Thanks to Roger Regular for sending through his review of Walter Strauss who played at Quay Arts over the weekend. Ed
Thanks to a VB advertisement, I went to the Quay Arts on Friday night to see Walter Strauss play live. What a skillful guitar player he is.
Walter took the appreciative audience on a world journey with his differing music genres, from the Americana to West Africa.
His nimble, quick fingered style allows you to think he is playing more than one instrument, (perhaps he should change his name to Walter “quick-fingers” Strauss). I found myself constantly looking to see where all the sounds were coming from.
Not only did he play the guitar, but gave us a humorous history lesson from around the world, including stories about the buffalo, the last Indian warrior and West African tribes.
Walter’s guitar is an un-holey beast, that is to say it has no hole in it.
To get the sound he wants, his guitar has a magnetic strip under the
“missing hole” with a microphone attached.
This gives his guitar a wonderful rich bass sound, at times it reminded me of Andy McKee, and at times his voice reminded me of “Yusuf Islam”.
One skillful song at the end of his first set, which showed off his talent and the rich bass sound was a track called “Beautiful”; it truly
was.
Included in Walter’s second set was a risqué number titled “Love
Puddle” I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
He told a story with a twist on words, which was skilfully done and humorous.
Walter is a truly talented musician who loved the appreciative audience and vowed to return.
Roger Regular is a keen music photographer, so check out his Flickr site where you can find more shots from gigs around the Island.
