Marjorie Thompson has been playing guitar since the 1960s but did not learn fingerstyle guitar until five years ago.
Thompson will perform her fingerstyle country blues music alongside bassist Greg Franklin at 8 tonight at The Blue Gator, 63 N. Court St.
Thompson learned this style of guitar from former Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. She has been a longtime admirer of Kaukonen's music since she started playing guitar.
I've been playing since the sixties folk scene was going on
and I always enjoyed music like that Thompson said.
Five years ago, after reading an ad in an acoustic guitar magazine for Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp, Thompson decided to make the pilgrimage from Rhode Island down to study with Kaukonen in Pomeroy.
Technically he opened my eyes to the style of playing in country blues
Thompson said. It was as if he were removing the blinders from my eyes.
After spending two years traveling between her duties as a professor of biology at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and learning fingerstyle from Kaukonen, she decided to start recording music. Thompson has since recorded two albums, her debut in 2002, called Driving to Distraction
and 2003's Add Some More.
Thompson said she finds it interesting that not many women play her style of guitar, though she is not sure why. She attributes the disparity possibly to the style having strong roots in Southern blues, which was mostly played by black men.
I have always been someone who has competed in the domain of men
Thompson said.
In the past, she has made several trips to southeast Ohio to play shows. She recalls one visit when she performed at a bar where some Ohio University students were throwing a going away party for some international students.
My music is not something you can particularly dance to
but they really wanted to dance and attempted to anyways
Thompson said. Every time I come down the response has been really lovely.
Thompson's show at The Blue Gator tonight will cost $5. On Thursday she will do an in-studio at 2:30 p.m. on WOUB with Mark Hellenburg, and Thursday night she will reunite with her Fur Peace Ranch friends at the Court Street Grill, 112 Court St. in Pomeroy.
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