Creageivity 23 - with Guitarist Eli Dokson

Musician ELI DOKSON converted from high school trumpeter to electric guitarist after seeing the Beatles perform live: “Everyone else was standing there screaming, and I was just standing there staring,” he recalls. And so began a lifelong passion for playing guitar, which Eli still continues at the age of 75, gigging regularly in the area around his home of Crestone in the high desert of Colorado, USA. In Creageivity 23 Eli gives Adrienne a lesson in the basics of chord structures, and why anyone can play the blues if they know their I, IV, and V. He also tries to convince Harlan of the genius that is guitarist Robben Ford, although all three are agreed on the lasting brilliance of Bob Dylan.

We hear excerpts of two tracks from Eli’s solo album A Dream I Can’t Forget: Center of the Sky and Holding Out for Love. In between there’s also a song from one of Eli’s many bands, Earthmen, with a track titled Parallel to Yesterday from their album Touch. 

When not guitaring, Eli describes his life taking care of horses at the stables he has run with his wife Joanna for around 30 years, and where he says he is, ‘In charge of manure’. However it’s to the joy of musical creativity and performance that Eli returns at the end of the podcast, as he reflects on the advice given to him by another respected musician. 

Creageivity 23 offers a relaxed stroll through Americana music – including reflections on listening to the Grateful Dead, back in the day in San Francisco. 

Photographs of Eli courtesy of Mat Lit, photographer and editor of The Creston Eagle: MattLitPhoto.com 

Music written and performed by Eli Dokson and friends, used with permission.

If you think you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!