Roger McGuinn at the Hemmens Auditorium Elgin, Illinois

It was once said (many times) that if a living legend is playing live within a reasonable driving distance to your house you go make an effort to go see that living legend.  While I personally may not practice this principle all of the time (and what is the true definition of "reasonable driving distance"? 30 minutes? 12 hours? 2 days with a hotel stay?) I did so on this particular evening.  Roger McGuinn played the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin, Illinois March 21st.  The Hemmens is well within said reasonable driving distance, heck, it's within reasonable walking distance to my house.

 

The house lights dimmed and the opening chords of the Bob Dylan-penned "My Back Pages" echoed throughout the pristine acoustics of the Hemmens.   It was a sound so incredible that it almost sounded like it coulda been intro music for the former leader of The Byrd's.  From out of the shadows and into the spotlight stepped Roger McGuinn himself with his famous 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. Yeah, that one, the jangly guitar.  The guitar that made describing jangly guitar music to a friend an adjective, "You know, it sounds jangly, 'Byrdsy'."  It's the guitar McGuinn saw George Harrison play in the film "A Hard Day's Night" that possessed him to get one for himself.  If I could somehow bottle how I felt at that exact moment when McGuinn played "My Back Pages", those opening chords, last night at the Hemmens, I'd be happy and misty-eyed the rest of my life.  

Words like "national treasure", "legendary", "iconic" get bandied around way too much in this day and age but with someone like McGuinn these words chime true.  It's criminal that oldies radio formats and cable TV playlists play just a few greatest hits from The Byrds.

Roger McGuinn, formerly known as Jim (had to get that in somewhere), then took a seat along side a banjo, a 12-string acoustic, and his specially designed for him Martin HD-7. He began to weave wonderful stories of growing up listening to a transistor radio, "the iPod of it's day", learning to play early rock n roll on the guitar, going to the Old Town School of Folk Music, and getting his parents to sign a paper so he could fly to California to join the Limelighters just after high school graduation. Among these stories he'd intersperse a Leadbelly song, a Woody Guthrie song, some more Dylan covers, and of course songs and stories from The Byrds.  The show was well paced, if not rote (not a knock on the show, mind you, you can hear some of the same stories almost word for word on YouTube) since he has really honed and crafted his show to focus on the many highlights of his career.  Here is a YouTube link of a version of Eight Miles High not too different from the version last night.  McGuinn is still in great voice for a man his age.  His guitar work is immpecable, even mind-boggling, to think he is getting all that sound out of one guitar.  And then to be able to sing and get all those sounds from the guitar does truly make him a national treasure.