I’m a hardcore guitar player. I love the guitar like nothing else. My music lists tend to reflect this but lately as I get old(er), there are other things creeping in. Things with no guitar solos or guitar heroes playing.

I’ve always had a weak spot for certain vocalists. I successfully covered it up because one of them is Gregg Allman (and there are enough guitarists coming and going through that band to sink a ship).

I can’t cover up Joe Cocker though. So much so that I named my first dog Joe Cocker. Ok, he was black and American, but still….

I suppose it wasn’t too much of a leap from Joe Cocker to Sass Jordan. At least Sass had Steve Salas playing on some tracks. Plus she can belch on cue (how sexy is THAT?).

Unfortunately things seem to be getting worse lately. Over the past few months I’ve become rather fond of Joan Osborne (and she’s a year older than I, for once). Looking for some concert video, but not too much to be had on a cursory search.

From the tail end of Joan comes (gee, that didn’t sound too good, did it…) something that caught my ear a long time ago but I never knew why: Del Amitri.

When I heard a few of their hits, something jumped up at me and said to listen closer… they had a certain depth and instrumentation/influence that was not at all common on hit records. And a really boss accordion sound :)

My `day late and twenty dollars short’ timing struck again when I learned Del Amitri had been broken up for a while. I did a bit of searching and came up with some short videos and solo work by Justin Currie, their singer/songwriter.

Know how far off you can be while forming a mental picture of a voice you hear? I was off.
First of all, Justin looks like he’d be at home playing with Dan Baird (another favorite of mine). Second, the thoroughly sarcastic, sardonic lyrical output was somewhat blurred by a rather thick Scot accent. Oh well, you don’t stutter or have an accent when you sing (unless you’re Peter Frampton or Elton John).

The Del Amitri song that completely sent me over the edge was `Sleep Instead of Teardrops’. Again, no guitar heroics… not much guitar to speak of… just some really frightening writing (and singing).

I’m going to put myself on the line here and take a guess at what the song is saying… I’m thinking something terrible happened to someone really close to him and this is his way of admitting there’s nothing he can say or do to fix it. Please correct me if I’m mistaken (you’re welcome too, Justin).

Another unnerving thing is people who just seem to have too much talent. Stevie Wonder is one of them. The man can write, play, sing, play harmonica, synth, and all of it well. Turns out the aforementioned Mr Currie can write, play bass, play guitar, play keyboards, and sing like mad. The only reason I can’t add drums is that I didn’t see any video with him playing them - but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Phil Collins and Paul McCartney are two more. They also share the distinction of being lefties. I always wanted to put together a band with the two of them. We could call it Lefty. We could save a ton on roadies too… use the same guitars… have a blast…. All I’d have to do is be half as talented as they are….

So much for guilty pleasures.
What are yours?