Guitarist comes full cirde
■ King Crimson guitarist
Trey Gunn performs
tonight at the WOW Hall
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Even though Trey Gunn has
n’t played music on the Univer
sity campus since the mid
1980s, he remembered the
experiences with quite a bit of
clarity during a recent phone
conversation from Areata, Calif.
“My band Magic If played a
lot at the WOW Hall and also at
the EMU Ballroom,” said Gunn,
a 1986 graduate from the music
department. “There was a real
hippie vibe back then, but a lot
of punk bands came through
town. I saw X and Black Flag at
the WOW Hall.
“Oh yeah, we also played at
the beer garden on campus. It
was horrible.”
“Hey, at least there was a beer
garden,” several students could
respond to that last gloomy de
piction of his performing career
in Eugene. Life got better for
Gunn, however, and tonight is a
bit of a homecoming for the
Seattle resident.
The Trey Gunn Band plays
the WOW Hall (did someone
say “deja vu?"), with special
guests Facelift, from Eugene,
opening the 8 p.m. show. Tick
ets are $12 at the door.
Yes, Gunn’s life got much
better not too long after he left
the Pacific Northwest. In 1992,
he joined a collaborative project
with David Sylvian and King
Crimson guitarist/frontman
Robert Fripp, releasing a pair of
CDs.
Gunn then got the call-up to
play with King Crimson, a spot
he’s filled since 1994, enough
time to lend his talent to five
King Crimson albums. In be
tween recording and touring
with the legends, he’s managed
to squeeze in enough personal
time on his own band, which re
cently released its fourth CD,
Trey Gunn, with one of his touch guitars, plays the WOW Hall tonight.
“The Joy of Molybdenum.”
Gunn just finished recording
his fifth album with King Crim
son, “The Construction of
Light,” which is scheduled to be
released May 1.
No wonder he recalls the beer
garden gig as one that sucked.
“It’s definitely an asset to
have played with the best musi
cians in the world,” Gunn said,
referring not only to Fripp, et al,
but also to such musical lumi
naries as Toni Childs and Led
Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. “It’s
a real honor to be in [King Crim
son].”
Attempting* to describe the
sound Gunn puts out with his
own band is no easy task. Draw
ing on tinges of the world beat
genre, some fusion and a progres
sive rock pulse, the band’s mix is
two parts mesmerizing and one
part “damn, that’s cool.”
The diversified music comes
from the instruments used to
produce the material. Tony
Geballe plays electric guitar, 12
string acoustic guitar and the
Turkish saz. Percussionist Bob
Muller uses everything from a
tabla to a darbouka to a gamelan
drum for his input.
Gunn himself takes the stage
with a variety of touch guitars,
built by Mark Warr of Warr Gui
tars. The eight-, 10- or 12
stringed instruments are mostly
tapped instead of strummed or
picked and have ranges from be
low a bass to the highs of an
electric guitar.
When he’s not tapping away,
Gunn might chime in with a
mellotron, a theremin, the short
wave or his smokey guitar. For
this three week tour, Randy
Storm joins the band as another
touch guitarist.
With the memories of his past
creeping in again, Gunn said
that he looks forward to enter
taining a local audience. This
gig almost certainly will be bet
ter than another one he recalled,
this time involving the first
band he formed in Eugene, Pun
ishment Farm.
“We were chosen to play at
‘test day’ when the Hult Center
first opened up,” he mused.
“They were checking the
acoustics and needed someone
to play for the reviewers.
“We were the noisemakers.”
Gunn’s kicking up a lot of
racket these days and he’s gone
from the pauper life of a student
slumming for rent money at a
campus beer garden to sharing a
stage with King Crimson.
That’s gotta be everything but
“horrible.”
Courtesy
Laura Love, a Seattle-base singer/songwriter, began recording CDs in 1990; her ‘Afro
Celtic’ sound has been delighting fans ever since.
Love-ly benefit show
to fight sexual assault
■ Laura Love, T.R. Kelley
headline a pre-Valentine
show at the WOW Hall
By Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
Love’s coming to town.
Seattle-based singer/songwriter
Laura Love and local Babes with
Axes band member T.R. Kelley
will perform Saturday night at a
pre-Valentine’s Day concert.
The WOW Hall event is a bene
fit for Sexual Assault Support Ser
vices, a local non-profit organiza
tion.
SASS offers counseling and ed
ucational programs for people
who have been affected by sexual
abuse, harassment or assault.
They also provide a 24-hour crisis
line and self-defense empower
ment classes.
Phyllis Barkhurst, former direc
tor of SASS and the brainchild be
hind the concert, says she always
wanted to put on a Love show.
Barkhurst and Jodi Henry, SASS’
research development coordina
tor, began working on bringing to
gether the concert last summer.
Henry is looking forward to the
concert and enjoys the link be
tween the artist’s name and the
month the show falls on.
“Valentine’s Day, her name
[Love], our services — it just all
came together,” Henry says.
Love’s debut CD “Z Therapy” in
1990 introduced her self-de
scribed “funkability” sound to
music lovers. One critic labeled
her sound “Afro-Celtic,” and
that’s how her music is now wide
ly known.
Since her debut CD, Love has
released five more albums, includ
ing the most recent one, “Shum
Ticky.” That recording was re
ceived warmly by critics and au-.
diences alike.
“I didn’t set out to be unique,”
Love says in a press release. “I
think I was defined by my limita
tions.”
“I didn’t have the attention span
to sit there and get every nuance of
jazz, blues, swing, bluegrass or
Celtic music,” she adds.
Love’s “world music” appeal
and her fusion of numerous music
genres are apparent and that’s
what brings the crowds in, espe
cially in the Northwest.
Kelley, who will open for Love,
has made a name for herself local
ly and nationally. She has been
playing professionally since the
age of 14 and has recorded two
solo CDs, in addition to the two
she’s recorded with Babe with
Axes.
Combining Kelley, the self-ti
tled “eccentric fretless bass god
dess,” with Love and her “hip Ap
palachian” style should make for
an amazing night of music, all to
benefit a good cause.
Tickets for the show are $20 and
are available at the WOW Hall,
291W. Eighth Ave., the EMU Box
Office, House of Records, CD
World and at the SASS office, 591
W. 19th St. The music begins at
8:30 p.m.
A
Dozen
Wrapped
Roses
for
$\Q95
Pisces:
What are you doing thi^veekend?
Check your IS4
UO School of Music World Music Series presents
iunelan Music and
Shadow Puppetry
of Java
Featuring internationally renowned shadow-puppet
master and musician Widiyanto Putro with the
Eugene-based Gamelan Sari Pandhawa
Saturday, Feb. 12 • 8 p.m.
BEALL CONCERT HALL
Gen. Admission, $8 Students/Seniors,
at the door. For info, call Mark Levy at 346-2852.