California Guitar Trio-8 album

California Guitar Trio (CGT) is a band of three guitar players founded in 1991. Paul Richards of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bert Lams of Brussels, Belgium, and Hideyo Moriya of Tokyo, Japan first met in England at one of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft Courses in 1987. After completing several of these intensive courses, the three toured worldwide with Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists. They continued working together in Los Angeles, founding The California Guitar Trio in 1991, to create original compositions, surf covers, and classical re-workings.

Making use of a wide range of instrumental styles fusing European classical music, rock, blues, jazz, world music, bluegrass, and surf music, the California Guitar Trio's emphasizes technical virtuosity and humor.

The Trio's music was featured during the television coverage of the 1998 and 2000 Olympic Games, and on CBS, NBC, CNN WorldBeat, and ESPN TV programs. They performed on the 2003 Grammy Awards nominated track Apollo on Tony Levin's CD Pieces of the Sun; and CGT music was sent into outer space as wake-up music for the crew aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Through frequent touring, the California Guitar Trio has shared the stage with performers such as: King Crimson, John McLaughlin, David Sylvian, Tito Puente, Leftover Salmon, Taj Mahal, Steve Lukather, Simon Phillips, Adrian Legg, Adrian Belew, Enchant, and many more. When schedules permit, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto also regularly join them for live shows.

The Trio has released twelve albums: seven studio CDs featuring original works from the CGT and a variety of classical works such as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, four live releases, and a Christmas CD with familiar and not-so familiar Christmas music. Lams has also made a solo album of Bach preludes titled Nascent.

In August 2004, they released Whitewater, produced by Levin. It features mainly original works of the CGT, offset by a puzzle-work arrangement of a Bach lute suite and a mashup of "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" with The Doors' "Riders on the Storm".