Fresno Blues - A.C. Myles

Several weeks ago, Marcus and I went out on the town with Dylan, our new friend from Western Australia. We saw an amazing Fresnan blues guitarist called A.C. Myles at a local venue and had a great time. This week, in Dylan's honour, we went back to see A.C. Myles perform again. This time, I took my camera. We miss you Dylan. It wasn't the same without the third musketeer in the cool hat club. Come back soon.

We had a moment's silence for Dylan and then went to the Dirty Olive to see A.C. Myles in action again. A.C. is the most exciting guitarist I've seen for a long time. Certainly the most exciting guitarist I've ever seen for free.


It's a simple formula. One guitarist, one drummer, one bass player and three long sets of serious blues.



It's hard to explain with still photographs just what is so compelling about watching this young man in action. You can hear some of his music on his myspace site, but even that doesn't quite capture the magic.



It's a dynamic performance. A.C. moves so fast that in still photos he often looks like he has his own private breeze blowing in his face.

He makes large sweeping gestures.

He has a sufficiently powerful voice that he can stand way back from the microphone.

A.C. is young, only in his mid twenties, but his mastery of his instrument is absolute. He can reverse his grip on the fret and play just as fast upside down.

Actually, he can keep playing with either hand reversed.

Or he can flip the whole guitar behind his head and never miss a beat. I like A.C. a lot, but he obviously had way too much time on his hands in high school.

Part of the thrill of watching him is never quite knowing what he's going to do next. He might put the guitar down altogether and start dancing with the crowd.

Or he might grab a beer off a customer and use it to play slide guitar.

If no beers happen to be handy he might just grab whatever comes to hand, like part of the drum kit.

A.C. Myles is well worth checking out before he gets really famous and you have to line up for tickets. Right now he's a lot of fun and very accessible. He recognised us from our previous visit and came up to say hello on his first break. "Hey," he said "It's my friends from Australia."

I think he missed you too Dylan.