My friends Mickey and Rob inspired a nice little musical drama this weekend. Three weeks ago, I saw Rob and told him about the Music City Guitar Show today at the State Fairgrounds. He sounded interested in a new classical guitar - the kind with nylon strings and mellow tone used by everybody from Segovia to Chet Atkins. I told him I understand. I'm in the market for a guitar too. Not the same style, but men in guitar hunting mode are a band of brothers.
In unrelated circumstances I saw Mickey in front of a bunch of beer taps...
Mickey said I should hear something called Usher Waltz by a composer I've never heard of named Nikita Koshkin. So this morning, before heading to the guitar show, I referred to the ball point pen-inscribed, ale stained New Belgium Brewing Co. coaster from that night to make sure I had the spelling of this thing right. And yes, it's just like that smooth singer guy. Anyway, the unfailing You Tube provided remarkably clear sounding video of the great John Williams (not the guy who scored all the Spielberg movies) playing Usher Waltz. I pretty much loved it, so a hat tip to Mickey.
It's almost six minutes long. I'd describe it as Spanish meets Russian, which makes sense because Koshkin was born in Moscow and classical guitar was born in Spain. It tells the Edgar Allan Poe story of the Fall of the House of Usher with nothing but a solo guitar, so it's spooky, maybe even gimmicky. It features heavily bent chords made somehow sweet with a reassuring waltz time. There's a pretty far out stretch in the middle, then a contrasty, quiet stretch toward the end that's smashing.
The linking video offered a chance to see Koshkin himself teaching a master class somewhere out there in the world, and man is he a piece of work. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that a classical Russian composer would be a fearsome bearlike creature. But he's interesting to see it for real. I think there's video of him playing his own work. It seems this Usher Waltz is a popular repertoire piece in classical guitar-ville, and I'm glad to know that.
Anyway, the story. With the Usher Waltz echoing gently in my mind, I drive the few blocks of 8th Ave. that separate me from the Fairgrounds. I wonder why there are so many cars for the guitar show, but when I park, very poorly it turns out for a cold day, I discover it's because there's also a Knife and Gun show and a Civil War memorabilia show at the same time. I see a happy historian friend of mine come out of what turns out to be a huge Civil War show, taking new books home.
The guitar show could have been overrun easily by the civil war buffs next door, and I don't even want to know about the Knife and Gun guys. A shed that once hosted pigs and sheep held maybe thirty or so vendors. I mean there were a lot of guitars, don't get me wrong. I just have this wide-eyed memory of my first Nashville guitar show where I bought my Gibson, and in that memory, it's bigger. That's all I'm saying.
But I'm definitely excited to be there. I'm looking for a semi-hollow electric guitar that's better than the one I have now, but I'm just basically browsing. That's the plan. I pay my money (costs $8 to get in, which is more than worth it) and the first person in the whole place that I pay any particular attention to besides the cash register lady is Rob. And Rob isn't just ogling a guitar. He's buying one. I actually see the credit card come out and exchange hands. He's grinning, even more than usual. I take his picture with his new classical axe (his camera alas, but perhaps he'll post it). If we'd had drinks, we'd have toasted.
The happy ending was his, not mine. While I saw a few promising arch-tops at that very first booth, nothing spoke to me over the next couple of hours of nosing around. Oh there were some that were outright yelling at me, but they were the collectibles costing six thousand dollars and more. The affordable hollow-bodies were sort of lonesome. Oddities with very questionable electronics looking like puppies that might never find a home. But the clamor of the hall and all that guitar talk and the noodle picking over the floor of noise was wonderful. So was the amazing range of acoustic guitars. They were a sight. And I found some nice vinyl of Chet and the Nashville String Band and Herb Ellis for a few dollars.
For some reason I start with side two of Strung Up from 1971 with Homer, Jethro, Chet, etc., and the first track is this Turkish piece called "Alhambra." It sounds almost classical, and Jethro Burns says in his liner notes that it was his favorite of the session. I expect Rob is home playing his guitar.
Here's John Williams palying Usher Waltz
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