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When I saw the cover of “A Tribute To Stevie Wonder“ by Vernon Neilly I was a little worried but then I noticed a couple of the guitarists who join Vernon on this album, Greg Howe and Kiko Loureiro and suddenly it piqued my interest!

The opening track, an instrumental version of ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman‘ features the amazing Greg Howe, and from the moment he starts playing you can tell instantly that its him from his middly sounding guitar to his incredible phrasing and that slidey vibrato! Greg always amazes me when I hear him play, you can tell instantly that it is him but he doesn’t have signature licks in fact he never seems to repeat himself and flies all over the fretboard with tasteful yet jaw dropping skill. As a Greg Howe fan this track is hard to beat, shame it is track 1 in a way because I will always judge everything that follows by this incredibly high benchmark.

Following such an explosive opener was always going to be a challenge but it is well met by Vernon’s cover of “I Wish“ which is taken on a fusion ride by the awesome Kiko Loureiro. Unfortunately everytime I hear this track I hear Will Smith’s ‘Wild Wild West’ in my head, damn him for poisoning my mind! That aside this is a great track, I would be happy to drop the electric piano solo which sounds a bit plinky plonky for such a rocked up track but Kiko’s incredible playing is enough to make this my 2nd fave track on the album next to “Boogie…“

So 2 strong openers what could they follow that with, well how about a metal version of ‘Superstition‘? I hadn’t heard of guitarist Bill Hudson but a quick poke around Wikipedia gave me the following info:

Bill Hudson, born in January 13 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, moved to the United States during the year of 2005 in order to join the Nebraskan power metal band Cellador, playing on their debut album Enter Deception and remaining in their line-up until early 2008. Since leaving Cellador Hudson has formed his own band called Coldera, and also joined Power Quest.

I really don’t know what to say about this, the vocalist would fit Yngwie Malmsteen’s band very well, but singing Stevie Wonder? It just sounds a bit wrong with all that wailing, double bass drum fills and chugging guitars. I think Stevie Ray Vaughan is the only cover version I’ve heard that does this track justice. Having said all that, the guitar playing is very impressive, Bill is a very talented metal guitarist.

‘Sir Duke‘ features Miguel Mega, a Portugese guitarist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil and features some funky guitar playing as you would expect and Cristopher Clark’s vocals are pretty true to the original. I personally have always disliked this song so it is hard to give this track a fair review, what I can tell you is that the guitar playing is good, fusion playing but not in the same league as Greg Howe.

Track 5, “Isn’t She Lovely“ - I hate this song with a passion, its just so cheesy and uninteresting and a strange choice for the album. Fabyan Irving on vocals does a good Stevie Wonder impression and Vernon’s playing is good but I can’t get past my hate for this cheery love song sorry!

“I Was Made To Love You“ has some nice Jazz soloing by U-NAM and is one of the few tracks on the album that actually has a clean guitar tone on it which makes a nice change. I’d never heard of U-NAM before but his playing is clean and funky with lots of nice runs and plenty of octaves a la Wes Montgomery!

“Don’t You Worry Bout A Thing“ once again features Brazillian Kiko Loureiro, which is good choice for him with his latin american background turning this tune into something you could quite easily mistake for a Santana tune, well at first anyway, the last minute descends into a shred frenzy with crazy drumming and fast picking galore! I’m not sure what Stevie would say about this but it is certainly impressive from a guitarists’ point of view.

“For Once In My Life“ is another one of those cheese-meister tracks that I just think would have been best left to Stevie to sing at pensioner’s parties. It reminds me of 80’s Royal Variety shows on TV when I was a kid where the cast of Eastenders all come out on stage for a knees up! I think I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that I’m not much of a Stevie Wonder fan? Miguel Mega once again takes center stage on guitar and again plays very nicely but not enough for me to listen to this track again.

The penultimate track is a Vocal (if you can call someone singing using a vocoder vocals) version of ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman‘ again featuring Greg Howe, but it was all said and done on the opening track which is the best track on the album, I don’t understand the point of this track?

The album finishes with an instrumental version of “Isn’t She Lovely“ and well it really is not much better than the vocal version. Not sure why there are 2 vocal and instrumental versions of tracks on this album seems like a waste of time to me, just pick one or the other.

Ok so I’ve been a little negative about this CD which isn’t like me but I have put that down to my general dislike of Stevie Wonder songs, I suggest you check out the streaming tracks on iTunes or similar because there is some really great guitar playing on this album and a few tracks that I would buy separately rather than buying the entire album. If you are a die-hard Stevie Wonder fan then chances are you will think this album is sacrilege but if you are a fan of funky fusion based guitar playing this could be just the thing to pop on your Christmas wishlist!

I was recently loitering in the Vai.com forums and a post caught my eye by a user called Karmattitude regarding a recent video interview with Greg Howe, well being a big Greg Howe fan I had to check it out. After commenting on the interview I was contacted by Karmattitude aka Franck Ribiere who asked me if I’d like to hear his album ‘Bloody Karma‘, well I’m not one to turn down the chance to review an instrumental guitar album!

Bloody Karma was released in the middle of 2006 and features 11 tracks of instrumental rock from Franck Ribiere on guitars, bass and keyboards, Vincent Fabre on drums (and a couple of guitar solos), Arnaud Decompoix on bass and Mistheria playing a couple of Keyboard solos. This is not the first recording by Franck he also recorded an instrumental album with the Double Heart Project featuring Chris Poland (Megadeth, OHM) as a guest and also contributed to the Shawn Lane Tribute Vol. 2.

The album is mainly rock with elements of fusion, kind of like Andy Timmons’ music. The album opens with a strong rock track called “A New Day“ which alternates between fast rock backing and slow melodic breakdowns. The second track ‘ADN Discovery‘ delves deeper into rock territory showing off Franck’s impressive shred skills as well as Italian Keyboardist Mistheria’s skills! Franck has a very fluid playing style incorporating all the techniques in the shredders handbook and his speedy solos sound like second nature to him. The title track of this album (‘Bloody Karma‘) is probably my favourite because of the simple but infectious intro rhythm riff coupled with a strong melody and some nice Yngwie-esque double tracked solo fills. This track also has some impressive drumming as do all the tracks Vincent Fabre is certainly a talented musician in his own right. There are lots of half time breakdowns, aah that old chestnut! what rock album would be complete without one, Franck seems to be a fan of these to build up a bit of tension. ‘Boogytoshok‘ as the name suggests is a rockin boogie style track in the vein of Satch Boogie, this track actually features drummer Vincent Fabre trading bluesy guitar solos with Franck as well as a drum solo! It also has a nice slow and sleazy bluesy breakdown at the end. Franck has a really nice tone and his playing suits playing blues influenced music, I would like to hear more like this.

In all this is a good album with some great playing which shows that Franck has a great sense of melody and the chops to impress. Check out Franck’s YouTube channel for some live performances and interviews. If you are interested in purchasing this album head over to GuitarEuroShop.com.

If you have never heard of Erik Mongrain where have you been? Erik has become a bit of a YouTube sensation and I mean that with all due respect, Erik is not famous because of YouTube he is famous because he is an incredible musician and virtuosic guitarist. I have never heard Erik’s first album “Fates but having seen videos of this Canadian sensation I knew what to expect and “Equilibrium“ doesn’t disappoint.

The opening track “A Ripple Effect“ in fact is exactly what I was expecting, virtuosic solo acoustic guitar playing with Erik’s tapping style, cascading arpeggiated chords and harmonics against a rhythmic tapped pulse. After many many listens to this track over the past few days I would say that this is my favourite track on the album it has so much energy and I really like the progressions erik uses, it’s a shame this track is only just over 2 minutes long! The second track “Alone In The Mist“ was a taste of what I wasn’t expecting, Erik’s soulful melodies and percussive knocks, taps and harmonics against the backing of a Fretless Bass courtesy of Michael Manning which sounds amazingly full and complete. I would love to see the 2 of them perform together, it sounds like a group of people playing.

The title track of the album “Equilibrium“ shows off not only Erik’s technique, control and compositional skills but also shows off his percussion and timing. His guitar is transformed into what sounds like a number of percussion instruments as he flicks, taps, scrapes and hits the body of the guitar in different places to create everything from a brushed snare sound to a bongo or even conga, there is enough reverb to give the harder hits a nice echo that with headphones on make you feel you are sitting in a concert hall right in front of him. All the time he is playing percussion he is still playing chords, droning notes and strumming to give the track a very complex syncopated texture without sounding technical. For all his flashy techniques it always sounds tasteful and musical rather the kind of virtuosic guitar music that non-guitarists find hard to appreciate.

I was imagining how beat up his guitars must get until I checked out his Equilibrium YouTube channel (http://au.youtube.com/user/EquilibriumEx) where I found that he was playing a Rainsong (so I’m told) carbon fibre guitar (http://www.rainsong.com/). It sounds fantastic and is further proof that carbon fibre guitars are every bit as good at creating a great tone as quality tone woods.

I won’t review every single track because they are all good for different reasons but I do particularly like the more percussive tracks so I really liked “Pandora’s Box“ especially with those little tapped harmonics and the way Erik adds vibrato to certain notes in chords to accentuate the melody lines within them. I also really liked the track “Raindigger“ for the same reasons. It makes me want to tune my Takamine down and learn some of his music! By the way Erik is also an instructor over at iVideoSongs.com and for $10 you can actually have a 40 minute video lesson from Erik on how to play “Equilibrium” among other tracks such as his famous “Air Tap”.

The best thing about this album is that you can listen in awe then check out Erik’s YouTube channel and see him playing these songs at home and check out just how he does it!

There is a great quote from Tai Irwin of the Boston Herald, “It’s like Van Halen meets James Taylor; furious but soothing”. Perfect description.

ErikMongrain.com
Erik’s YouTube Channel

I have been meaning to review this album for a long time after discovering Andy James via YouTube. I think originally I saw an entry to the Guitar Idol competition and then another entry for the Dean Shred competition and both times was absolutely amazed by his playing so I bought his album “In The Wake Of Chaos
“ and I wasn’t disappointed!

Andy works as an instructor for LickLibrary.com and has released numerous DVD’s and video lessons on technique and from the opening couple of tracks you will hear why. The opening track and title track of the album is a very melodic rock track which sounded similar to John Petrucci, lots of detuned rhythm guitars and melodic phrasing and sudden burst of blistering fast solos which compliment the track perfectly.

The second track “Broken Ballerina“ has a great open riff and it is a showcase for Andy’s incredible sweeping technique, I think this track could easily become a standard track for teaching sweep picking! The mere mention of sweep picking will put some people off but Andy seems to make the arpeggios as melodic as the melody itself! There are also a few tapping phrases using octaves that are quite Vai-esque, Andy has obviously drawn the best techniques from many players and fused them into his own style.

“Shine on through“ is a ballad which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Satch album. Andy’s playing is so precise and clean and his phrasing is very musical, an area where a lot of shredders are lacking. Andy proves that its not all about speed and yet there are solos in the track that make you want to lock yourself away in your room with your guitar for a couple of years!

The cheekily titled “Tapt“ is an audio onslaught of tapping mayhem, seriously this guy is crazy there isn’t a moment when you hear a slightly mis-fretted note with either hand! Andy James would make Jennifer Batten nervous. I hope a tab book is released for this album… not that I’d be able to play it I just want to know what on earth he is doing!

“Revelation“ has an intro that reminds me of the exceptional Prashant Aswani, that overdrive tone that isn’t overly saturated like Tom Morello. This track is one of my favourites on the album, I’m a sucker for the heavy riffs!

“Lost Without You“ is another ballad and this time shows Andy’s acoustic guitar and melodic composition skills. It’s a pleasant kind of easy listening track.

“Octavia“ - when I first listened to this I expected a “Super Colossal” kind of lead sound using an octave pedal, but there wasn’t so I was a little confused until I heard the main chorus riff. The incredible arpeggiated riff that is doubled an octave above, I think this is 2 separate tracks one pitch shifted up because they aren’t absolutely identical. There are few Whammy pedal effects going on in the background throughout but not as much as I was expecting! Great track, this is probably my favourite on the album.

“Chaos Theory“ is another track that is reminiscent of John Petrucci, god I bet people get sick of me comparing them to other guitarists! I think it is a combination of the scales used in the melody and the harmony guitar tracks? This track has an awesome middle section where the rhythm guitar takes off on a meandering riff-fest with fast alternate picking runs that would make Paul Gilbert proud… oh bollocks there I go again! Nice Wah solo too, great track.

“Gates of heaven“ sounds like it was composed as a kind of etude which is same way that I feel about Guthrie Govan’s “Waves”. That’s not putting these tracks down, they are both great tracks. “Gates of Heaven“ does sound a little more technical than emotive. I would love to be able to play it, but its not one of the best tracks on the album more of a closing statement.

Andy, like great guitarists such as Guthrie Govan knows the fretboard so well that his soloing sounds effortless, he never seems to run out of ideas and never gets boring. Andy doesn’t use techniques like sweep picking and tapping just for the sake of it but rather to enhance phrases and melodic ideas. He is a great metal riff composer too, if you took away the guitar melodies you could easily turn each track into a great metal song and I think that is what makes this album stand out. If you like shredding albums like John Petrucci’s Suspended Animation this album is a must for you.

Don’t forget to check out Andy on LickLibrary.com
Andy James MySpace page
Andy’s YouTube Channel

I admit I didn’t really know the name Lindsey Buckingham until I was contacted about reviewing his new album even though I am definitely familiar with his work with Fleetwood Mac, that alone was enough of an accolade to give this album a listen.

Gift of Screws was released last month and described as a rocking compliment to his previous 2006 acoustic guitar driven album ‘Under The Skin’. It was produced by Buckingham except for a couple of tracks produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Dave Matthews Band) and even features fellow Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on a couple of tracks.

From the opening track “Great Day” you are immediately aware of how much Lindsey’s songwriting went into Fleetwood Mac’s music. It is reminiscent without being a Fleetwood Mac album. This track also shows Lindsey’s experimental side with electronic percussive backing and layered acoustic guitar runs. The track never launches into a full rocking track but does have some great guitar playing both acoustic and electric. It does lead nicely into the second track though “Time Precious Time” which actually stopped me working as the layers of acoustic guitar which I think have delay added to create a cascading orchestration bounced around my headphones, I could be wrong it may be that Lindsey is just doing lots of fingerpicking? It is the kind of backing track you can imaging Bjork using, very ethereal and relaxing.

There are some rocking tracks like “Wait for you” which has more of 70’s rock feel to it, but with that unmistakeable Fleetwood style chorus that just gives it that extra uniqueness. Also the title track “Gift of screws” which I thought was quite Stones-esque with a bit of a punk feel to it, maybe this was the influence of Rob Cavallo? Also this track gives Lindsey a chance to crank up his guitar and do some soloing!

Bel Air Rain is an interesting track which features more of Lindsey’s acoustic expertise and it sounds like Banjo in the left channel too, or maybe it is a Dobro, not sure but it blends together very nicely and no drums except the rhythmic pulse of the bass notes to drive the track along. There is something playing a percussive hit every beat but I can’t work out whether it is a guitar hit or an electronic sound, it is the kind of track that you will hear something different each time you listen.

There are a few tracks that didn’t really take my fancy but isn’t that always the case with an album? I was a little disappointed it didn’t end on something a bit more rocking than “Treason” but it is a big sounding track with all the layered vocals and acoustic guitars panned left and right. The production on the album is great everything seems to be exactly in the right place at the just the right volume which is so difficult to do, Lindsey obviously has a great ear and a talent for production as well as songwriting and guitar. Mind you, I imaging he’s had a fair bit of practice over the years.

One of the techniques that guitarists are eager to learn in order to impress their mates is Sweep Picking. Unfortunately it is not a simple technique to master and when done badly sounds atrocious. I’ve never been much of a sweep picker which is why I was interested when I received a copy of Ysrafel’s ‘Sweep Picking Mastery’. Now the cover art is not a very good indicator as is often the case with guitar instruction books… why is that? Ah who knows but anyway this book is packed with just about every arpeggio pattern, execution tips and tricks, no wait there is no trick only practice! The book starts with 2 string patterns explaining muting techniques and advances chapter by chapter to 6 string patterns. There is a table showing the bpm that you should start learning each exercise and what you should work up to, this is the key to learning sweep picking, use a metronome to make sure you articulate each arpeggio correctly, something I’ve never had the patience to do but I am going to try and work on it using this book. So where do you go once you have mastered all the major and minor arpeggios? Well, the book moves on to 7th chord patterns, extended 7th chord patterns such as major 13#11 and then adding tapping to further extend patterns to previously unachievable levels!

So if you are looking to master the art of Sweep Picking this book is a very good place to start, it is only $29.95 which I think is a fair price for an arpeggio reference book let alone a technique masterclass. You can get more information at Ysrafel’s site.

There aren’t many female guitarists in the world who can hold their own up against the top shredders but when I first saw the Michael Jackson video for ‘Dirty Diana’ I had to know who the quirky guitarist was with a shock of blonde hair that could beat Marge Simpson in a height battle. It wasn’t long before Jennifer Batten was appearing in all the guitar mags and I remember reading how she attended the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) which was the holy grail of music institutions for guitarists in the 80’s and is still going strong today as part of the L.A. Musicians Institute. After GIT Jennifer auditioned for Michael Jackson’s band sending a video which included a note for note rendition of Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Beat it’ solo, she was selected for the ‘Bad’ tour and played to over 4.5 million people over a period of 1.5 years. That in itself is a pretty amazing achievement but Jennifer then decided to record a solo album to really let people know what she was capable of, the album was called ‘Above, Below and Beyond’ and featured her incredible two handed tapping rendition of Rimsky Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, check the video out here. Shortly after Jennifer rejoined Michael Jackson for the ‘Dangerous’ tour and in ‘93 played in Superbowl XXVII’s half time show which aired to 1.5 billion people in 80 nations! She then released another solo album called ‘Jennifer Batten’s Tribal Rage ~ Momentum’ before joining Michael Jackson once again for the 2 year ‘History’ tour in 1997. After the ‘History’ tour Jennifer joined forces with Jeff Beck for 3 years releasing a couple of albums and touring the world.

That just about brings us to Jennifer’s new album ‘Whatever’, yes that is the title of her album I wasn’t dissing her in my post title! This album was mainly written while she was working with Jeff Beck and it really shows with his love of electronica. There is a very diverse collection of music on ‘Whatever’ from the laid back hip hop vibe of album opener ‘Ass Whoopin’ which features Jon Clark, the other guitarist on MJ’s ‘Bad’ tour, doing a spoken word comedic character. The melodies have a bit of Vai about them but Jennifer has a really unique rock/fusion style. Some of the tracks such as ‘Ricochet’ are a bit 80’s sounding and really don’t have enough guitar playing in them for my liking but these tracks are in the minority.

‘Fearless’ took me by surprise as it is an acoustic solo piece and I’ve never heard Jennifer playing acoustic guitar before, you could easily mistake her playing for Tommy Emmanuel to begin with and then she unleashes her Michael Hedges style, there’s even a bit of slide in there. This is one of the stand out tracks for just being so different to the rest of the album and showing that she also has the chops on an acoustic guitar.

The title track ‘Whatever’ and ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’ both have heavy Jeff Beck influence in them, the latter even more so utilising Jeff Beck’s whammy technique to create a slide sound in the main melody.

Another stand out track is ‘Run With It’ which show Jennifer’s world music influence as well as some interesting riffs and the odd flurry of notes that makes you want to quit playing!

I don’t really know what to say about the final track but I suppose it shows Jennifer’s sense of humour which is basically a bunch of musical farts and belches… very bizarre!

All in all it is an interesting album and showcases Jennifer’s exceptional guitar playing and the reason why she enjoyed so many years touring in one of the top jobs in the world with Michael Jackson’s band but due to her diverse musical interests it is a bit hard to pidgeon-hole. Maybe that is a good thing? Check out her website for some audio snippets to see what you think. Also watch out for her upcoming column in Guitar Player magazine!

Jennifer Batten’s Official Site

A while ago after posting about Hybrid Guitars I received an email from Guitar Noize reader, Australian guitarist/singer/songwriter Tarun Stevenson who asked me if I had tried the Crafter SA Series. Well I admit I had spotted one in Downtown Music in Sydney’s Inner West but hadn’t had a chance to play it so Tarun recorded an excellent and very thorough 3 part YouTube review, check it out on the left, the links to Part 2 and 3 are below.

And I wanted to share a little about Tarun also as he has been working hard for some great causes for years:

Inspired by a wide range of singer songwriters including Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper, his music shows a great love for melody, diverse rhythms and songs that have something to say. Tarun recorded his first EP more than 10 years ago with the Brisbane heavy metal grunge band Revelation. In the mid-90s, he toured extensively with the Sydney-based funk rock band Four. And in 1998 he scored a place as a solo artist on the US music sampler, 105 best bands you’ve never heard.

Since 2005, Tarun has been touring throughout Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia singing and speaking everywhere from coffee houses, churches, youth groups, homeless shelters, orphanages, festivals to fundraisers and “…anywhere else that will have me…”.

His first full-length album, “Psalms for the Broken”, is packed with strong, engaging songs with special relevance to all of us who struggle at different times in our lives. “The main goal of my music is to connect with people, especially at their points of pain or struggle,” Tarun says. “Hopefully through sharing my own experiences, I can offer a message of hope.”
Tarun’s long awaited second album “Something Old Something New” was released on July 18th and will see Tarun hitting the road for most of 2008 – 2009 as he promotes the new album with a series of tours right across Australia and Asia. Dates to be announced

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xevzmuxJZYk
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJhtiGbg1CY

A little while ago I was reading about the Edgar Winter band, now it seems I am just a little too young to have known about the band when they released the classic ‘Frankenstein‘ and was interested to read that Edgar is younger brother of guitar legend Johnny Winter. Anyway I was reading about their guitarist Doug Rappoport who is a British born guitarist has been playing professionally since age 15. I was interested to hear his new solo album ‘Bionic’ so I contacted him in order to get hold of a copy, in fact it was so hot off the press that the CD covers hadn’t even been printed yet so I got an advance copy! I presumed it would be a bluesy jazzy album as I don’t know much of the Edgar Winter discography (yet!) but then I saw the album artwork and realised that this wasn’t going to be what I expected at all!

Bionic opens with a track called, ahem… ‘Camel Toe Rodeo‘, yes really. Anyway aside from the bizarre vocal interludes, which personally I would have preferred without but I guess that is Doug’s sense of humour coming through, this is a rocking track. Great heavy riff and melodic rock soloing that reminded me of Andy Timmons very fluid and effortless sounding with a few fusion licks thrown in some nice octave unison lead lines.

‘Bionic Warz‘ is one of my favourite tracks on the album, again blending rock guitar with fusion elements but not so much that you would ever say it was jazzy this is some heavy shit going on! I would put this track more in the John Petrucci style of music, lots of fast picking, crazy arpeggios and super heavy backing riffs.

The third track on the album is called ‘Chopper‘ which Doug wrote after watching the awesome Eric Bana film of the same name based on the life of legendary criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read. I don’t know if it is Doug singing on the track? Doug if you are reading this please leave a comment and let us know, if it is he has a great rock voice kinda like Zakk Wylde. This track shows that Doug is more than just a shredder and can write melodic songs too. In fact there is also a rock ballad called “Dyin’ 2 Live“ also featuring vocals but I wasn’t a fan of this, sorry Doug, I prefer the heavier stuff.

UPDATE (22/10/08): It seems I was a little hasty in my review because I can’t get “Chopper” out of my head I’ve listened to the song 4 times today!

There is also a cover of Jimi’s ‘Voodoo Chile - Slight Return‘ and the guitar playing is very impressive, Doug has a wide vibrato that sounds like he is shaking the neck of his guitar. It is very hard to do a cover of any Hendrix track and not get criticised so fair play to Doug for just doing his thing. It is basically a heavy rocked up version which takes elements from the original but Doug puts his own stamp on it.

The last track on the album took me completely by surprise! ‘When I Wish Upon a Star‘ which shows off Doug’s Jazz chops on both electric and acoustic guitar. I expect to hear this on a Tommy Emmanuel record not a rock album like Bionic! Very impressive playing with plenty of harmonics a la Tommy and nice counterpoint bass lines.

If you like guitarists like Andy Timmons, John Petrucci etc. you will like Doug Rappoport and if you like the Edgar Winter Band, Doug apparently does an 8 minute guitar solo during the set! Check out Doug’s myspace page for some audio clips which also has more info on how to purchase his album ‘Bionic‘.

I discovered Alex Ehrsam recently while scouring YouTube for some lesser known talent to add to my Guitar Noize YouTube favourites. I say lesser known in comparison to the Joe Satriani’s and Steve Vai’s of this world I’m sure he is known in Jazz circles because he is an amazing guitar player. I recently contacted Alex and he was kind enough to send me a copy of his album, ‘djaz_dtox‘ available through guitar9.com. Alex sights Greg Howe and Scott Henderson as influences for this album and he recently entered the Greg Howe ‘Play for me’ contest, check out his entry here.

Alex picked up the guitar at the age of 15, his love of jazz music such as Coltrane and Miles Davis mixed with his rock shredding style have blended over the years into what he calls Progressive Fusion. He is capable of the Rock style of playing as demonstrated on the opening track of the album, ‘Scab Co-Worker‘ with overdriven guitar lead lines and pinch harmonics but also incredible fluidity with endless legato lines that meander around the jazz style progressions, nice bit of wah on this backing track too!

‘Snappy Response‘ is a similar ‘Greg Howe’ style track with overdriven guitars and legato playing at blistering speed although this track felt a bit more like an improvisation over a chord progression, personally I would have liked a bit more variation.

‘Out U Go‘ has a crazy opening riff that seems to defy time signatures, I think the drums are programmed if not the drummer certainly wouldn’t be thanking Alex having to learn something as complicated as this! Actually any decent drummer would probably relish the challenge. Once again in this track the Wah Wah comes out to show Alex’s funk side with some nice slap bass accompaniment. Oh and I said the opening riff was crazy but really the timing throughout is enough to make the most seasoned professional sweat!

‘Elevator Shaft‘ opens with a Saxaphone melody over what I would describe as a Drum & Bass beat with ethereal synth chord backing, but the track suddenly takes an entirely different direction half way through dropping the tempo to a half-time beat and overdriven guitars take over with a ballad like melody that occasionally deviates with lightning fast licks. The track then returns to the introductory them and original tempo with the guitars taking the Sax’s place.

‘Standard Procedure‘ is another rock fusion track with some bluesy pentatonic licks mixed in with more traditional jazz scales similar to the way Scott Henderson mixes it up. There is some fierce technical soloing in this track with tapping and arpeggios that are just plain scary!

‘Fix‘ has one of the more memorable melodic hooks on the album as the main riff, mind you I’m not talking a straight pentatonic riff, it seems to pass through about 3 keys in 1 bar! Maybe I’m exaggerating but its a very cool riff and one I intend to learn just to analyse exactly what is going on.

‘Cold Chill‘ is a really nice departure from the rock fusion which starts to take its toll on your ears after a while. The track opens with a solitary nylon string acoustic guitar and then a second guitar is introduced playing a melodic solo. It has a kind of spanish feel throughout and around the halfway switches to a more Gypsy Jazz feel mixed with modern harmony. It highlights how precise Alex’s playing is.

‘Decoy Unseen‘ is back to the Greg Howe-esque insane legato and speed picking that seems to cross the entire fretboard and back every bar, Alex’s knowledge of the fretboard is amazing. It has a funky feel with some modern jazz lines.

The final track ‘Malpractice‘ is the only track on the album to not feature soloing guitar all the way through and has a more relaxed fusion style with laid back drum beats, synth pads and Sax melody. Kind of cheesy to non Jazz fans but easy to listen to.

If you are not a Jazz fan you might find it hard to listen to all the way through but you might like the tracks individually so don’t rule it out. If you like Greg Howe, Prashant Aswani or Scott Henderson you will like Alex’s playing he is l’extraordinaire guitariste! If you want to try before you buy go to Alex’s website, or MySpace page to hear tracks from the album. Merci once again to Alex for sending me the CD.