Paul Richards loves the guitar.
"My two older brothers played, and the instrument became very inspirational to me," Richards said during a telephone interview from Portland, Ore. "The sound and the way someone plays the guitar has a coolness that has stuck with me through the years."
Richards, who grew up in Bountiful, said another reason he loves the guitar is his various guitar teachers — George Best, Jimmy Mahlif, Ralph Mason and Mike Dowdle. "These great guitarists all showed me different styles and dimensions to what the guitar could do. And they're all from Utah."
He continued his guitar studies, which led him to Robert Fripp's League of Crafty Guitars. Fripp, a founding member of King Crimson, set up intense guitar courses in England during the 1980s. Richards hooked up with Hideyo Moriya and Bert Lams.
Moriya, from Tokyo, Japan, and Lams, raised in Brussels, Belgium, shared Richards' enthusiasm for guitar music. The three decided to form the California Guitar Trio, a name they chose because they rehearsed in that state.
"We shared a common background, and that was already established in ourselves when we decided to play together," Richards said. "We didn't have to do what other bands do. We didn't have to sit down and decide what our goals were going to be. We didn't have to decide what style we were going to play.
"In fact, we knew we would play everything from classical to jazz to rock and folk. We knew we were going to follow what the music dictated."
That philosophy has led the CGT to gigs with King Crimson, John McLaughlin, Leftover Salmon, Adrian Legg, Taj Mahal and the the late Tito Puente, just to name a few.
"The various styles we play has made it hard for promoters and the music industry to pigeonhole us," Richards said. "And we're OK with that. Because there is a lot guitars can do."
Mixing in original tunes with such surf covers as Dick Dale's "Misirilou" and traditional Japanese folk tunes, such as "Rokudan," with acoustic versions of progressive rock classics — Queen's "Bohemian Rapsody," for example — are all part of the trio's repertoire.
And then there are the classical works — Bach and Beethoven, being the group's favorites. "We like challenging ourselves," Richards said. "We're not afraid of trying new things with different types of music."
What: California Guitar Trio
Where: Fort Douglas Theater, University of Utah
When: 7 p.m., Thursday
How much: $12 and $20
Phone: 531-7066
Web:www.cgtrio.com
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com