What's for breakfast
Can't believe it's Friday already. My wife always greets me Friday mornings with an 'It's coffee with Shane!' exclamation. This merely means it is time to leave home about an hour earlier than usual and make my weekly trek to All City Coffee (now part of Caffé Vita) on the corner of Prefontaine and S Washington in downtown Seattle. Cappuccino with a grilled ham and cheese croissant, and friends to chat with. Since November 2005 I have been doing this practically every Friday. Initially it was to keep up with my former manager who had just left WRQ for Atlas Solutions. The number of ex-WRQ colleagues that started working at Atlas started growing and so did our circle of coffee attendees. In 2008 that former manager recruited me to come work for him again at Atlas, just before it was swallowed up by Microsoft. So All City became a daily trek, being the nearest shop. But in October last year I decided to join some other former colleagues at PopCap Games and was able to take my manager with me. So now it's a weekly trek again for both me and my manager to meet our former colleagues at Atlas. Big fun, always interesting, and you keep your network going. And it's our opportunity to talk about nerdy software engineering stuff, practices, and consult peers on the latest problems one might have encountered.
Anyway, it is Friday. Todays topic:
Who are your favorite guitar players? If they are still alive, are you going to their performances?
(Each link will take you to a relevant YouTube video. I just didn't want to fragment to whole post with TV screens. Not always of the greatest quality but alas. It gives you a taste)
Of course I have my favorite rock guitar players. I love Keith Richards. But I will be honest. I'm no longer willing to shell out these astronomical amounts for "Strollin' Bones" tix. The last time I saw Keith was in October 2007 in the Key Arena; a horrible concert venue as far as acoustics is concerned. But my wife and I has very interesting seats, somewhat to the side of the stage where we could see Johnny Starbuck and Pierre de Beauport (Keith's guitar techs) do their magic. That was more interesting than the music. The only band I would be willing to pay a lot for would be Led Zeppelin with Jimmy, Robert, and John-Paul rocking the place. Unfortunately, the Zep reunion tour never got of the ground after their one gig late 2007. But I must say, it was nice to see Robert being supported by Buddy Miller and T Bone Burnett when he was touring with Alison Krauss.
But I relish going to cheaper concerts and see some jazz cats play. John Scofield was in town this week, always amazing. Robin Ford and Michael Landau have a blues band and were gigging here last month. I wouldn't want to miss any opportunity to listen to my fellow Seattlelite Bill Frisell. I have seen him pop-up at other concerts too, supporting Lucinda Williams trading licks with Doug Pettibone, and Wilco (twice) trading licks with the fabulous Nels Cline. (Ever been to a Nels Cline Singers concert? Not a lot of 'singing', but boy is he wailing on his '59 Jazzmaster!) Or Marc Ribot whether he is by himself, supporting Tom Waits, John Zorn, or McCoy Tyner. And then there is of course Pat Metheny, who my wife and I have seen numerous times. The first ever US concert we went to was PM in the Vic in Chicago on our honeymoon in 1992. Then I thought Ticketmaster was nice because I could buy tix with my credit card while still living in the Netherlands. My thoughts on Ticketmaster have changed quite a bit in that respect
Do you have any favorite players, known and lesser known, dead or alive, you think we should know about?
Tomorrow I'll will provide a short LR discussing the outcome of Mondays poll and how it compares with numbers provided by Craig.
No other guitars so he could really do his thing. Played electric / acoustic / electric sets. Only disappointment was no Layla or Tears in Heaven but with that much history he can play whatever he wants.
no. 
