Lari Basilio - a great guitar player

[Jensen]

It has been a very long time since i discovered new musicians that made a huge impression on me. Recently I became aware of Lari Basilio and not long ago I got to hear her play at a guitar clinic. She is such a great player and made a huge impression on me and the other listeners.

She has got a great melodic sense and she has got a feeling and touch of her own. Definitely a unique player.

She has played with some of the big guys but can definitely stand on her own. Check out the videos below for some different examples of her talent.









Hope you enjoy the music.

[quizzaciously]

What place is she on Rolling Stone's 250 Greatest Guitar Players list? If she's not there, I'm not listening!

Just kidding, thanks for the recommendation. Nothing better than discovering new artists.

[Pottel]

What place is she on Rolling Stone's 250 Greatest Guitar Players list? If she's not there, I'm not listening!

Just kidding, thanks for the recommendation. Nothing better than discovering new artists.

and what a CRAP list that was....but i sense you feel the same way :-)

[Jensen]

While I love many of the old heroes, even I have come to the point where I am getting a bit tired about the fact that it can make the news that some old hero reveals new and insignificant details about a record he made 40 or even 50 years ago, while younger players making new records and creating new art right now don't get as much attention.

And none of the older heroes are getting any younger, so it is great to find heroes younger than myself.

While Lari Basilio has her own unique way of playing, I was reminded of the first time I heard Knopfler live when I listened to her. It had that same feeling of "only one person does this in this way". Whether that causes her to be on Rolling Stone's 250 Greatest Guitar Players list or not makes no difference to me. Or, perhaps if I am completely honest, it would probably speak in her favour if she was not.

[Pierre]

Lari Basilio is great
That last solo in Layla was the first I transcribed in a long time and took the time to learn it too.

I'm a slow (learner) transcriber so I've nerver enough time to transcribe ,

the last one I did before that was 2 years ago and it was the Another Brick in the wall live rendition by Snowy White, a personal favourite

So you can say she really caught my ear

[Jensen]

Well, at the guitar clinic with Lary Basilio someone mentioned her solo in Layla and suggested that when Clapton heard it, he had said "Ouph!" (meaning Clapton somehow panicked because it was better than anything he himself would be able to play).

Lari Basilio smiled and laughed but said in a quite certain tone "No, he did not." 

[Pierre]

It's not really his style of playing either, I think Lari learn all kinds of scale and guitar techniques, like the new generation, which is fine really, whereas Clapton's playing seems more empirical, meaning I guess that he probably learnt blues licks and everything but quickly made it his own by playing and playing.  His guitar style may be famous but it's still stereotypical at times, You know it's him after one guitar lick ot two.
Lari is really musical and she can really articulate all these delicious movements, she's one of a kind, it takes some talent to emerge in today's crowded scene.

[hunter v2.0]

Seriously talented woman. Great playing, and great tone! But, unfortunately, I don't think her playing or music is original enough to stand out.

[hunter v2.0]

I've watched some videos with her, including interviews, and she is just mega talented, very smart (educated lawyer) and overall a great, nice and genuine person. I also like that even though she's an attractive woman she's not using that to sell herself, unlike a number of other "hot guitar girls".

I've also played her two most recent albums, which feature top LA session players. Sonically, they have that smooth LA studio sound. The music and compositions remind a me a lot of Joe Satriani, very melodic, though she uses more clean guitar sounds than Joe. She has great taste in tone, by the way. People who like Satriani, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, etc. will love Lari. Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the other artists' music, but Lari's music feels too much like "inspired by [insert name her]". A bit like Joe Bonamassa, if you know what I mean, who also is a fantastic player, but whose original music is really not that original. And as I listen, I feel all her compositions glide into one another and become variations on the same theme. Satriani and Vai and others are getting older, so perhaps Lari may be seen as a torchbearer of that type of music? She can play anything, so maybe she'd benefit from working with other songwriters?