Last weekend marked the 2023 Dallas International Guitar Festival – a three-day event that culminated in a trio of headline performances from Eric Johnson, Orianthi and Philip Sayce.
The weekend was littered with notable onstage team-ups, but one of the biggest took place on the Saturday (May 6), which saw two of those headliners in action at the same time.
During her own set, Orianthi shared the stage with Eric Johnson for a blitzing rendition of blues classic Never Make Your Move Too Soon, which saw the two trade full-throttle licks and soulful solo exchanges.
Released by B.B. King in 1978, the Will Jennings and Nesbert 'Stix' Hooper-written track proved to be the perfect host for the pair’s swampy pentatonic passages, though it wasn’t until after some rather jarring technical difficulties were overcome that the two titans picked up steam.
Despite a rude interruption from an untimely buzz at the two minute mark, Johnson – via the fretboard of his sunburst Fender Stratocaster – plowed on undeterred with with his opening effort, while Orianthi and her PRS Private Stock model guitar held down the rhythm.
The Australian blues rock star got her own solo spot soon after, with the final four minutes of the cover reserved solely for soloing and some searing call-and-response licks.
Johnson is as melodic as ever, breaking out the boxes and navigating seamlessly between shapes across the fretboard through some tactile scale work, while Orianthi opts for sheer ferocity, dialing a more gain-tinged tone for upper register action.
Unfortunately, Johnson falls victim to a dodgy backline for much of the jam, but despite being dogged by annoying technical issues, the Cliffs of Dover titan remains wholly unfazed. The sign of a true professional.
Elsewhere on her setlist, Orianthi took her razor-like tone – now amped-up with a healthy dose of wah – to Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child, which was executed in equally fierce fashion.
Shout out must also go to Orianthi’s second guitarist Neil Swanson, who sets the fretboard of his Charvel alight with some pinpoint pinch harmonics, lightning runs and neat whammy bar sleight of hand during the Hendrix cover.
In other Orianthi news, the six-string star recently hinted that an affordable version of her $11,000 Private Stock signature guitar could be on the way, saying there's “probably an SE model coming of that one”.
