Fingerstyle Guitar: New Dimensions And Explorations

You'd figure a song called "Slap Funk" would be a little different, and it is: guitarist Preston Reed treats his guitar like a stressed-out mom would a sassy kid in the grocery checkout line: a couple yanks, a few slaps. The weird thing is that he produces beautiful music out of what should legally be called guitar abuse. Ditto for Adrian Legg, who tunes his guitar while he plays (sort of like a human capo), manually moving between keys. And Pepper D'Agostino doesn't even bother with plucking, he just uses about a zillion "hammer-on" moves in a row to play a whole song. Of course, you don't have to know diddly about fingerstyle guitar to enjoy the over two dozen songs on each volume in this major ear candy series. All you have to do is appreciate virtuoso guitar music. The list of players reads like an axman's hall of fame: Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, John Fahey, Will Ackerman (all on vol. 1); John Renbourn, Stefan Grossman, Duck Baker, El McMeen (on vol. 2), and Steve Howe, Larry Coryell, and Bob Brozman (on vol. 3), among many others. We highly recommend the whole series, although if you're strapped for bucks or want to sample the wares first, go for the first volume. (R. Pitman)