GREG GILBERTSON, SHOWN HERE JUST MOMENTS BEFORE BUSTING OUT WITH SOME LASER-FAST FINGER PICKS. Greg is busting out new material at the Mabel Tainter.

    Some people take music lessons and spend year after excruciating year practicing their craft, trying to replicate the level of “rockstarhood” found in Hollywood. Then there are people like Greg Gilbertson who saw an amazing guitar performance and started playing until he figured out how to play the style himself.

Gilbertson went to see a performance of Phil Kegge, who uses alternate tunings (for those of you less musically savvy, alternate tunings means tuning your guitar in a different way to create unique sounds). Once Greg adapted to this style, he started writing songs. His friend heard some of his music and encouraged him to play in public. Gilbertson started playing at the open mic nights at The Stones Throw, where he started getting positive feedback and booking local shows. 

“I didn’t really expect to become a musician or anything, but it just sort of happened,” he explained. “Music just kind of takes over sometimes, whether you want it to or not.”

After playing the local venues for a while and gaining a big local following, the Chippewa Falls native went on a few tours across the country and built some great connections in the music business. It was one of these connections who encouraged him to perform at the Walnut Valley Festival, a huge acoustic music festival with an emphasis on the bluegrass side of things, held every year in Winfield, Kansas.

    He won third place at the festival in 2008, ironically winning a new guitar right after his old guitar had been stolen. Even more ironic is the fact that he wasn’t even supposed to be a part of the competition, but someone was unable to make it so he was entered at the last minute. Playing with a borrowed guitar and a hurt hand, he still managed to pull off quite the performance.

The win was not surprising considering his talent and passion for instrumental music itself. He described the process of writing the music. “There are certain things that words aren’t able to do, and what music is able to do is pick up where the words leave off and fill in the gaps,” Gilbertson said. 

Fast-forward a year and Greg has now settled down a bit into family life. He is no longer able to go on tours like he used to, but he has still be working on his music in the meantime. He has a show coming up at the Mabel Tainter (his debut at that venue) that will feature some of Greg’s new material, which he hopes to release on an upcoming new record.

“I’m getting a lot better at constructing melodies and telling stories instrumentally,” he said. “I feel like the songs take you somewhere from beginning to end a lot more than they did before.”

Although Gilbertson doesn’t have an exact date in mind for the release of his next record, he hopes to get started on it in the next year.

    Greg Gilbertson + A Semester at Sea • Dec. 11 • Mabel Tainter Theatre, 205 Main St., Menomonie • 7:30pm • $12 adult, $10 senior • 235-0001 • www.mabeltainter.com