Guitar Pete - Burning Bridges

Bitrate:320K/s
Year:1998
Time:43:46 
Size:100,2 MB 
Label:Tangible Music 
Styles:Blues Rock 
Art:Full 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Turnin' Off - 3:47
 2. Jellyfish - 2:44
 3. Mustang Sally - 3:44
 4. Do You Hear The Rain - 5:45
 5. J. B. Shuffle - 3:45
 6. Drifting - 4:30
 7. Makes No Sense - 6:27
 8. Chillin' - 4:06
 9. Rainmaker - 3:00
10. Gasoline - 5:54

Burning Bridges is a pretty apt title for Guitar Pete's incendiary solo debut. The artist keeps his namesake instrument blazing throughout the record, which essentially amounts to 43 minutes of gloriously shameless showboating. Pete is not a particularly talented vocalist; his booming, throaty bass is well-suited to the blues, but it would hardly earn him a recording deal on its own. On some tracks, he seems to give up entirely on the idea of singing, resorting instead to shouting the words rhythmically. Two of the album's best tracks ("J.B. Shuffle" and "Chillin'") are instrumental tunes that allow the guitar to wail for itself in a smoldering tizzy of dexterous showmanship. The album's sound is remarkably three dimensional for a three-piece band (Guitar Pete is joined by Anthony Bernardo on drums and Marc B. Gilman on bass guitar) playing a series of more or less run-of-the-mill Chicago-style blues songs. That's because Pete's fretwork is so dense and multi-faceted, letting more than a little '70s jam band influence to crash his ostensibly traditional blues party. This is particularly true in his explosive take on the familiar blues-rock tune "Mustang Sally" and in the smoky rhythm and blues number "Do You Hear the Rain." Burning Bridges is not a brilliant album; it has no pretensions to greatness. It is simply straightforward showmanship and as such it's a pleasure.One of the first things to make an impression when listening to Burning Bridges for the first time is the unusually deep, clear voice of vocalist/guitarist Guitar Pete. His vocal style sounds to be more like that of a smooth & soulful R&B singer, especially on the slower ballads. Pete counters this vocal style with blues-rock guitar leads, as he runs through a set of 9 originals and one cover tune, Mustang Sally.The songs range from slow blues and ballads, to pop and shuffles, sometimes reminicent of ZZ-Top. The mix of harder, blues-rock guitar oriented material to more melodic music and ballads is about even. I enjoy a good ballad every now and again, but would would have enjoyed a couple more hard blues or upbeat songs.My favorite songs from the CD include Jellyfish, an upbeat, humorous ode to the full figured woman, Makes No Sense, the one straight blues number, Chillin', a groovin' blues-rock instrumental, and the set's closer, Gasoline, a ballad which features some nice, soulful guitar work.While the song selection includes a bit too much in the way of nice melodies and ballads for my tastes, this is my only major negative comment. I enjoy Guitar Pete's guitar playing, and after a short period of adjustment, found that his R&B flavored vocals work well with the blues.

Burning Bridges