By: Debra Devi
Photo Credit: Will Feffer
Every morning on the drive in, I’ve looked at the Lodge’s gorgeous horses moseying around the pasture near the road. This morning I finally get to go riding! I haven’t been on a horse since I was fifteen. I figure it’ll come back to me, like riding a bike.
Festival producers have smartly included activities for family members of guitar-besotted attendees – from watercolor classes to hikes, sailing and horseback rides. As a result, entire families are here—resentment free.
The ranch hands at the corral are fresh-faced and gorgeous, like models for a Western wear catalog. Brian has longish brown hair, blue eyes and unbelievably white teeth. He helps me onto my horse, Harley, and hands me the reins. Harley, sensing the power of my 105 pounds, promptly veers toward the water trough, ignoring my tugs. Brian grabs him by the bridle and steers him toward the rest of the group. So much for impressing Brian with my mad skills.
David Feffer with Scott Tennant
Pretty Caitlin is our guide in her Wranglers and cowboy hat, and she leads our little group across the road and up into the mountains. I try to mimic her easy posture—right hand holding the reins, left arm dangling at her side—but every time Harley lurches forward as we climb, I cheat and grab my saddle horn.
I’ve never been on a horse that is picking its way carefully up a steep trail before. The horses are breathing hard and stumble occasionally on the rocks, which is a bit nerve-wracking. We climb past stands of white birches and tall, delicious-smelling pines, eventually emerging into a grassy open meadow under a dazzling blues sky.
Caitlin asks those who feel comfortable trotting and loping to raise our hands. I do a quick mental review of childhood lessons and raise my hand. She takes off and Harley charges after her. I lose all composure, and one of my stirrups, grabbing the horn with both hands to keep from falling off as he thunders beneath me. I’m reminded that a thousand-pound animal is not a bike.
I get the stirrup back somehow, press my heels down, and try to bounce with Harley. Suddenly he accelerates from a bone-rattling trot into a smooth lope and it feels like we’re flying. Horses rule.
Two hours of riding and I’ve forgotten every trouble I’ve ever had. We get back just in time for lunch, and then I head to the bearskin classroom to teach my vibrato workshop.
I take Jody Fisher’s advice and ask each of my seven students about their “guitar lives.” I give them my handout and start with an exercise for building left-hand strength. We bend the G-string up a whole step on the 7th fret, and move it back and forth a half step steadily at the top of the bend.
Alex DeGrassi
Vibrato should be a half-step wide, I explain, not a squirrely shaking of the string. I teach them a few licks from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s solo on Mary Had a Little Lamb to demonstrate. Next, I play them B.B. King’s solo on Slowly Losing My Mind to illustrate his butterfly vibrato technique. We also check out Eric Clapton’s dramatic use of vibrato on his solo on The Beatles tune While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Taking Jody’s advice, I work with each student for a few minutes, and I don’t move on until he or she gets it. Soon I see happy string-bending grimaces all around.
To wrap up, I teach them part of the solo from my song “Get Free,” showing how I was inspired by Clapton’s solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” This workshop really went better, thanks to Jody’s advice.
Tonight is Alex De Grassi’s concert with Montana pianist Phil Aaberg at Bethany Lutheran Church in Bigfork. Phil was born in Northwestern Montana and is internationally renowned for his powerful technique, and for mixing classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass, rock, and new music into his compositions. He and Alex were label mates on Windham Hill, although Alex now records on his own Tropo Records.
The bright, modern church is packed with people in fleece and flannel and comfortable shoes. Andrew Leonard and Doug Smith open the concert with a beautiful set of duets and solo pieces. Doug combines folk, classical, jazz and contemporary forms with virtuoso finger-picking. Andrew is a traditional classical guitarist, whose repertoire includes selections from Spain, South America and Turkey, and from the Romantic and Baroque eras.
They’ve toured together quite a bit; combining Andrew’s classical repertoire and Doug’s original acoustic guitar compositions. The difference in their heights makes them look a bit like Mutt and Jeff, which leads Andrew to stand on his chair during the lengthy applause at the end of their excellent set.
Next, Alex and Phil knock everybody out with a rousing concert that ranges from signature pieces like Alex’s delicate “Theme from the Princess Bride” to Phil’s “Montana Half Light,” and includes some intense duets. Both are spectacular players and Alex matches Phil’s pounding intensity note for note. Rumors are flying around the church that the festival is going so beautifully that well-heeled Bigfork residents are already eagerly stepping up to make donations toward bringing it back next year.
Andrew Leonard
I hear later from Andrew and Doug that Phil and Alex were at the church for hours working with Steve the Soundman to properly balance the volume of an acoustic guitar with a booming grand piano.
The next morning I’m back on a horse again for a two-hour ride, and, like my second workshop, I feel in charge and it goes a lot more smoothly. I spend the rest of the day giving private guitar and voice lessons.
When I started singing a few years ago I wanted to progress quickly, and not trash my voice, so I took lessons from Don Lawrence. Don’s a master teacher who has worked with everyone from Bono to Lady Gaga. The first thing he told me was that my voice wasn’t connected to my body. My voice student, one of three female guitarists here, has the same problem and it’s making her sound sound wispy. I do my best to show her how to access her “shout” muscles for a more robust tone.
Tonight is Pat Metheny’s evening clinic. He plays a beautiful Ibanez PM35NT, which has a pale natural finish and gold hardware. Pat is running the guitar through his Mac laptop for effects, then stereo into both Fender Twins on stage. His tone is gorgeous—crystal clear yet also round and warm. Although I hear later that Pat is known for refusing to perform at clinics without his own band, tonight he jams happily with Pete Sweeney and Dave Overthrow, the festival’s house rhythm section.
First, though, Pat gives a chronology of his life and musical development, beginning with his obsession with music during his childhood in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Metheny says he was playing trumpet at eight when he heard the Beatles, who inspired him to play rock guitar. Soon, though, his brother brought home the Miles Davis album Four and More. Pat was captivated by the idea of being able to improvise, and began devoting every waking moment to practicing. “There was a fine line in my parents’ minds between what I was doing and severe mental illness,” Pat adds, laughing.
Next, Pat plays “How Insensitive,” “James” and “Farmer’s Trust,” and then he answers audience questions in depth for over an hour. It really sticks with me when he says, “Five hours of practice will give you back five hundred hours over your lifetime.”
He also talks about finding one’s own style, noting, “I started out imitating Wes Montgomery’s style. But at some point I realized that he had already done that, and I had to find my own style. I realized I was dishonoring him by imitating him.”
After the clinic I hear Pat say to David Feffer, “I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting some heavy cats to come here next year.”
Debra is the singer/guitarist for the rock band Devi. Download Devi’s debut album, Get Free for free.
