An Amazing Evening of Music

On Sunday evening, Marc Swanson, John Freshwaters and I went to see Laurence Juber at the Little Fox Theater in Redwood City. Most people have never heard of this guy. I certainly hadn't until a few years ago, when he was a guest on Greg Kihn's morning show on KFOX radio. In the late 70s, Laurence was the lead guitarist with Paul McCarney's Wings. Since then, he's distinguished himself as one of the premier acoustic finger style guitarists around. Seriously, this guy is jaw-droppingly good.

Marc and I saw him last year at the Little Fox, so we knew we were in for a special treat. He played two Martin guitars (both Laurence Juber signature models), one in standard tuning (EADGBE), and one in "DADGAG" tuning, the latter being the one he played the most. He played an eclectic mix of songs, from the Beatles and other popular artists to show tunes and original compositions. Check him out on iTunes, or better still, on YouTube, which does a better job of capturing the vitality of his live performance. Particularly lovely is While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

As the first notes leaped from his guitar, we gave up trying to figure out how he was doing what he was doing. Even if you filmed it and played it back a frame at a time, you'd never get it. So just sit back and enjoy the ride.

And enjoy it we did. For nearly two hours, Laurence shared his gifts with us. You come away from these types of performances either inspired to practice guitar... or just give it up. Well, I'm going to practice, not to be like Laurence, 'cause that's not gonna happen. But I will be a better me, and that's a plenty good goal.