Guitar On Fire

Product Description:

Personnel: Roy Buchanan (vocals, guitar); John Harrison (vocals, bass); Byrd Foster (vocals, drums); Gary St. Clair (vocals); Steve Cropper, Ray Gomez (guitar); Stanley Clarke (strings, flute, bass); Narada Michael Walden (piano, drums); Jan Hammer (piano); Malcolm Lukens (electric piano, organ); Dennis Parker, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Will Lee, Willie Weeks (bass); Dave Garibaldi, Andy Newmark, Gonzalo Sifre (drums); Luther Vandross, Krystal Davis, Alfa Anderson, David Lasley (background vocals).

Producers: Raymond Silva, Arif Mardin, Stanley Clarke.

Compilation producer: Jean-Charles Costa.

Recorded between 1976 & 1978. Includes liner notes by Jean-Charles Costa.

Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch.

This 16-track collection pulls together Roy Buchanan's best recordings from his short tenure with Atlantic Records in the mid '70s. The sessions are distinguished by the presence of luminaries such as Stanley Clarke, Steve Cropper, Jan Hammer, and Luther Vandross, and also, of course, by the incendiary, white-hot howl of Buchanan's six-string skills. Deft acoustic work ("Okay"), stratospheric overtone freak-outs ("Man On The Floor"), melodic balladry ("Judy"), covers (Hendrix's "If Six Was Nine"), and instrumental oddities (dueling instruments with Stanley Clarke on "Adventures of Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby") are among a few of the many tricks in Buch's bag.

While there are a few missteps here, such as the fusion-charged Stanley Clarke composition "The Heat of the Battle," Roy is still in fine form throughout. Mostly, the record features good ol' gutbucket pentatonic wailing (as on "Ramon's Blues" and "Green Onions"), with the man's signature tone, formidable dynamics shifts, and seemingly effortless command of the blues/rock vocabulary everywhere in evidence. For sheer guitar virtuosity, it's hard to go wrong with Roy Buchanan, and GUITAR ON FIRE has plenty of what he does best.