JOE BROWN

~ AgiotFest 10 ~

March Corfiot just out and mega good news: that AgiotFest just keeps getting better.

Bravo all those stalwarts who kept at it and really delivered last year.

Looks like same again with Ag10.

I've warned him. One day, that whippersnapper Alastair Ian Stewart is going to wake up and send me a postcard,

"Er, Chris ... like is that invitation still open? The cottage still free? The Taylor tuned? The Bigsby on the Country Gemmun oiled and ready to trem'?"

And he'll have missed the boat.

But no one's going to miss out come 27/28 August: AgiotFest 10 has snared the great Joe Brown.

Say Joe's name to most people and they'll go Picture of You.

With me, it's got to be All Things Bright and Beautiful.

I'd been learning classical guitar for a while and had no idea whether I was good or what. I just played it non-stop and anything that got in the way of my licking a tune, I just found a left or right hand way round it.

It never occurred to me to be thwarted by mere technique:

Sor, Carulli, Tarrega, Albeniz, Carcassi, Burl Ives, Lonnie Donegan - bring it on.

Then one evening Joe Brown came on tele and played Things and it was one of those 'moments'. I was transfixed.

I sat by the radio til it came on again and I recorded it on my trusty Grundig and took it to my teacher and told him

"I want to learn to play *that*"

He looked at me.

"But you could play that in your sleep. That is *nothing* compared to where you're up to ... here, this is all it is."

And the bugger proceeded to play along with the tape.

"I thought you hadn't heard of Joe Brown?"

"I haven't. But I know the tune, so do you, and the arrangement is charming but very very simple for anyone with your technique.

Actually, I'm quite surprised to hear this Joe Brown playing so well with fingers - I'd like to see Bert Weedon take it on."

He scribbled down the transcription and added a few alternative bass runs and twiddles and off I ran to get it under my belt.

I can't remember it now but for a long time, it and the anonymous 'Romance' [now a bestselling phone chime] and Duane Eddy's treatment of Trambone were guaranteed party pieces and bird pullers.