Sounds of Wood & Steel – A Windham Hill Collection
If you’ve read my articles or other postings on Guitar Noise you probably know that I like good guitars. I play some high end guitars like Breedlove, Martin, Fylde, and limited edition Ovation and Takamine.
For some unknown reason I don’t own a Taylor guitar.
So I was pretty interested in opening the CD I got for review. It seems that all of the tracks are recorded using Taylors. Here’s a partial list of who is playing on this CD:
- Phil Keaggy
- Doyle Dykes
- Dave Matthews
- Paul Rodgers
- Billy Sheehan
- Jimmy Messina
- Jars of Clay
The CD has 17 tracks of instrumental guitar. Here’s a few of my favorites:
Listen to the beginning of track 3, “Cajon Pass”, if you need a little reminder of why you practice. Phil Keaggy blows you away with his technique and subtle melody hooks.
“Butter Fingers” by Bill Cooley with Kathy Mattea is a very cool modern ragtime piece. Just what I needed, another style I want to learn.
“I will take care of you” by Susanna Hoffs is a great example of how the empty space within a musical line is almost as important as the sound. She takes a relatively empty line and builds it into a musical wall of sound while retaining the original melodic idea.
I can’t narrow down a favorite but the two that make me pick up my guitar are Dave Matthew’s “Litho Blitho” and Jars of Clay’s “Jesse’s Song”.
If you only bought the CD for the musical ideas it brings you it is well worth the price.
Now I can’t tell you what the tracks would sound like if they were recorded on a different brand of guitars, but I can tell you I’m going guitar shopping this afternoon.
One more thing, don’t even think of going to the website http://www.windham.com
If you did you might be tempted to click on the promotions link on the right hand side where you can win a Taylor Windham Hill Commemorative Edition guitar.
Hey, you wouldn’t want to decrease my odds of winning, would you?