Guitarists rock Bigfork

Last week, Bigfork residents and guests were treated to a flurry of musical entertainment as the village hosted the second annual Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival, which included workshops and classes for registered participants, as well as concerts and events open to the public.

“I think it was fabulous. Lots of things happened that far exceeded my expectations,” said David Feffer, Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation Director and founder of the guitar festival and workshops.

Some of the more remarkable moments came during the public concerts on Monday and Tuesday with Joe Bonamassa and Steve Lukather that were held in a concert tent at Flathead Lake Lodge.

 “The events on Monday and Tuesday night were way beyond what we ever could have hoped for,” Feffer said. “There was no expectation of full-blown, unbelievable performances. As you can imagine, there was no agreement or promise from the musicians to put on full on performances like that, and they did that because they were having such a good time.”

Feffer said the Bigfork community’s welcoming atmosphere spurred the musicians in a different direction and inspired them to play more freely.

“The artists commented that they were really enjoying their time in Bigfork, particularly because of the people that live here and the way they were treating them. Everyone was kind and respectful, and they really had fun, which made them want to put on a different kind of show than we had planned. They literally opened up their guitars and their hearts to the community. I was frankly flabbergasted. Joe commented following Monday evening’s show that that would never happen again, where he and Lukather and Ritenour would all play together on the same stage. With their schedules it just doesn’t happen. That’s a real challenge for them to play together in an environment when they have virtually no time to rehearse, and most of them had never played together before. They prepared nearly entirely over long distance.”

It was that same appreciation for the area and its residents that brought classical master guitarist Scott Tennant back to the Bigfork festival for the second year.

“There are a lot of beautiful places — lots of lakes, lots of mountains, lots of great landscapes — but not everywhere has the great people like Bigfork,” Tennant said. “It really seems like it’s easy to get the town behind it.”

Bigfork certainly rallied behind the week-long festival. More than 100 volunteers helped put the festival on by lending a hand in a wide variety of ways.

“A big thank you to everybody who pitched in and took ownership and pride in what happened,” Feffer said. “That, to me, is great. It was successful because of the people that stepped up and took on the roles that needed filled and got the things done that needed to be done. We’re going to be looking at some other things that we may be able to do next year. We’re going to be meeting in the next couple of weeks and discussing some low-impact things that could have a real positive impact in the valley.”

Each of the four mid-week public concerts were sold out to crowds of around 800, which included 300 to 400 tickets open for purchase to the public. The remaining tickets were given to workshop participants and their families, as well as other sponsors. Lee Ritenour’s Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition world finals event, which was held Wednesday night at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts, sold out to a crowd of about 300, and the opening and closing concerts on Sunday and Saturday had substantial-sized crowds as well.

In addition to welcoming locals, Tennant points to Feffer, who originated the idea for the guitar foundation and subsequent workshops, for making the festival not only a reality, but a thriving event.

“When I came last year I realized that David Feffer was really on to something and that this festival could really be a success, and that’s all because of David’s dedication and commitment,” Tennant said.

Tennant not only put on a public concert Thursday night on a double bill with David Wilcox, but he also served as a workshop teacher throughout the week. Tennant, who is a founding member of the LA Guitar Quartet, is on the faculty at University of Southern California and spends his remaining time teaching at workshops around the country and playing concerts. He said his time in Bigfork has provided unique teaching experiences he doesn’t usually get.

“The workshops here are different because all of the college kids are back in school right now, so most of the students are people who have careers and are doing other things besides just focusing on the guitar. So it is sort of refreshing for me to come here and teach a different type of students. These are people who have been playing guitar on the side or used to play, but stopped for a career, and I enjoy helping them get back into it," he said.

One participant that definitely fits that bill is Bigfork’s Mike Touris, who owns Touris Plumbing & Heating. In the ’80s Touris worked construction in New York by day and taught guitar lessons by night and on the weekends.

“At one point I had 60 students,” Touris said. “It was a full range of styles and levels. It was awesome. It does burn you out pretty quick though.”

One of the students he worked with briefly was Bonamassa, who was just 10 years old when his dad brought him to work with Touris.

“His dad took him to a lot of different guitar teachers,” Touris said. “Within 30 seconds I realized there probably wasn’t much that I could teach this kid. It was pretty cool that he ended up being the opening headlining act here in Bigfork, though.”

In 1990 Touris decided to give up his day job after auditioning for and obtaining a spot in a band that was set to tour in Japan. He quit his job, gave his students to other teachers and worked out a plan with his then-girlfriend Trish, who he later married and is still with today. However, the day that he was set to leave for Japan the tour was cancelled.

“That was when I decided that I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t the way that I was going  to make my living,” Touris said. “I still play every day, but I wasn’t going to make a career out of it. I admire these guys like Joe and Lukather, that for 20 or 30 years they haven’t let anything get in their way, and they have just kept pursing this dream. You never lose it though. Once you’re a guitar player you always play.”

Although Touris’ business keeps him busy, playing the guitar is still an important part of his life that serves as an outlet from the rest of his hectic schedule. Last week he was able to put aside some of his work duties and rearrange his schedule to be a student in Matt Smith’s advanced rock and blues guitar class in which he had some old techniques and theories refreshed from his more guitar-oriented days and learned some new things as well.

“Matt describes his class as drinking from a fire hose,” Touris said. “He runs his classes by giving you as much material as he can. In (the first) three days, he has given us six months of material. A lot of it is stuff that I used to know, so it is all coming back as he is teaching it to us. Strictly speaking from the musical side, there are things that Matt is teaching about theory that are things I heard in my head, but now I have the actual thing on paper, and I can see it and understand why it works. It’s also really cool to be standing around a group of people this big, and you’re all speaking the same language with the guitar and you’re all looking for the same thing. Guitar players say you’re always searching for the perfect note, and I think that’s exactly right. There is no end. You’re always searching and working for more. There is no end to it, and that’s one of the great things about the guitar. It’s like any art form. It is always evolving.”

However, with so much instruction Touris said he hasn’t had much time to work on implementing what he has learned.

“One of the interesting things is that the whole workshop keeps you so busy that you don’t have time to practice even,” Touris said. “One thing I’m really looking forward to is that you have six months to a year to go over and practice all of the new information you’ve been given.”

Touris said he enjoyed his time at this year’s festival so much that he is already hoping to attend next year’s workshops.

“I have a bunch of friends from New York that already want to come next year,” Touris said. “One of the exciting things is waiting to see who they are going to get next year here for faculty and for performers. That’s a cool thing about guitar, is that there is always something new that you can learn about playing it. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing, or how much you’ve played, there’s always more to learn.”

Those interested in attending next year’s workshops will be able to pre-register later this month on the foundation’s website, www.cocguitarfoundation.org.

In addition to a new lineup of performers and faculty members, Feffer said the foundation will be making some minor adjustments to improve the workings of next year’s event.

“We may cut back the number of workshop participants next year. We had 93 this year, and we may scale back to around 85 next year,” Feffer said. “A few of the classes were a little bit bigger than we ideally want them to be. That’s something we’re thinking about. As we get the evaluations back from all of the participants, we want to be sure that everyone has the most outstanding experience that they possibly can… You learn things… We wanted everyone who came to feel like a guest in our home. I think we did a good job with that, but there are things that we can do better so that everyone has a good workshop experience and one of the greatest concert experiences they’ve ever had, which is ultimately our goal.”