Wild Bill

If you were to ask the average Joe on the street who his favorite guitar player is, you'd probably get an answer like "Jimi Hendrix" if you're lucky, "Dave Matthews" if you're not. But if you were to ask someone who really knows the possibilities a guitar presents, you'd probably get a list of 30 names, and Bill Frisell would definitely be one of them. Since his start as a session guitarist for ECM Records in the early '80s, Frisell has blazed a unique path across the American musical landscape, collaborating with visionary artists like Elvis Costello, John Zorn, Van Dyke Parks and Vic Chesnutt along the way. If you need evidence of his genius, check out the performance clips on YouTube--his version of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" is probably our favorite, but you probably can't go wrong with any of them, given the man's mastery of both his instrument and his vast collection of effects pedals. Then, see the man himself in person this weekend, when he takes the stage with a quartet featuring violinist Eyvind Kang, trombonist Steve Moore and drummer Kenny Wollesen, who's worked with Norah Jones and Tom Waits, among others. It all goes down 8 p.m. Friday at McDavid Studio, 301 E. 5th St. in Fort Worth. Tickets are $35. Visit basshall.com.
Fri., Aug. 1, 8 p.m., 2008