Acoustic Live in New York City and Beyond
This CD
is irresistible. The rhythms in this collection of guitar
instrumentals are too infectious to ignore. Listeners will
find their shoulders shaking, their torsos bobbing and
weaving and their hands will be uncontrollably slapping
anything in reach, in time with each composition. The
faster, upbeat and more percussive numbers throughout the
album are offset with slower, introspective ones to allow
the listener to catch his/her breath.
Not long ago, Preston encountered a
college student who posed the idea, after hearing him, that
he (Preston) is an alien, of the extraterrestrial variety.
No earthling could possibly be this good. I, myself, began
to wonder if this argument might have some merit. A cyborg,
at least? This guy has to have a metronome built in there
somewhere. With all the switches from rapid-fire strumming,
to trademark fret-popping, to vicious turnarounds and back,
he misses NOT ONE beat, ever.
The first track, "Night Ride" starts
out with a bluesy riff featuring some lazily bent notes. It
reels you in nice and slow. No need to hit you over the head
with the entire arsenal immediately. About halfway through,
the percussive fingerpopping begins and kicks into a kind of
warp speed with some flashes of strumming dropped in. By its
end you inhale and come up for air in the intervening empty
space while waiting for what comes next.
What comes next is a sweetly swaying
melody, perfect for it's namesake, "Gianiana". It's easy to
picture the object of its insprationto be a graceful,
extremely attractive woman. This is followed by "First
Summer Without You," a melancholy jazz-infused piece, easily
conjuring up the loneliness following a loss."Tractor pull"
kicks the groove into high gear again. It sounds like two
hearts racing in tandem, as the hammer-ons keep the notes
flying almost faster than we can take them in. "Crossing
Open Water" rolls softly, gently, like its name suggests, a
relaxing respite from the trip-hammer-speed of the preceding
composition.
The rest of the CD continues along
an ever-varying path, steering away from a cold display of
guitar pyrotechics with an innate passion.