If youย’re looking for truth in advertising for your entertainment dollar, itย’s hard to beat the California Guitar Trio ย— three guys, with guitars, from California. Well, okay, maybe theyย’re not really from California (Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya all live outside of Cali), but they do have a propensity for surf covers. In the late ย‘80s, the trio trained at Robert Frippย’s famed Guitar Craft courses, later performing in his League of Crafty Guitarists. Their mentorย’s sonic signature can be found in CGTย’s sound, which is something like a prog-infused James Taylor colliding with a Mozart-channeling Dick Dale in the middle of the Pacific. Donย’t let this influence-collage paint California Guitar Trio into a corner, though. Take, for example, their wonderful rendition of Queenย’s ย“Bohemian Rhapsody,ย” which has become a live staple. As you might imagine, the multi-voiced harmonies and neoclassical structure of the original lend themselves well to this kind of reinterpretation. The only room for improvement would be Mike Myers and Dana Carvey providing an interpretive dance.

This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.

Nicholas L. Hall is a husband and father who earns his keep playing a video game that controls the U.S. power grid. He also writes for the Houston Press about food, booze and music, in an attempt to keep...