The California Guitar Trio will stop by Salt Lake Community College for a short performance and a question-and-answer session Tuesday at South City Campus.
While on tour, band member Paul Richards responded to questions about their upcoming visit.
Q: Why are you interested in coming to Salt Lake Community College?
Our good friend Terry Martin (SLCC photography professor) has been interested in having us at SLCC for a while now and we finally worked it out.
We are coming to Salt Lake City to do a concert at the State Room (with the Montreal Guitar Trio) on Feb. 24 and we were able to add an extra day to our visit to SLC for the event at SLCC. The event at SLCC will be a combination of a short performance with an open discussion with the audience, more of a “presentation” rather than a concert.
Q: What kind of turnout do you expect?
We have never performed at SLCC before, so I really have no idea what the turnout will be for this event. The show at the State Room will likely sell out, so I’m guessing the SLCC event will be well attended as well.
Q: What type of music do you play? Covers? Originals? Do you combine different songs to make a new one?
We play instrumental acoustic guitar music. About two-thirds of our music are originals, and one-third are covers and arrangements.
Our original music is hard to categorize because we are influenced by a wide variety of styles, including progressive, rock, folk, world, electronic, jazz, classical and much more.
If you do a search for California Guitar Trio on YouTube, you will see that our most popular videos [include] a cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” an arrangement of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue,” one of our originals, “The Marsh” — which has a more ambient acoustic sound to it — and a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes.”
It’s not possible to fully understand what the CGT is about by listening or watching just one or two videos. Because our song list is so diverse, you need to listen to 20 or more songs to begin to grasp what we do.
Or better yet, come to one of our performances. Our concerts are like a presentation of what can be done with the acoustic guitar in a way that no one else does.
Q: Do you do anything during your show that demands audience interaction?
For the event at SLCC, we will give a short performance and then invite questions from the audience.
Q: Have you been to SLCC before? If so, what was it like?
Several years ago when I was living in Salt Lake City (I live in Los Angeles now), I attended several concerts and plays at the Grand Theatre and know that it is a wonderful venue.
Q: How long have you been on tour?
This current tour began in Edmonton, Canada [earlier this month] and will end in Durango, Colorado on Feb. 27. We will then take a break for a few weeks and then resume the tour in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and we will be on the road until the end of March.
In April we are planning to go into the studio to begin recording what will be our 15th album.
