How often does a bad review cause you to seek out an album?
BD Wong | USA | 06/21/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The negative one star review this album received from Laszlo Nanasi was enough to make me return to my copy of this CD for a better listen. For some reason I remembered it as being a bit more experimental than SRB's first. Given Rick's 25+ year history/mystery with avant/punk/outside music legends Sun City Girls, such would not be a surprise. What I was astonished by was the depth and skill on display on Improvika. While Laszlo`s list of guitarists in his collection are all masters of the art , I was more intrigued by who was missing; John Fahey, Peter Lang, Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, (i.e. the entire Takoma/American Primitive stable), Suni McGrath, Sandy Bull, etc. I doubt either not liking, or not having knowledge about or understanding of this heritage would give one the facility needed to appreciate SRB's playing. Why, the reviewer didn't even mention Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar?!? Well, yes! Raga structure is evident in several of the pieces here. Long, meditative openings build in intensity toward energetic, highly charged sections of quickly strummed rhythm and fingering virtuosity. I suppose this music owes its largest debt to Robbie Basho's work; however SRB's playing seems more assured, more focused. I guess the first time I ever heard this mixture of western acoustic guitar with Indian music was on Black Mountain Side from Led Zeppelin's first album (of all places!) and I've held a real fondness for this style ever since. All of this is further entwined with influences from Spain, the Middle East and a healthy dose of Django Reinhart, another master missing from Laszlo`s list. For shame! In any event, the world of solo steel string acoustic guitar players is certainly not overpopulated these days. I think we'll find ourselves fortunate to have people like SRB helping to fill that void."
