ACOUSTIC SHARDS

BUCKETHEAD's releases are very hit and miss so after he started releasing several albums every year in the mid-2000s which has skyrocketed up to 50 plus for 2015 alone, i kinda just stopped being enthralled with this freaky dude who claims to have been raised in a chicken coop since the quality has been up and down mostly pointing towards the latter. I recently picked up ACOUSTIC SHARDS, one of his so-called "special" releases because it was really, really cheap and since i have been a fan of his earlier releases... sold! "Special" seems to me that it means archival. This is basically a collection of acoustic recordings that were recorded in 1991. One could probably simply call them demos or practice sessions, but as BUCKIE clearly shows on these recordings, he is a formidable guitarist showing off his chops in the most stripped down of ways, it is simply he and his acoustic guitar.

Unlike previous mostly acoustic albums such as "Colma" and "Electric Tears" which were mellow albums designed to serve more for the purposes of ambience and mood enhancement, ACOUSTIC SHARDS is more like a rock album for one acoustic guitar player. This is as eclectic as you can get on acoustic guitar. BUCKIE really shows his stuff by developing melodic passages that are somewhere in the ballpark of Spanish classical guitar but somehow feel totally different as he also throws in blues, rock and his own special blend of avant-garde noodling which happens to all correspond in the right doses for me to stomach.

I was actually quite surprised that i liked this as much as i did since i have seen this one for eons but simply avoided it erroneously assuming it was another "Colma" or "Electric Tears." There is enough variation of ideas here to really keep most of the album interesting (with exceptions like the overlong "Longing") which is amazing considering it is only an acoustic guitar without any accompaniment whatsoever. There are two early renditions of "For Mom" which was released on the "Colma" album and "Who Me?" which was gussied up and released on the "Monsters And Robots" album. This collection of tracks is very cool because it shows that BUCKETHEAD is indeed a gifted guitarist and is not dependent on the bells and whistles that modern day recording techniques offer. He is a veritable guitar god who can often make his acoustic guitar sound like two guitarists playing together. This is supposedly recorded in real time with no overdubs or anything. All i can say is... wow! 3.5 rounded up