The month’s best guitar music – a hand-picked selection of the finest fretwork on wax
Robben Ford
Night In The City
Ear Music (release date: 1 December 2023)
Live album takes blues mastery to a new level Robben Ford’s many studio albums have always been game-changers. Once known as a sideman to artists as diverse as Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell and a member of the LA Express, when his second solo release, 1988’s Talk To Your Daughter, appeared, the jazz/blues guitar cognoscenti had their heads turned. The rhythm playing on that album’s Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues alone was enough to let everyone know that there was a new guitar-slinger in town. Subsequently, albums with The Blue Line and more solo releases enriched his reputation, but many fans insisted that you had to hear Robben play live to gain the full remit of his skills as bluesman extraordinaire. This album offers that opportunity.
Recorded at City Winery, Nashville in 2021, it was Ford’s first performance after lockdown, and the enthusiasm for returning to the live stage is evident from the offset. The material is drawn from Robben’s back catalogue, so live readings of Balafon and Blues For Lonnie Johnsonattain higher drama, the latter exhibiting a particularly jaw-dropping solo. A new track, Anto’Nate’n’Tate, demonstrates Robben’s recent journey into blues funk, while Just AnotherCountry Road lights the fuse on a slow-paced blues.
The album is a mix of instrumental tracks peppered with the occasional vocal, but it’s the Dumble-esque guitar tone and sheer melodic invention that will hold the listener from beginning to end and have guitarists everywhere running back to the woodshed. It all adds up to another landmark album from a simply stunning musician.
Standout track: Blues For Lonnie Johnson
For fans of: Lee Ritenour, Mike Stern, Larry Carlton
Dom Martin Buried In The Hail
Forty Below Records (available now)
Roots blueser dishes out the grit Belfast guitarist/singer Dom Martin has his feet in roots music with great facility on the guitar that is often reminiscent of early blues greats such as Blind Blake and John Lee Hooker. This new album features 11 songs that span Americana and blues with great fingerpicking and slide work throughout. The opener is the instrumental Hello In There,with emotive acoustic guitar picking with soft delay/reverb ambience and background effects. Daylight IWillFind You is a rustic foot-stomper where Dom sounds both growly and sweet, while his guitar parts add old-school authenticity. Government is a ballad with bite, Belfast Blues features a gritty crunch guitar, not dissimilar to early ZZTop tones, as he elaborately picks through the chords and roars out the lyrics, and Crazy is the famous Wil
