Matt & Kim take center stage in this issue, in which editor Cory Lorentz ponders the tradition of “best of” lists for music at year’s end, and what goes on behind the scenes in their creation (read: grudges, genre ignorance, journalistic blitzes). And, as much as he loves his baby daughter, Cory admits struggling to find time for all the new music being ranked and reviewed when the sounds of Yo Gabba Gabba! call so insistently.

View and download the full On Tour With Shure Winter 2011 Issue on shure.com.

I didn’t know what to expect walking in to this one.  The first question on my mind was the matter of orchestration.  Would there be a quartet?  Quintet?  A chamber orchestra?  How big would it need to be to support a solo violinist?  Upon walking in to the venue, the stage told me the story.  Drum kit, guitar amps, bass amp, and a keyboard rig populated the space.  His ensemble was rock-ready.

So here’s the thing: this guy is versatile.  We sat down for an interview (video post pending) and talked about what went in to David’s show.  It turns out the repertoire was a lot more broad than I would have guessed.  Gershwin, Vivaldi, Metallica, Bach, Michael Jackson and Queen all made appearances in the set that night.  Many of the tunes were of Garrett’s own arrangement, some of them incorporating a new, modern feel which served to illustrate how connected recent music is to what we broadly know as “classical” music.

David’s instrument was miked using a WL50 lavalier and run through a UR14D wireless system.  Tom Dube skillfully mixed the entire evening.  Turns out David does a lot of writing and recording on the road.  Hmmm…might be time for an X2u or a PG27USB to make an appearance on that bus.

Richard