Lloyd Wallace has to tell his stories without using words. Instead, he lets his guitar do the singing.
The trick, Wallace said, is giving those fast riffs wrought with music theory a more human voice.
"You've got to let it flow," Wallace explained. "You've gotta let your heart do your talking through your instrument. It's gotta come from your gut, and you just hope everybody interprets it the way you interpret it."
On Oct. 9, Wallace is bringing that singing guitar to Battle Creek.
The Burlington guitarist plays virtuoso-style instrumental rock, a technical genre driven by playing at finger-blistering speeds that defy the comprehension of even advanced players. Watching Wallace work the guitar neck is like watching a grand mal seizure, so quick and confusing do the fingers fly over the fret board. Only Wallace knows exactly where his fingers are going as he dances them across complicated scales often inspired by classical music such as Bach or Mozart.
The guitarist for the Bronson-based band Slap Maggy contacted the booking agent for the Virtuosity Tour, a traveling act featuring legendary virtuoso guitarists who speak guitar the way Wallace does. He told the agent about Battle Creek's only metal venue, Planet Rock, and asked them to come. The happily obliged.
On the bill are Michael Harris and Joe Stump as well as the Sean Baker Orchestra.
The veterans -- Harris and Stump have more than 30 years each on their instruments -- said Virtuosity is largely music for musicians.
"Most of the guys that go watch it are guitar players or just people who are huge fans of guitar music," Stump said. "It's just like watching the violin virtuoso or the amazing jazz sax player or classical piano, anything like that. People really enjoy watching somebody play the shit out of an instrument."
Still, "I think even non-guitar players, real music fans that like interesting music like this that's challenging, I think there's a fan base for this type of thing," Harris said. "I think people can tell they're not being fooled with production or things like that. It's all about the music."
New York native Stump, Harris the Ohioan and Baker from Wyondotte, as well as Wallace, all are products of the classical-driven rock that grew out of Europe in the late-1970s and early '80s. After legends such as Jimi Hendrix turned up the distortion and stretched the limitations of blues- or jazz-influenced rock guitar, other guitarists picked it up, added more notes, took out the vocals and decided to let the guitar do the talking. It's a sound that's danceable, but mostly mind-boggling to figure out how four fingers can accomplish so much in so little time.
"A lot of the guys that play make the guitar sing," Wallace said. "It has melody. It's appealing because you get to take that technical side and that melody side and try to bring both together and show some of your skills.
"One thing you're guaranteed to get is plenty of guitar for your hard-earned dollar," Stump said.
JustinHinkley /battle creek enquirer