A Conversation with Willy Porter (continued)

PM: I saw Joe Pisapia, a great guitar player, the other night, playing a Robert Johnson guitar from the twenties with a piece of shit pickup on it called The Woodpicker, so that the whole thing was basically microphonic. And he had one of those little Green Line 6 pedals that does the few loops.

WP: Yeah!

PM: And he would, like, bang his elbow on the thing and get one thing going, then he'd smack the back of it, and so that by the time he was fifteen seconds into the song, he turned on all of the three loops and basically he had this track that was going "Tuk koko ka tum kuku ku kung kunk kunk," and then he played along with that.

WP: [laughs]

PM: I said, "Ah, now, that's a cool use of that little loop thing."

WP: Yeah, man. That's basically a lot of what I was doing, too, but probably not that well.

[laughter]

WP: But because of the compression and stuff that I'm using, all the drum sounds are there.

PM: Right.

WP: The kick drum thing is really easy to do with your palm, and you can do like a snare head. And it's all Hedges, come on. Without Mike, none of us would be doing any of this shit. Hedges is like Hendrix, in my opinion.

PM: It's very big of you to say that, as great as you've become and are continuing to become. But, yeah, I agree. I mean, Hedges blazed the trail--

WP: He did.

PM: --much the way that Hendrix did. It's like he burned a path through the woods just so well, you can walk it down. That's going to be burned for eternity.

WP: [laughs]

PM: That's not going to grow back.

WP: No way, man.

PM: [laughs]

WP: Isn't it beautiful?

PM: It's unbelievable.

WP: It's funny when you see that person come along. When I saw Michael Hedges the first time, I saw him sound check in 1983, and I went, "Here he is." I knew right then. I thought, "This is the guy."

PM: Wow.

WP: And I was just freakin'. I'd never seen him before, and I was on this concert committee in school, and I'd been asked by to drive him around that day. So I drove him to the gig, and I didn't know who he was. And then I watched the sound check and I was like, "Hey, man, can I get you anything?"

PM: [laughs]

WP: It just totally changed the universe for me. And I knew that any guitar player who saw him would never be the same. You just can't think of the instrument the same way. And I think Hendrix was that way. Who else is like that?

PM: I don't think anybody else.

WP: No, I don't either.

PM: I mean, it's only Hendrix.

WP: It's a struggle to find someone else, isn't it. Maybe Clapton?

PM: It's only Hendrix. I mean, people have been chasing him down all these years since, and nobody has done what he's done. And nobody can touch who he was, what he did. Even the guys like Robin Trower or Stevie Ray Vaughn, who literally could play all his stuff note for note, it's just like, "Yes, but it's not the same."

WP: Yeah, it's funny, there was a weird je ne sais quoi--a special spiritual element, or whatever you want to call it, that just isn't there.

PM: It's more than their hands. It's literally their consciousness, it's who they were.

WP: Well said. I agree.

PM: Willy, I certainly appreciate your time today. And what a very nice cat you are.

WP: Ah, Frank, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to talk with you.

PM: And I really look forward to seeing you again here in town or on the road. Maybe we'll run into each other at Kerrville or somewhere.

WP: That'll be great, man. Take good care of yourself, all right?

PM: Love your music, love what you're doing, and wish you all the best.

WP: Ah, man, peace to you.

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