Cross six continents on the six strings of Godbout’s global guitar. From the land of the rising sun to the new world his global guitar trek takes in Japanese and Russian folk songs, an Indian raga and a Swedish rhapsody, a Londonderry air and a French chanson, Australian and Austrian waltzes, South African and West Indian melodies, a Bolivian lambada and a Brazilian samba, a New World symphonic theme and a Canadian hymn to freedom.
Godbout uses innovative guitar techniques to imitate exotic instruments. He mimics the sound of a Japanese shamisen by scraping his strings with his fingernail, mimics the sound of an Indian sitar by weaving tin foil between his strings, mimics the sound of an African kalimba by weaving paper between his strings a la Lionel Loueke, mimics the sound of a Brazilian berimbau by pinching his strings together a la Roland Dyens, and mimics the sound of Trinidadian steel drums by weaving a plastic straw between his strings a la Martin Taylor (influenced by Ralph Towner’s matchbook; how about an alligator clip a la LAGQ?) You’ll be transported around the world without leaving your seat!
“Godbout takes you on a tour of world songs from fluttering Japanese ballads, East Indian airs (he modifies his guitar
with tin foil to simulate a sitar buzz), Russian gypsy songs, and Scottish folk tunes. Settle down for some captivatingly skilled
acoustic guitarwork [as] he scrapes, slaps, and flicks the strings with dizzying speed, and the styles blend together seamlessly.
Godbout sees the wonder and harmony in the world and he plays guitar like a Buddhist god.” Fast Forward Weekly, Calgary
Colin describes the genesis of Around the World in 40 Songs:
Paul McCartney asked: “Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony on my piano keyboard: why don’t we?”
Translating this sentiment to the form of the guitar may result in the chorus of a new song:
Hear my six strings sound a chord; see six continents in the world –
Can’t they live in one accord, like my strings, with flags unfurled?
Hear global, strum local.
“The Tao is the reality beyond all predicates, the abyss that was before the Creator Himself. It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the Way in which the universe goes on, the Way in which things everlastingly emerge, stilly and tranquilly, into space and time. It is also the Way which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic and supercosmic progression, conforming all activities to that great exemplar….This conception in all its forms, Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, and Oriental alike….is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.”
“The Tao, which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgments. If it is rejected, all value is rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of value in its place is self-contradictory. There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of value in the history of the world. What purport to be new systems or…ideologies…all consist of fragments from the Tao itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they posses.” C.S. Lewis
“As soon as you start talking about religion, then you have problems. But if you talk mystically, there is no problem…If you get ten organized religions in one room, and ten mystics in another room, the room with the mystics will eventually come to an understanding. With the room full of ten organized religions, you get ten nuclear wars. True musicians listen to different kinds of music, and they feel it. And if you’re prone to be more metaphysical or mystical in your approach to life, then those types of sounds are going to be more appealing to you than other sounds.” Cheb i Sabbah
“Music reminds us of where we were before and where we are going after. It is a mysterious vapor that somehow slips in the cracks between this plane of existence and some other one. The people who are good musicians have the ability to conjure up more of that vapor than others. Everyone recognizes it when it’s there. It’s something universal that goes beyond language and beyond race, country, or nationality. It is unmistakable when that vapor is there, we recognize it as something we all have in common. More and more, I see that it is the same thing you find wherever there is love, intensity, energy or human potential. All those good things include this same mysterious vapor that is the fabric of music.” Pat Metheny
“At the back of the whole creation is harmony, and the whole secret of creation is harmony.” Hazrat Inayat Khan
“Indian classical music at its best can lead to an experience of oneness with a higher power, as with many other forms of music. The Sa [Western Do or keynote] represents the sound of the divine. This is Nada Brahma, the sound of God. The best performers achieve a connection with the primordial sound, the Om.” Peter Lavezzoli
My Global Guitar Manifesto:
to uncover celestial sonorities in terrestial tunes, encounter ethereal resonance in earthly song and dance, trace transcendent tones in immanent modes, and hear the harmony of the spheres in melodies for mortal ears, in response to the divine gift of music. Sense the world in a grain of sound with Godbout’s global guitar!