Wade Souza

Sato is a very good fingerstyle acoustic guitarist who is not well known but should be. He has a very solid touch, arranges well and shows empathy for a broad range of music from traditional Japanese Shamisen through English Folk, American Standards and his own compositions. There are lots of very good players out there and he still manages to stand out due to his touch, arrangements and execution. I always get positive comments when I play this as background music when people are over for dinner and have copied it (sorry..hard to find new nowadays) a few times as a result.

Been a Brandi Carlile fan for years. She seems to get better with age with both her voice and her songs becoming stronger. This album really surprised me because it seems to more consistently good than others in the past which would feature a couple of strong songs and others which seemed like filler. Before this I liked her live Benaroya Hall album best, but this one has been featured consistently in my CDP. The Joke is my favorite tune for melody and lyrics but the title cut is one of those things that gets in your head and stays. Overall, strong effort which adds to past winners like The Story.

Long time fan of Jennifer Warnes going back to the 80s, maybe even before that. This new album is in line with the quality of earlier works like The Well, The Hunter and Famous Blue Raincoat. Jennifer is an interpreter of songs par excellence and has always been known to draw from a wide range of sources. This album continues and reinforces that approach. It is well recorded and spans the stylistic gamut from old blues (Tomorrow Night), here jazzed up a little with a string bass accompaniment through folk, pop, and singer songwriter style fare. Past fans will enjoy this latest effort as it doesnt disappoint and is just more of the same. Her voice still sounds quite good, perhaps a little more lived in than older efforts but still sweet, warm and capable of evoking emotion. My only quibble is that it seems to be short versus other efforts but it is a much appreciated addition to her output and my cd player and collection. Recommended highly.

This is Bill Frisell at his finest in my mind. It is pretty much a trio album so Frisell has to step out front and play and mostly carry the melody and whatever improvisations himself. He is lyrical, musical, occasionally surprising but generally true to the melodies while still bringing something to bear in terms of harmony, organization and interpretation. It is mostly a "pretty" ballad album in tone, perhaps in support of the title Valentine? I found it especially interesting after recently loving his album with Maret and Collins called Americana. This is in the same general style and vein to me. I dont really know how to describe Frisell's music. I dont think of it as straight jazz more as some kind of jazz/folk/country/pop amalgam. I have lots of his music but it often operates as background or accompaniment in my life while reading, working on the PC, falling asleep, traveling. I dont tend to listen to it the same way as I do "pure jazz" or most jazz guitar, maybe because he tends to improvise less to me? He is almost like listening to a painter if that makes any kind of sense. Standouts to me were What The World Needs Now, Valentine, A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing and We Shall Overcome.