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bhuether
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Post subject: ARTIST: Andy Timmons, TITLE: That was Then this is Now
Posted: Mar 13, 2003 - 01:49 PM
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Joined: Mar 09, 2003
Posts: 232
Status: Offline
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http://www.andytimmons.com/
I was hanging out by the Vai's Favored Nations website one day and I see an Andy Timmons cd. I thought he was great with the 80's band Danger Danger. But the cd made me realize I was way off - he is in fact a truly breathtaking player. Whereas a lot of players feel the need to show off their chops once every 5 seconds in every song, Timmons shows off his articulation and expression, and then his chops just dazzle you even more. But the chops are not the showcase of the cd. He is also a real cool guy. I emailed him to tell him thanks for inspiring me, and he replied in about 10 minutes. He plays at some blues club in Dallas and is also an accomplished session player. I hope to go down there and meet him.
Here are my comments on selected tracks:
1. Super 70's - nice hard rocking piece with great sounding rhythm guitar. Nothing spectacular - just real cool sounding.
2. Pink Champagne Sparkle - #$^&ing awesome tune. Some Satriani influence here. Starts out with nice mellow tone, then breaks into more agressive tone. The solo is awesome. The highlight is around 2:32 where he breaks into a dominant 7th sounding riff that just gives me goosebumps. He plays some really great lines after that with phrasing that is impossible to emulate.
3. Falling Down - again - %^&*ing awesome tune. Rather bluesy. I am not a huge blues fan, but the type of blues at the start of this song is my kind of blues.
4. Beautiful, Strange - a cool tune with a middle eastern feel due to his modal playing. Not one of my favorites on the track.
5. Turn Away - perhaps my favorite tune. Unbelievable tone. Among the best tone I have ever heard. The type of tone that just leads to great articulation and pick attack. My favorite part is around 1:34 where the verse picks up again, this time with a more driving bass and drum groove.
6. I Remeber Stevie - a SRV tribute; I love the beginning. I can't get into it after it speeds up. I am into a more mellow style of blues. But SRV fans I am sure will love this one.
7. Cry For You - I hear this is his biggest tune when he plays live (his "For the Love of god"). I can see why. This song has some of the most expressive playing I have ever heard. Forget about what I said about #5 being my favorite tune. This is it. There is not any technical playing in this tune (well, except for a straightforward, linear scalar run). But the playing in the last 3 minutes is truly awe inspiring. Such command of every bend, every vibrato, every articulation. This song has inspired me to get better more so than anything lately. Made me realize that I spent most of my guitar life on technique, while I should have been becoming a well rounded player like Timmons. Anyway, you'll see what I mean when you hear this tune.
Well, that's it for now. I don't have the cd handy so I can't go in depth on the other tracks (I have the first 7 tracks on my hard drive... I transcribed pretty much every lick that I thought was cool... took a while!)
Later,
Brian |
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