Guitar Gods - Adam Rafferty

Guitarist, composer, teacher and all-round guru - I came across Adam on YouTube about 6 years ago, playing an awesome acoustic groove of Stevie Wonder's Superstition .  And he has done track after track of amazing covers and original tunes, all with three voices soaring from his Maton.

Live, he can keep an audience captivated (enraptured?) all night and it is a rare solo performer that can do that. He's played with Tommy Emmanuel, Clive Carroll and loads more, and his arrangements have been covered by loads of people including Sungha Jung.  He is known for producing the definitive fingerstyle arrangements of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson tunes.

I stalked, pestered and nagged him for a while online and ended up booking him some gigs in the UK and putting together a small tour a few years ago.  People travelled hundreds of miles to see him play and at Oxford Jazz they had to lay on extra gigs for him to play.

My fee was guitar lessons while he was staying with me, and years later I'm still learning from what he showed me. And as a special treat he showed me how to play his arrangement of Billie Jean - well he let me video a personal lesson of it (all except the moonwalk).

So if you're one of the hundreds of people who ask him for tabs, I have it all on tape.....

Watching Adam and Clive warm up Minor Rag backstage at The Stables in Milton Keynes, is one of the highlights of my guitar-life.

Go see this man.

My Favourite Tracks

Superstition 

Chameleon

Rolling With The Ashes
(This was inspired by being stranded in the UK when the Icelandic volcano erupted, and the mad overnight dash by ferry and train to get from my house to Berlin for a gig the following evening).

More

http://www.adamrafferty.com/

Guitar Gods - Richard Thompson

Some of my best festival moments have happened while watching Richard Thompson at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival. I have gaped open-mouthed in wonder as he simultaneously teases bass, melody and harmony out of a single guitar using only five fingers on each hand.

His fingers move, at times, with the speed and precision of some kind of sci-fi android (think of the film AI) and yet they produce a music that caresses both ears and soul. And he sings while doing it.

There is no other explanation - this man must be cheating.

My favourite tracks

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Feels So Good (I'm Gonna Break Somebody's Heart Tonight)

More

http://richardthompson-music.com/

The 11,426 mile recording session - Day 3

You may be asking what happened to Day 2. Well, Day 2 was lost in a cloud of procrastination.

I was struggling to remember anything about the 20 year old song I've agreed to record with a man on a different continent, so in true guitarist style I blogged.....And listened to old demos of other tunes and posted them on soundcloud. Very useful.

Beyond that, I found an old lyric sheet and had a private cringe at them. So we have a title "As Good As Ordinary Gets", some lyrics (partly questionable) and a promise to get my arse in gear.

Speaking of gear I did dig out my Boss BR-600 and some Rode microphones so I can rough out a guide track. I'll get on with that as soon as I'm back from Cropredy Festival this weekend.

I'm sure it's got Em in it......