Fresh Roadkill

Two new trips have jumped onto my itinerary'tour page, and I'm excited about both of them. First we have the Newport Guitar Festival in Miami Beach, from April 11 through 13, and second, from June 8-14, I'll be teaching a week of fingerstyle classes at Steve Kaufman's Kaufman Kamp in Maryville, Tennessee. They're both great events, and I hope to see some of you at one of the other.

The November Moab (UT) Folk Festival was a highlight of 2007- headlined by Bruce Cockburn and Peter Rowan. The weather for the outdoor shows cooperated beautifully, and the mix of musicians, red rock desert setting, bright blue skies and large and mellow audiences couldn't be beat. Three nice shows followed in Ephraim, Springdale (gateway to Zion National Park) and Cedar City. I came back full of redrock images, visions of golden cottonwood leaves floating down the meandering autumn rivers, and the rootedness of bringing my music to my own home folks. It felt great to spend musical time in my own backyard, and I've resolved to do more Utah and Intermountain concerts in the future.

Last summer I participated in two really nice guitar camps- first in Portland, OR- Mark and Greta's Accent on Music Guitar Camp, and then from Wasilla, Alaska, the Acoustic Alaska camp. You can read about the Portland camp at their website. Nice setting, really enjoyable students and overall vibe, and typical Portland weather, which was a relief to me after several weeks of Utah heat, and you can find out more about the Alaskan adventure at theirs.

I enjoy teaching workshops, master classes and private lessons during the open dates of my tours. Oftentimes I arrange to stop at local friendly music stores on these open dates to teach one-hour private lessons, or to lead workshops for a group of interested guitarists from the area. Are you interested in either of these ideas? Do you seen an opening on my tour schedule? Send me an e-mail, suggest a store or venue, and I'll try and fit it in.

Ladybug Stomp, my new release, is now out, doing well, and can be found at all of the web outlets on my products page. It's now on iTunes and all of the other download services as well, as are all of my other CD's. It contains 11 new original compositions, plus the beautiful old Stephen Foster nugget, "Hard Times," on which Artie Traum plays a wonderful second guitar part. Song titles include the title track "Ladybug Stomp," "Dream and Variations," "CPSM," "The Anniversary Waltz," "Beppe," (guess who that song is written for?), "Red Zinger," (a challenging 12-string piece), "Make it Snappy" and "Meriwether." I'm returning to my composing roots after the Collection and Under the Influence, and I'm excited about that return, and about this music. Immediately below is the first review, in Spring 2007 Wood and Steel magazine:

"The first Taylor clinician, Chris Proctor, is one of today’s finest steel-string fingerstyle guitarists, in the same league as such esteemed players as the late Michael Hedges and Leo Kottke. Distinctly rootsy in character, Proctor’s multilayered compositions draw from folk, jazz, pop, and classical styles.

Ladybug Stomp is a collection of a dozen new tunes that kicks off, appropriately enough, with “CPSM” — the first tune Proctor wrote on his Taylor signature model. With its deftly picked, chromatic single-note runs — played simultaneously with an alternating bass line — the piece is an excellent showcase for Proctor’s virtuosic side.

In contrast, “Dream and Variations” is a more meditative piece, filled with some lush, slowly moving arpeggios. The piece receives a particularly ethereal treatment with an overdub of some melodic EBow playing. (The EBow is a handheld electronic bow, more commonly used on the electric guitar, that produces infinite sustain.)

“Beppe” was inspired by a dinner that Proctor had with Italian flatpicking king Beppe Gambetta and his wife, Federica. With a handful of suspended chords and a lilting bass line, the warm composition perfectly captures the essence of a fine gastronomical experience shared with good friends.

“Requiem”, as Proctor explains in his liner notes, offers a good example of his painstakingly meticulous writing process. He began the piece after Michael Hedges died, in 1997, then set it aside before slowly adding other parts after the 9/11 disaster. In addition to compositional considerations, Proctor’s pieces take a long time to complete due to their technical demands; frequently, a new tune will require a new approach to the guitar, such as the synchronized bass line, chords, and delicate harp-harmonic melody of the song’s first section.

Perhaps the highlight of this set is “Red Zinger”, recorded on a LKSM maple 12-string. This composition also necessitates an unorthodox technique — Proctor uses his thumb to extract a melody on the higher-pitched string of each course, which requires an extremely light, precise touch. He also employs a foam mute on this one for a dark and lovely effect. While in the hands of a lesser musician, such approaches might seem gimmicky, Proctor makes everything sound extremely musical, for he is a tremendous composer, and his technique is always at the service of the song." -- Marc Harris

Also fresh out of the box is a project of a different sort- Kyser Capos is releasing a CD sampler of songs utilizing its Short Cut™ capo- partial capos which alter the chordal structure of the guitar's fingerboard. It features my contribution, "Morning Thunder," as well as cuts from David Wilcox, Patty Larkin, Adrian Legg, Harvey Reid, Cosy Sheridan, Janice Ian, and others. It isn't being sold- rather it is being distributed as a promotional tool by Kyser, hoping to convert the guitar masses to the partial capo concept. For more information, audio clips, and partial capo ideas, check out Kyser's website, www.kysermusical.com

I hope that you get a chance to inspect my Alfred/Warner Publications book, Chris Proctor- Guitar Collection. The book has detailed and accurate transcriptions of twelve of the songs from my new CD, and the instructional CD will help the user navigate the technically-challenging sections of each piece to help them through the learning process. I spend time on the enclosed instructional CD with oddities such as the Ebow, my homemade foam mutes, my choice of slides, and my method of playing the 12 string which concentrates on playing melody with the thumb on the octave strings of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th string pairs. I'm excited by the book, which is also available from my products page.

Ladybug Stomp contains some revelatory 12-string work with my new maple LKSM custom jumbo 12-string, on the 4th song in my Celestial Seasonings series, "Red Zinger." I have been concentrating on using the octave strings on the bottom 4 string sets for their melodic rather than their bass potential, with a very light and precise right thumb attack, playing just the higher-pitched of the two strings in each pair, and the results are on display in "Red Zinger."

That same technique is introduced and explained in my new 12-string video/DVD, "Techniques for Contemporary 12-String Guitar," just released on Homespun Videos. We hope that all 12-string players will go buy a copy, and help support Homespun's commitment to quality instruction, even for instruments like the 12-string that are considered esoteric in nature. We'll definitely need everyone's help to make a 12-string video/DVD a success, and all fingerstylists who enjoy the 12-string will find something to inspire and help them along in this new instructional DVD/Video.

Here's a quote from a fan of "The Chris Proctor Collection:"

"I believe that you were not overselling the technical excellence of this recording. It has amazing presence and spaciousness about it, while maintaining the intimacy of a solo artist performing. It is full of those small segments when you can hear the wonderful overtones of individual notes plucked on a great acoustic guitar, shimmering from the speakers. Maybe you have to be a guitar player to get such a charge out of the beauty of a single note. I get a primal delight out of just hearing the mids from your Brazilian. I can't recall the tunes or the exact locations, but there were several examples of the A and D string open, or fretted low on the neck, that sent a chill up my spine. The recording is as close to sitting in front of you as you play as can be achieved from what I can tell. If that is what you were going for, you succeeded in my humble opinion...

...I noticed that I heard these tunes in a different way, because the order of presentation was so different from the groupings on the original CD's. It's kind of like walking into a room that you are very familiar with where somebody has rearranged the furniture. Suddenly you start recognizing things that had become subconscious. This was particularly apparent with "His Journey Home". I've always liked that tune, but I never paid attention to the richness of the composition as much as I did on this recording. Separated from the other tunes on the original CD, this now stands out in my mind as a masterwork. I knew you were a craftsman of the highest order, but this one really blew me away. That is despite enjoying it (I guess on a more superficial level) for many years."

If you want to read or hear more about The Chris Proctor Collection, or its equally popular partner CD, Under the Influence, you know what to do.