Guitar trio plays mix of styles

Three guitars playing acoustic instrumental music is obviously not mainstream pop, which Paul Richards readily admits. But it is for people who are really music lovers.

And music lovers will be able to catch the California Guitar Trio next weekend in Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden. "I always look forward to playing in Utah," Richards said, "because we've had such strong shows. There are some really good, dedicated music fans here in town that always come and see us and support us."

Originally from Bountiful, Utah, Richards said he first met the other two members of the trio when he was studying guitar in England. "(Instructor) Robert Fripp had a house in the countryside in England where he invited students to come and work and study together." As part of their education, Fripp arranged for his students to tour in Europe and the United States.

When the project ended, Richards and fellow students Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya wanted to continue playing. "(Lams) had just moved to California, to Los Angeles, and he invited myself and (Moriya) to move in with him in a little tiny, two-bedroom house with him and his family — his wife and little baby. We were very tight, very cramped. And we were kind of based in that house for about four years."

During that time, Richards went back and forth between Utah and California — returning home just long enough to earn enough money to go back to Los Angeles for another three or four months. The group didn't make a lot of money with its music in the beginning, but eventually the California Guitar Trio started getting invitations to do bigger performances and larger tours.

These days, the trio goes on tour roughly every other month.

The group's music was heard at the 1998 and 2000 Olympics and on various programs on CBS, NBC, CNN World Beat and ESPN. It was even played in outer space as wake-up music on NASA's space shuttle Endeavor.

When the trio isn't touring, Richards now returns home to Salt Lake City, Moriya to Japan and Lams to Los Angeles, but the three keep in contact almost daily. And using the Internet, they send music scores back and forth and work on material independently.

This arrangement poses some challenges, Richards said, especially when a number of projects are being worked on, but it seems to be worth the price. At the moment, they are cooperating with filmmaker Scott Lambson, who is filming a documentary about the trio, and the group will be going into the studio to record a new CD during the first week of March.

The chemistry between the three also works.