Rich Peare: Guitar Hour

The title of Rich Peare's inaugural album, Guitar Hour is a perfectly accurate description of what you get, viz., an hour of beguiling and romantic acoustic guitar by a young man with out of the ordinary talent. The approach to his studio recording is quite different than the common practice in today's high technology which is now seems as important as the music, let's fix it in the mixin' approach, often in making many contemporary recording. On Peare's album, each track is the result of just one take. What you hear is what was taped the first and only time round. So, this is really much like a concert recording and has that special tension unique to those sessions. The program is one of entirely romantic standards, except for the last item, "Blues for Manny", which Peare penned. That the sitting is more concert focused than studio makes one appreciate even more the guitarist's ability improvise on this set of familiar music. The melodies are there, but they are subtly presented and one has to listen with some effort to catch them, on "Body and Soul" and one of the most engaging and beguiling renderings of "Stella by Starlight" I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Peare's bass lines are clean and well defined, unfettered with extraneous chordal smearing. With the talent he displays on this CD, Peare is destined to become a bright firmament in the galaxy of guitar players. Recommended.

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