| CD REVIEW (This CD review was also published at www.701.com) |
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| Edmontonian guitar-guru Eddie Warren quietly slipped into Hess Village on the last night of the Labatt Blues Festival this summer and gave a very enchanting performance to a handful of awestruck festival cast-offs in the Mermaid�s Lounge. That enchantment is captured equally well on this all-originals CD as well. While most of the tracks are guitar solos by Eddie, he is occasionally backed by Dave Rose on jimbay (an African drum) and bass guitar, John Durr on drums, and Natashia Stoesser on hauntingly beautiful piano (�Face the Rain�), the most memorable track on the CD. Starting with a sensual jazz/blues tune called �Heart of Stone�, the next track immediately veers off into a Michael Hedges-inspired instrumental (�Reverence�), followed by the beautiful ballad, �Face the Rain�. He then barrels into a Stevie Ray Vaughan musical persona with a straight-ahead bluesrocker (�Last Train to New Orleans�). Next off is an overly long gypsy-jazz-folk instrumental (�La Jolla�), influenced again by Michael Hedges, but I heard musical echoes of Bruce Cockburn (on his �Night Vision� CD), although Mr. Warren shrugs off being influenced by the latter. �Closed Session� puts the listener back into a laid-back jazzy feel and is highly complemented by Mr. Warren�s very pleasant vocals, which are maintained well within their range. Strangely enough, though, Mr. Warren is not a musician in love with the sound of his own voice and prefers to concentrate on drawing out the best he can from his guitar (performing both rhythm and lead). �Theatre of War� is a very dramatic nouveau-classical piece with an exotic Middle Eastern flavour to it, as is the following and closing track, �Forever October�. Mr. Warren is one of those musicians who can make one instrument transform into many different ones in the varied techniques he uses to play it. One thing I noticed when I saw him performing live was that he cradles the guitar from the very end of it rather than the standard position of propping one�s arm over the top. As a matter of fact, the CD was partially recorded and mastered at a studio in Calgary called �Sound as a Weapon Productions�. Very unusual performer with very unusual music. You�ll be hearing much more about him. |
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| HEART OF STONE - EDDIE WARREN |