Beatles spark local musical Career By Richard O Jones rjones@coxohio.com Eric Loy's mucial
career began, more or less, on Feb. 9, 1964. It's a easy date
to pin-point because it was the first time the Beatles appeared
on national U.S. television. "When I saw the Beatles
on the Ed Sullivan Show, I just had to have a guitar." Loy
said. "It just changed my life." He was only 10
years old at the time but since that day, Loy has continued to explore
music of all kinds, his guitars cometimes exceeding the 6-string
standard with the unusual harp guitar. "Harp guitars
were very popular at the turn of the last century," he said.
"My first on was a 1905 Gibson. But they died out like
the dinosaurs." Guitarist Michael Hedges brought the instrument
to the forefront in the mid-1980s, Loy said, playing an instrument
built in the 1920s. "The one I play now is built from
the blueprints of his, but it has more strings." he said.
Acquiring the instrument, however, was only the first step.
Playing it was a different matter. "I didn't know what
to do with it when I got it." he said. "It sat around
for six months than I learned a Michael Hedges songand started writing
my own material." Loy's seven albums contain a wide variety
of musical tones and styles from original avant garde compositios
to Jazz and Classical and New Age, and people attending his performance
at the Music Cafe's special even Saturday night might even hear
ao Christmas tune or two, if not a Sousa march or a cartoon theme
song. "I do Christmas songs all year around, even in the summer
time," he said. "I just worked up a new one the other
day. "I'm always on the lookout for something unusual,
to try to make it musically interesting and not just play "Sweet
Home Alabama" or "Freebird" oer and over again,"
he said, "but also to be tasteful and unique. "I
just love music." Next to the Beatles and Hedges, Loy
said one of his big influences has been Chet Atkins, who is, he
insists, "not just some country hick." For his CD
"Eric Loy Live" - which, he also insists, is better than
"Eric Loy Dead" - he appropriated an Atkins arrangement
of "Stars and Stripes Forever" for fingerstyle guitar.
"When I first heard his version, I thought, Ok, this is the
end, you can't do that," he said. "But you've got to keep
doing new stuff." The Music Cafe, the Fitton Center for
Creative Arts' performance venue for local, adds to its
normal forth-Tuesday schedule this month to present a special day-long
festival in the Village Green Amphitheater in Fairfield Commons.
"This will be an all-day extravaganza of music combined with
an art show and Taste of Fairfield in cooperation with the Fairfield
Parks and Recreation Department," said Diane Evans, spokesperson
for the music cafe. For more information call 863-8873
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