Dallas, 8.24.2024

Gregg Prickett and Jonathan F. Horne are two of my favorite guitar slingers on Earth, so the opportunity to see them duet for only the second time at Full City Rooster in The Cedars was too good to pass up. Jonathan had started the day in San Antonio and been up for 32 hours when they hit (aided by Full City's good coffee). He's in the area for a couple of shows -- he joins Trio Glossia at The Wild Detectives tonight, opening for Max Kutner's Partial Custody from NYC. Then he heads back to Norway (where he left his main Mosrite axe) for jazz gigs with groups led by Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Paal Nilssen Love, rock gigs with a new band he's formed there, and touring with Haker Flaten's Exit (Knarr) and droney Austin rockers Water Damage. Busy guy.

Prickett, of Decoding Society/Unconscious Collective/Monks of Saturnalia fame, and Horne have known each other for 15 years, but only performed together for the first time last December. They are very different players, but like minded enough to blend their sounds without discussion or pre-planning, listening and responding to each other in the moment with near-telepathic automaticity. Gregg's classical facility and fretboard mastery allow him to produce the maximum number of notes possible from any position on the neck, and he uses a minimal setup, with delay and volume pedals, along with the echo unit that's affixed to his Strat-style instrument (with classical-width neck), to create an expressive sonic signature. Jonathan takes more chances than any guitarist I know and his approach is reminiscent of prepared guitar specialist Sandy Ewen, with whom he first played free improv a couple of decades ago. His stage trip is marked by a nervous energy that translates into enthusiasm and restless activity, which might just mean, as he says, that "I care a lot."

Prickett opened the evening with a reading from a Japanese anime in memory of a recently departed musician friend. (Paul Quigg, who plays in Sawtooth Dolls with Gregg, was on hand to record and photograph the proceedings.) The two shifted between electric and acoustic steel-string axes, with Jonathan playing a vintage 1939 Martin and a Fender Bass VI along with the Mosrite he played as a teenager. The sounds they produced included shimmering cascades of arpeggios, staccato percussive bursts, Ivesian indeterminacy, mutant blues and bluegrass, and snatches of slide (from Prickett) and bowed guitar (from Horne). The audience of about 20 folks -- a good crowd for a small room -- listened attentively and responded enthusiastically. (And kudos to Michael and Full City for having voter registration forms available at the counter; Michael says folks have been using them, too.) Gregg will be back in Fort Worth at the Grackle Art Gallery on September 7, in a duo with bass master Drew Phelps. I plan to be there; you too?