Andy Hall - “Sound of the Slide Guitar” (Sugar Hill)

Andy Hall’s “Sound of the Slide Guitar,” released on Sugar Hill January 22, showcases Hall’s considerable talents, be it as the composer and songwriter, the musician or the producer and engineer on this release.

Hall wrote 8 of the 11 cuts on the album all of which present Hall as a very capable composer. From a producer’s perspective Andy hall selected some of the great players in the business including David Grier, Rob Ickes, Tim Stafford and fellow band-mates from The Infamous Stringdusters to add their personal touches to the project.

The opening track, “Resurrection Day” feels like a tip of the hat to the resonator guitar’s biggest star, Jerry Douglas, in it’s arrangement. Featuring a Douglas-esque structure, The tune starts off at a lilting and haunting pace and midway through switches to a double time tempo.

“Deep Elem Blues” feature an arrangement that’s Bluegrass meets Delta Blues. The mandolin solo over the breakdown takes the arrangement to un-expected places to great effect and Hall pours on the Robert Johnson - Mississippi Roadhouse Blues on his solo on this one.

On “Circle The Sun,”a reflective instrumental, Hall and Rob Ickes’ interplay throughout the song is a definite highlight of the album. The song starts with two trading lead and rhythm lines. As the intensity builds they join in together playing harmony lines and finally finish it off with an answer and call session.

While “Sound of the Slide Guitar” features ample helpings of great acoustic slide and resonator guitar work, Hall spreads the instrumental breaks around judiciously, shining the light equally on the fine batch of musicians on the CD. Overall the project feels more like a group effort instead of merely a platform to showcase Hall’s stellar guitar work. “Sound of the Slide Guitar” is a solid musical statement featuring some great music from one of Bluegrass’ rising talents.