August 21, 2008: I think I know how a stone mason in 1504 – an aging Florentine who built walls with stacks of rocks – would have felt happening upon 30-year old Michelangelo putting the finishing touches on his statue of David. Why do I know this? I’m an acoustic guitarist, and tonight I watched Kaki King play.

We appear to use the same basic materials, yes: hollow box, steel strings, body parts… But, somehow there is an enormous gulf between my result and hers. Standing at its edge, I consider tossing in the trowel.

Like Michelangelo in that year, Kaki is young. “Prodigy” is an obvious descriptor, but a prodigy inspires one to ponder, “How can someone so young do that?” Tonight, I doubt there was a soul in the house that didn’t wonder, “How can anyone from this planet do that?” Ms. King has crossed over; there is no room for equivocation. She is a master.

What distinguishes her from a mere virtuoso is her apparent focus on the music itself. She seems undaunted by the difficulty presented in playing any particular note or pattern on the guitar. As a matter of fact, the choice of guitar as her instrument appears almost incidental. Rather than find a way, as Segovia did, to adapt music to the guitar, Kaki abandons most conventions. She plucks and fingers with either or both hands and all digits; reaches from over or under the fretboard; adds percussive taps and slaps to the guitar body; finds outlandish tunings – all to serve the unique tune she is presenting, and all with an ease that is… um… unsettling (to us mortals.) A couple of the tunes could not possibly have been played without a looping device of some sort, but she seemed to have forgotten hers. Nothing but a pair of Ovation Adamas flattops. Oh, well.

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