Hey Porter!
Guild runs five questions by acoustic wizard Willy Porter at the Tempe Music Festival …
 Porter: A dazzling guitarist and entertainer.
Photo by Bill Ellison
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Milwaukee native Willy Porter is one of those unassuming, super-nice guys who, if you were in the grocery store and turned a corner and ran your cart into his, would probably fall all over himself apologizing to you even though you’re the klutz who ran into him. So, later, when you see him walk onstage with one of his Guild acoustic guitars, you might be expecting a somewhat nice, low-key performance from one of those sensitive singer/songwriter types.
And you’d be wrong, very wrong, because Willy Porter, in addition to being a dazzling guitarist whose playing routinely leaves people’s jaws somewhere around their ankles, is a first-rate entertainer whose utterly charming combination of musical and lyrical muscle and finesse has been winning over audiences across the United States and Europe for years. Onstage, he masterfully combines the skills of a virtuoso musician, an eloquent poet, an agile athlete, a damn funny comedian and even a pretty good dancer. Many of those same talents are also apparent on his five albums to date, High Wire Live (2003), Willy Porter (2002), Falling Forward (1999) Dog Eared Dream (1995) and Trees Have Soul (1990).
Guild News caught up with a breathlessly elated Porter just after he stepped offstage at the Tempe Music Festival in Tempe, Ariz., on Friday, March 31. His whirlwind 45-minute set opened the festival, and he graciously invited us into his trailer to chat about the festival, his distinctive playing style, why he loves his Guild guitars so much, what he’s up to lately, and the greatness of a certain Gordon Lightfoot song …
GN: How did you like being part of the celebration?
WP: I had a blast! What a fantastic, fantastic situation. It’s such an honor, man. As a kid, you know, one of the greatest things you can dream of as a guitar player is a) having a string deal (laughs), but then being endorsed by a great guitar company has just been fantastic, so playing Guild—I just feel so honored to have the chance to do it.
It’s great playing here in front of some of my heroes, including Greg Koch, who’s my neighbor; I’ve known him for 17 years or so. And then Eric Johnson and Jeff Beck—I’ve toured with both of those guys, so getting to see them both on one stage, at one festival, it’s dream-like, man. It’s gonna be hard to come down from.
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 Porter onstage.
Photo by Mirissa Nef
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GN: How’s your year going?
WP: It’s looking great. I recently started my own imprint, called Weasel Records. I own a recording studio in Milwaukee called the Engine Room, and I’ve been recording there for the last couple of albums. And now I’m going totally independent, as far as my own studio, my own label, and it’s exciting. I really feel energized by music right now, so it’s good.
GN: That’s quite a juggling act …
WP: Yeah, it’s daunting, because I think the perils of self-production are kind of difficult; it’s hard to know when you do something well yourself. So I’m co-producing with a keyboard player who’s been a longtime friend, David Adler. We’re just keeping each other honest, and I think we’re making a good record.
So I just feel so fortunate to be playing, and I feel like the industry itself is in such a great place right now. Everybody’s complaining—“Oh, no one’s going to see shows and no one’s buying records …” but it’s the day of the independent. It’s finally here. So it’s really exciting in that way.
GN: What do your Guild instruments mean to you?
WP: I love ’em. I love the Valencia. It has evolved into my favorite guitar. When I first got it, I wasn’t sure about the tone and some other elements of it, but it has just blossomed. In the last year, the maple has opened up; all the midrange has come back out of it, so it has such a flat tonal response, which is hard to find.
But for a solo performer, you need to have all those frequencies represented, without woof in the low end or some big spike in the high end. It’s really smooth and glassy. I just feel real fortunate to have it, man. And it challenges me every day, you know? I mean, that’s what you want from a guitar, I think.
GN: You have such a distinctive playing style. How did it develop?
WP: I studied a little bit of classical guitar at a conservatory, but that’s about it. I took some, sort of folk guitar, when I was a little kid, which was based much more on song structure than it was on actual technique. So my approach to the guitar is really borne out of performing and needing to fill the room with sound. And so that’s why it’s more rhythmic.
As a solo performer, you know, when people are drinking beer and trying to meet each other in a bar, and you get up there and play “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” um, they might not be feeling it. So even though that’s one of the best songs ever written, in my humble opinion, I still feel like you have to do something to get the boogie in the bottom end happening. And also, you’ve got to “hit all the chakras,” as they say, so that’s what I’m going for.
Visit Willy Porter online at www.willyporter.com.
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