“Guitar for Mortals” by Adrian Legg

Time flies. I didn’t know it would take such a long time to write another review. Anyway here it is, a review of one of the most beautiful acoustic albums I have ever listened to, Guitar for Mortals by Adrian Legg. The beauty of the album is that it sounded so refreshingly different from the acoustic albums I had listened to until then.

Those were the days, late 1997 to early 1998 at Woodlands in Singapore. I was lucky to have rented a portion of the house of Sajeev, a businessman and salesman who sold HiFi equipment for a living. What more could I ask!  Though I wasn’t impressed by the array of systems at his house the YAMAHA AV amplifier was more than I could ask for to play music.  He had a bunch of acoustic guitar albums and  some of them can get very boring but there was this one CD that I refused to sample, Guitar for Mortals  by Adrian Legg. Maybe it was because it didn’t have  impressive album art like the others did or maybe because I didn’t know the guitarist, Adrian Legg.

My curiosity got the better of me and one day when I played it I was rendered speechless. I wondered why I hadn’t picked the album before. I hadn’t listened to such beautiful notes and tunes from a purely acoustic album in a very long time. The more you listen the more the album grows on you. After this first listen this would be the only CD I would choose to play for many evenings after work. Many a time I would just close my eyes and enter into another beautiful world of calm. This is a great album if you are listening alone beside the fireplace, or beside a window when it is raining outside, in the woods or in a place of calm and serenity.

Unlike my previous reviews in this review I’ll focus only on the good numbers or should I say the numbers I rate good.

This following are the songs in the playlist I would normally play each time I listen to this album.

Coging’s Glory – Nice quick opener. Sometimes I do leave this song out and go with the rest but it is a nice one.

Netsman and the Laird – A beautiful song filled with delightful tunes. The guitar is played very differently and the tunes are bright, lovely, haunting and sad at the same time. This song hooked me.

Mrs. Jack’s Last Stand – The song that blew me away.  I am sure it will do the same to you too if this is the first song you listen from the album. On Amazon.com I read one lovely review where someone driving began to hear it play on the car-stereo and actually got off the road and parked the car to the side to listen to it. I am not surprised why.

Nanci -  I don’t recall if this song was about a girl but Adrian has written notes on each of these songs on the CD. This is another beautiful song but I wished it could have been shorter.

After the gig - Guitar tunes sound very similar to tunes from music from India but the feeling is lovely, one of haunting and strong nostalgia. The notes and tunes are simply incredible.

Pieta -  Another favourite on the album the guitar literally sings on this one with such beautiful tunes. I was happy it was a longer song. Again a sad sounding, nostalgic instrumental giving you all those lovely thoughts of yesterday. 

Anu – A lovely concluder to the playlist.

Seven Year Ache and Candle in Notre Dame are slow and good songs but I rarely put them in the playlist.  Of the 12 songs on the album I find myself listening to the six I have mentioned earlier.  The CD is still worth buying as other reviewers have liked songs that I have left out in my review.

By the way Adrian plays an Ovation guitar on this album which is also featured on the cover of the CD. If you haven’t seen any of the Ovation guitars I must tell that they are a sight to behold. They are beautifully made.

Adrian has received praise from other guitarists notably Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, both heavy-metal guitarists and shredders.  Wikipedia.org reports the following. Adrian Legg shared the stage with acclaimed guitar experts Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai as part of the G3 tour. Vai called Legg “Uncle Adrian” and Satriani said of Legg’s musicianship “He’s simply the best acoustic guitar player I’ve ever heard. I don’t know anyone else who can create such a cascade of beautiful notes… Adrian plays like he’s got hammers for fingers.”  How perfectly said.

If you haven’t listened to Adrian before I am sure this album is going to be come as a very sweet surprise.

The only annoying thing on the album are sharp notes that sound so sharp that they can sound a bit harsh on your ears.   To solve this problem ensure you reduce the treble and increase the bass on your amplifier.

Chicken Noodles II by Buckethead and Travis Dickerson

If you thought you didn’t get enough with their first offering of melody jam from their album “Chicken Noodles”, Buckethead and his friend Travis Dickerson offer you more of the jam in a sequel titled “Chicken Noodles II”. This time they have a longer album with more songs than the first.

A review of the songs:

1. The chicken or the egg – Sounds bluesy; nice intro jam

2. Ovum Prophecy – Good song, reminding you of chicken noodles 1; faster one but shorter.

3. Concentric Motion – Long song. Starts lovely and melodious and towards the end comes with and nice string arrangements (programmed into the Rhodes?). Sounds Mark Knopflerish but this one is from Buckethead. The soulful playing starts well then gets into a fast pace and then sounds like shredding but just when you think it is going out of control or boring both the instrumentalists come back to end beautifully.

4. Oyster Crackers – Rockier riffs, bluesy notes, long song but doesn’t get boring and you can just let it play.

5. Heat and Save – A song with guitar chords at the beginning and towards the end of the song. Good small song you wonder why it wasn’t accompanied by vocals but the instruments sing instead.

6. Let it cool – Keyboard doubles as bass – Lovely Mark Knopflerish and bluesy sounding guitar for this blues instrumental.

7. Chicken Nostrils – More chords played in this song than single notes but song has an intriguing feel, at 3.45 more single notes are played.

Buy Chicken Noodles II by Buckethead and Travis Dickerson from Amazon.com.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

This is a shorter review.

Chicken Noodles is a much newer album and my prediction is that it is already anonymous or is going to be forgotten soon but in my opinion this is a landmark album. I haven’t heard of an entire album full of Jam as this. Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” was a double album of jam but it featured many artistes. However in this album you are only going to hear two instruments, the guitar and the keyboard. The musicians of the album are the highly versatile and immensely gifted guitarist Buckethead whose Monsters and Robots album I reviewed earlier on great-anonymous-albums.com. The other person and worthy of every mention is Buckethead’s associate on the Fender Rhodes, Travis Dickerson. I have listened to the duo on the Population Overdrive album and was very impressed with the keyboard skills of Travis but this albums takes their association to another level.

Running into a little over 50 min this album is enjoyable whether listened to with full attention or while doing other tasks. The album has only 4 instrumentals and they are: 1) Enter Tomorrow (13:07), 2) Loss From a Distance (18:01) 3) Sorrow of Discord (11:28) 4) and False Directions (8:24). Each one is sublime and beautiful in melody in its own way and is sure to transport you to another world of listening enjoyment.

As of today one one review of it exists on Amazon.com and I am not sure how many more will appear but do take a listen to this unusual but superb album from one of today’s finest guitarists.

I have also included it under Acoustic and Instrumental category though I would normally include Buckethead under Heavy Metal.

Buy Buckethead’s Chicken Noodles at Amazon.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

“A Sense of Place” by Eric Tingstad

I am glad I finally made this post. It has really been a very long time.

One of the qualifications for an album to appear on great-anonymous-albums is that it needs to have at least 75% filled with good numbers. This album doesn’t carry that many good songs but the the ones that are good as so good that I couldn’t afford to give it a placing here. Add to it the anonymity of the artist and I thought it was a must to have it reviewed here.

The name Eric Tingstand may hardly ring a bell in many people’s minds but Eric and his collaborator Nancy Rumble are Grammy Award winners in the New Age category. Eric is a classically trained guitarist and plays fingerstyle guitar and Nancy accompanies him on Woodwind instruments such as the Oboe and the English Horn. Their music classified more under New Age is full of classical overtones and traditional folk sounds like music from the Scotish Highlands, American Indian etc. Eric’s more popular albums are made in collaboration with Nancy Rumble but this one is a pure Eric Tingstad one.

This is an album that is soothing, relaxing and has a calming effect on your nerves. A very good album for a long ride in the woods or in such places where there is green, wide spaces or pastures or by the sea or anywhere where the beauty of the nature surrounds you.

Review of the best songs followed by the not so good ones, in the order of sequence on the album.

1. Appalachia Calling – A pleasant starter setting the ground for what’s to come.

2. Monongahela – A song that seems to take off where the opener left following a similar rhythm. However this time more pleasant tunes pour forth from the guitars.

3. A sense of place – The Title track is a stealer and the first one I go for when I play this album. Listening to this song just the day before I left my previous job and company (hopefully my last) made me immensely sad. Everytime I listen to this song the pleasant feelings are different. Best off if you listen to it when you are unwinding or trying to relax and not in the mood for something like Van Halen. A very soothing number. Credit goes to the saxophone player on this number too.

5. Magnolia – Beautiful twin guitar acoustic treat. Soft and lovely.

7. Caste by the Lough – The flute is heard on this number augmenting the guitars and it sounds only as beautiful as the guitars.

8. Sissinghurst – Another lovely number smooth and slow with lovely tunes.

11. In Moonlight Blue – A lovely number to end the album. Piano is heard on this lovely composition. Other intruments, violin/oboe/horn are used too, to make this a lovely concluding number.

The rest of the songs aren’t bad but I cannot put them in the same league as the other seven reviewed earlier.

4. Spirit of the Rydal Mount – Qualifies more for a filler but it isn’t a bad song.

6. Sovereign of the sea – Begins wth long chord strumming. Very rhymy and slow.

9. American Blend – Faster and more upbeat than other songs of the album but also becomes the odd one out. Not impressive either.

10. The Craftsman – Again not a bad one but qualifies for filler status only.

As I wrote earlier the album is seriously worth a listen for the first seven songs I reviewed. You won’t go wrong on them.

Listen to MP3 clips of the songs here.

For more information in Eric, his band and his works check out www.erictingstad.com.

You could download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.