Preston Reed
Ladies Night

Preston Reed… let me start by saying that he is a guitarist but I'm sure many of you have never heard of him. In that case, a quick visit to YouTube to watch some of his performances is recommended. Those who are already aware of his style will undoubtedly agree with my perspective: damn this man is a genius. In fact, the guitar is now a widely spread and highly praised instrument, so much so that, I might even say, everything has been said about it—although I know that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Just 40 years ago, we were already well on our way; the guitar, thanks to people like Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, had firmly entered the world of jazz, besides already being established as the unrivaled queen of blues long before. As I was saying, 40 years ago, we were already well on our way, then Jimi Hendrix arrived and turned everything upside down. Revolution. Everything changed, a whole subsequent generation of guitarists inspired by his genius revolutionized the music world: the guitar became a show-stopping, fascinating, and transgressive instrument, a symbol of the then burgeoning and now waning tradition of hard rock and heavy metal. Then came Van Halen and his Eruption: the guitar hero was born. There are now countless great jazz rock blues guitarists, each of them contributing something important to history, adding something, improving something else. The aforementioned guitar heroes that are so fashionable now, even though their popularity seems already waning to me, have further expanded, practically to infinity, the guitar horizons, making it an instrument capable of producing any sound and any emotion. What is there left to add for us, the new generations??? The rising guitar stars of today, in fact, go back to the past: the neoclassical, the gypsy jazz returning to fashion, the "novelties" like Joe Bonamassa or Eric Sardina going back to the sound of B.B. King in the first case and proposing a blues hard rock mix in the second (I won’t stop to judge).

There are more and more, on the other hand, those who react by inventing a new style: Stanley Jordan plays the electric guitar as if it were a piano (here too, for those who don’t know him, a quick tour on YouTube is recommended..) and our Preston Reed does more: he plays the acoustic guitar using a tapping/percussive technique that allows him to combine mostly folk melodies with a percussive accompaniment base obtained by hitting the neck or the body (well, given my analysis, you’ll be more tempted to go watch some videos; it's very difficult to describe the rhythmic sound that is achieved…). And even though he is the only one, I believe, to adopt this technique, he started in 1982 and already has a disciple: the very young Kaki King, an American prodigy who is already a star. After this long digression, which I confess makes up the most important part of the review and for which the album is partly a mere pretext, I will move on to examining the album in question.

As stated, the melodies of this "Ladies Night," the artist's sixth release, are mostly folk-based, difficult to define. These are certainly rhythmic and catchy tracks, starting with the title track and opener Ladies Night, consisting of a very captivating rhythmic-melodic turn, somewhat reminiscent of certain blues pieces with bottleneck in some sounds. The third track Hijacker is very beautiful, with sudden changes of atmosphere, very melodic. The sweet and reflective Somehow We'll Make It Home is beautiful; a magnificent and introspective ballad, one of those pieces that can’t help but make you think and reflect, more meaningful and expressive than a thousand words, as indeed the subsequent Mermaid Eyes and Pacific, perhaps the latter of the three ballads being the one that struck me the most; no avalanches of notes like in his tougher pieces, but a few well-placed notes, the most important thing a guitarist or a musician in general should know how to do, in my opinion. This confirms the extraordinary versatility of this artist. Also because, after such a sweet piece, what do you find? The penultimate track, Raimaker, introduced and interspersed by a percussion solo on the guitar body that would make Deep Purple's Mule envious, extraordinary for a guitarist.

And finally, the (un)worthy conclusion, the only sung piece of the album.. well, I can’t say that it fully convinces me, it didn't seem necessary, but it doesn't spoil the final impression of the album at all; it’s just my very personal opinion.

In conclusion, I believe it’s a great album in terms of the quality of the music played, even disregarding how it is played, something that can only increase admiration for an artist who has found his way, and also considerable popularity, by doing something radically different from everyone else, inventing a brand new technique. Hats off!