Although there is much that the guitar teacher and player's music owes to the blues, the majority of this CD lies honestly (and this is a good thing) away from the typical blue note and pentatonic scale progressions often found within the genre.
"Kingsport," a three-piece (bass, drum and guitar) tune about a town where Reid once lived as a child gets things nicely started. "Lot 49" follows and is a three-minute and 59-second mellow number named after the book "The Crying of Lot 49" by Pynchon. Reid breaks out the guitar synthesizer for "Brigs of Ayr," a song about a haunting and mysterious picture he and his wife found while on their honeymoon in England.
A Songbird acoustic guitar joins the session on the instrumental "The Dying Tree," a touching and tender memorial to all whom gave their lives during the Civil War. "August 8," a symphonic poem for string orchestra that changed Reid's life after first hearing produces one of the CDs most enjoyable moments. Reid has mastered the guitar synthesizer as well as music composition/theory and it shows on this eight-minute and 20-second atmospheric number.
His blues background reappears on "Terrise," a guitar-driven number that Reid's liner notes describes as "a world that musician's refer to as 'the zone.'" The CD's only cover is a tune written by Steve Morse (Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, and Kansas) called "Aftershock" ("cover songs rock…").
The Arizona resident has waxed a fine jazz/rock-fusion album that admirers of early Jeff Beck will find stimulating. Reid does make the occasional trip out of Arizona and even the country (Canada) for a music festival or three. If his name appears in a local music calendar listing, you just might want to go and check him and his proficient guitar phrasing out. Betcha' that you end up buying one of his CDs.
www.curtis-reid.com
(480) 545-9334
This review is copyright © 2000 by Matt Alcott, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.