Guitarist Kaki King taking performance to a new multi-media level

By Karen Duarte ’22

Calling Kaki King a guitar player would be like calling Michelangelo only a painter.

To be sure, King is an outstanding guitarist in her own right. With her The Neck is a Bridge to the Body tour, however, she is taking the performance to a new multi-media level.

She will turn her guitar into a blank canvas, allowing projections to be shown on the guitar itself and behind her during her performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater at Saint John’s University as part of the Fine Arts Series at the College of Saint Benedict and SJU.

In her show, “The Neck is A Bridge To The Body,” King’s custom made Ovation Adams guitar is digitally mapped, allowing for themed multimedia projections to respond to the music as she plays. King, dressed in white, disappears into the background as these projections illuminate the stage.

“The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body” debuted at Brooklyn’s acclaimed BRIC Theater in New York City in 2014. The hour-long production focuses on the guitar and nothing else, as “the guitar is a shapeshifter,” King said.

King has grown closer and closer with her beloved instrument since her 2015 album, “The Neck Is a Bridge to the Body.”

Through this album, King focuses on expressing herself not through her voice, as typical musicians do, but instead through her guitar. By separating herself from the guitar and allowing the instrument to become a “perpetual presence in our deepest unconscious,” as King herself puts it, she redefines the role of a solo artist.

The Brooklyn-based guitarist has built a lustrous career out of her passion. With decades of creative experience under her belt, King is no novice when it comes to plucking strings.

King first fell in love with her guitar as a child and has since traded in half-hour gigs at open-mic nights for hour-long performances on tour. Her eclectic style, which molds together the softness of acoustic rock, along with the boldness of post-rock has brought her to where she is today.

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as a “genre unto herself,” she was the sole woman and youngest guitarist in Rolling Stone’s “New Guitar Gods” list in 2007.

King also has a passion for sharing her love of the guitar. She has recorded guitar tutorials for her techniques known as "Guitars and Things with Kaki King."

“I get tons of emails and Facebook messages asking me how to play certain songs of mine, or generally asking questions about guitar technique and what not," King said. “I just thought it would be fun to make a series of videos everyone can have access to. Plus, I'm really looking forward to building a community around this series, which will include inviting fans to post their own cover versions of my songs, me covering other people's songs, and even doing things like interviewing other artists and generally having fun. Plus, I just built myself a home studio, and I want to show it off!"

King will continue that passion for sharing while she is at CSB and SJU with workshops and demonstrations with young musicians. She will also participate in an Audio Divina co-presented with the Benedictine Institute at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in the Emmaus Hall Chapel at SJU.

Tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors, $20 for CSB/SJU faculty and staff, $15 for youth and students and $10 for CSB and SJU students. This event is sponsored in part by Coborn’s.

For tickets to the show, call the Benedicta Arts Center Box Office at 320-363-5777 or order online.

This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.