Established
27 years ago, the festival featured the Four Corners
championship contests this year for fiddle, flatpick
guitar, banjo, mandolin and specialty instruments. The
festival places autoharps, dulcimers, accordions, fingerpick
guitars, harmonicas, the dobro, or any such folk instrument
in the specialty category.
Contestants
have three minutes to strum their stuff and hope to
impress three “blind judges” who listen through headphones.
The competition is done in this manner so the judges
will not be influenced by the performers’ appearance.
“I’ve
been heavily influenced by all of the masters of the
20th century and play most every style–a cross of classical,
folk, jazz and bluegrass,” Sabena says of his style.
“The
selection of music depends on the venue. Wickenburg
is more a country and bluegrass event, where at the
Nationals in Winfield, Kansas, I might play something
more complicated.”
Sabena
says, “I’ve done studio work for years. I’m not in a
band. My kindergarten teachers said ‘doesn’t play well
with others,’ so I’ve stayed solo.”
Although
he performs most often in California, Sabena has played
at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts and occasionally
at the Cave Creek Coffee Company.
Reluctant
to toot his own horn, Sabena didn’t offer his credentials.
But an Internet search reveals a discography of his
recordings, including a duet with National Champion
Todd Halwell playing “Last Steam Engine Train”.
Guitar
makers, also known as luthiers, boast that Sabena plays
their instruments and include Lance McCollum of Dream
Guitars in Colfax, Calif., and famed luthier Bozo Podunavac
in Florida, endorsements that obviously influence guitarists
aspiring to attain his level of virtuosity.
His
concerts take him all over the Southwest and California
for many music festivals and engagements. “Nothing in
particular is on the schedule right now,” he says. “But
I’m sure there will be more on the horizon.”
In
a world electrified and amplified into a cacophony of
sound, it’s refreshing to listen to the raw simple notes
of fingerpicked guitar.
These
days Sarena works at Blue Sage Art Gallery at el Pedregal
in Carefree between gigs.
“I
supplement the hundreds of dollars I make playing guitar
every year by working here,” Sabena says, laughing.
