You’re not going to find a better guitarist then Martin Barre. The man seems so youthful playing these days, you’d never know he was in his 7th decade and if you do indeed get a chance to catch the man as he tours these smaller venues with his band, I suggest you get out to see him.

As much hitting is us with the heavy yet commercial title track from his latest album, Barre ran through lots of blues (interestingly enough, switching from electric guitar to mandolin-an instrument Barre manned often through the many pastoral passages of Tull music-during the most blues tune of the night, “Crossroads”) and lots of Tull. As Mr. Barre told this second-show-of-the-night crowd, he was changing things up from the first set and I watched as he called out tunes to the band and they rolled through “Smoke Stack Lightening” and his sly cover of “Eleanor Rigby” as well as Tull classics like a very heavy “Sweet Dreams,” his special send-up of “Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day”) “Minstrel In The Gallery early on and my personal favorite of the night, Barre’s 8-minute read of the middle of the Tull “concept” piece “Thick As A Brick.”Without Ian Anderson’s leading flute through this stuff I really came to appreciate Barre’s guitar parts in these classic tunes…as well delighting in him taking on those lead flute parts.

Martin Barre’s name tops the list of the very best rock guitarists…ever. At times subtle, at times heavy, at times blues, folksy, whatever-ever-else needed (and not just playing guitar but ) for decades Barre was the singular axman presence in Jethro Tull. You’ve heard him on classic riff-tastic tracks like “Aqualung”, “Hunting Girl,” “Teacher,” strumming madness down the tracks on “Locomotive Breath” and plucking many pastoral moments of intricate picking on more tunes then can be named here.

Mr. Barre is presently on a solo tour of the states (Martin and his band will be in NYC at Rockwood Music Hall, Saturday December 19th) behind his just released 3rd solo album, Back To Steel (see here). The gentleman (and a true gentleman Barre is) found some time from his busy schedule to have a sit down with shortandsweet.