Unplugged Rock: Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin

Talking about a classic rocking acoustic and electric guitar song that became cliche and awkward to play in a guitar shop, you know what song I'm talking about...

Mexican nylon-string virtuosos Rodrigo Y Gabriela make no secret of their rock roots. The duo first met when playing together in a Mexico City metal band, have name-checked the likes of Metallica and Slayer as influences, and while they usually record and perform their own material, they're partial to the occasional rock cover.

For their excellent self-titled 2006 album, they took on the most imposing totem of the classic-rock era and managed to pull it off with an aplomb that's nothing short of astonishing.

Rodrigo Sanchez picks the opening verses, embellishing them with a series of arpeggios, jazzy flourishes and phrases that meander around the melody but always return to the central guitar line. Gabriela Quintero remains

in the background, playing the chord accompaniment, and between them the pair start to weave their spell, gradually building the song to its familiar climax.

And while you might not think a pair of acoustic guitars could in any way replicate the bone-rattling power of Jimmy Page in full flight, the pair rise to the occasion superbly: Rodrigo sweep-picks around the vocal melody in double-quick time, while his partner hammers out the riff as furiously as is possible on an acoustic. The result is a cover that manages to retain both the delicacy and power of the original.

Perhaps more than any other standard in the classic-rock repertoire, Stairway carries a huge weight of expectation and is a very easy song to get wrong - but here the Mexican duo got it supremely right.

Total Guitar