Don Cherry's questionable guitar-playing abilities exposed by YouTube clip

After Don Cherry was filmed briefly rocking out with local pop-rock greats the Odds and Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker just before the opening face-off at last Sunday's Canucks/Sharks game, there was talk in some circles--well, Ear of Newt, mainly--that the Coach's Corner star was not quite the guitar hero he pretended to be.

When I blogged that the Hockey Night in Canada mainstay's fine cream-coloured Telecaster probably wasn't even plugged in, another reader--known only as "The Chairman"--argued that it was, and that Cherry was actually quite the country-music picker, a regular Pete Anderson. But now new, behind-the-scenes footage has surfaced that shows Grapes to be a tad sour when it comes to rocking out.

"Ready to go. What are we playing?," he asks grizzled Odds frontman Craig Northey before the group kicks into the Hip's "Little Bones". Then you can clearly see that Cherry's hand doesn't move from its sole position on the guitar neck. I don't even think he's on the right fret. Pete Anderson my ass!

Hopefully Cherry has taken a few guitar lessons from Baker in the last few days, so that if he tries jamming before tonight's faceoff--about 90 minutes from now--he won't disgrace the entire country. Dude plays guitar like a goddamn Russian!

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