Open Ground

Guitarist and composer Ahmad Mansour has been active on the New York and European music scenes for over two decades, performing and recording with established players such as Marc Copland, John Taylor, George Mraz or Marc Johnson and countless younger talents, with a dozen CD releases as leader, spanning the gamut of modern guitar and compositional styles.

On what is billed as his 20th solo album, journeyman blues-rock guitarist Walter Trout seems to be intent on establishing himself as something more than a worthy successor to an older generation of blues originators, as well as a bevy of their better-known successors all old enough to be his older brothers. He has written all 12 songs himself and printed the lyrics to them in the CD booklet. Especially at first, his bid to be a singer/songwriter shows promise, with the self-deprecating and reflective "May Be a Fool" and "Open Book" leading things off, and, in fourth position, the spiritually oriented title song, "Common Ground," a prayer for universal understanding.