We went to check out the FREE Mike Keneally/Taylor Guitars "workshop" which took place at the Guitar World music store in Fairfield, Ohio (just outside of Cincinnati) the evening of May 14, 2001. The event was billed as "Frontiers of Acoustic Guitar with Mike Keneally." What a truly inspiring and enjoyable experience! It was an odd little event, hard to categorize; sort of a mini-concert/sales pitch/demonstration/Q&A/event. I would estimate that there were about 70 people in attendance. The room was rather small, maybe 30 feet by 40 feet, located in the back of the store with a small stage. The overall feeling was casual and very intimate.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Mike Keneally, he has released 8 albums, both solo and with his band Beer For Dolphins. He has also toured and recorded with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai and many others. Mike Keneally, playing a Taylor acoustic guitar, was backed-up by Bryan Beller on a Taylor acoustic bass. Even though the event was acoustic, both players were plugged into a couple of amps (their Taylor instruments having built-in Fishman pre amp electronics). Because of the small size of the room, Mike asked if everyone would please scoot closer to make room for the people in the back who were displaced out through the door into the adjacent room. So everyone in chairs moved forward quite a bit making more room in the back. Mike also suggested that some people might come up front and sit on the floor in front of the stage (which was about 2 feet high) to create even more room. We didn't need any more coaxing than that and wasted no time scampering to the fore. We ended up getting to sit on the floor right in front with Mike not more than 5 feet away. Best seats in the house.

They kicked off the event with a few tunes, including "Rosemary Girl", then started chatting about how great Taylor guitars are and why (it was a Taylor sponsored event). Mike was "preaching to the choir" in Don's case; Don already owns three-count 'em, THREE-Taylor guitars! Then they invited questions from the audience on topics about anything that the folks in attendance wanted to hear about. Most of the questions were of the, "What was it like to play with Zappa?" and "How did you get the job?" ilk.

Bill asked Mike what he played for his audition for Zappa, and this brought out an interesting story. Mike told of how, after playing keyboards for several years, he decided that he might like to play guitar "for fun." After he'd been playing for a while, he called Zappa's offices and offered his services as a guitar player, saying he was familiar with Zappa's whole repertoire. Frank told him to be ready to play "What's New in Baltimore?" and "Sinister Footwear", two monstrously difficult songs. The next day, he went for his audition and played the two pieces, after having worked on them the previous evening. After he'd done them, Zappa just started calling out song titles, and Keneally got through every one of them. At that point, I'm sure that Zappa realized that this was no ordinary musician, and hired him on the spot. Mike then proceeded to play "What's New in Baltimore?" for us, and it was thrilling! He was flying all over the neck of his guitar, reproducing beautifully the amazing harmonic progressions of the song.

One young man in the audience said that he had been playing guitar for only about 6 months and was wondering what advice Mike might give him on learning. Mike spent a considerable amount of time addressing this young man's question, and he did it in a manner that was absolutely free of even a hint of condescension. In fact, throughout the evening, one of the strongest impressions that came across was how approachable and completely down-to-earth Mike Keneally is. We've known musicians with barely one tenth of Keneally's talent who are snobs, and feel that every lick they play should be prized as though it was an immortal model of inventiveness and technique. There is none of that in Mike Keneally, even though he has inventiveness and technique fairly dripping from every pore!

Mike and Bryan also had 11 sets of Elixir acoustic guitar strings to give away (compliments of Taylor guitars) and went about this by awarding a set to individuals in the audience who could answer their musical trivia questions. Through a little piece of luck, Bill (a drummer with little use for guitar strings) managed to win a set of these strings for Don (a guitarist with oodles of use for guitar strings!). Mike had mentioned in response to a question that one of the artists he spends a lot of time listening to was Steely Dan. He asked "Who played the guitar solo on "Home At Last" on the Aja album. People were calling out "Larry Carlton," and "Elliot Randall," etc., but Bill was pretty sure he had the answer. And when Mike said, "No, a little closer to home than that," Bill called out "Walter Becker." Give that man a set of Elixir Strings!

The evening proceeded like this, alternating between conversation and wonderful music, from 7 pm till about 9:30. The music was awesome in the truest sense of the word. Mike & Bryan's chops were daunting, amazing and inspiring, playing copious variations and improvisations of the most complex, contortional progressions, and Zappa-esque odd time signatures imaginable. Their presentation was filled with humor, information and delight. Their genuine joy of, and enthusiasm for, playing was obvious and came beaming through. One delight of the evening came when Mike and Bryan launched into a rendition of - Mother Mary & Joseph!! - Zappa's "Inca Roads." It was, as you might expect, note-perfect. As they began, Mike looked at Bryan and said, "I'm gonna do my best to make my man screw up here!" But Bryan kept up with him, and the result was gorgeous. Another piece they played was a new song titled "Thanksgiving," which Don felt put him in mind of a Captain Beefheart song, "One Red Rose That I Mean."

To cap off the event, they had CDs & T-shirts for sale, which they graciously signed for anyone wishing, chatting amiably with everyone all the while. Both Mike & Bryan were very accessible, friendly, informative, and down to earth. It's refreshing to see individuals of this stature and talent be so humble and gracious. Genuine people as well as accomplished musicians.

While getting CDs signed and chatting with Mike Keneally, we mentioned that a friend of ours, Rusty Pipes (whom we happen to know by his REAL name) had interviewed him not long ago [Cosmik Debris, March 2001 issue]. Mike said, "Oh yeah, Rusty! I remember that. He was a great guy. That was one of the most fun interviews I've ever had. I still owe him some music." He went on to say, "Say hi to him for me next time you talk to him." (So Rusty, Mike Keneally says "Hi!") Thanking Mike and Bryan for their time and the great music, we reluctantly called it a night.

But there was one more treat in store. As we were waiting at the stop light to leave the parking lot, who should pull up next to us but Mike, Bryan, and the other folks who had been at the show with them. We, naturally, had the new Beer For Dolphins CD playing in the car. Don cued up "Lhai Sal" (one seriously cookin' piece of music!), we cranked up the volume and opened the window. Mike rolled down his window. After a couple seconds, he recognized what we were listening to, and a big grin spread across his face. We proceeded to have another quick conversation yelling back and forth between the two cars like high school kids! The light turned green, and waving and saying, "Bye! Thanks for coming tonight!" he drove away.

I guess you probably can figure out that we had a spectacular time. We didn't know much about Mike Keneally before this event, but I must say, we're definitely big fans now. If you ever get the opportunity to catch Keneally playing, do yourself a big favor and check him out. It's a memorable experience.

(C) 2001 - Don Marsh & Bill Brinkmoeller