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.
The Americana In The Park music series is held at Gandara Park in Santa Monica, California. See you there next year!
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