Customer Reviews

Fingertip Ship

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Richard Leo Johnson has outdone Hedges in edgey, percussive, harmonic-ringing playing, but not in musical interest. Johnson still has to be heard to be believed, though. And just when you think he's worn out every textural possibility a guitar is capable of, he goes and plays an entire song above the nut! -and it's actually captivating! Ok, so why do I withhold my fifth star? It's because there is very little breathing room to Johnson's composition style, and even less lyricisim. It is just relentlessly rhythmic and fast. However, I find myself strangely addicted and keep going back to it, like some kind of wierd cheese facination. Anyway, Don Ross' recent debut on Narada: "Passion Session" is another outgrowth of the Hedges phenominon, but a more sucessfull one. Ross is MUCH more musical, without selling out to the modern "pretty boys" of the fasionable fingerpick set. Buy both of these CD's for some real humility if you play.

this guy is beyond anything i have ever heard on acoustic guitar, including the great Michael Hedges. if you like Hedges or any sort of guitar virtuosity get your hands on this album. he is so good it makes your head hurt. (in a good way)

If your a solo guitar lightweight, i wouldn't reccomend this CD. Its heavy on techniques, chops and abstract usage of tapping & captuirng weird new sounds out of the guitar.

To that end, It IS however, extremely interesting and this player is clearly a technical wizard.

If you want pretty new age melodies, stick with Will Ackerman, if you want something more progressive, check this one out.

Guitarists will like it a lot...

My husband and I were first introduced to Richard Leo Johnson on a radio station while in the car. It was a surreal experience. Thankfully we had our cell phone and were able to call the station to ask who the artist was and what album the song was on. Through this album titled Fingertip Ship Johnson has won me over! When made aware that this was a solo album, I was incredulous. How can any one person with 10 fingers master an acoustic instrument in this manner? Tracks such as "Prometheus Meets the Digital Age" and "Get Funked" (track six, spelling accurate, don't worry) propels the listener to believe that surely there is more than one track being heard. "Mother's Day" displays yet another aspect of Johnson's ability by creating a tender, thoughtful piece of musical scenery.

Flawlessly produced, creatively inspired, Johnson truly has a gift. Would love to see his photography! If done with the skill and passion of his musical ablilities it must be amazing!....

I just got back from the Saratoga Jazz Festival, where I heard the strangest jazz guitar quartet playing in the gazebo as I walked by. Intrigued, I went around the front to see who these virtuosos (virtuosi? virtuosusses?) were. But it wasn't a quartet. It was one man. Richard Leo Johnson. As I watched I realized he wasn't playing everything I was hearing. I couldn't quite figure it out until I saw him hit some pedals and put down his guitar, and the melody continued! Using digital sampling, Richard was able to layer four guitars atop on another. Each new layer was greeted with some laughs as he stopped playing and the music kept going, as if the audience suddenly thought they had been "fooled" somehow. But I never laughed. I just moved closer and closer to the stage, mesmerized by this guitar genius.

This is my latest favorite CD. The variety, the innovation, the intensity and the sounds are incredible. This is not an easy listening CD. It demands to be paid attention to. But the attention is worth it. I spent an afternoon listening to hundreds of CDs in a music store, and this was the one I chose to purchase.

Listen to this guy and you'll be simply amazed! If you're a player you'll either play your guitar with new enthusiasm or just give up all together. He's that inspiring, and that humbling.

Richard Leo Johnson is a hero, a dragon-slayer on the frontier of acoustic music. Taylor Guitar's newsletter Wood and Steel says that "Johnson is to new age as the Boston Strangler was to neck massage." I find it hard to argue with that. This recording awakens passions deep within the listener, more earthy than etherial, more sexual than sensual, altogether wild and glorious. Anyone who has ever seen this man play knows he is a marvel of strength and control, and yet his creativity is utterly untamed and highly charged. From the raw power of the testosterone-injected "Synthetic Blues" to the gentle "simplicated" beauty of "Mother's Day," this recording is a study in "quantum melodics." He tells us stories, somehow painted with sounds, like lucid dreams the listener waunders into. There is also great tenderness and a gentle wisdom in these power-chord melodies. Johnson possesses the same off-beat musical sense of humor that made Thelonious Monk a legend; quirky but never coy; graceful slapstick, larger-than-life charm. Why are there only 5 stars? Johnson's "Fingertip Ship" is an entire galaxy.

Give Richard Leo Johnson his due: he takes the slides and quirky rhythms of Leo Kottke, the percussive taps and boinks of Preston Reed, the harmonic attacks of Michael Hedges, and adds a touch of Bill Frissell and produces an amazing amalgam of acoustic guitar artristy. I honestly can't listen to this album all the way through; it is tiring to my ear. The technical gee-whiz-look-at-me-now onslaught on every song hides the music. Richard Leo Johnson is a fanatastic guitar player, but he's trying to hard.

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoy a wide variety of music. Seeing it listed for less than $2.00 and reading several great reviews, I bought it with an open mind. I had difficulty listening to it once. I honestly can't figure out how anyone could listen to this more than one time. It is completely void of any musicality -- it's simply mindless doodling. Anyone comparing him to Pat Metheny or Michael Hedges should be committed to an insane asylum. Even as a professional musician and a huge guitar fan, I realize it is difficult to make a solo guitar album that is captivating to a large audience and warrants repeated listening. Pierre Bensusan's "Intuite" or Pat Metheny's "One Quiet Night" or Alex De Grassi's "Now and Then" or Don Ross's "Passion Session" or....I could go on and on, but these are solo guitar albums you can listen to again and again. Sorry, Richard Leo Johnson, I'm sure you're a nice guy, but you should stick to photography.