Gary Lucas
Gary Lucas is an American guitarist, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, and a composer of music for film and television. Long an admirer of Captain Beefheart's music, he joined the last incarnation of Beefheart's Magic Band, distinguishing himself as an interpreter of Beefheart's difficult music and recording solo guitar pieces on ''Doc at the Radar Station'' and ''Ice Cream for Crow''. On the liner notes to the record ''Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind'', a Beefheart tribute by Fast 'n' Bulbous, in which he plays guitar, Lucas writes, "I feel that Van Vliet's sensibility and aesthetic definitely informs my guitar playing and overall worldview it's like I went to Beefheart University." (Lucas actually graduated from Yale University in 1974.)Since Beefheart's retirement from music, Lucas has been involved with a variety of projects, including the solo album ''Skeleton at the Feast''; interpretations of Chinese popular songs of the 1930s on ''Edge of Heaven''; and ''Busy Being Born,'' an album of children's songs ("For Children of All Ages (and you don't have to be Jewish)"). He has collaborated with many artists, among them Jeff Buckley and Joan Osborne, with both of whom he wrote and recorded songs. Lucas continues to play with his band, Gods and Monsters, and has been touring extensively in Europe with the ongoing reunion of The Magic Band (sans Don Van Vliet).