I'm staying in the little village of Westcott, part of the slightly less little village of Dorking, south of London, with Lizann and John Peppard. Followers of my former adventures may recognize that John and I are longtime co-writers, sort of a Lennon and McCartney for... well, for someone, somewhere surely!
I'm here for a week before the start of my UK tour in Edinburgh on Feb 20. John and I are writing. More about that later....
Last night I went with Lizann to John's pub gig in a nearby village ("little" on the official British village size scale that I have invented, as opposed to "tiny" or "less little").
John is an master guitar player, who is a student of all blues, rock, and folk styles and seems to know how to play most of most well-known guitar players' licks, which he regularly throws in around his own inventions. He plays and sings solo to prerecorded tracks that he has created himself, so even though he plays covers that are recognizable as such, they are definitely the "John Peppard" versions.
He loves doing this. He played for three straight hours without stopping. He started with Robert Johnson and ended with ZZ Top, with forays into Fleetwood Mac (mostly the earlier Peter Green version), John Lee Hooker, Allman Bros, Beatles, Pink Floyd, and...you name it! The place was packed and dancers crowded the area in front of him. At one point he lost the sound. With encouragement from John we (the audience) kept the beat going strong as ever for the 5 minutes or so it took him to sort out the problem and pick back up exactly where he left off without a moments drop in intensity.
A lot more to tell, but I'll leave it to the imagination. I'll just say there was a fez involved. What a performer!
(P.S. He's also a Grammy Award winning songwriter.)
Click here for photos
- Hugh
I'm here for a week before the start of my UK tour in Edinburgh on Feb 20. John and I are writing. More about that later....
Last night I went with Lizann to John's pub gig in a nearby village ("little" on the official British village size scale that I have invented, as opposed to "tiny" or "less little").
John is an master guitar player, who is a student of all blues, rock, and folk styles and seems to know how to play most of most well-known guitar players' licks, which he regularly throws in around his own inventions. He plays and sings solo to prerecorded tracks that he has created himself, so even though he plays covers that are recognizable as such, they are definitely the "John Peppard" versions.
He loves doing this. He played for three straight hours without stopping. He started with Robert Johnson and ended with ZZ Top, with forays into Fleetwood Mac (mostly the earlier Peter Green version), John Lee Hooker, Allman Bros, Beatles, Pink Floyd, and...you name it! The place was packed and dancers crowded the area in front of him. At one point he lost the sound. With encouragement from John we (the audience) kept the beat going strong as ever for the 5 minutes or so it took him to sort out the problem and pick back up exactly where he left off without a moments drop in intensity.
A lot more to tell, but I'll leave it to the imagination. I'll just say there was a fez involved. What a performer!
(P.S. He's also a Grammy Award winning songwriter.)
Click here for photos
- Hugh