Positive recovery

The great Brian Setzer (certainly on of the greats in my book) lost the ability to play in February due to an autoimmune condition. As he plays regularly as a pro, he was advised to go into hiatus for the sake of recovery. Just days ago, the media was informed of Setzer's positive recovery but not in its entirety. On a personal note, it's simply good knowing one of my guitar heroes not giving up & walked away from it altogether. Reminded me of myself when I was down with cancer; the thought of not being able to play any more was real. This was especially true when some of my nerves got damaged by the chemo & some skin condition happened along the way that prevented me from simply handling the instrument. 

Godspeed recovery to Brian Setzer as we await his return to rock the house once more - heck, yeah!

Pic: usweekly

Brian Setzer: Goes Instru-MENTAL!

This has to be one of the most enjoyable releases I've acquired this year (thusfar)- an all instrumental album by Brian Setzer. I'm a big fan of the slick Mr. Setzer who is a very knowledgeable player. In fact. he's one of those very few players I don't mind listening to for an absence of distortion. However, his reverb could be deemed as overkill for many of us; it's a very deep voicing... as if Mr. Setzer did the recording in Batman's cave hide-out.

There are lots of great music here, all virtuoso stuff from Mr. Setzer but do not expect any solid body guitar tones to be heard. It's a rockabilly twang affair from start to finish, peppered with some jazzy bits, not forgetting some expert chicken picking moments done on banjo.

But we can't argue that Brian Setzer isn't a shredder of sorts. He's very much in command of the instrument & his fingers for that matter, just that he's not the typical a thousand-notes-per-second master player doing lots of distortion. He's doing well & very comfortable in his own turf; I'd be upset if he decides to do something else, really.