POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Gatton’s Guitar Set Skilled but Faceless

For Danny Gatton to be any more versatile, he’d have to mount a Veg-o-Matic on his guitar, because the Washington-based musician did everything but julienne potatoes with his instrument at the Troubadour on Wednesday. He frailed the strings like an Appalachian banjoist, shook and choked notes like bluesman Freddie King, made his strings chime and roll like a pedal steel, and uttered Jeff Beck’s crazed instrumental vocabulary of train wrecks and chicken clucks.

But though Gatton may have exhibited roughly twice the dexterity of Beck, it was employed with only an eighth of the personality and humor. Outside of Gatton’s staggering technique, his playing was nearly faceless, with little voice to his phrasing and even less emotional drive. Those are the qualities that can make a Richard Thompson solo a harrowing journey, and the lack of them made Gatton’s efforts often seem like just so many notes.

The set, drawn largely from his two Elektra albums, ranged over 12-bar blues, TV themes, a Benny Goodman tune, et al. The most promising moments came when he eschewed the speed and delivered melodic, atmospheric treatments of “Harlem Nocturne” and Brian Wilson’s “In My Room.”