Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:20 PM CDT

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Hit guitar fest jams again

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com

URBANA -- If at first you succeed, then don't wait too long to try again. It's been two Septembers since the inaugural Wall to Wall Guitar Festival at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center in Urbana.

And just ask anyone who was there: the four-day, all-star bash was a big winner for music fans of nearly every stripe, especially those fans whose tastes run toward the global.

For four days and nights -- and all hours in between -- superstars like Andy Summers, Taj Mahal and Pat Metheny rubbed shoulders with critical and cult favorites like Cindy Cashdollar, Sergio and Odair Assad, Vernon Reid and Daniel Lanois.

And not just passing from one stage to another.

The intersections often occurred on stage, or out in the Krannert lobby, or even in the hotel lobby after hours (lucky were the unwitting passers-by when those eruptions occurred, we're assured by those who witnessed them).

For festival No. 2, the four days have been condensed to three, all the better to intensify the experience, says festival artistic director David Spelman.

Though the fest has lost a day, it has actually increased the number of performances and related events (which include a daunting number of freebies on the Krannert lobby stage, along with no-cost workshops, guitar exhibits and a return appearance by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus mobile recording studio).

"The idea (in cutting back) was to create a more robust event," says Spelman. Aiding that goal is the fact that the festival is using all of Krannert's performing spaces (around six) instead of just the two or three used in 2005.

Meanwhile, the roster of more than 30 performers again includes an eclectic cross-section of superstars (John McLaughlin, Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Shawn Colvin) and cult favorites (North Mississippi Allstars, Kaki King, Harry Manx, etc.).

A classically trained guitarist from New York who co-founded what has become New York's biggest annual guitar event, the New York Guitar Festival, Spelman hatched the Wall to Wall concept with longtime friend Mike Ross, director of the Krannert Center.

It is now officially a biennial event, he says, with the hope "in the back of my mind" that someday it might become annual.

As with the 2005 festival, the goal is to embrace the history of the guitar as what Spelman calls "perhaps the most universal instrument in the world" -- ne endemic in some form or another to every culture.

"We want to tell the story of where it originated, what countries it has visited, the various musical genres it has impacted and where it is heading," he says. "And we very much want it to be exciting and entertaining, not just sitting and listening to a dry dissertation."

This ambitiously global perspective isn't meant to cover every genre of music "or make an overarching statement on the state of the guitar in 2007," Spelman adds.

Instead, he hopes that the intersection that occurs between, say, a Chicago blues legend like Buddy Guy and an African string wizard like Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure (which will occur at 9:30 p.m. Saturday) will enlighten audiences as to how the instrument and the music have evolved across cultures and generations.

"My hope," he adds, "is that you will hear artists you haven't heard before" (see the accompanying list), along with the A-list names like Los Lobos and John McLaughlin.

"While this isn't meant to be a musicology course," Spelman says, "people do have two ears and they will learn something by hearing, say, music from Maui, then some country slide guitar, then some Chicago blues. And the connection between them will be self-evident."

Wall-to-wall events

Following is the schedule of events Thursday through Saturday for the second Wall to Wall Guitar Festival at the U of I Krannert Center in Urbana. Though several of the events have sold out, waiting lists are being compiled via the Krannert box office at (217) 333-6280 or (800) 527-2849. Free events are in the Krannert lobby.

Thursday

• 7 p.m.: Opening night party with Toubab Krewe, Sonny Landreth, Cindy Cashdollar, Campbell Brothers, The Yohimbe Brothers, Vernon Reid, DJ Logic, Bob Brozman, Led Kaapana ($5)

Friday

• Noon: The Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque Duo (free)

• 2 p.m.: Shawn Colvin, Natalia Zukerman ($20-$35)

• 5 p.m.: Bob Brozman, Led Kaapana (free)

• 7 p.m.: Rahim AlHaj, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Pierre Bensusan ($19-$34)

• 10 p.m.: Los Lobos ($24-$39)

• Midnight: North Mississippi All Stars (free)

Saturday

• 10 a.m.: Dan Zanes & Friends ($10-$20)

• 12:30 p.m.: Ed Gerhard (free)

• 2 p.m.: Paul O'Dette and The Romeros ($15 to $30)

• 4 p.m.: Harry Manx (free)

• 5 p.m.: Kaki King, Tony McManus and Alex de Grassi ($17 to $32)

• 7 p.m.: John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension ($25 to $40)

• 9:30 p.m.: Buddy Guy, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Banning Eyre, Cindy Cashdollar ($22 to $37)

• 11:30 p.m.: The Delta Kings (free)

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Guitar-based rockers Los Lobos are among the several dozen stars headlining the second Wall to Wall Guitar Festival tonight through Saturday at the University of Illinois Krannert Center in Urbana.

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