The Lord of the Strings Concert Series has brought a host of top flight musicians to the stage to showcase their talents. President and founder Tim Johnson has been doing so since 2002, to the delight of Southern Californian music fans. On Saturday evening, he took up his usual role as master of ceremonies to introduce a performer who proceeded to dazzle the assembled crowd with two sets, featuring inventive original tunes mixed in with a variety of genre-hopping standards.
Water-droplet harmonics cascaded in waves over the audience, followed by complex chord voicing executed at the speed of light supported by bass-lines that seemed to be rolling off the thumb of the tastiest funk player. Floating over this were flawlessly picked melody lines interjected by mind-blowing solos.
All executed simultaneously, seemingly effortlessly, by one prodigiously talented individual.
Meet Joe Robinson...
While those of us witnessing this wizardry paused to pick our collective jaws from the floor and reattach them, Joe casually remarked that he was now "warmed up" and continued on with a virtual masterclass in guitar virtuosity. The combined skillsets of Lenny Breau, Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel (who has championed and mentored Robinson), Merle Travis, Roy Clark and Roy Buchanan all figure in his wheelhouse. Add to this a pitch perfect tenor voice, topped off with a unique, melodic songwriting gift and you have an artist to be reckoned with.
None of this is surprising when you learn that he had logged 1000 plus gigs by the tender age of eighteen(!). The by-product of hard work and natural prowess was obvious to all who were lucky enough to be in attendance. Dashing off a highlight reel of jazz standards, pop, funk, country licks (and everything in between) "The Cannonball Rag" sat comfortably alongside "Misty", "Bye, Bye Blackbird" and his caffeinated version of "Classical Gas" which earned him top honors in the 2008 Australia's Got Talent competition. He also included Adam Rafferty's arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" as well as Tommy Emmanuel's reading of "Over the Rainbow". Both were sublime interpretations. Utilizing a loop pedal for certain tunes, he would lay down sweet rhythm grooves and then grab his Telecaster to obliterate the faithful with incandescent leads. For one selection, he played two guitars at once (picking hand on the acoustic, fret hand on the electric) in what he described as (paraphrasing here), "wrangling both instruments to perform a parlor trick that he never tires of."
Showmanship at its finest.
It must be noted that Robinson read the mood of the crowd quite well, pacing his set accordingly. The most impressive aspect of his stage banter was that he kept it light, humorous and never fell into the singer/songwriter abyss of over-explaining what he was about to do.
Let the Guitar do the Talkin'...
On top of his aforementioned abilities as a performer, his compositions reveal him to be an absolute wordsmith. Free of cliché and brimming with melodic hooks, the songs that he previewed from his new disc, Undertones, were spectacular. ("Anything But Love You", "Let the Guitar Do the Talkin'" and the very clever (hilarious) "Millennium Man"). I will be reviewing that album in full soon, so stay tuned. Other standouts were "Adelaide" and "The Ghost of al Capone", which was result of a dream he had. His storytelling on the latter has a concision and intelligence that draws the listener in, with nary a wasted word to be found. Concluding the evening with "Out Alive", he ripped a series of solos that brought the house to its collective feet. Generous with his time, he even did an encore after that. It was an incredible show, in an intimate venue with crystal-clear sound. My thanks to Nate and Scott for the invite, as all expectations were exceeded.
Deserving of every superlative, to truly appreciate his estimable talents in person, please check out Joe's website for upcoming shows. Highly recommend to all reading here to get out and see him, support the artist and purchase his music. Guaranteed that you will be entertained and inspired out of your skull.
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