Attached as leading
IN a diary crammed with options this week, two truly top-notch guitarists who dominate proceedings.
First up is the New York-born Gary Lucas, who plays at the Cluny tomorrow night. His hugely impressive CV covers stylistic territory which ranges from Leonard Bernstein to Iggy Pop, Lou Reed to Nick Cave, and Joan Osborne to John Cale, plus dozens of other names from pop, jazz, folk and blues.
He is inextricably linked to one period, however, and that is the early ’80s spell with Captain Beefheart, featuring on the albums Doc at the Radar Station and Ice Cream for Crow. He later formed his own band, Gods & Monsters, before collaborations with a long and diverse cast of musicians, many of whom were at the top of their chosen field.
Lucas also worked with (and cowrote material with) Jeff Buckley on his album Grace. He has a genuinely multi-faceted international reputation as a player, writer, lecturer, tutor and cultural ambassador. A guitar polymath, undoubtedly.
He may have started in the blues tradition, but it is no wonder the New York Times was moved to describe him, thus: “Gary Lucas plays guitar the way Salvador Dali painted, with dazzling displays of technique, wicked humour and a thirst to completely re-fashion his art from its basic elements.”
Next Tuesday night, in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2, another titan of the instrument, Albert Lee, draws on his equally Himalayan career achieve-