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by PATRICK BABCOCK
Lifestyles Reporter
Legends was bouncing Thursday night when bassist Victor Wooten and drummer J.D. Blair came to town.
The duo came to Appalachian State University as a part of their “2 Minds 1 Groove” tour.
Wooten is best known as the bassist for progressive bluegrass group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
 Victor Wooten plays a show at Legends in 2005. Wooten visited Boone again Thursday night with drummer J.D. Blair for the “2 Minds 1 Groove” tour. Photo by Alisha Park.
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He has released
solo material to high critical acclaim and won two Nashville Music
Awards for Bassist of the Year and three Bass Player magazine’s Bass
Player of the Year Awards.
He has played with such artists as Mike Stern, Branford Marsalis, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews and Prince.
Blair is
the drummer for country star Shania Twain’s band and played the Super
Bowl XXVII halftime show with them, but has played with Victor Wooten
on and off since the release of Wooten’s debut solo album, “A Show of
Hands,” in 1996.
“I had a
great time tonight,” Blair said. “I have a great time every night. The
people I’ve met tonight have been very friendly, and I guess everybody
around here is like that.”
Wooten was slightly more critical of his performance.
“It felt pretty good,” Wooten said. “It wasn’t my best, it wasn’t my worst.”
He’s always enjoyed playing at Appalachian, he said.
“College
towns in general are just fun,” he said. “The students that come are
just excited. The Flecktones have always have always had a good time, a
good experience in Boone. [They have in] all of North Carolina, but
Boone in general, and because of that, the Flecktones have laid a nice
bed for me to able to come through, so I’ve always had a great
experience here, plus I have a lot of friends here.”
Student reaction to the show was exuberantly positive.
“I had
never seen Victor Wooten before Thursday,” freshman electronic media
broadcasting major Annie L. Sadler said. “To be perfectly honest I
didn’t really know who he was until the day before when my boyfriend
who plays bass was talking about him. Now I feel kind of stupid because
his concert was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.”
However, Blair’s name was overshadowed by Wooten’s to a fault, Sadler said.
“Yeah,
it was weird,” she said. “I didn’t even hear J.D. Blair’s name
regarding the concert, but he was definitely my favorite of the two.”
A
particularly heart-warming part of the concert was when Wooten’s
children performed on stage with Blair and their father, Sadler said.
Wooten’s array of foot pedals made for a large variety of tones for his bass.
Blair’s setup included a Theremin, a synthesizer that reacts without contact by its user.
Along with the music and gadgets, the duo even brought some advice for the students.
“Keep the vibes positive, do your homework and don’t fail,” Blair said. “It’s not good for you.”
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