SESSION shenanigans
The guitarist’s guide to happiness and fulfilment, as related by Mitch Dalton. This month: “Sometimes you eat the bar. An’ sometimes the bar eats you.”
Well now. A funny thing happened to me on the way through the ‘Elvis - Live On Screen’ arena thrash this last week and it has been suggested to me that it might bring a little mild entertainment should I share it while still within pickin’ memory. So, ‘Applied Arpeggios Part Two’ will appear next month if you can contain your excitement.
Having performed on four previous tours - two in the UK with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and two in mainland Europe with The Czech National Symphony Orchestra, I had a reasonable idea of what to expect. Musically (How Great Thou Art), physically (Don’t Be Cruel) and... er, financially (That’s Alright Mama).
The King appears on a giant screen in scenes from his Las Vegas shows, the ’68 Comeback Special and other classic video clips. The orchestra accompanies him with the aid (or hindrance, according to one’s taste) of a click track while I attempt to reference the rockabilly stylings of legends Scotty Moore, Hank Garland and Chet Atkins for an hour or three with varying degrees of success.
So far, so darn good. Until at the 11th hour it is brought to my attention that there is to be a twist in this Tennessee tale, if you will. Every night we will be joined on stage for the last 15 minutes of each half by Priscilla Presley, Jerry Schilling and three members of Elvis’s original ‘TCB’ band: Ronnie Tutt on drums, Glenn D Hardin (piano) and a certain Mr James Burton, replete with Pink Paisley Signature Telecaster.
And thus it comes to pass that I sit and play the solos in iconic items like Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and Steamroller Blues under the baleful gaze of the legend that is JB, standing not six feet from me. Try it sometime. You’ll find it an absorbing test of nerve. The man rated by Rolling Stone magazine as number 19 in its ‘Top 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time’ then plugs in to his rented Fender Twin Reverb and cranks out Blue Suede Shoes, The Wonder Of You and Big Hunk Of Love with the UK rhythm section and his Memphis maestros goin’ at it simultaneously.
And he ain’t lost it. It’s a pleasure to hear those fluid, melodic lines elevate simple rock and roll to a new level of musicality. The tone, the string bends and the trademark licks that he invented back then are all still intact. And the man is 80 years old.
Remarkably, he doesn’t have me sacked on the spot. More remarkably, he engages me in conversation and says nice things about my playing. I am by turns astonished and relieved. He then pulls out a few signature picks and gives them to me. The man turns out to be a true Southern gent.
The next day, we talk some more. He gives me a Fender Bullet tuner. I sense a pattern developing. We chat about studio giant Tommy Tedesco, the great Peggy Lee, even the album he cut with Mae West. He says more nice things. We talk Roy Orbison, Black And White Night and the solo on Pretty Woman (“Man that was just an accident. Roy forgot to come back in...”) And so it goes. Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham, Sheffield And Glasgow. Another city, another freebie from JB.
He tells me about the new Tele he’s developing with Fender. By the time we reach the O2 Arena and yet more tuners, CDs and picks, I’m unsure if my suitcase will close. He signs my ‘Legendary James Burton Hot Licks’ folio (thanks to the wonder of Amazon Prime) and writes more nice things on the blank page. I can’t tell you what he wrote. But it wasn’t horrible. He asks me if I’ve ever been to Nashville. And then he asks me to come over and play on his next album.
At this point, you will doubtless expect me to write, “And then I woke up.” I expect me to write that! But hell, no. It darn happened that way. So I quit while I was ahead, saddled up and hit the trail out on to The Greenwich Peninsula.
“Sometimes you eat the bar. An’ sometimes the bar eats you.” (The Stranger in The Big Lebowski). Maybe it helps if you know that ‘bar’ is phoneticised pronunciation for ‘bear’. Although The Stranger is consoling The Dude in a bar when he says it. It also helps if you know the movie. Probably...
HE SIGNS MY ‘LEGENDARY JAMES BURTON HOT LICKS FOLIO’ AND WRITES NICE THINGS ON THE BLANK PAGE