Handwritten
Notes
Critics Choice
Originally reviewed for week ending 10/14/00
Billboard Magazine
by John Dilberto
Preston Reed is an underrated marvel of the acoustic guitar.
His name used to be mentioned in the same breath as Leo
Kottke and Michael Hedges, and judging from this tour de
force solo album, it still should be. Reed uses many of the
same two-handed techniques employed by Hedges, tapping his
strings and banging on his instrument. Articulating the
jazz-inflected harmonies of the ballad "First Summer Without
You" or tearing up the fretboard on barn burners like
"Shinkasen" (named for Japan's bullet trains), Reed works a
delirious combination of deft polyrhythms and melodic
counterpoint that spins your head. "Crossing Open Water" is
almost a symphony in miniature with its heart-stopping
dynamic shifts and timbral colorations, yet there's also a
rustic folk edge to his playing that keeps it earthy.
"Handwritten Notes" should be a bible for anyone looking at
the extended possibilities of the acoustic guitar.