Search - Amos Garrett :: Off the Floor Live

Famous Amos!

Rizzo | Denver, CO | 10/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The name "Famous Amos" is synonymous with tasty Famous Amos Cookies, but Guitar Player Magazine calls this Amos "one of the most lyrical and original guitarists today and his single note solos and melodic figures are so distinctive that it is virtually impossible to mistake them for anyone else's."



It has also been quoted, "Amos Garrett plays better one-handed and on an off-night than most guitar players put together."



As an extraordinary studio musician, he performed with Stevie Wonder, Chet Akins, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, and Emmylou Harris. In the early 70's he was a guitarist for the Paul Butterfield Band."



Recorded live at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, "Off The Floor Live" 1996, is a compilation of dynamic upbeat, and slower bluesy songs performed before an intimate enthusiastic audience.



Selections vary from Eddie Nobles "Bad Bad Whiskey" to Johnny Otis' "Willie and the Hand Jive" and Johnny Heartsman's "Goose Grease." Listen to the mesmerizing "Sleepwalk" from Santo and Johnny 50s hit. Garrett delivers in a bluesy jazzy style.



John Lee Hooker, named the inventor of "boogie guitar", is the focus of this conversational 12-minute entertaining number called "Conversation with John Lee Hooker." - Garrett reminisces about John Lee Hooker and how the blues originated.



Garrett includes Leadbelly's "Grasshoppers in my Pillow" ...I got grasshoppers in my pillow Momma, crickets in my meal.. Leadbelly, a folk legend, died in 1949 was a black Louisiana born who influenced thousands of other musicians.



Willie and the Hand Jive - a Johnny Otis rock and roll oldie has been a staple of 50's sock hop. Garrett adds some of the blues-based, snappy rock and roll rhythm he is known for.



You will get an impression that Garrett is an avid fisherman. Listen to the jazz-based "Wrong Lake To Catch Fish" and a softer "Just Like a Fish." He isn't from the bayous he sings of; he hails from Ontario Canada.



You will enjoy this entire CD. Entertaining! ...MzRizz"

Guitar player's guitar player

David B. Erickson | Asheville, NC United States | 03/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Not everybody "gets" Amos Garrett. His solos can sound casual and offhand -- that is, until you try to play them. And that's why he's a "guitar player's guitar player." He doesn't dazzle. He's subtle. Even odder, for a rock musician, he's pretty unimpressed with himself. Consequently, he's never out to show the world what a barnburner he is. He just likes to play what he likes to play, and to sing in his foggy Hoagy Carmichael voice. I really like this recording precisely because Garrett does not make a big deal out of his amazing dexterity on the guitar. This is NOT Mr. Ultimate Speedfingers rockin' the joint. It is --dare I say this -- pleasant to listen to. Seldom has so much guitar technique been used to reach such modest ends."