Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Eric Johnson, Austin Texas guitarist extraordinaire, has recently released his album Up Close, which contains one track in particular that deserves the attention of this blog. The track is named  Texas and is a straight forward electric blues. To firmly grasp the significance of this masterwork, it is not absolutely necessarily to delve as far back as Northern Israel's captivity by the neo Assyrian monarchs. However, the notes distilled from Mr. Johnson's most capable hands bring with them residue from historic sufferings chronicled by song that yields a dense  richness. This tune is the capstone of what the blues guitar can accomplish. It reaches back and will continue until time is no more Yes it is that good. I would gladly trade in all works in my collection if I had to to secure this one track.  

Even though the Mayan calendar has our current astrological estate named as "The Time of Jeff Beck", Eric Johnson's effort here could be seen as a Stonehenge within that era.

By the way, I drew this with brush and ink and couldn't find my water colors so I used a San Francisco Bay French Roast right out of my coffee cup for a wash!