Musical Deep Thrill

My era of big rock concerts is long past. The last one I saw was with my son and it starred the Dave Matthews Band and Santana.

Yeah, it was quite a show.

But one of the oddnesses of that concert was my reaction to the huge video screens onstage and at the back of the arena. I found myself watching them far more than I watched the stage. That's when I decided that too big was really too big.

So when I drove up to West Fairlee to do a story on the Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie and discovered they were hosting small, intimate concerts in their oversized living room, I was game.

And I have to tell you about the music we were treated to this past Saturday night when bluesman Scott Ainslie brought his collection of instruments, his incredible musicianship, and his vast knowledge of the history of blues to little West Fairlee.

The space holds no more than 60 people. There's bags of popcorn and bottled water out in the kitchen. Every seat is perfect.

Ainslie mixes his music with stories about the people who wrote the blues. He shows you how a mute on a steel guitar transforms it into an instrument that sounds distinctly African. He tells you how he made a one-string guitar out of a cigar box and a pool cue then shows how to play it.

He's got a banjo made out of a guord (with a wonderful, sweet sound). We learned about Robert Johnson and the difference between Delta blues and Memphis blues. He shared a few songs he'd written. He explained how Stephen Foster combined a gospel song he'd heard in a black church in the Old South with new words to make a compelling ode to mastering hard times.

It was, simply, one of the best concerts I've ever attended.

Seriously, check this guy out if you ever hear he's in town. Or you can listen to some of his music on buy it on his website.