{"id":18516,"date":"2020-06-16T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18516"},"modified":"2020-06-16T07:35:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T11:35:40","slug":"guitarist-laurence-juber-connects-the-dots-between-classical-folk-and-the-beatles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/16\/guitarist-laurence-juber-connects-the-dots-between-classical-folk-and-the-beatles\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitarist Laurence Juber Connects the Dots Between Classical, Folk and the Beatles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Laurence Juber was already an accomplished and in-demand session musician before he got the call to join Paul McCartney’s band, Wings. And although he was a member of the group for a comparatively short period \u2013 from 1978 until the band’s dissolution in 1981 \u2013 the influence of the former Beatle would loom large in his subsequent endeavors. But Juber moved beyond rock and pop in a significant way, going on to establish himself as a premier fingerstyle guitarist. His latest album, The Fab 4<\/i>th<\/i><\/sup>, combines his enduring love for (and fascination with) the Beatles’ body of work with his dazzling technique on solo acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n

Juber is a classically-trained musician who reads musical notation. And he says that sort of background isn’t as unusual as one might think among players in the pop music world. \u201cYou\u2019d be surprised \u2013 especially when you start looking at studio musicians \u2013 how many have some level of musical training,\u201d he says. Juber points to the famed coterie of session musicians that played on countless ’60s pop hits. \u201cThe Wrecking Crew did not appear out of nowhere; a lot of them were jazz musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he writes plenty of original music, on his series of albums exploring the Beatles’ music Juber applies his formal training to develop new perspectives on beloved and familiar songs. \u201cThe way that I approach playing solo guitar is to use an altered tuning as a tool to create textures and sonorities that aren\u2019t necessarily typical of the way that the guitar will sound,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

In practice, that means that when Juber delivers an acoustic solo reading of a Beatles rocker like \u201cAnd Your Bird Can Sing\u201d (featured on 2017’s LJ Can’t Stop Playing the Beatles<\/i>), it sounds like two or even three guitarists playing together. He says that his experience playing in rock bands and orchestras informs his approach. \u201cWhen I\u2019m playing, for example, ‘I am the Walrus,’ it gives me a context for emulating the cello lines, or the brass lines, or whatever,\u201d he says. Juber re-imagines those instrumental parts and channels them through his guitar.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFolk music is another significant influence upon Juber’s approach to his instrument. He points in particular to British folk guitarists of the ’60s including Bert Jansch and John Renbourn (both of groundbreaking group Pentangle) and Davey Graham, a hero of the British folk revival of that era. Describing it as \u201cfolk baroque,\u201d Juber explains that the style is informed by Elizabethan and Renaissance era lute music. \u201cIn a way,\u201d he suggests, \u201cthat was their own version of what we now call twelve-bar blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it’s all connected: Juber says there’s a direct line connecting British folk to American musical traditions. \u201cIt’s rooted in the Kentucky thumb-picking tradition of Merle Travis’ and Chet Atkins’ style of playing,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen people ask me if I play country, I say, ‘Which country?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Those connections are the glue that celebrates the line between old and new. \u201cPaul McCartney based his accompaniment to ‘Blackbird’ on a Bach bourr\u00e9e that he and George [Harrison] learned from a Chet Atkins record,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just goes to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his music, Juber draws from rich musical traditions, but he isn’t afraid to apply modern conventions when they make sense. While most fingerstyle guitarists use nylon strings on their instrument, Juber prefers steel, the kind favored by rock players. \u201cI’ve worked with Martin Guitars over the last twenty-plus years to evolve an instrument based on my signature specifications,\u201d he says. His considers his signature model OM Series guitar from Martin to be \u201cabout as close as you can get to a classical guitar, but with steel strings.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, Juber has recorded and released more than two dozen solo albums. \u201cI really learned how to make records as a producer from watching Paul [McCartney],\u201d he says. Today he produces most of his own albums; wife Hope co-produces the Beatles-themed releases. In fact that musical direction was sparked by her. \u201cPeople were asking me for an album of Beatles arrangements for solo guitar, and I kept saying no,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd finally, Hope said, ‘If you don\u2019t do it for anybody else, do it for me.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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