Steve Lukather joins Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival
Published: May 3, 2011
Steve Lukather shares his expertise at the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival and Workshop, Aug. 28-Sept. 4, as rock-artist-in-residence. He joins a roster that includes Joe Bonamassa, Lee Ritenour and Scott Tennant during the second annual event at Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork.
Lukather has consistently remained on the honor roll of the world's top guitarists. He’s a peer and pal to the likes of Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton and other fabled players.
He's also co-led Toto with fellow founder David Paich through every twist of the band's platinum-lined history while playing on albums by Michael Jackson, Warren Zevon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Miles Davis, Roger Waters, Cheap Trick and other rock and pop royalty.
And he's done all that while writing hits for the Tubes and George Benson, plus maintaining a parallel career of his own that began with 1988's Lukather.
Six solo albums later, he's arrived at what he calls "his best work," with the artful, funny and sometimes harrowing All's Well That Ends Well. "I know I've led an amazing life and have a colorful career," he says. "But I'm not resting on my laurels. I push myself to write better songs and smarter chord changes all the time. I practice every day. And you can hear the results on this album.”
"Sometimes I joke that I'm searching for 'the LOST note,'" he continues, "but in a way, I really am. I want to find that one gorgeous thing that's going to touch everybody. That's what making music is all about – communicating on that level."
New this year is a bass workshop, and drawings for private sessions with Bonamassa, Ritenour, Lukather and Tennant.
Organizers say 65 of the 80 available places for the 2011 workshop are taken. “We are limiting the number of workshop participants in order to assure the intimacy and personalized learning,” says Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation chairman David Feffer.
For more information, visit www.cocguitarfoundation.org or call 406-837-2574.
Deadline nears for Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition
Entries to this contest, sponsored by Lee Ritenour, will be accepted through May 15 for rock, blues, jazz/fusion, acoustic, classical/flamenco and country guitar players. The final competition takes place in conjunction with the workshop's activities and is scheduled for Aug. 31, at the Bigfork Performing Arts Center.
Go to www.sixstringtheory.com for details.
