More Guitar Stories - Inspiring Guitar Books for Beginners & Musicians | Perfect for Learning, Practice & Gift Giving

Product Description

Product Description 63rd Grammy Awards Winner, New Age category !! Review Jim Kimo West's 2021 Best New Age Album Grammy for his 12th solo album, More Guitar Stories, is a validation of his artistry in terms of his fretboard prowess, compositional skills and his ear for melody. West's first ten solo albums contain some of the finest modern guitar Hawaiian slack key music ever produced. In 2015 he released Guitar Stories, his 11th solo album on which he explored a more diversified and adventurous musical terrain while marinating the slack key vibe to produce an eclectic and deeply textured collection of compositions and performances. On More Guitar Stories, West explores this terrain further drawing on Celtic, Indian Classical, West African and Americana sonic influences featuring largely ensemble pieces utilizing top caliber LA session musicians such as cellist Simone Vitucci, percussionist M.B. Gordy, violinists Charlie Bisharat and Ben Powell, as well as Cenk Erdogan on fretless guitar and Jimmy Johnson on fretless bass. This deep pool of talent is apparent throughout this exquisite collection of sonic magic, track after track. West also utilizes eight different tunings Dm7, C sus2 and D Taro Patch among them. The opening rum-induced "Mele Ahiahi - Evening Song" quickly entrances as acoustic guitar and fretless bass (Jimmy Johnson) create a musical hammock that gently sways and envelopes every auditory sense, eventually giving way to the equally entrancing "Windward," which features a lilting violin (Charlie Bisharat) that dances sublimely with Jimmy Johnson's energetic fretless bass which rises infectiously throughout before a gratifying resolution. "Paniolo Starlight" builds, beat by beat, layer by layer into a sumptuous feast of strings (slack key guitars, mandolin, electric baritone guitar, upright bass) and percussion, while the playful interplay of various guitars, violin (Ben Powell), upright bass (Dan Lutz) and percussion on "Tin Roof Shing-A-Ling" is simply intoxicating. On "The Lydian Sea" West plays acoustic baritone and 12 string guitars in the Lydian mode enveloped in various percussion, tabla, baya (T.J. Troy) , kanjira (M.B. Gordy), and the violin of Ben Powell to capture the essence of India. The only "true" solo acoustic guitar number on the album is "Sugar Cane Blues," a straight forward acoustic blues tune with Hawaiian slack key overtones that feels right at home. The final track, the sultry and emotive "Soul Motion," creates the sonic breadth that allows West's guitar, Vitucci's cello and Basharat's violin to create such musical synergy that you might just forget to breathe. Rarely does one album contain such fully developed and realized compositions, instead of the short vignettes so often found in the acoustic guitar/New Age genre. West certainly seems to be at the apogee of his skills and artistry that also include pristine, astute and finessed production and mixing. Jim Kimo West's claim to fame may be as guitarist for "Weird Al" Yankovic, but his true genius lies firmly in the performance, arrangement and compositions of More Guitar Stories and its precursor Guitar Stories. © James Filkins --Minor 7th