Fabulous French Festival

What a fantastic experience!

The French Stick players and the town of Allaire have established an incredible community event. This year was the fourth annual festival of Tap Guitar, and if what I saw and heard was any indication, there will be many more in years to come, each better than the last.

Allaire is a small town in the Brittany region in France, about 5 hours drive west of Paris. How a music festival can be sustained in a place like this is beyond me, except that there is great support from the government and also from the community to make it possible.

I arrived by plane early Wednesday morning on a redeye from Washington, got a whirlwind tour by car through Paris (thanks Yannick) and then dozed for most of the trip west. Then we arrived in this small town where folks were gathering for this event. The whole town is involved it seems, with students and performers all staying in people's houses, and all of the people involved with the event eating communal meals together.

On Wednesday night we had a little promo performance in a record store for the festival. This was my first time hearing Youenn Landreau play, and thankfully, it wouldn't be the last. I had heard André Pelat a few times, but I didn't know how his peers measure up. Step by step I found myself becoming more and more impressed with the French Stick players. Another nice surprise was seeing André and Bob Culbertson show up, who weren't scheduled to be at the festival, but came to hang out in Allaire, and add their own special magic to the weekend. André performed a bit then I also did a couple of tunes. and we passed out handbills to prospective audience members for the festival.

We then headed of to a small bar in the center of Allaire to meet, eat and drink (there was a lot of meeting, eating and drinking over the next few days). A couple of amps were wheeled in and several players played a few tunes each. As these guys would be my students for the next few days, I paid really close attention to how they played, but not so much that the highly musical nature of their playing didn't escape me. I was especially touched to hear Francois play his rendition of my song "Cross Country" and also to hear Bruno play "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" which I had never heard covered by another Stick player. I looked forward to Thursday morning, and teaching my understanding of how it's done, and learning some things along the way. Off I went to meet my host, Gil, and his family. Wonderful people, the norm I would come to expect before I left.

Thursday morning: we set up at the community center near Allaire's C.L.A.C. office. This is the organization that arranges and sponsor's the festival, and is a separate organization from the AFSTG (Association Française du Stick® et de la Tape Guitare) who were putting on the seminar. At first I though it would be difficult to teach a group this large, of such varied skill levels, and even some odd tunings, but I stuck to the universal points and everyone worked really hard to stay focused on the "task at hand." For the next two days we explored the physical points of Emmett's method in one long continuous lesson. I had never had the opportunity to work in this way, and the continuity and progression seemed to work fine. I feel like I left the players with a lot of ideas to digest and concrete techniques to explore.

On Thursday night we were treated to a great performance by one of Youenn's groups, featuring harp, drums, accordion and Stick. They played traditional and pop music from the region and some original compositions in that vein. Absolutely beautiful. The sound of The Stick and harp together was rich and complex, and they played some very difficult music with ease and grace. Then we heard from Pascal Gutman, whose old ironwood Stick had a great sound, from looser strings in MR tuning. I have a CD from Pascal that I will be reviewing later, but suffice to say he raised the bar one more time for my expectations of the French players. Then Bob surprised everyone with a little improv on the new Alto Stick (more about that down the road). My first sonic taste of this new instrument left me (and all the other players) wanting to try it out. Nice to see Emmett keeps pushing the envelope and developing new concepts.

In the afternoon on Friday Bob and André gave two short presentations to the students. André spoke all in French so I wasn't able to follow what he said, but I always enjoy hearing what he says with his fingers. Bob ran quickly through a series of techniques, and I especially like the way he has developed the "third line" of higher bass strings (reminiscent of the way Chet Atkins arranged things). Then it was time for the first night's concert.

On the bill were Splendore from Italy and bassist Michael Manring. Too much good music to cover here, but Virginia's band sounded great. I love to hear them with the whole ensemble (clarinet, two Sticks and MIDI SB8 drums), and her record Different Things is a great presentation of this sound and material. Ron Baggerman made an NS/Stick demonstration then played a few songs with the big-voiced Frank Leurs. Then it was time for Manring. I had opened up a dozen shows for Michael in the states last year, so I knew what to expect. Still I had almost forgotten the big sound and deep subtlety of his music. Inspiring to me as a soloist and rewarding as a listener. What he gets out of 4 fretless strings is a testament to making the most with the least, and beautiful compositions and interpretations of rock and pop standards.

There was much jamming and the audience of around 250 folks stayed engaged and loved it. The sound and lights were superb.

On Saturday, after sound-checking and rehearsing with Jan, I took a brief trip out to the Atlantic with Bob and Gil, we dashed back in time for me to give a brief presentation on the Stick's history, and to perform a bit of a piece on the Alto Stick, which Bob had kindly let me practice on for a bit. We did manage to stop for a crepe and cider break in a small medieval town on the way. Fabulous!

Michael was still giving his interview when we arrived back late, so I had a short reprieve. It was great to hear him speak about his inspirations and playing philosophy. Then came my turn. As I was in France, I played the Renaissance Lute Medley from my "Shapes" CD, part composed by Adrian Le Roi. Speaking about Emmett's development of The Stick I was suddenly struck by the fact that after many years of guitar development and alterations, to enhance the instrument's capabilities, it wasn't until he changed himself, by changing the way he played, that he realized his goal of expanded orchestration, through his discovery of his unique mode of two-handed tapping. To be here, at a festival dedicated to this way of making music was a truly completing experience.

Closing with a piece on the Alto Stick (thanks for letting me check it out, Bob) I tried to make the point that a future true Stick virtuoso will probably start with this smaller instrument in his or her hands and that we will see great strides in the art of tapping by getting more and more young players involved, especially if the French players and their association are any indication of the enthusiasm and seriousness for the art in the world. Make no mistake, though, the Alto Stick is a serious instrument, which I hope to be using in performance of my own very soon.

Night Two:

A group Stick piece opened up the second night's concert, then Thierry Carpentier's trio played a Cajun mix in the truest sense, harkening back to the French roots of New Orleans music and stretching it through to the current sound of groups like the Neville Brothers. Thierry plays chords and leads and sings in this group, together with drums and bass, a great sound (I'll be posting a review of their CD "Jimmy Boy" soon as well).

André and Bob played an intermission set then it was my turn. I was excited and honored to be here, playing where many great Stick payers had already been, including Pelat, Baggerman, Lampi and Cides.

Jan Wolfkamp and I closed out the festival with a set of originals and covers, familiar to many of you now, from our "Lift" CD, from "Sol" and also the as-yet-unrecorded "Blues for the Status Quo" I can't say how great it was to play with Jan again (it has been 2 1/2 years since our last tour together). Michael came out and joined us for "All Blues," "Chameleon" and "All along the Watchtower" and that was it.

Then we dashed off to Paris for my flight back. My hope is to come back very soon, but I know whenever I return I will be impressed, renewed and inspired by this small town and by the musical force of the French Stick players and their association. My deepest thanks to my hosts Gil and Odile Collin, Alain Launy of C.L.A.C., Youenn, Bruno, Yannick and all the members of the AFSTG, Bruno the chef, and his crew, and all the rest who made it possible, too many to mention here.

Photos from the weekend can be found at:
afstg.free.fr/photos.html

Happy Tapping,
Greg
www.greghoward.com