Andy Timmons Electric Truth

Many a guitar fan would have predicted that a summit between legendary guitarists Andy Summers (the Police) and Robert Fripp (King Crimson) would result in a guitar solofest. But the music on their first collaboration together, I Advance Masked, stresses guitar textures and moods over indulgent soloing. Although the recording sessions weren't entirely enjoyable for Summers (who was experiencing marital problems at the time), some very beautiful music can be found on the resulting album. The music for the track "Girl on a Swing" does an excellent job of conveying the song's title in one's mind, and the duo's guitars weave wonderful polyrhythmic guitar lines throughout "China – Yellow Leader." "The Truth of Skies" is an atmospheric piece, created by a wash of keyboard sounds and guitar dissonance, while "New Marimba" would have sounded right at home on an early-'80s King Crimson album. I Advance Masked has a dreamlike quality to it, and is definitely not typical rock music. It's highly recommended to fans of these two great and original guitarists.

The blues cannot heip but be derivative and therein lies its attraction and challenge. i Today‘s modern blues performers and songwriters face the towering task of shaping andbending an ageold, classic form of music to their own proclivities. Sometimes that requires changing or manipulating the basics to get a “new and improved“ version and sometimes it requires just laying in the groove and letting the form determine content.Andy j. Forest chose to do the latter on this project and has produced a rootsy, traditional blues CD. At the suggestion of his record company, and after years of touring with a full-blown band, Andy heeded the call to come home, Iiterally and figuratively home to the real, down home acoustic blues, and home to New Orleans where he hired Crescent City‘s finest musicians to play and contribute to this outstanding collection of original and standard blues songs.Andy‘s formula is as follows: equal parts sweat and congeniality, a massive dose of songwriting talent, and everything liberally seasoned by his tasty virtuosity on harmonica. Lyrically, Andy‘s songs are poetic glimpes into his everyday experiences. If you‘ve ever been to Mardi Gras and experienced the ultimate “day-after-and-I-don‘t-know-where-l-am-orwhere-I‘ve-been blues‘ you know what he‘s singing about on “Hogshead Cheese.“ And you can‘t get much simpler than the sentiment expressed on “Capable“ — 1 ot things to show you and places to take ya, music so bw and love to make ya. ‘12 Bar Dive“ is a fine updated take on the blues form: contemporary road-weary lyrics riding a sparse John Lee Hooker groove…..