YOUNG JOE ROBINSON SETS THE FINGERS ON FIRE

If you look over at my links column on the right hand side of my
screen, you will see that i have added Joe Robinson, who happens
to be one of the best guitarists in the world, he is only 18 years old
but he has already made waves around the world with his mesme-
rising skills as an acoustic instrumentalist. I dont think i have ever
listened to guitar music with no words and thought it was so great
like i do with this immensely talented young australian. Robinson
makes his guitar literally speak by pitching powerchords against
one another and playing melodies and chords simultaneously to
give the effect he is a two man band. He has this totally bizarre
ability to play a melody with a distinctly Latin feel while at the
same time cooking up a chord laden storm with some complica-
ted arrangements which has notibly caught the attention of a
few musicians who fit into the instrumentalists instrumenta-
list category, notibly Steve Vai and Dweezil Zappa from the
US. Unlike Vai and Zappa though, Robinson weeves his ma-
gic on an acoustic guitar and with no backing band beefing
up his sound. I`m not saying Vai and Zappa aren`t incred-
ibly talented men, they are, but on the scale of age versus
ability and the sophistication of equipment used i actually
think Robinson is ahead of these giants in the instrumen-
tal rock world. I actually saw Robinson play two songs at
the 2010 Maton Guitar Showcase in Tamworth last year,
he opened the show and i tapped my mum on the should-
er and said `man alive, can this kid play a guitar or what`.
I was totally blown away by the sounds he was extracting
out of an acoustic Maton guitar, it was just bloody incredi-
ble stuff. By the sounds of it, it seems that Robinson has a
very good future ahead of him in the stakes of critical rec-
ognition, but his career probaly needs a few kickstarts to
get him the commercial success he thoroughly deserves.
His name is out there, he does have a hardcore and loyal
following i believe, but his main stumbling block in devel-
oping a much greater mainstream audience base will be
the fact he is `just an instrumentalist`. Normally i`d be
the first one to wave the boring banner with an instru-
mentalist, and unless you are talking about a guitarist
with quirky and unrehearsed talent like Robinson who
has that special ingredient called magic i really do think
instrumental music normally is too self indulgent to be
entertaining, at least to most casual music lovers. Joe
Robinson is a freak, but a good freak. A real genius of
the acoustic guitar who i believe will one day become
a commercial success story and a legend. I think we
should all do our bit to help him reach his potential
by going along to one of his shows if we get a chance.
He is so damn good i have given him a permanent
gig on the Lost Treasures home page with a link.