Adam Levy meet everyone... Everyone, this is Adam

Please welcome Adam Levy to the fold... Methinks Mr. Levy may become a semi-regular fixture as a guest columnist in Oscar's world. Adam is a long (long long) time pal, a great little songwriter, and a world class gymnast. I could prattle on and on telling you about Adam - his love of gin and juice, his passion for mid-80s pop/funk (the Deele, anybody?), his unfortunate bout with vegetarianism (he has since been cured, praise Jesus), etc. etc... but let's just hear from the man himself:



I'm a guitar player. You might know me from my work with Norah Jones, or Amos Lee, or Tracy Chapman. Playing guitar is an odd way to make a living, but it's what I do and the job has its perks. Among the perks are the e-mails that friends frequently send me, with jokes about musicians. (Q: How can you tell when the stage is level? A: The drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth.)

Friends also e-mail me links to entertaining guitar-related YouTube videos. Some of the funniest I've seen, by far, are posted here: http://youtube.com/user/StSanders. These videos feature guitarists known for their hot-shit playing -- guys such as Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, and Steve Vai. The gag is, the dude who posted these clips has dubbed new audio tracks with appallingly bad guitar work, expertly synchronized with the original video. The results range from mildly amusing (Slash) to piss-in-your-pants funny (Jake E. Lee with Ozzy). What makes these work is that they parody the ridiculous culture of guitarist-as-demigod.

Not all of the stuff I get in my Inbox is humorous, though. In fact, someone recently sent me a link to some YouTube clips of my first guitar teacher, Jimmy Wyble. He's 85 and still playing fantastic stuff. Check this out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FsK2x08i0AI. He's a lovely guitar player and truly unique in his style.

I had a point when I started to write this blog posting. I swear, I did. But now I've lost the thread. Was it that Jake E. Lee is a joke and that old jazz guys are no joke? No, that's not it at all. I just want people who aren't guitar players to be aware of some cool stuff I've found. If you're not a guitar player, nobody's gonna tell you about these things. But I just did.

—Adam Levy