Michael Doherty's Music Log: Laurence Juber Plays The Americana In The Park Series In Santa Monica, 9-29-24

The first time I met Richard T Bear, he introduced me to Laurence Juber, and told me he’s the absolute best acoustic guitar player. That’s a mighty strong statement. That night Laurence was pretty damn impressive on electric guitar, which made me all the more eager to see him on the acoustic. Well, today he played the closing show of the Americana In The Park music series at Gandara Park in Santa Monica, the series’ fourth year, and the first set was a solo acoustic set, all instrumentals. And it turns out Richard was not exaggerating. (He was in the audience, by the way.) Laurence Juber can play the hell out of an acoustic guitar.

He started that first set at 4:10 p.m., opening it with a fantastic version of The Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” and following it with Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” He was all smiles up on the stage, and everyone else was all smiles down in the audience. Some seriously impressive playing, but almost nothing compared to his guitar work on his next number, “Cobalt Blue,” an original composition. Fantastic stuff! And it wasn’t until after that third song that he spoke to the audience. Before that, it was just phenomenal guitar playing. He said that hearing the list of the food trucks lined up in the park got his mouth watering, and then mentioned his album A Day In My Life, on which he covers Beatles songs. From that album, he played “Strawberry Fields Forever,” his rendition having a jazzy, yet somewhat introspective vibe. He also joked around a bit, saying that in the spirit of McCabe’s and the guitar lessons that happen there, he was going to mention his tuning, and said the next was in the ADD tuning which makes it “hard to concentrate.” He did a couple more originals, the pretty “Mosaic” and “Guitar Noir,” the latter having a very cool vibe, and then blew a whole lot of minds with his rendition of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” In introducing that one he said, “The first time I ever played this in public, it was in front of Pete Townshend.” The entire set was great, but this was probably the highlight for a lot of folks. The crowd couldn’t hold back during certain sections, crying out for the sheer joy of witnessing his mastery of the instrument. He then changed gears, delivering a totally delicious rendition of the standard “All Of Me.” He also delivered a Jimi Hendrix tune and wrapped things up with another Beatles song, “A Day In The Life.” That first set ended at 4:58 p.m.

After only a ten-minute break, Laurence Juber was back on stage with his band Airfoil, a group that focuses on music by Wings. As you are likely already aware, Laurence Juber was the lead guitarist in Wings for several years. They opened the set with a fun one, “Jet,” from the great Band On The Run album. Bass player Bill Cinque was on lead vocals. Laurence then sang lead on “Getting Closer,” a song from the 1979 record Back To The Egg. The band rocked on this one, and Laurence reminded folks that he is not just a fantastic acoustic guitar player but can deliver some amazing work on electric guitar too. Keyboardist Jeff Alan Ross took lead vocal duties on a nice rendition of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” They followed that with an instrumental rendition of “My Love” and then a fun version of “Junior’s Farm,” which included a nice jam at the end. The line about the prices being higher at the grocery store stood out this time. Laurence Juber introduced “Spin It On” as a bit of an unusual song for Paul McCartney because it’s a sort of punk rockabilly number. This is another song from Back To The Egg. The band did quite a few songs from that album today, which makes sense, as it’s one of the albums that Laurence Juber played on. Anyway, it’s a pretty cool song. Also cool is that Laurence treated the audience to some anecdotes about his time playing with McCartney, including one about Paul playfully teasing him in concert about his original first name, saying “Take it, Ivor.”

“Baby’s Request” is a sweet song, and another to come from Back To The Egg, and the band followed that with “Arrow Through Me,” also from that album. Not every song in the band’s set was a Wings song, however. They turned to an earlier rock and roll number, Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.” Though there is still a Paul McCartney connection, for this is the song that Paul sang for John Lennon back in 1957. They delivered a great rendition. They also covered The Moody Blues’ “Go Now.” The McCartney connection there is that Denny Laine was an original member of The Moody Blues and sang that song. The more important connection is that song that ended up getting Laurence Juber the audition to join Wings, after Denny Laine was impressed with his playing of the guitar solo. And the band did a James Bond medley, beginning with that wonderful main theme, then going into an instrumental version of “Nobody Does It Better” before getting into “Live And Let Die,” which is still one of the best Bond theme songs. The other medley the band did today was “Goodnight Tonight” into “Coming Up,” both songs released as singles near the end of the Wings years. The set also included “Let Me Roll It” (with guitarist Rob Bonfiglio on lead vocals), a great version of “No Words,” and “Band On The Run.” They closed out the evening with an absolutely fantastic rendition of “Rockestra Theme,” with Richard T Bear joining them on keyboard for it. What a great way to wrap things up. The show ended at 6:44 p.m.