Guitar Techniques August 1999

The 1980s and '90s brought about a blues recording boom that brought some well-deserved attention to veteran blues musicians: People like CeDell Davis, R.L. Burnside, Johnnie Bassett, and Robert "Bilbo" Walker found themselves on the road again, in demand at summer blues festivals and booked on extensive tours of big and small clubs around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Although Al Garrett had been on the Los Angeles club scene since the late '50s, extensive touring under his own name had eluded him, other than in California. Garrett's debut album, Out of Bad Luck, was released in 1999 on the New York City-based Fedora Records.

An excellent album, very intense and symphonic. Solid flute lead work (Kollar Attila is one of the greatest flute players), lots of majestic chorus interventions (singers of Hungarian State Opera) and the strong participation of drums, bass, guitar and -specially- the electronic keyboards, makes "Nostradamus" a must. SOLARIS is one of the few bands where, despite the prominent flute role, the listener doesn't think about JETHRO TULL, because the sound is pretty much symphonic and pompous…

Emerging in the mid-'90s, Shania Twain became the most popular country music artist since Garth Brooks. Skillfully fusing mainstream, AOR rock production with country-pop, Twain and her producer/husband, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, created a commercial juggernaut with her second album, The Woman in Me. The record became a multi-platinum phenomenon, peaking at number five on the pop charts and eventually selling over nine million copies in America alone.