Southern California, September 2010
It is about 85 degrees outside, sun is shining and there is a heavy layer of smog just above the horizon. I am sitting at gate 31A in the LAX airport waiting for my plane back to Eugene. This past week here in Southern California has been wonderful. I originally made the journey here to do a performance and instructional workshop for the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarist(AFG) but just by chance,a couple opportunities came about to join Thom Bresh for his Lord of The Strings Concert, visit family, go to a few Angels baseball games and teach a fingerstyle guitar clinic at USC!
This was my second time performing for the AFG group, the first time I made an appearance here with Buster, I was about a foot and a half shorter. Needless to say not everyone recognized me. The event for AFG was held in Covina, CA at the Frethouse, and was a success. Thom Bresh did the very generous gesture of joining me for the AFG event and we were able to pick some tunes together. It was so much fun!
Upon talking to Thom Bresh after playing for the AFG event he invited me to come and play a couple of songs with him during his concert that night in Mission Viejo, CA. I was so honored to be able to get up on stage and perform with Thom. There was a lot of energy, laughing, smiling and as Buster would say, we hit more notes than we missed. We executed three songs from Buster B. Jones and Thom Bresh's cd Guts and Steel just about exactly the way they sounded on the album. It was such an incredible opportunity for me to be on stage with The Breshman, and a very special couple of moments I will never forget.
The next few nights were completely open for me so I decided to go to a couple of Angels baseball games back to back. The first game I attended was against the White Sox. The woman sitting next to me in the upper deck commented that there wasn't much of a turn out for the game. I guess she was right, there were only 45,000 people there! The next night the Angels played the Athletics. It was very fun to go to a MLB game.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to USC. I had the chance to meet Professor Richard Smith around thanksgiving last year. Richard received the press release from AFG and when he heard I was going to be in the area he contacted me and organized the clinic at USC. It was great to have the opportunity to share my experiences and playing techniques with the students at USC. It was so much fun.
Unfortunately I have to cut the story short because my plane is about to take off without me if I don't hurry up. Thanks for reading.
Brooks
Comment
© 2012 Created by Brooks Robertson.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Brooks Robertson - Funky Fingerstyle Guitarist to add comments!
Join Brooks Robertson - Funky Fingerstyle Guitarist