When Don Alder took to the stage with nothing but a simple acoustic guitar, there was no way of anticipating the encyclopedic sounds he’d be making.
Working with rock ‘n’ roll’s most standard instrument, Alder found an untapped musical market to capitalize on.
Seeing the magic he could bring out of the instrument made me reevaluate everything I knew about the acoustic guitar. The feeling was like riding in automobiles on pavement all your life, and then finding out that all along they were capable of flight.
Whether you were looking at his left hand or right, there was no telling whether he was strumming or picking. And while his craft seemed immensely complex, he struck every note smoothly with a seemingly effortless flow.
His discussions with the crowd drew similar observations. While storytelling and songwriting are two separate forms of art, his conversations demonstrated the same juxtaposition of simplicity and profundity.
He walked the audience through his progression right from the beginning. As a teenager eager to become a musician, the acoustic guitar wasn’t his preferred instrument, but his family’s circumstances directed him towards his six-string destiny. As a young Alder slapped away to the simple rhythm of Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones, he continually found new elements to add in. From beatboxing on the guitar’s body to warping notes by pulsing its neck, he figured out how to offer the sound of a full-band without even having to plug in.
His rich sense of modesty made it easy to forget the countless hours of practice needed to deliver sound the way he can. Though his incredible skill set was made apparent through a story he told about his guitar, in which he was invited to record in Europe, and arrived to discover his guitar was smashed during the commute. A large hole became part of the body, and the guitar’s bridge, which keeps the strings tight on the strumming side, was dangling. But as the Canadian he is, Alder successfully led a hunt for duct tape, and repaired his guitar Red Green-style. He said the damage installed a mandatory wah-wah effect, and the strings were extra tricky to keep in tune – but his sharp ear and ingenuity eliminated the problem.
The audience was told more about the anatomy of a guitar during an explanation of his new album Armed and Dangerous. As a fan of the tv series The Walking Dead, Alder uses his imagination to lead the march against the undead as a singer-songwriter. Featured in his arsenal is a flamethrower sammy bar and razor wire guitar strings.
“If an acoustic guitarist living in zombie times needed to get to the gig they would need the ultimate acoustic guitar weapon,” is how he described his album.
“Of course that would be a fan fret with armrest bevel, equipped with blades, chainsaw, and flame thrower, using strings as whips and having adamantium nails – one would always get to the gig on time.”
Alder is currently on tour promoting Armed and Dangerous, and his performance in Penticton was on Sept. 23 at the Opus Café.
Dan Walton is the arts and entertainment editor at the Western News.
