I've been rediscovering my love for the guitar recently, so I was going to try and avoid mentioning the Rugby World Cup this week.

But it just keeps going doesn't it? Not the World Cup per se – though that's obviously still underway – but the continuing conundrum as to whether Tauranga should erect a big screen on the Strand. That we are arguing about this now, half way through the cup, when the event has been on the table for five years, is simply astonishing.

My prediction: yes there will be one, and yes, a lot of people will then complain.

I realise this is just a wild guess, but it seems in keeping with sentiments expressed about such stories on the SunLive website.

I couldn't help but notice, whilst browsing the public debate, that one particular commentator – a musician and music scene watcher, and a person who has been known to fill my shoes here at the column on odd occasions – has been weighing into the discussion. He is a smart and knowledgeable chap and usually makes a valid point, so I always pay attention to his views.

While discussing the Big Screen/No Big Screen situation he had this to say: 'On another note, SunLive, it would be great to see some journalistic snouts get some answers on this laughable REAL Tauranga Festival and to gain some much-needed transparency as to why funding/organisation was apparently entrusted to people with what you'd assume would be naturally opposed vested interests: being Amy Porter from Cornerstone, and Mel Cottingham from Zabar. There may be no story, but the questions should be asked don't you think?”

Well, he may be right and I hope some journalistic snouts do poke around in that particular trough, but as I mentioned, I've become recaptured by the beauty and possibilities of the guitar and am going to avoid any Woodward and Bernsteining for the time being.

So, what have I been listening to?

Top of the list is this weird guy from somewhere in rural Nowhereville USA called Frank Fairfield. Frank plays guitar and banjo and fiddle and seems to come from a tradition dating back to the first settlers. His music is rough and heartfelt, wild fiddle breakdowns and flailing banjo hollers. There is a lot here that challenges regular ideas of timing and tuning, but there are two or three guitar styles on display that I've never heard before, fast and furious country hillbilly playing that requires a massive amount of skill and understanding. The album is called ‘Out On The Open West' and is a view of a different world.
Another CD causing my jaw to drop is a new set from Canadian duo Harry Manx & Kevin Breit called ‘Strictly Whatever'.

They are both experts on stringed instruments. Harry plays baritone guitar, lap slide guitar, National steel guitar, banjo and mohan veena (yes it is a stringed musical instrument and, yes, I had to Google it too).
Kevin plays electric guitar, National steel, electric sitar, ukulele, acoustic guitar and mandolin.

So they play a lot of stuff between them. The album is just the pair plus a percussionist, but the odd thing is that it's not a guitar album as such, it's an album of songs, and very good songs they are too. It just happens that each song has some astounding playing on it, not as in show-off stuff, but in new sounds, new ideas, new approaches to instruments. ‘Strictly Whatever' is my favourite album this week and I would encourage all guitarists to track it down, as well as anyone else who likes classy pop/blues, immaculately played. (Note: distributed in NZ by Southbound)

Then there's Ry Cooder's latest album, ‘Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down'. I love it. For Cooder it represents a return to where he started some forty years ago with ‘Boomer's Story and Into The Purple Valley' except, now, he's writing his own songs and playing with an assurance born of experience.

And just as those early album's chose deliberately political blues, so the new one finds Ryland (isn't it great that someone's genuinely called ‘Ryland'!) turning his sights on the new depression, the politicians and bankers and others responsible for this mess. ‘No Banker Left Behind' and ‘John Lee Hooker For President' are only two amongst many standout tracks.
Great stuff.