Roger McGuinn

This year Folkest '09 hosts some heavyweight musicians. The headliners are Jethro Tull and Steve Winwood, deus ex machina of Traffic. Between the two, Udine's Castello becomes a magical stage for the folksongs of Roger McGuinn, leader of the Byrds and one of the most brilliant American guitarists of the Sixties; few seem to remember any of this, starting with the organizers, who incredibly charge exactly half the admission price asked the night before for Ian Anderson and co. So much so that when it's time to listen to Roger, we find ourselves among no more than 150 people, most of whom are certainly over fifty…

At 9:15pm on the dot, it's Ed Schnabl, a sensitive singer-songwriter from Carinthia, who opens the show. His is a pleasant brand of English-language folk that, by the artist's own admission, draws on Neil Young and on the gentleman who would soon follow him on stage. Roberto Colella's pedal steel performance also drew big applause; he's a session musician who, fittingly, hails from Udine itself.

After half an hour, Schnabl and his multinational band say goodbye, leaving only some plants, a desk, a chair, a banjo and an acoustic guitar on stage. The crowd murmurs: "...and the legendary Rickenbacker 360?" The answer comes soon enough. McGuinn emerges from the darkness of the wings to the notes of the Dylan-penned "My Back Pages", whose chorus raises everyone's hopes: "Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now".

Indeed, the years don't seem to have passed at all for the former Byrds man, who still boasts a splendid voice that would make a twenty-year-old envious. The crowd is small, but applauds every song with real conviction. McGuinn offers a setlist that could pass for a genuine greatest-hits collection of his career with the Californian band. Amid constant instrument changes (he practically swaps guitars with every song!), we get "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better", "All I Really Want To Do", "Mr. Spaceman", as well as the inevitable "Turn! Turn! Turn!", "Ballad Of Easy Rider" and "Chestnut Mare". And the classic-sounding introduction to "Eight Miles High" is gorgeous — a landmark song for the development of psychedelic rock, which loses none of its beauty even played entirely acoustic.

The evening draws to a close, and Roger grants two encores, loudly demanded by a crowd now glued to the stage. Obviously, the one song still missing was "Mr. Tambourine Man", yet another tribute of the evening to the master Bob Dylan; after that, McGuinn plays the only solo song of his own on the setlist, a slow and moving, intimate ballad. Then, one last farewell, accompanied by the applause of a satisfied crowd. Curtain.

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