On Nov. 9 three friends and I went to hear a performance by guitarist Adrian Legg at the Kennett Flash.
Before I talk about Adrian, I want to say what a great, relaxed, intimate venue the Flash is. We were up the balcony (it's only up a few steps), which is furnished with comfortable black couches, so you can stretch out like you're at a Roman banquet or a VIP lounge. The Flash even offers food service: we had a hamburger and a chicken Caesar salad, both tasty.
Now on to Adrian, an endearing 68-year-old great-grandfather from London who was not only an amazing musician but a hilarious storyteller. He plays a customized guitar and coaxes from it wonderful, soothing melodies of the sort that are regularly featured on 88.5 WXPN's "Echoes" program. He adjusts his guitar's tuning on the fly, and the observant guitarist in our party noted that the tuning pegs are pointed down, like a banjo's.
We never knew where his stories would end up. In one of them, he told us about how it's a good thing that the blues got started in America because it never would have gotten any traction in England. Had a blues musician in Britain bemoaned the fact that "I woke up this morning and my woman did me wrong," "someone would have said, 'oh, you poor chap, come in and have a cup of tea,' and boom! that would have been the end of it."
In another story he said whenever he is expecting a delivery through the mail and it's taking too long, he has developed a sure-fire way to guarantee that it will arrive: he gets into the bathtub and soaps up and just when he reaches "peak lather," his mailman, Aidan, is sure to show up.
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