Well another year and another great weekend at the Dallas
International Guitar Festival. As always, Jimmy Wallace and his crack team of organizers put together a
tremendous event. I’ve been to several of these over the last few years and I never ceased to be
amazed at the quality of show that the team puts together.
The
performances this year from greats like Rick Derringer, Andy Timmons, Quinten Hope, Mike Zito, Ryan McGarvey, George Lynch,
the Maylee Thomas Band and many, many more were each home-runs in my book. I also had a great interview with Mr. Zito and
finally got to meet up with Mr. Garvey for the first time as well as bumped into up and coming bluesman, Chris Watson.
As has happened each time I’ve attended
the show, I run into a former co-worker, Mike, from my days working in the telecom industry. We always
see each other in one of the aisles and visit for a few minutes, quickly catching up on a year’s worth of news and then
we’re on our merry way. I find it amazing that Mike and I always manager to bump into each other
at this massive show every year.
Equally
amazing were the countless thousands who perused the aisles upon aisles of gear vendors of all stripes, looking for the perfect
guitar or “hafta have” part or pedal. These are the people who regularly play anywhere that
will let them – from bars to churches to open mics around the world, these people LOVE to play their guitars.
And when I say “guitars”, I do mean more than one guitar per person.
See,
for bozos like me, one guitar – or, at least one acoustic and one electric guitar – is more than enough.
However, for the REAL musician (and to paraphrase the famous Mick Jagger quote), too many guitars are never enough.
All you have to do is read my interviews with folks like Monte Montgomery or Quinten Hope to see that I’m not. Seriously, for the serious musician, owning 20, 30, even hundreds of guitars
isn’t unheard of.
To a serious guitar slinger, each guitar
has its own “personality”, feel and sound. Even two identical guitars, made at the same time
and in the same manner, using the exact same kinds of materials and components will feel and sound uniquely different to the
discriminating player and/or listener. Think of them as identical siblings that are their own “person”.
That’s how their owners think of them.
With
that in mind, you can see how and why a guitar player develops an emotional relationship with the instrument of their trade.
The players are known to carry their guitar everywhere they go, practicing riffs and tunes every chance they get.
Not only did guitar god, Jimi Hendrix, do this but he also slept with his six string “girlfriend”.
Yes, Hendrix slept with his beloved guitar.
So,
whether I’m watching a seasoned guitarist wonderfully playing his expensive, six-stringed mate or watching a kid discovering
the wonders of playing a cheap beginner’s guitar, I see what I know is a unique, intimate relationship developing between
a player and their instrument. I know better to intrude in such intimate relationships.
And
as those relationships go, each day of the show, I watched guys and gals, alike, walk in and out of the DIGF, carrying guitars
that they either hoped to sell or trade or had just acquired. As when lovers split up or meet, the endings
and beginnings of relationships between a guitar slinger and their axe offers up interesting observations of the human/guitar
dynamic. Some of the splits are hesitant and emotional while others are bittersweet. Some
of the new unions are greeted similar to the parable of the Pearl of Great Price while others aren’t really sure what
they’ve just gotten themselves into. Such is the roller-coaster rides called relationships.
That
all said, I’m looking forward to observing the various relationships at next year’s Dallas International Guitar
Festival . . . and meeting up with Mike, again.
