Thousands of New Englanders rely on Alton Lathrop’s technical skills when the power goes out and, with a guitar in his hands, Lathrop is a human electrical current in his own right.
At his day job, Lathrop and others at Powers Guaranteed Services keep generators in good working order so that individuals, businesses and municipal services aren’t in trouble when the power fails. The Swanzey, New Hampshire, enterprise has a motto: “The power is on, guaranteed.” The same can be said of Lathrop’s musical skills while performing with Silverback Swing, Zara Bode’s Little Big Band and other regional groups.
It’s a double entendre to note that, for years, Lathrop’s life revolved around metal. One of his first jobs was in metalworking, which included lathe work, milling and making finished parts like transmission housing by drilling holes in cast iron. Lathrop also developed skills in metal music, also known as heavy metal, starting almost four decades ago when he first heard that type of music on his boombox.
“I was 9 or 10,” recounted Lathrop, now 46. “I was drawn to the heaviness of it. Metal music is weighty and dense. There’s a lot going on, sonically. It’s loud and fast and fully assaults your senses, especially when you hear it live.”
Not surprisingly, being exposed to high-volume music and working in loud manufacturing environments, Lathrop developed tinnitus.
“I didn’t wear ear plugs until I was 30,” he said. When asked about the appeal, he replied, “Metal music is about chasing sensory overload. Other people watch horror films, skydive or ride roller coasters. When I was a kid, hearing that guitar rattle the speakers of my boombox, I knew I wanted to do that.”
A Jaffrey, New Hampshire, native and current Keene resident, Lathrop performed regionally in metal bands for about 20 years, but these days, he plays metal only on his own, “about once a week,” he said. “Very loud. When my wife isn’t home.” Lathrop revealed a tendency toward understatement by noting that metal music is “not very relaxing. Thankfully, my neighbors don’t live close. It’s so fun to play loud, kind of like having a sports car with a lot of horsepower. Do I need it? No, but it’s really fun.”
Pivoting from performing metal music, Lathrop immersed himself in a genre that couldn’t be more different. The style, made popular in the early 20th century by the famed Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt, is referred to as swing, Gypsy swing or Gypsy jazz.
Lathrop’s introduction came a dozen years ago when he and his wife, Wendy, were at a Peterborough, New Hampshire, pub.
“Two guys came in with funny-looking guitars and started playing,” he recalled. “A woman played the bass with them. My jaw dropped. I figured it must be the style Django played.”
As a kid, Lathrop caught wind of Reinhardt. “I heard he lost a couple of fingers but kept playing.” When Lathrop finally heard it live, Gypsy swing grabbed his attention.
The finger flexibility necessary to play metal wasn’t Lathrop’s only foundation; as a teen, he’d been intrigued by intricate violin exercises composed by Niccolò Paganini, the revered 18th-century Italian violinist, guitarist and composer.
“I transcribed some of those exercises, which translate well for electric guitar,” Lathrop said. “I was a shredder,” he added, referring to the ability to play complex lead parts or solos at high speed with accuracy. These days, he shreds using a different type of guitar.
Lathrop’s on-stage instruments include one he used while performing at a Bastille Day celebration.
“It’s a 2008 Dupont, made in France to replicate a Busato,” he said, referring to the Italian-French luthier Bortolo Busato, who built Gypsy jazz guitars in Paris and was renowned for his major role in the development of that type of guitar. “He was active in the 1930s and ’40s making guitars in the Selmer-Maccaferri style, but implemented design tweaks that made them sound a little different than the Selmers. More sound.”
Lathrop speaks with familiarity and fondness about guitars; his references can send the listener scrambling to research historical mini-lessons. The Selmer-Maccaferri-style guitar resulted from the creative collaboration between the French wind instrument maker Henri Selmer and the Italian guitarist and luthier Mario Maccaferri, which led to a revolutionary line of acoustic guitars beginning in 1932.
Rather than go down more music history rabbit holes, dear readers, let’s figure out how you can get an earful of Alton Lathrop’s mastery as he plays lead guitar with Silverback Swing. In addition to Lathrop, the band is made up of Mark Anagnostopulos on rhythm guitar and vocals, Gus Hollingsworth on accordion and vocals, and Steve Frankel on bass.
“We’ll be at [The Brewery at] Four Star Farms in Northfield Sept. 17 and Oct. 1,” said Lathrop, “and on Sept. 18, we’ll be at Incandescent Brewing in Bernardston.”
Silverback Swing’s show will be even higher octane on Oct. 2, when the band will perform with the musical wizard Chris Devine at Blackbird, a new Northampton venue. Lathrop will also perform with Zara Bode’s Little Big Band at the Brattleboro Music Center on Oct. 24.
“It’s a Halloween show,” Lathrop noted. “Our fourth year in a row.”
In previous years, the event sold out, so promoters went to two shows.
“I was blown away,” Lathrop said of the first time he heard the type of music that’s become a staple in his life. “It has incredible technicality, but it also has melody. It’s not just running scales up and down the neck. It’s beautiful music.”
Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope” and can be reached at eveline@amandlachorus.org. She thanks music columnist Sheryl Hunter for her encouragement regarding the interview with Alton Lathrop. Check out Sheryl’s “Sounds Local” columns on Thursdays in the Greenfield Recorder.