Guitar Wars Winner!!

After three nights of preliminary competition at Tess’ Lark Tavern, Savannah’s and the Bayou Cafe, Q103’s Guitar Wars battle came down to the grand finale at Revolution Hall in Troy on Thursday night.

One of the top eight finalists would walk away with the crown as the Capital Region’s top guitarlinger and a $10,000 Martin guitar.

Or would they?

Apparently one of the finalists George Catanzal wasn’t able to compete on Thursday, so another short round of preliminaries was held first of Thursday night to find one more finalist to add to the mix. Classical guitarist Kevin Prockup emerged as that winner, which sent him straight into the finals, competing against Albie Von Schaaf, Rob Guerin, Chuck Valentine, Dallas Sheppard, Steve White, Mat Kane and Kaitee Page.

Each of the finalists had five minutes to strut their stuff and make fretboard magic on stage. And as it turned out, it was definitely quite a varied bunch of music.

Surprising, only Albie and Sheppard played electric guitars, while Guerin, White and Prockup played acoustic. Valentine straddled the fence – beginning on acoustic guitar, utilizing some looping, and ending his spot on electric guitar. Meanwhile, Kane (of Disposable Rocket Band) blasted off on electric mandolin and Page (of Lunic) tore it up on her pink electric violin.

In the end, though, there could be only one winner. While emcee Mrozek hawked the Yuengling beer, the panel of four judges tallied their votes, gave the grand prize to Steve White.