I'm staying in a really cool place in Cannington, this neat old house(it's around the corner from Don's). It's chocked full of some of the same stuff I have in my house, Halloween masks, Gargoyle statues and nakid barbies riding Harley's. Throw in a few 4 foot long Braveheart swords (that I don't have) and a Viking helmet or two and you'll get the idea. It's great fun to be able to stay there.
Every day starts off with a yummy breakfast. We sit and shoot the breeze, talking guitars and music and funny stories until the 10:00am workshop. Sometimes it feels like you could do that all day and skip the guitar workshops(grin), but that's not going to happen. On Saturday we went acros the street to this nice legion hall and Don went through Drac and freinds, Thin air, and open and alterned tunings.
After a yummy lunch Andy came in and he demonstrated a pile of techniques found in his tunes like over the neck playing, and percuissive slaps on the face and side of the guitar. He deconstructed his arrangement of "Africa" in great detail. It's one thing to hear that tune on his CD and quite another to watch him do it live. I gotta get his tab for that one, it looks like a blast to play(and challanging as hell)!We had some free time that aft and most of us headed off to the
"Interesting Music Shoppe" down the road a few klicks (a term which people from the US are not sure about.. "How much is a klick? Is that Metric for Mile?" They'd ask. I had no idea that was a Canadian thing). After a yummy supper, we hung out until the show started at 8. and then got there early for seats up front. It's too bad Brooke wasn't playing as well, that would have been awsome. Speaking of Brooke, we got to listen to her new CD that's going on the SOny label. Don is mixing it with some guy in the US and he says they spend 8 hours just trying to get the tamborine to sound right. Wow.. It's like, they worry about everythig and getting it to sound as perfect as it can, 110%.. Can't wait to hear it in my CD player. And she's getting a new Greenfield guitar really soon. Mmmmm. It helps when you're pals with the builder and you;ve just signed a new record deal. Mortals like me (if they could afford one, hehehe, ) have to wait 3 years.
The show was awsome, Don even did a vocal tune. Andy was great. The over the top of the neck fingering and the knocking on the guitar really work well on stage. Not only does it look cool, it sounds cool too! He's very melodic, playing some of the coolest passages only once so your ear remembers them and you're itching to hear it again(and then you don't, 'cause they're special and get only one pass). He has a great melodic intracacy about his playing. He uses a thumbnail but his right hand fingers have short natural nails. I have to try that again. The gel nail are a pain in the ass when going from acoustic to electric. They were using a rented BOSE PA with mains that looked like thin sidewashes. They had bases like those Basketball nets you fill with water or sand. Excellent sound though
After the show we headed back to Casa del Ross and played guitar until about 1:30am. At some point Don played us a clip of StrongBad, a character on http://www.homestarrunner.com, an Internet cartoon. It's a guitar themed one. Pretty funny.
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