was Don Alder from Vancouver British Columbia. Don played an acoustic piece, completely unaccompanied. Now, getting up there and banging out a song in this kind of deal is nerve wracking enough, but getting up there without a band backing you up, well, that takes huge cahonies. Don showed that he’s got that quality in spades, playing a piece that was partially improvised, bringing the crowd to their feet! He killed it! Great job Don!
Second Place went to Eric Clemenzi from the Boston, Ma area. Eric played a ferocious piece, showcasing is incredible proficiency on his 8-string guitar. 8 strings? Yep. Eric absolutely tore through his piece, showing off incredible skill. The only blemish on his performance was at the very end, the last note, when the nut on his guitar broke at the low f# string. He easily covered for that to finish a stellar performance! Great job Eric.
Third place went to my buddy Charlie Crowe from Nashville, Tn. I meantioned earlier that Charlie and I hung a bit at the hotel. No, I had nothing to do with the judging, LOL! Charlie played an excellent piece showing how cool a simple song idea can be. The man in black, complete with wide brimmed cowboy hat, Charlie had the crowd rocking with his piece. Way to go Charlie!!!!!
After the competition, everyone headed over to the Sapphire Lounge to unwind, party a little and jam with the band, the Dave Crimmen Band. The next few hours were just a general good time with lots of guitar jamming, including the inimitable Gary Hoey for a couple numbers. Another stand out moment was Jodee Frawlee’s killer jam, including her awesome vocals. Jodee’s a triple threat, she looks great, she plays her ass off and sings killer. Watch out for her, you’ll definitely be seeing more….
After a few hours things started winding down & everyone retreated back to their respective hotels for some much needed sleep. I rode back to the hotel with Charlie and Mike Molenda. After enjoying some good conversation, we arrived at the hotel & the night was done. Instead of crashing right away I opted to go ahead and get everything packed so in the morning I could just get up, shower and go. That was definitely a good choice, LOL! Not being much of a drinker, drinking even a few beers makes it’s presence known the next day ;-)
Sunday was travel day. I shared the limo back to the airport with contestant Angel Vivaldi. He’s a great guy, definitely made the 40+ minute ride enjoyable. Upon arriving at San Francisco Int’l Airport, I learned that my flight was delayed and that as a result I’d probably miss my connecting flight from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach. I decided to try anyway, just in case, figuring I’d rather be stuck in Charlotte and catch the short flight in the morning. As it turns out, when I arrived in Charlotte, this is exactly what happened. I missed the plane by mere minutes, actually saw it leaving the gate. U.S Airways, though, picked up the hotel room, so it didn’t cost me anything. Of course I couldn’t fall asleep right away, I’d adjusted to West Coast time already, so I fooled around on the internet a little, waiting to get tired. When I finally zonked it was about 3:30a.m. My wake up call was supposed to be at 5, I got it at 5:23, LOL! Still I was able to get up, splash some water on my face and get downstairs to catch the shuttle at 5:30. Headed to the airport, caught the plane back to Myrtle Beach, and my journey was done. Can’t wait till next time!!!!!
