A Review of The California Guitar Trio in Charleston
 

Imagine, if you will, a cross between Andy Summers' virtuoso fret and finger stylings and his eclectic sound, melded with Andrés Segovia's sense of presentation and melody. What a sound ... what a night. These guys played songs of varying stripes with constantly morphing manners of style and sound. One of my friends asked me before I left Florida to pin down a sound or pigeonhole for the CGT: after seeing them, I won't - it wouldn't be fair or inclusive.

 

With that said, as far as describing the night's sounds, lets try this: stir in (from the audience's left to right) the percussive rhythm stylings of Windham Hill's Michael Hedges (RIP) as CGT's Hideyo - throughout the night - laid down a lush, verdant bottom of strumming and plucking; throw in heapin' helpin' of Joe Walsh-esque noodlings and pleasantly unfamiliar sounds (minor chords?) while Paul takes/retreats/resumes/abdicates a lead run or three during each piece; and magnify it all with Bert's remarkable facility for marrying the complex/compound runs/riffs and chording of someone such as John McLaughlin to the sudden and sprightly blitzkrieg insertions of, say, Jon Anderson in his earliest work with Yes. These three cats do things with their guitars and effects pedals I've heard nowhere else. And this Bert cat - it was like the stride manner in which George Winston plays a piano; how DO these guys DO that?

 

Anyway, the band played everything from their original and engaging compositions to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to Floyd's Echoes (WOW!) to (there was a joke behind it, of which I knew not until afterwards) freakin' FREE BIRD!

 

They were conversational and approachable on stage, technically impressive, artistically peerless and just plain ol' fun. It was - at once - more and less than I expected: they bantered back and forth both verbally, and even when addressing (on their guitars) a classically bent piece of music, they made it something a child would enjoy; yet they never showed off simply for the sake of showing off, like some other self-consumed and self-aggrandizing musical masters.

 

My night was complete.

 

-Wayne Shelor
 Clearwater, FL

Webmaster Note: Wayne Shelor is a long-time journalist who wrote this review as part of a description of his trip to Charleston to meet with friends for the concert.  That piece has been edited and shortened with permission from the author for use here.