"Guitarist" is Laurence Juber's third CD of unaccompanied solo guitar since 1999's "LJ Plays the Beatles". This typically well-paced album includes some of Juber's identifiable compositional and performing trademarks, while providing enough twists to distinguish it from his earlier works.

"Breaking Point," the opening track, is a bluesy minor piece reminiscent of Doc Watson's earliest recording of "Windy & Warm." On "Green Kitchen" Juber employs some of his characteristic chord progressions, using an ascending bass line to create a sense of movement. The piece's tuneful head also shows the influence of Juber's old boss, Paul McCartney. "Cannery Row" is the disc's most successful realization of Juber's jazzy side, again using ascending chords, this time with treble phrases played over shifting harmonies in the lower register. The ballad "Love at First Sight" boasts a strong melody & evocative minor 4ths. "Catch" is upbeat and jazzy, featuring 3-part playing reminiscent of Martin Taylor, but a bit bluesier and with deeper tonal resonance, due to Juber's choice of a steel-string flattop guitar, as opposed to the dry, punchier tone produced by Taylor's archtops. The CD's longest piece, "Eye of the Storm," has a quiet interlude played on the guitar's bass strings. The album ends with 5 choruses of improvised 12-bar blues, titled "Blues for Now," which features plenty of fat single-string bends - not Juber at his most adventurous, but well-played and very listenable. "Guitarist" is another strong offering from LJ.

© Patrick Ragains
From LJ:

I think that Guitarist is a pretty accurate description of what I do professionally and artistically, although the title is a little bit ironic. The album is essentially a collection of compositions for solo fingerstyle guitar. It’s my first since 1999’s Altered Reality to emphasize that aspect of my self-expression. LJ Plays The Beatles was a study in “fab four” arranging, while Different Times used the compositions as a springboard for ensemble improvisations. The recording style on Guitarist harks back to the in-your-face approach of Naked Guitar with no reverb and minimal EQ. We sought to present the material exactly as it was recorded and, thanks to the Martin and Collings instruments used, allow the listener to hear the natural ambience of the instrument. There are a couple of tunes in CGDGAD tuning: Green Kitchen, with its slightly “Chet” flavor and Eye Of The Storm, a tone poem with a bit of a Celtic feel. A number of the tunes are in DADGAD: the swing Catch! ; the rock shuffle Breaking Point; the ragtime Buffalo Nickel; the ballad Love At First Sight. There are three standard tuning pieces: the ragtime/swing The 5:55; the alternate bass picking Along The Way; a solo rendition of Liquid Amber, which first appeared as an ensemble piece on the “Wood & Steel” CD. Cannery Row (in the tradition of Bob’s Your Uncle) and a blues improv Blues For Now rounds out the collection.

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did making it.

~ LJ

One Wing

Laurence Juber

Collection

Naked Solos

LJ Plays the Beatles

Winter Guitar

Mosaic

LJ

Alec Stone Sweet: Tumblin' Gap

Don Ross: Huron Street

Al Petteway:

Shades of Blue