[dorio]

Submission courtesy of AcousticSmash


Album: Live and Beyond
Artist: Eric Johnson and Alien Love Child

Release date: October 24th 2000
Record label: Favoured Nations
Number of tracks: 10
Genre: Rock, blues, jazz, fusion.

Guitar and vocals: Eric Johnson
Bass: Chris Maresh
Drums: Bill Maddox (despite iTunes saying Bill Marsh)

Track listing:

1. Zenland
2. Last House on the Block
3. Rain
4. Enzo Shuffle
5. Once A Part of Me
6. Don't Cha Know
7. The Boogie King
8. Elevator Sky Movie
9. Shape I'm In
10. World of Trouble

Live and Beyond is a live recording from a 3 night stint in Austin, Texas in the late 1990's featuring guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson playing his trusty Fender Stratocaster as well as a Gibson Les Paul alongside two loyal players, drummer Bill Maddox and bassist Chris Maresh who have toured with him on many occasions during the 1990's as his alternate bandmates, the other two being Roscoe Beck (bass) and Tommy Taylor (drums) who appear more on his studio albums and tour with him to promote them. This is the first live CD that Eric Johnson has put out with his own band being the sole performer, he did appear on the G3 Live CD in 1996 as one of the 3 guitarists alongside Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. One thing that makes Live and Beyond different from other live albums is that it sounds more like a studio record, just proof of the perfectionism that lies within Johnson's live performance skills, there is no such thing as error when performing for him and everything just fits properly.

The first track Zenland is in typical Eric Johnson fashion, slow beginning with lots of delay/echo and a volume swelling effect that gives him his signature clean tone and leads into his usual lead overdrive tone for an instrumental. The second track, Last House on the Block displays how he can start in a typical rock fashion using his static like Fuzz Face tones to create a sound that blends well with his vocals and the bass line, be wary that there is a great jam session in the middle of the track though.

Rain is a chordal jazzy sounding instrumental piece with a soothing blend of clean and segments of slight overdrive making it a very moving piece. As it's name suggests, Enzo Shuffle is exactly that, a shuffle with a fun simple bass and drum groove underlying the fuzzy tones of Eric Johnson's guitar playing, it will have you tapping your toes to the beat. Once a Part of Me is a slow blues ballad in a similar vein to something by Stevie Ray Vaughan, it also features Malford Milligan on vocals as well as on Don't Cha Know which is a funk style tune. The whole album spans the musical gamut and shows just how versatile Eric Johnson is as a guitarist and that a trio can do just as much as a group of 4 or more musicians.

[AcousticSmash]

Thanks for posting my review dorio, I am gonna work on some more.

[dorio]

That's ok, send them when you're ready smashy. Judging by the views of your reviews, you have many readers.

[AcousticSmash]

I am here to please

Gotta get some more new albums to review though, I am starting to run out.