Pet project honors guitar teacher with a heart

Guitarist Ian Gilliam still relies on techniques he learned from his hometown guitar teacher — everything from finger rolls to alternating bass lines. On Saturday, he will return the favor by bringing fellow musicians and fans together to help one of teacher Dean Musser’s pet causes.

Musser, who died late last year, taught more than 3,000 people how to play the guitar over a dedicated three-decade career. Several of those former students and a host of friends from the local music community will take the stage Saturday at Bel Rio to present a benefit concert for the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA that also will be a tribute to Musser.

Among the performers in the spotlight will be former Musser students Aaron Evans, known for his work in the bands Alligator and Indecision, and Gilliam, who leads the FireKings.

Also performing will be Art Wheeler, Charlie Pastorfield, Bob Girard, Eddie Hall, Conrad Drennon, Steve Riggs, Charlie Bell, Mike D’Antoni, Jim Waive, Terri Allard and Aric VanBrocklin. Fans also will want to keep an ear out for some surprise guests.

Lining up top talent for a show honoring Musser was easy, Gilliam said.

“We’ve got a lot of great players, and everyone’s excited about it,” he said. “When I started making the calls, I got a great response.”

Gilliam was about 16 and hoping to apply for admission to Shenandoah Conservatory when he realized it was time to buckle down and learn to read music. That’s when he signed up for lessons with Musser, who’d written more than 500 songs.

“He taught me my audition pieces for Shenandoah, and I got in,” Gilliam said.

Reading music may have been Gilliam’s initial goal, but soon Musser got him interested in many other facets of guitar playing. Once Gilliam heard Musser demonstrate intricate Chet Atkins-style fingerpicking, he wanted to learn that, too — no small feat, as Musser’s fluid way of playing made the tricky technique look much easier than it turned out to be.

Gilliam absorbed “a lot of stuff I still use today,” he said. “Every time I sit down with the guitar and don’t have a pick in my hand, I’m fingerpicking the way Dean taught me.”

Sometimes, Gilliam would leave his lessons excited about new techniques. Other times, Musser’s recommendations inspired Gilliam to search on his own for recordings by guitarists he could learn from, which made homework just plain fun.

One of the best things about knowing Musser was that “he just had such a big heart,” Gilliam said. He recalled hunting in vain for a red vinyl album by guitarist Danny Gatton and mentioning it briefly to Musser during a music lesson.

“I came in for my next lesson, and he’d gotten it for me,” Gilliam said.

Many of Musser’s students went on to become band members and bandleaders themselves. Jon Kabbash won the North American Rock Guitar Competition in 2004, and Kevin Collier became lead guitarist for Buddy Jewell. Saturday’s show will give guitar fans a chance to sit back, listen and realize how much impact one creative person can have on an entire musical landscape.

Cover for Saturday’s show is $5, and additional donations for the SPCA are welcome. And if you’d like to eat dinner before the show, you’ll want to arrive early.