Jazzwise Review of History of Now

Entertainment Ireland review of History of Now

Preview: Jazz notes

Guitar Bridge Review of History of Now

Handwritten Notes Reviews: Guitarist, Total Guitar & Guitar and Bass magazines

EuroClub de Jazz review of Handwritten Notes

Billboard Review of Handwritten Notes
Originally reviewed for week ending 10/14/00
Billboard Magazine
Minor 7th - Handwritten Notes Review
November/December, 2000

Handwritten Notes Release and Artist's Notes

Never Heard of Them review of Metal

Metal won the Just Plain Folks award for best solo guitar album and Blasting Cap won the best solo guitar song.

Manchester Online gig review

Preston at the Olympia Theater, Paris France

Preston Reed & Arild Andersen, Tron Theatre, Glasgow

Dolan's Warehouse - Limrick

Preston at the Olympia Theater, Paris France

Edinburgh Jazz Festival

Acoustic Live in New York City and Beyond

Black Bottle Jazz Festival 2002

Schubas, Chicago 2002


PRESTON REED - Sounds Like a Genius



Birkenhead Town Hall - 22 November 2001

Well this was something different and another excellent guitarist that I haven't seen before. A player with many facets...

More...


Reed & Juber - Groovemasters at the Fringe of the Solo Zone
By Todd Ellison
Acoustic Musician Magazine
January 1997




The Art of Tapping
Preston Reed
by Von Andreas Boer
(interview in German)

JFK Center for the Performing Arts

MTVAsia - Review
Friday October 13, 2000
by Sheng Yuen

Critics choice in the Chicago Reader

Preston's Guitar Suite Debut - Groovophrenia

Chicago Tribune
December 18, 1999 by Rick Reger

Chicago Reader - Review
December 5, 2000
by David Whiteis

Guitar of Preston Reed video review, Dirty Linen Magazine

Message Board Archive



Guitar Techniques Review

Watch Preston's
Kennedy Center Millenium Stage performance (1/31/06)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently exhibiting, "Memory and Magic", a retrospective that examines seven decades of painting by Andrew Wyeth. Nowhere do we gain a greater insight into Wyeth's work than the Olson House in Cushing, Maine and the Kuerner Farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania where Wyeth produced thousands of works.  A multimedia slideshow by Philadelphia Inquirer Photographer Charles Fox explores these two sites.  Also featured in the slideshow is the music of Preston Reed.

Epoch Times Review

Watch Preston's Kennedy Center Millenium Stage performance (1/31/06)

History of Now
BBC Music Magazine

A performance by a solo guitarist can sometimes be more like a freak show. Think of extraordinary players like Tommy Emmanuel, whose live sets seem designed to shock and awe, overwhelming the (mostly male) audience with their finger twisting technical prowess.

It doesn't have to be like that. The American uber-guitarist Preston Reed can play with the equivalent musical firepower of a helicopter gunship - and frequently does. But on this latest album he has opted for the less-is-more approach, applying his mastery of the acoustic and electric axes to a series of gentle but melodic miniatures. In a blindfold test, Reed could pass for a guitar duo &endash; or even a trio at times &endash; and finger style enthusiasts will marvel at his casual ability to simultaneously play rhythm and complex top lines. But he is musical too and each short piece evokes a beautifully lit scene of classic Americana. 

Performance * * * *
Sound * * * *


UNCUT AUGUST 2004

The remarkable Preston Reed finally gets a UK release for 2000's Handwritten Notes (OUTER BRIDGE) * * *, a mesmerising set of instrumentals from the guitar virtuoso, taking on allcomers from funk to blues to jazz and beyond.

Classy stuff


A tour de force solo album... articulating the jazz-inflected harmonies of the ballad "First Summer Without You" or tearing up the fretboard on barn burners like "Shinkansen" (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. Handwritten Notes should be a bible for anyone looking at the extended possibilities of the acoustic guitar.

-- John Diliberto, Billboard Magazine Critic's Choice for the week ending 10/14/00

"Fifty-six minutes of original instrumental guitar from a very creative composer. Blending and bending textures and influences, Reed offers thoughtful and thought-provoking musical musical vignettes that offer more with each listening. Tempo and tone range from reflective to funky as Reed challenges himself and the listener by telling stories without words."

-- Dirty Linen, June/July 2001

Performance video at Coolwater Concerts web site. Click your browsers Back button to return here when the video is finished.


Delta TV Interview
This is a May 25, 2004 interview/feature from French TV. It is in Real format so you will need that player to view. It's about a 5 megabyte file. Preston's comments are in English, the rest of the broadcast is in French.
Click here to go to their website and then choose your connection speed to start the video.

Preston Reed, un prodige de la guitare devenu roi de l'illusion… le spécialiste du "taping". Un reportage de Delta TV à l'occasion du Dunkerque Guitare Picking Festival.



Propulsive, percussive rhythm is the inescapable theme, but there's still plenty of variety in mood, pace, and technique will leave you wondering how one man armed only with an acoustic guitar can churn out all this music. -
Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine review of Ladies Night

... phenomenal. - Al Dimeola

[Reed's] two-fisted attack turns the acoustic guitar into an entire rhythm section. - Jazziz

Fretting with two hands on an acoustic guitar is a chore for most players. But Preston Reed makes it sound as easy as breathing. - Musician

I want to rave about Preston Reed's 'Metal.' Reed has taken the genre in the most innovative directions, both with technique and with composition. The title track, an acoustic tribute to heavy metal, will drop your jaw. - Playboy Magazine



"If I'm a hard core guitar player, Preston Reed is petrified. He's so into it that he has alchemized. I've never seen anyone more precise. He's really inspiring." - Michael Hedges in Fingerstyle Guitar interview, March/April 1996


 "Reed's propulsive one-man grooves echo Soundgarden and Joni Mitchell. Rich tunings are worked over with body slaps, harmonic tickles, sweet melodies and confident passion." -James Rotundi, Guitar Player, July 1996

"One of the most unique and challenging acoustic guitar albums ever...Reed's pieces are as visually and emotionally provocative as his technique is dazzling. Both guitar aficionados and casual listeners will find much to enjoy in this creative yet completely accessible work. Find it!" - Hilarie Grey, Jazz Times, June 1996

"A groundbreaking guitarist." - Acoustic Guitar Magazine, January/February 1996

"Electrifying...an innovative guitarist who, with his resourceful tapping techniques, can make one acoustic guitar sound like a full rock band." - Jon Bream, Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 12, 1996





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