[Ed.'s note: you can find out more about this event in our handy Daily Picks section, here.]

Pick by Michael Simmons:

law logo2x bRichard Thompson's former producer Joe Boyd once wrote that Thompson's guitar playing has “no blues cliche, he is unapologetic about his whiteness,” while a friend noted “he plays the guitar faster than I can listen to it.”

In the Weekly last year, an insightful and humble journalist observed that “His singularity on his axe is strangely geometric; whereas you can hear most guitarists traipsing up and down the neck, Thompson sounds as if he's fingering laterally.” (Wait a second, I wrote that. Okay, scratch 'humble.') In addition to his top-shelf skills as literate, witty songwriter and passionate singer, Rolling Stone named him one of the Top 20 Guitarists of all time. (That's a long time!)

Kicking off the Grammy Museum's Great Guitars Series, Thompson will be interviewed by Grammy veep Scott Goldman about his instrumental craft, field questions from the audience, and play a few songs. The event will take place in the Museum's Sound Stage, an intimate room, so it may be possible to touch the hem of the garment of the virtuoso who jammed with Hendrix and Page.

[Ultra-rare Richard Thompson video, after the jump]

DEEP CUT ALERT: Rare Richard Thompson performance, as a John Cale sideman!

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