City Winery will host as many guitarists as it can hold on Nov. 16 – roughly 350, all told, including well-known players as well as amateurs who just like to strum – for Guitar Mash, a concert at which the audience is encouraged to play along.
Among the starrier players at this year’s installment, the third, are the folksinger David Bromberg; Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers; the polystylistic Memphis-based performer Valerie June; the pedal steel player Robert Randolph; the blues players Duke Robillard and Scott Sharrard; and the teenage virtuoso Quinn Sullivan. Mark Stewart, the founding guitarist of the Bang on a Can All Stars (and a member of Paul Simon’s and Sting’s touring bands) is the music director.
For audience members who want to take part – and perhaps get some practicing in first – charts and chords for the songs on the program will be available at the Guitar Mash website, guitarmash.org, on Nov. 10.
The event, which also includes a display of vintage guitars and a silent auction of instruments, will raise money for music education programs run by the Church Street School for Music and Art as well as Little Kids Rock, which provides instruments, teachers and music curriculums to public schools.
Guitar Mash also runs its own educational programs. In one recent project, guitars and digital recorders were lent to a group of teenage players who each had a week to write and record a new song. The music they produced will be available at a listening station at the City Winery concert.