Illinois Entertainer February 2018 | Page 10

TE: Right. But I don’t do any of that stuff. I mean, I have done it with other people’s records – I played on a Diana Ross track, and I was in Manchester, England and the rest of the band was in Los Angeles. And I played on Michael Jackson’s posthumous album that was made in L.A., while I did my part in London and E-mailed it in. But a really good artist like Todd Rundgren could make it sound like everybody’s all in one room together. tion to the art of finger picking.’ And I learned everything from him. He gave us all a quality to aim for, and he set the bar pretty high. IE: You’re actually no stranger to collabo- ration. At age six, you were already tour- ing Australia with your dad in a family band. TE:The government thought that it was slave labor, but we were being educated. 02•2018 IE: Speaking of Chet Atkins, didn’t you write a fan letter to him when you first started playing guitar as a little kid? TE: I did. I wrote him a fan letter, and this was back in 1967, when Chet was the busiest guy in Nashville. And about two months later, I got a reply and a black and white photograph. And I mean, it was a real fan letter. IE: And who would have thought that one day end up – not only recording with – but that Chet would personally award you his Certified Guitar Player kudo, one of only five in existence? TE: Yeah. And there are only three of us left. And I think it was something that he wanted to do publicly. And I think it’s a responsibility, especially to this younger generation, to hand this music over to them and give young people something that’s real. Chet wrote ‘The Certified Guitar Player Award for lifetime contribu- That was what we wanted to do – we were just kids who were crazy about being on the road and entertaining people. We played what was in the Top 40 at the time in the early ‘60s, which was mostly surf music by The Ventures, Duane Eddy, and an English band called The Shadows. They were our first big influences. And then, of course, any Marty Robbins song that had a good melody, like “El Paso” or “Little Green Valley” – we’d work out instrumental versions of those. Then along came the great Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, which gave us a whole list of new songs to learn. Then came The Beatles, Eric Clapton, artists like that. IE: You also found time last year to release an entire album with David Grisman called “Pickin’”? TE: It was a crazy year and it almost did me in, but I’m alright now. You’ve just got to take care of yourself. But my wife and I Continued on page 44 10 illinoisentertainer.com february 2018 February 2 DZ Deathrays Bloody Lovely Field Music Open Here Hookworms Microshift Rae Morris Someone Out There Simple Minds Walk Between Worlds February 9 Brian Fallon Sleepwalkers Dashboard Confessional Crooked Shadows Franz Ferdinand Always Ascendin Son Lux Brighter Wounds Fu Manchu Clone Of The Unive Holy Motors Slow Sundown MGMT Little Dark Age Paul Luc Bad Seed Son Lux Brighter Wounds The Wombats Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life Franz Ferdinand February 16 American Nightmare American Nightmare Belle & Sebastian How To Solve Our Human Problems Born Ruffians Uncle, Duke & The Chief Brandi Carlile By The Way, I Forgive You Dabrye Three/Three Escape the Fate I Am Human Fischerspooner Sir I'm With Her See You Around Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet Landfall Loma Loma Marlon Williams Make Way For Love Neal Morse Life & Times Ought Room Inside The World Pianos Become the Teeth Wait For Love SUPERCHUNK Pop Evil Pop Evil