"Recorded in 1976 at Macalester College, Steve Tibbetts's first album ( first released independently in 1977 on his own label ) is interesting mostly as a harbinger of greatness to come. It consists mostly of multi-tracked acoustic guitars, overdubbed with pitch-shifted bells and water sounds, and the occasional mid-70's synthesizer. Notable mostly for two things: the guitar solo at the end of "Interlude" proves that Tibbetts was experimenting with two-handed guitar tapping years before anyone had ever heard of Eddie Van Halen; and "How Do You Like My Buddha", where he unspools ribbons of synthesizers and uncanny imitations of Mahavishnu over a trippy loop of tubby bass guitar and backwards noise. A dry run for the vastly superior YR."
Fantastic First Song
jaylimmo | 10/26/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The opening piece on this album is one of THE BEST acoustic guitar pieces anywhere. I mean it is fantastic. Tibbets displays his incredible skills but more importantly the mood and the compsotiion are beautiful. If you like good composed acoustic guitar, more rock i guess than jazz at this point at least, you will absolutely love the first song. the rest of the album is not up to YR but the first piece alone is worth the ticket. loved this on vnyl; glad to see its out on disc finally."
Awesome!
jaylimmo | 08/01/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"One of my favorite all time albums. It wears so so well. I fell in love with its fun, strong, eclectic guitar rifts intermixed with stange modulated voice-overs in college and I still love it today. What an album. Yr as well!"
Tomita Meets Leo Kottke
Karl W. Nehring | Ostrander, OH USA | 08/09/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Minnesota guitarist and world traveler Steve Tibbetts is one of my musical favorites. Cuneiform Records has done the world a delightful favor by bringing back into circulation the first recording that Steve ever made, way back in the summer of 1976. While the rest of America was celebrating the Bicentennial, Steve was crouched in a closet with a guitar and a Dokorder, recording goofy yet endearing tunes with titles such as "Alvin Goes to Tibet." Tibbetts himself described this CD as "Tomita Meets Leo Kottke," and that seems to be about as good a description as any. What fun stuff this is!"