Friday 16 September 2016
The Weekend Sun
60
Young guitarist specialising in old-time music Having a chat with Josh Durning is an education. Which is nothing but a good thing, as Josh’s current gig is teaching. But it’s hard not to feel as though he’s temporarily living in limbo. Josh, about whom I’ve written before,
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is a young guitarist, a remarkable young guitarist – he also plays very good banjo – who specialises in old-time music. By that I mean early country, jazz, blues, and bluegrass. And that’s a tricky path to pursue in Tauranga, which is why Josh is looking at a future in America. He’s recently returned from his latest three week trip there, where he split his time between Los Angeles and Nashville. In June, Josh flew to LA. He rents an apartment in Culver City when he’s there so he can teach. He teaches people he’s previously met at the NAMM show and at music shops where he demonstrates guitars. You can see some of these online; Josh demonstrates the sound of vintage – and new – guitars, at places such as Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana. (First aside: He also does demos in
Tennessee at Carter Vintage Guitars which is the home of – guitar-lovers take note! – the first ever 1959 Les Paul electric guitar. Amongst other rarities, for comparison he played two Martin guitars there, one valued at $8,000 and the other at $125,000...) Josh spent a week in LA, playing trad. Dixie with friends, jamming bluegrass tunes at Laguna Beach, before the more official bit of the trip, the 33 Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society gathering in Nashville. This is a big event: four days of music, hundreds of people from all over the country and world. Josh – a Chet Atkins specialist – was an invited guest for the second time. He played three concerts, one on the main stage, and gave a workshop based on a new practical guitar system he is developing around jazz chords and extensions.
No. 1492 6. Instant (5) 11. Drug (8) 13. Breathe out (6) 14 Green (6) 15. Ravenous (6) 16. Boundary (5) 18. Entice (4) C O S A E C Y A P A F A F
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Josh Durning doing what he does best.
I asked him how this all came about and Josh puts it down to a French radio station called La Guitar Picking, which specialises in old-time acoustic guitar music. Josh submitted some pieces, which got played, which led to an interview in guitar magazine Fingerstyle 360. And that led to the Chet Atkins convention and offers to demo guitars at the prestigious NAMM show, an annual event held every January in Anaheim, California, described as “the world’s largest trade-only event for the music products industry”. So it was an eventful three weeks. But what does someone of Josh’s eclectic talents do in Tauranga? There are few gigs and few other enthusiasts to play and share with. Josh is back, and teaching is about the only option. (Second aside: Josh has room for more pupils. But he doesn’t teach beginners: people come to him for Chet Atkins lessons, or bluegrass banjo lessons, or lessons in the guitar style of the great Reverend Gary Davis – specific things, worth their weight in gold if that’s what you want to learn.) I asked Josh what he’s listening to at the moment and he told me Nick Lucas. That was an education for me. Nick Lucas was the first jazz guitarist to record (1914), the man who originated ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’. I’ve heard of Eddie Lang, popularly known as the ‘father of jazz guitar’- this was the guy who taught Eddie Lang! And he played up till the 1970s. Josh showed me a clip of Lucas performing at his eightieth birthday party. He was brilliant! It’s not often I come away from an interview thinking that my life is richer but with that, and a few album recommendations as well, I did this time. Josh knows so much and is learning so fast that I suspect he’ll be gone from here soon. He has plans to move to Oregon in the States next year and I hope he does; these shores can only serve to hold back such a prodigious musician. In the meantime – acoustic clubs, folk clubs, whoever you are, if you like old-time guitar music, give Josh a gig right now and enjoy this rare and unique talent before it’s gone. watusi@thesun.co.nz
Contest to capture ‘word pictures’ Writing haiku poems is a little like taking photographs, says poet Catherine Mair of Katikati. That’s because haiku poems are tightly focused, capturing a moment in time, using words to evoke a mental image or emotion in the reader. Catherine has been writing haiku poems for more than 40 years and there’s hardly a person, animal, experience or scene in her life which isn’t recorded in some way in her writing. That’s reflected in her latest book ‘Incoming Tide’, a collection of poems in the haiku, haibun and tanka styles which is available from Paper Plus in Katikati. Catherine
prize pool for the senior section also loves reading poems written of Katikati Haiku Contest is by others, especially children, $175 while successful junior which is why she’s looking entrants pick up $85 forward to judging the for junior entrants junior section in the thanks to sponsors Katikati Haiku Kings Seeds. Plus Contest, with there is a book entries to the prize for the Best competition Local Haiku. now open. All proceeds go “Children often to the Katikati write stunning Haiku Pathway haiku, which is project, which fresh and perceptive; supports the town’s and I especially love the ones which have Katikati poet Catherine riverside pathway, Mair with her latest featuring boulders a touch of humour to book ‘Incoming Tide’. engraved with haiku. them.” This year the