Steel String Americana" by Paul Asbell is a trip through American music, from Delta blues to Piedmont blues to country to jazz to standards from the American songbook. Asbell is no dilettante, no lightweight. He is a monster, master guitar picker playing a variety of music with great artistry and presented in a thoughtful and truly enjoyable manner. Although many of the tunes are solo performances, there are terrific duet and trio performances on some tunes, featuring Asbell with vocalist Sandra Wright, organist Mike Sucher and bassist Tony Markellis. This recording is truly enjoyable and engaging throughout, so do yourself a favor and support this deserving artist!
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Simply click "play" on "Down in the Valley to Pray/Jesus, Make Up My Dying Bed" and you will hear the brilliant hybrid of country and city, hills and flatlands. Asbell's title couldn't be more apropos - America oozes from the resonance of his steel strings. This album rivals the ambient journey of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports," while, at the same time, echoing the hard sweetness of guitar masters like Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt on the other, spun, at times, through the complicated turns and cycles of jazz. This album is good enough to eat, and I've been feasting on it over and over again. It is always at arm's length in my commuter Camry.
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Whether you are a guitar player, music historian, or a guitar music fan (or all three!), this recording offers up both a lesson and a listen. On the surface, it's a collection of expertly written/arranged and performed tunes that most likely will stay in your listening queue for some time to come. If you dive deeper, the player will receive a valuable lesson in composing, arranging, and playing; the historian will be taken on a journey through the many influences of American music; and the listener will be treated to the musicality of the obviously gifted Mr Asbell's craft.
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Paul Asbell is a fine singer, as he demonstrates on several of these tracks, but the main reason to buy this album is that he is one of the best acoustic guitar players active today. An expert fingerpicker with a beautiful tone and formidable technique, Asbell is revered by guitarists for his inventive renditions of traditional blues, folk, and ragtime tunes, as well as for his original compositions in those idioms. However, he is also extremely talented as an arranger and performer of jazz numbers and standards from the American popular songbook, and some of his most intriguing arrangements inject country blues with a strong infusion of jazz, or vice versa. (For example, check out "My Blue Hellhound," a clever mash-up of "My Blue Heaven" and Robert Johnson's "Hell Hound on My Trail.") This album is a great introduction to an extremely talented musician who should be much more widely known.
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