Arrested by Genius

When last were you intercepted by a piece of true artistic genius?  I don't mean one which you deliberately sought out yourself - like a visit to an art gallery or an evening at the proms.  I mean one which truly caught you off guard - ambushed you.  Stopped you in your tracks.

It happened to me yesterday.  What's slightly embarrassing is that it happened when I should have been somewhere else - at a wedding in fact -  (don't point fingers at me, there were no formal invitations and it was only ever intended to be an under the radar affair).

More's the reason why it took me by surprise.  I'd wondered down to the local market to buy Indian food for my wife (who went to the wedding) - a round trip of little more than 30 minutes.  It's a nice little jaunt for a Saturday morning - a market with all the trimmings and trappings you'd expect out here in the country.  Organic food.  Fresh snacks.  Hand made crafts.  Buskers and Musicians.

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Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" is not a song you hear regularly on the local radio station.  In fact it's not a song you ever hear on local radio.  The band, at least in these parts, is generally regarded as way too heavy.  But that doesn't change the fact that the song is one of the greatest metal ballads ever recorded.  Nor does it change the fact that the song's haunting acoustical intro is the work of one of Rock Music's top 10 guitarists - Kirk Hammet.  In a world of cheap imitations, it's not a song you'd expect from a "paid by the hour" cover version artist.  (What is it about cover versioners anyway?  And why do their repertoires ALWAYS contain "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton?)

Yet here in this unassuming little corner of the North Coast, was a musician who's not only broken this mould but who has smashed it to smithereens.  For those of you who've seen the movie "August Rush" you'll remember that mesmerising sequence when the young hero discovers a steel six stringer in an attic and, totally unschooled in classical method, attacks it as though it's a combination of a drum kit, a double base and a guitar.

Well it seems Ballito has its own August Rush.  So enchanted was I by his unique sound and technique that my brief samoosa and roti incursion turned into a hour of spellbound musical rapture.  In between songs I would show my appreciation, interact a bit and at one point, even filmed some of his work on my telephone.

But then, towards the end of my stay, I asked something I instantly regretted.

Can you play "Nothing Else Matters?"

In light of what I've written about this song, it was hardly your classic "Does a bear sh*t in the woods" question.

In fact, it was an episode of howling insanity!  The careless work of a moment.  I've never met a guitarist who could play this song, much less do justice to that hauntingly beautiful intro.  So in asking, surely I was setting him up for almost certain failure?

"50/50" he replied, before striking a few speculative chords.

And then he started.  If I'd closed my eyes I might well have been front row at any one of Metallica's live acts.  He didn't just sound like Kirk Hammet.  Kirk Hammet sounds like him! And this was his so-called "50/50" version!

(By the way, in the process, I defined a new genre of music myself.  In recent years we've witnessed the rise of the air guitarist.  In fact, there are global "air guitar" festivals (admittedly held in silly out of the way countries like Sweden and Finland).  But if you'd been at the Litchi Orchard this Saturday, you'd have seen early signs of a new breed of muso - the air drummer)

Yet in the full hour I sat there - not a single person seemed to notice Phil.  No-one took a photo.  No-one threw loose change.  No-one even seemed to comment.  If ever there was a case of "pearls before pigs" this was it.

It reminded me of a verse from Ecclesiastes:

"I have seen slaves on horseback while princes go on foot like slaves"