Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Guitar at the Bar: Greg Linksman
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Guitar at the Bar: Greg Linksman
As many critics and moviegoers gush over the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Greg Linksman shrugs. He has already dived deep into the music and background of one of his heroes but saw the film on a lark.
"I've read all the books and watched the concert footage and documentaries, so there's no real need to see a re-creation of a scene that I've already seen in its original form," he says.
Due to thirsty ears and a curious mind, he has accumulated at least a degree's worth of facts and knowledge about popular music, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s.
"I get excited listening to Motown when you know 30 seconds in that you're getting a hooky chorus in a perfectly crafted song, or knowing that Paul Simon will have amazing arrangements," he says. "But I also appreciate Buddy Holly and that punk rock thing with two chords."
Linksman, 36, hails from Westchester County. He knew Beacon because an aunt lived in the city. He started coming up more often in the 2010s to take breaks from Brooklyn and fell in with the Dogwood music crew. Then he met Kyra Auffermann, got engaged and relocated last year.
Over the years, he's performed semi-monthly pop-up shows at local bars and joined DIY events like a five-band event at the VFW Hall in December.
On Friday (Feb. 21), his group, Mickey Green's Off-Track, will play at Industrial Arts Brewing Co. For New Yorkers of a certain age, a word is missing from the name and indeed, his grandfather, Mickey Green, frequented the Off-Track Betting parlors that once dotted neighborhoods across New York City and showed horse races via closed-circuit analog television feeds.
Onstage, Linksman wears a shamrock-green cap knitted by his great-grandmother. "It's always been my color," he says.
Linksman is still perfecting his sound and says he has yet to record anything serious, so he works out arrangements and approaches during his laidback solo gigs. On guitar, he delivers a full sound with hybrid picking, where his thumb and forefinger squeeze a triangular flat pick to play the low end and the other three fingers pluck out higher notes.
The technique is associated with country guitarists (who call it "chicken picking") and helps fatten up Linksman's feel-good pop tunes. In general, verses are simple and well-placed minor chords color the mood, taking songs in different directions.
During "What Cha Gonna Do About It?", the opening number at an informal Tuesday gig on Feb. 4 at Draught Industries on Main Street, he launched into a lush solo based on the tune's main riff and ended the song by holding a bell-like falsetto note for what seemed like a minute.
In the second set, he reeled off the iconic opening riff of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" as a finger exercise. "I do it just to warm up my hands; it's a parlor trick that's more flashy than difficult."
Tuesday nights are typically slow in Beacon, especially in the winter. "It's a relaxed atmosphere; I can try out some new things," he says. "If you're doing what you love and you have to do it, you can feel the support in this town even if only nine people show up."
Industrial Arts Brewing Co. is located at 511 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon. The Feb. 21 show, which begins at 8 p.m., also will include performances by Barnaby! and the Vibeke Saugestad Band.
View all episodes
By Highlands CurrentAs many critics and moviegoers gush over the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Greg Linksman shrugs. He has already dived deep into the music and background of one of his heroes but saw the film on a lark.
"I've read all the books and watched the concert footage and documentaries, so there's no real need to see a re-creation of a scene that I've already seen in its original form," he says.
Due to thirsty ears and a curious mind, he has accumulated at least a degree's worth of facts and knowledge about popular music, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s.
"I get excited listening to Motown when you know 30 seconds in that you're getting a hooky chorus in a perfectly crafted song, or knowing that Paul Simon will have amazing arrangements," he says. "But I also appreciate Buddy Holly and that punk rock thing with two chords."
Linksman, 36, hails from Westchester County. He knew Beacon because an aunt lived in the city. He started coming up more often in the 2010s to take breaks from Brooklyn and fell in with the Dogwood music crew. Then he met Kyra Auffermann, got engaged and relocated last year.
Over the years, he's performed semi-monthly pop-up shows at local bars and joined DIY events like a five-band event at the VFW Hall in December.
On Friday (Feb. 21), his group, Mickey Green's Off-Track, will play at Industrial Arts Brewing Co. For New Yorkers of a certain age, a word is missing from the name and indeed, his grandfather, Mickey Green, frequented the Off-Track Betting parlors that once dotted neighborhoods across New York City and showed horse races via closed-circuit analog television feeds.
Onstage, Linksman wears a shamrock-green cap knitted by his great-grandmother. "It's always been my color," he says.
Linksman is still perfecting his sound and says he has yet to record anything serious, so he works out arrangements and approaches during his laidback solo gigs. On guitar, he delivers a full sound with hybrid picking, where his thumb and forefinger squeeze a triangular flat pick to play the low end and the other three fingers pluck out higher notes.
The technique is associated with country guitarists (who call it "chicken picking") and helps fatten up Linksman's feel-good pop tunes. In general, verses are simple and well-placed minor chords color the mood, taking songs in different directions.
During "What Cha Gonna Do About It?", the opening number at an informal Tuesday gig on Feb. 4 at Draught Industries on Main Street, he launched into a lush solo based on the tune's main riff and ended the song by holding a bell-like falsetto note for what seemed like a minute.
In the second set, he reeled off the iconic opening riff of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" as a finger exercise. "I do it just to warm up my hands; it's a parlor trick that's more flashy than difficult."
Tuesday nights are typically slow in Beacon, especially in the winter. "It's a relaxed atmosphere; I can try out some new things," he says. "If you're doing what you love and you have to do it, you can feel the support in this town even if only nine people show up."
Industrial Arts Brewing Co. is located at 511 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon. The Feb. 21 show, which begins at 8 p.m., also will include performances by Barnaby! and the Vibeke Saugestad Band.