Nice story, Big Al...heh heh heh.

I can't believe this discussion is still going on, and that there's any question of whether a human being could possibly be as transcentantly wonderful a musical performer as Fretkillr. He's perfectly OK, and of course far superior to 90-95% of the generally lame efforts posted on YouTube, but his level of talent is hardly unprecedented.

I had occasion recently, thanks to a reference in another Mudcat thread, to check out our own dwditty's performance of the classic "Come Back Baby." Now, that's the real deal, at least as impressive as any of FK's work ~ but I don't see anyone questioning whether DW had to hire someone else to do his singing for him, or whatever.

At the risk of embarrassing myself and appearing ridiculous and egotistical, I look at most of these videos, even FK's, and honestly believe "I could do that" (especially given the abilty to record take after take until finally getting it just right).

Even if I'm deluding myself a bit, and the guy really is a significantly better player or a better singer than I am, the fact is that I'm not intimidated ~ and that's not always the case when I view guitar players on video.

For example, I am currently renting a Stephan Grossman DVD from Netflix, entitled "Fingerstyle Guitar: New Dimensions & Explorations, Vol 1." Some of those performances do truly impress me, and make me feel woefullly inadequate. Some are by well-known names ~ John Fahey, Bert Jansch, Jorma Kaukonen [spelling?], Leo Kottke ~ but I've got to tell you, some of the mest impressive numbers on the disk are by players I've never (yet) heard of. Now, when I look at the best of those selections, I truly am intimidated, and know for absolute sure that I'd never in my life be able to duplicate such an effort.

And oh yeah, by the way, if you've ever seen that Asian teenager from Vancouver play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on his ukelele, on YouTube ~ that's another transcendant performance I could never hope to match, nor do I think could Fretkillr.

PS: On the YouTube page with DW's performance is a list of links to quite a few other renditions of the same "Come Back Baby." Needless to say, none measure up to our friend, and several are just embarrasingly bad. What the hell are people thinking? I look at some of this crap, and can only think, if that were the best I could do, I sure wouldn't be posting it for the world to see ~ and hear....

A week or more ago ~ probably somewhere above, in this very thread ~ I offered my opinion that YouTube is a great new vehicle through which many talented "closet" musicians, players who for one reason or another have not put themselves forward as live performers, can reveal themselves to us, and that we shouldn't be surprised when such an unknown exhibits extraordinary talent. I still believe that this is true, but of course YouTube provides a platform for everyone, including plenty of not-so-wonderful wannabees...