Strange Podcast - Fretboard Journal on G. Weller

[RickW]

I just listened to the craziest fretboard journal podcast. They were talking about an instrumental guitar player named G Weller, who suddenly appeared on Spotify. One FJ writer fell in love with the music, and wanted to find out who it was. It was a struggle to find the guy, and there are three very odd interviews with the record company, a guitar player who had met Weller, and then Weller himself. It was interesting, how someone could write and record something so intricate and beautiful, and then have it surface years later in this way. Anyhow, worth a listen — it was such a crazy trail.

[drlj]

I listened to most of the album but haven’t gotten to the podcast yet.

[RickW]

Apr 5, 2023 19:08:16 GMT -5 drlj said:

I listened to most of the album but haven’t gotten to the podcast yet.

Definitely worth it. I really like the album, though I don’t know that it’s that revolutionary compared to other finger style music. But it’s a fascinating story.

[John B]

Yeah, I don't want to listen to a podcast. I want the Cliff's Notes version.

[drlj]

Just finished listening to it. It was really a crazy podcast in some ways but really fascinating in others. I enjoyed hearing the chainsaws running in the background of the interview with the record guy. He was just a tad unusual.
I enjoyed it. I will give the music a closer listen tomorrow.
Thanks for suggesting it, Rick.

[drlj]

The record producer seemed quite strange. He was either a bit paranoid or just nuts.
Why he took some of the questions the way he did was a bit unusual.
Weller’s music has a strange sound I could not quite put my finger on, but he said if he broke a string, he replaced it with a “B” string?
His guitar, then, would have unwound strings where there should be wound strings. Almost like a Nashville tuning, perhaps.
I have no idea how old Weller is, but he said he was a grandfather. He seemed totally unaware and disinterested in the album’s existence.
It all made for a strange, yet interesting, podcast.
I find the music kind of strange, too. There is a sameness to each song. It reminds me of John Fahey.
Go to Full Color Sound’s website for more strangeness.

[RickW]

Apr 6, 2023 7:57:33 GMT -5 drlj said:

The record producer seemed quite strange. He was either a bit paranoid or just nuts.
Why he took some of the questions the way he did was a bit unusual.
Weller’s music has a strange sound I could not quite put my finger on, but he said if he broke a string, he replaced it with a “B” string?
His guitar, then, would have unwound strings where there should be wound strings. Almost like a Nashville tuning, perhaps.
I have no idea how old Weller is, but he said he was a grandfather. He seemed totally unaware and disinterested in the album’s existence.
It all made for a strange, yet interesting, podcast.
I find the music kind of strange, too. There is a sameness to each song. It reminds me of John Fahey.
Go to Full Color Sound’s website for more strangeness.

Also got the impression from the record company guy that maybe he just published the music without paying for it. And then Weller not knowing anything about it would kind of confirm that.

I did love when the interviewer said Weller could listen to it on Spotify, and Weller asking if that was a restaurant.

[millring]

It was strange and made stranger as I listened to it while driving my route.

The podcaster is a poor speaker and a poor interviewer, dude. I kept wondering why he never asked questions simply and directly. The fact that he didn't seemed to raise unnecessary resistance in the guy being interviewed.

I sensed a number of inconsistencies.

1. G Weller isn't internet savvy enough to know what Spotify is, but he's afraid of Instagram?

2. He hasn't picked up a guitar in years, but recently recorded with the friend of the podcaster?

3. Couldn't simply ask how he came by the tapes? The tapes weren't on plastic reels?

4. Never looked into or interviewed other players from the era?

I don't know if it's a non-story made mysterious by bad telling, or a good story not yet told.

[John B]

That's what I was afraid of.

[drlj]

I had some of the same reactions as Millring. If the interviewer had asked direct questions, he may have gotten answers instead of resistance.
The music is interesting but I don’t see it as monumental or earthshaking the way the interviewer did. Like I said, it reminds me of Fahey and a lot of the stuff that came from his Tacoma label back in the mid to late ‘60s.
I took Weller’s comment about Spotify as a joke—“oh, is that a restaurant in town?” I didn’t think he was seriously saying he didn’t know what it was. I think the interviewer missed the joke, though.
I have listened to quite a few FBJ podcasts and this was, by far, the strangest and the most disjointed.

[John B]

The podcasts I enjoy are the ones where the podcaster has done some work. Like, pulled out a piece of paper and plotted out the story arc with a beginning, middle and end. And one where the podcaster has taken the time to edit the recordings.

The podcasts I tend to not enjoy are ones where it's two people talking about stuff. There are too many recordings of conversations being published.

[millring]

I also thought that the guy was joking about Spotify (as a restaurant), but it only served to make the interviewer seem more adamant at keeping some narrative of mystery alive that just wasn't really working. I felt like either he's being put on by some elaborate hoax, or he's more dense than a fellow should be who is given the reins of Fretboard Journal's podcast, or (and most likely) he just wanted the story to be something it really wasn't.

Again, maybe it's a great story that just has yet to be investigated and told. But like LJ, I'm even somewhat surprised that he found the recording that earth-shaking. Given the historical context of its recording (but if, as I understood it, it was done in the late 60s when Fahey, Kottke, et al were new to the world), maybe it was one of many. I don't know.