SLEEPWALK GUITAR FESTIVAL UPDATES
So, you know about this whole Sleepwalk Guitar Festival thingy right? The only festival where Six Shooter (that’s us) enlists supreme face melter Luke Doucet to hand pick other face melters to melt your face on the official dates of shred (Nov. 4-6)? Ohhh yeah, it’s goin’ down!!! I’ve gone undercover as super sleuth T. Elecaster (aka Kark Mnopfler) to get you the exclusive details on this most excellent widdly fest.
In addition to the Friday night concert featuring Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis and Luke Doucet and the White Falcon, and the Saturday night concert featuring The Sadies, and the Richard Lloyd Trio (from Television), here are a few of the events that we’ve got planned for the festival:
SIDE AND CENTRE – SONGWRITERS + GUITARISTS. We’ve confirmed the line up for the Side and Centre Workshop (Sat Nov 5 @ 5 pm), which will feature songwriters Andy Maize, Danny Michel, Justin Rutledge and Melissa McClelland. Guitarists are Afie Jurvanen, Christine Bougie, James Robertson and Kurt Swinghammer. Each songwriter will provide acoustic demos to two of the guitarists, who will write guitar parts to be performed live for the first time at Sleepwalk. The purpose of this event is to convey what a guitarist brings to a piece of music, and how different the results can be. Stay tuned for info on other great workshops happening the same Saturday.
SUNDAY COUNTRY + BLUES JAMS CONFIRMED. Sleepwalk Guitar Festival announces two impressive lineups of guitar-slinging talent for the Sunday afternoon Jam Sessions. The Sleepwalk Country Jam features Telecaster masters Brent Mason (Nashville, TN) and Redd Volkaert (Austin, TX) alongside Hurtin’ Albertan Grant Siemens. The Blues Jam welcomes Les Paul player Duke Robillard, Stony Plain stalwart Amos Garrett, Winnipeg Perpetrator Jay Nowicki and Multi-Platinum Juno Award winning Colin James. Both jams will be backed by the Sleepwalk rhythm section, John Dymond on bass and Derek Downham of The Beauties on drums.
Sleepwalk’s Sunday programming also includes a clinic (guitars welcome) by Amos Garett on how to play the iconic Billboard-topping “Sleep Walk” instrumental guitar composition. The tune is instantly familiar, and one of my personal all time faves – see the original Santo and Johnny performance here: http://youtube.com
SLEEPWALK GUITAR FESTIVAL OFFERS EMERGING ARTIST SCHOLARSHIP. The inaugural Sleepwalk Guitar Festival extends an open invitation to the next generation of six-string slingers to apply for the Emerging Artist Scholarship. The winning artist will take home a $1000 cash prize (donated by Six Shooter Records) and a Traynor QuarterHorse amp (donated by Traynor). The Scholarship is open to anyone 19 and under. Entrants should post a link to their performance of an original composition or an interpretation of an existing work on the Sleepwalk Guitar Festival facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sleepwalkguitar. Entries will be judged on innovation, artistry and technique.
SLEEPWALK SPECIAL PARKING LOT SHOWCASE. Sleepwalk’s unofficial parking lot programing will feature ME trying to hack my way through the chords to Tom Petty’s ‘Free Falling’ on one of those cool guitars with a handle cut out of the body (Ibanez JEM, for those of you that speak-a da language). I may also try to make up some new jams based around the same chords as Tom Petty’s ‘Free Falling’, possibly capped off with an epic tapping solo, if I can figure out how to do that. It’ll be a heartbreaker fo’ sho.