Guthrie Govan Discussion

[alexkhan]

First photos of Guthrie's adventures in Southern California during his NAMM visit:

http://community.webshots.com/album/259397970yROtcv
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[dave...]

thank you alex! reminds us he's real huh??

iiincidently, have you noticed how he holds a beer like hes trying to fret it? i'm thinking that the beers were kicking in for the last foto right?

[alexkhan]

[Carlo]

nice pics Ed!! makes it the more depressing since I wasn't there

btw, you mentioned that his EC set had a few rough spots on it....but, as a point of reference, how would you compare his EC set to the Cornford Clinic DVD from a 1-10 scale? just curious. I'm sure, despite some rough spots, his perfomance is nothing short of greatness.

[alexkhan]

This is a copy and paste of a post that I've been posting on other forums.

Guthrie put on some incredible shows at Tone Merchants' concert room Jan 18-21 (and some jamming on Jan 22 with Bumblefoot) and his two main guitars were the new Suhr Standard he just got (a Cherry SB with Flame Maple top, mahogany body and neck, Indian RW F/B, DSH+/V60LP/DSV pups, Fishman Power Bridge Trem, Even C Slim shape, 16" radius, 6105 SS frets, reverse headstock) and his "old" favorite Root Beer Suhr Standard with Quilt Top and Basswood body with Maple neck and Brazilian board (same specs except for the woods and with normal headstock). Guthrie favored the Mahogany Sunburst Standard for the rock/shred stuff and the Basswood Root Beer Standard for the jazz/fusion Fellowship set.

Guthrie and the band seemed to have some opening night jitters on Jan 18 Tue and wasn't quite sharp through the first set (the rock power trio Erotic Cakes material) but burned during the Fellowship set. Then on Jan 19, Wed, they were on fire all night with Guthrie nailing every tricky and impossible lick in his endless vocabulary and doing it with finesse and feel as well as energy, speed with room to spare, machine-like precision and power. The Jan 19 was simply the best guitar-oriented show I have ever witnessed - live or on video. Each member in the band was at their peak and they superbly balanced razor-sharp execution and incredible punishing energy with feel, a hopping groove, and a smooth relaxed flow.

Then Jan 20 Thu was the video shoot for a future DVD release and Guthrie and the band got off to a pretty rocky start on the first Erotic Cakes set. Guthrie advised me that it wasn't so much the cameras all over the room but perhaps that he was frazzled from the first day of NAMM fielding questions like, "So are your amps better than Matchless?", "How much winding do the transformers have on your amps?", etc. all day at the Cornford booth. He also met Greg Howe (one of his big heroes) for the first time just before the start of the show and that couldn't have helped his confidence a whole lot! Talk about pressure!!! Guthrie just didn't have it going through the first set that evening but finally got loose and performed a smoking second set. It still wasn't comparable to the relaxed loose feel of Jan 19 and I felt he overplayed on the second set of Jan 20 to make up for the "sins" of the first set, but it was still an enjoyable show.

Guthrie almost never gets to perform the Erotic Cakes material and probably has less than half-a-dozen gigs under his belt for that stuff. In contrast, the Fellowship has over 250 gigs under their belt over the past 4 years, so there really wasn't a comparison between the two sets. Guthrie and the band were always much tighter and together on the Fellowship stuff than the Erotic Cakes stuff. In any case, it was all pretty incredible and he won over a lot of new fans during the 4 shows. Each show was packed and the buzz is getting stronger and stronger. Guthrie is now well on his way...

Here are some pics from the Guthrie Tone Mecca concerts with my score for their performances:

Jan 18 Tuesday Gig - Erotic Cakes: 7, The Fellowship: 8.5



Jan 19 Wednesday Gig - This was the magical night. Erotic Cakes: 8.5, The Fellowship: 10





Seth Govan, Guthrie's brother and bassist, with his new Suhr Classic J bass!





The Govan brothers are now also Suhr brothers!



Guthrie and His "Old" Number 1





Jan 20 Thu Gig - Wasn't his best gig of the week by a longshot, but Guthrie still tore it up and blew the audience away, especially with the second Fellowship set.
Erotic Cakes: 6.5, The Fellowship: 9







Didn't get to take any pics myself for the Jan 21 Fri Cornford All-Star Gala Concert. Guthrie's 45-minute set was the most consistent and proficiently executed of all the shows he and his band played here, although it didn't quite have the magic of the Jan 19 Wed show. I rate a solid 9 all the way through for this performance.

As for the clinic DVD, it's hard to compare Guthrie playing with a band to him playing along to backing tracks, but if it's only about Guthrie's performance, I'd say that clinic performance rates a solid 8. Guthrie was awesome on the EC material on Jan 19 and 21 and GG's performances on those days far exceed that of the clinic DVD. I think I'd rate Guthrie's EC performance of Jan 21 slightly over Jan 19 in terms of execution, but the Jan 19 show had a more relaxed feel and flow to the whole evening.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

[fingerprinz]

Hi y'all...

Noel E. from Tone Merchants here...just thought I'd post a "copy & paste" of my own post, which kind of went hand in hand with Ed's post:

"The Jan 19th show definitely was the best of the bunch. Those of us who were fortunate enuf to have been there witnessed something REALLY special and rare...near perfection!

I've been thinking about Guthrie's performances, and the one thing that stands out in my mind is...Guthrie is indeed human!! Subject to the same trials, foibles and pressures as the rest of us.

For me, this makes Guthrie much more interesting and reachable as a player. The fact that he really DOES have to work at his craft makes me respect him all the more for the level of ability he's been able to achieve up to this point.

I guess a lot of others who were there for Guthrie's not-quite-par performance on the 20th had the same revelation...there were a lot of players who came away that night actually feeling a bit relieved...even inspired. Now they see Guthrie as "one of them"...and if he can get that good, maybe there's a little hope for them, too!

Strange phenomenon...but I think Guthrie may have endeared himself to more people on his off night than on the night that he was the pillar of perfection.

Oh, and the high points of the week for me? Seeing Guthrie's face when Ed presented him with his new Suhr was something...but the absolute highlight was when we suggested Seth try the swamp-ash Suhr J-Bass on Wednesday evening's Fellowship set. He did...and when it came time for him to solo, he absolutely ripped into that bass, grinning ear to ear...I don't think the rest of the band ever heard him play with such ferocity before...because Guthrie's jaw literally dropped as he watched his brother. Priceless!! Well, we could see there was an instant connection between that Suhr bass and Seth, so Ed presented it to him the next day. The look of gratitude on Seth's face lasted all day long. Now THAT was really a memorable moment...

Anyway, regardless of all this being on, being off business...it was a STELLAR series of performances from Guthrie, Seth, Zak and Pete. I was telling Ed that it was probably the most rewarding week of my life. Not just musically, either. I have NEVER met a nicer group of musicians...it was my privilege to have been able to hang with them for a week."
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Noel E.
Tone Merchants

[Carlo]

thanks for the detailed report Ed

I'd love to see what a 10 would be