Kaki King: Queen of Guitar
Musician opened for Kebí Moí Friday,
Saturday at The Ark
By Luke Woods / Staff Writer, Monday, March 22, 2004
At 23, guitarist Kaki King is quickly becoming a queen of strings.
King is currently on tour opening up for blues man Kebí Moí and his band. They played
The Ark in Ann Arbor Friday and Saturday. I caught the Friday show.
King walked briskly into the room and sat down in a chair set center stage. Someone
in the audience shouted, ìHey, your not Kebí.î
She responded, ìYouíre going to have to get through me first.î
She kicked off her 40-minute set with two sunny songs that alluded to her classical
guitar background. King utilized her long nails to pick and strum, alternating between
sweet and slightly crooked sounds. Both were pleasing to the ear.
The Atlanta native caught The Arkís sold-out crowd by surprise with her third tune,
which simply rocked out. Using techniques similar to present-day players like Ani
DiFranco and Keller Williams, King launched into a groove, simultaneously playing
bass lines, neck-tapping out a melody and slapping her guitarís body like a drum.
She seamlessly shifted from classical to funk to blues to world beat, never singing
but telling stories nonetheless. Though King did not offer any vocal accompaniment,
she did speak up between songs, sharing colorful tales about an old blues guitarist
back home in Georgia, the unique instruments Afghani musicians play and her inability
to find somewhere she could buy a milkshake in Ann Arbor. By the end of her 40 minutes,
the same people who said ìYouíre not Kebíî were asking King what her name was. |
