Resonant Constellation

The Irish/Celtic/Folk band 2Duos is coming through town this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited. First off, I’ve had my tickets since the beginning of the summer (or thereabouts), so I’ve been awaiting this concert quite a while. I’ve been big fan of Aaron Jones, the Bouzouki/Guitar player and lead singer of this group since I first heard him in one of my other favorite bands, Old Blind Dogs, around 2003/04 when they came through Albuquerque on tour. Since then, his playing style has vastly influenced my own and I’d go so far as to call him a musical hero of mine.

All of which is to say that I was extremely excited to learn that I could actually get a private lesson with Aaron on guitar when he came through town. I instantly jumped at the idea, and I found myself at the house of a gracious Tucson host to the musicians of 2Duos on Thursday. We began with an hour long lesson in which I learned more about trad. music on guitar than I have in the last eight months combined. Recently, I feel I’ve been on a kind of plateau and that my playing proficiency hasn’t really gone anywhere, but this lesson certainly got me past that blockage. I’m still trying to work out where to go with all of the options that have opened up for me.

After this excellent lesson, I shared a beer with Aaron, and we discussed a wide variety of topics. At one point he related a story in which he was awed by being able to watch some of his favorite musicians from different bands play together at a festival, and it was at this point when I realized; here I am, sharing a beer and trading stories with one of my musical heroes! It is not something I will soon forget.

Afterwards, everybody (people there for lessons and the band) got together for a little session. It was a truly great night. Now I look forward to seeing the show tomorrow night.