Home from Italy, Proctor pops up at Peery's
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By LINDA EAST BRADY
Standard-Examiner staff
Chris Proctor, the Sugarhouse-based fingerstyle maestro, recently returned from a tour of Italy. The guitarist, who plays Peery's Egyptian Theater's Excellence in Community series next Friday, also recently learned to speak Italian.
He says having the second language gives him a fine excuse to play over there more often.
Proctor has noticed that European audiences differ somewhat from his own country's fans.
"As an audience, (the Europeans) seem to be more reserved, but as individuals they are less so," he said. "They talk to you individually, in that effusive Italian style. You get e-mails for days after a show, talking about this and that. Sometimes you think, 'Huh. They were more involved than I thought by their response.'
"Also, over there, I am playing in public buildings that are kind of grand. Sometimes here, you find yourself at a multipurpose room at a library, or a little folk club. Of course, that is not the case with the Egyptian Theater. That's a grand hall, too."
Blues roots
Proctor arrived in Salt Lake City in 1964 as a child. His father was stationed at Fort Douglas, but passed away soon after the family arrived.
"We kind of looked at each other as a family and said, 'Well, where else would we go but here? This is the right home, the right place,' " Proctor said.
His first instruments were piano and trumpet.
"I had a guitar around, too, and even then I liked it more, but it was the usual -- 'You are going to take this and like it.' I abandoned those in late junior high. It was in high school I got really hooked on the guitar."
Proctor remembers well the day everything changed and the guitar went from hobby to vocation. He went to a show featuring acoustic bluesman Robert Pete Williams in the basement coffeehouse of the old Newman Center at the University of Utah.
"It was just astounding for me to be that close and to see what sounds you could create with that one guitar. I was instantly drawn to that style. It sounded so complete," he said.
He soon saw other blues people playing in the percussive blues fingerstyle, including Mance Lipscomb and Elizabeth Cotton.
"That is sort of what I teethed myself on -- not so much because I wanted to be a bluesman, but it was the first fingerstyle stuff I'd come across firsthand. I took five lessons from the guy who opened for Williams that fateful night, and that was enough to get me going."
Proctor soon discovered artists like Leo Kottke and John Fahey, who were playing contemporary music fingerstyle, as well as British Isles players following the Celtic tradition.
"I made a point to see some of these people, and the interest just exploded inside me," he said. "Even after high school, in college and the working world, all I could do was play."
Sharing secrets
Proctor is known not only for his playing style, but also for some of the unusual tunings he incorporates. While some players are protective of their bag of tricks, Proctor is not.
"I don't mind telling people my tunings and that kind of thing," he said. "I don't see the point of not telling them. Tell you the truth -- this is really hard music to play. If someone's got the patience and skills to figure it out, more power to them. I'll help any way I can."
Proctor believes that, if the body and the hands stay strong, guitarists who play in the style only get better with age.
"Whenever I hear, 'Here is the newest, coolest guy,' I'll listen in. But more often than not, I'll think, 'Let that season for a while. Let's hear them again in 10 years.'
"Technical skill is critical, but you have to also have musical taste, and develop a body of arrangements and/or original pieces that merit some attention. Usually, that comes with time. And building a repertoire also takes time. For instance, now, if the audience responds well to an Irish piece, or a blues piece, I'll have four more to work with. A younger player might not have built things to that level yet."
The Ogden program
As for the Egyptian show, Proctor said some songs will be planned, and some will come as the night presents itself.
"Half of the evening are songs I want people to hear," he said. "The other half will probably be based on audience response to what I am doing, or things I think of at the last minute, or have been practicing that week, that feel good in the practice room."
Proctor said he would not only draw from his original material, but also from an album called "Under the Influence," where he plays his interpretations of other composers' songs. The selections include The Moody Blues song "Nights in White Satin" and Neil Young's "Ohio."
"That is the only album I've done that does not focus on original music," Proctor said. "I like it, like the songs, and they help build a bridge between things people might have listened to in the past, and my own thing."
PREVIEW
l WHO: Chris Proctor
l WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28
l WHERE: Peery's Egyptian Theater, 2415 Washington Blvd., Ogden
l TICKETS: $12, available through Peery's box office, 395-3227
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