Inheritance

Adrian Legg

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 2004)
• Original Release Date: September 21, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Favored Nations
• ASIN: B0002W4UZW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #188,162 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide, October 2004
...Legg is head and shoulders above his contemporaries with this excellent album.

Product Description
A colorful mix of gentle contemplative ballads, snappy and percussive jams, rock-edged electricity and hints of folk music, Irish jig and traditional church music influences, Inheritance marks a radical contrast from the unadorned, minimal production approach of the London born guitarist’s rootsy 2003 label debut Guitar Bones.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good show, April 11, 2005

By	Hideaki (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

Adrian Legg sounds exactly like Adrian Legg, and no one else. And no one else sounds anything like Adrian Legg. He is one of the most gifted acoustic guitarists around, with an instantly recognizable sound, excellent compositional skills, and a delightful sense of humor. This release stands as one of Adrian's best CDs. It's a skillful, lovely, idiosyncratic, resounding testament to one of the best solo acoustic guitarists on the scene today.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eclectic Fingerstyle, December 24, 2004

By	twangmon (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

Melding snappy chicken pickin', Travis-style alternating bass, swing-band voicings, real-time retuning, bagpipe-like drones, and pedal steel-inspired bends, Adrian Legg pushes the boundaries of solo guitar like no one else. His broad sonic palette includes acoustic colors from a miked parlor guitar ("My Blackbird Sings All Night"), ringing mag-pickup timbres ("Nail Talk"), and sizzling undersaddle pickup sounds bathed in ambient washes of digital processing ("English Blue"). Pledging no allegiance to any particular genre or musical period, he bounces from delicate, hymn-like melodies to funky Jerry Reed riffs to pensive modal improvisations. A skilled arranger, Legg occasionally augments his guitar with string and brass ensemble accompaniment; these organic sounds provide a welcome foil to his electronic explorations. While many of the originals on this instrumental record have a somber cast, Legg's subversive take on tone and technique give Inheritance a playful feel.

4.0 out of 5 stars Legg Doesn't Disappoint on His Sophomore Release for New Label, January 31, 2009

By	Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is Adrian Legg's second album for Steve Vai's Favored Nations label, a label which includes fellow guitarists Pierre Bensusan, Eric Johnson and Tommy Emmanuel, among others. The eleven originals on this album cover a variety of styles. The opening track is the funky "Nefertiti-What a Sweetie." "My Blackbird Sings All Night" is a reflective acoustic piece. "A Waltz for Leah" is another acoustic piece reminiscent of Peter Lang. On "More Fun in the Swamp," Legg shows off his rapid-fire picking on an electric guitar. "English Blue" wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Chet Atkins album.

On several tracks, Legg encorporates the use of effects to coax an organ-like sound from his guitar. This is used to wonderful effect on "Doublejigs" and "Emneth," where it provides a majestic quality to the playing. On "Decree" (the shortest track at only 1:45) there is nothing recognizable as a guitar.

Overall, Legg is simply one of the finest fingerstyle guitarists around. He was won numerous accolades, including Guitar Player magazine readers' poll for Best Fingerstyle Guitarist four years in a row. Although I didn't discover Legg until ten years ago when I purchased GUITARS AND OTHER CATHEDRALS, his recording career spans more than thirty years. (Unfortunately his albums for Relativity Records are no longer in print.) If you've never heard of Adrian Legg, this is an excellent introduction to this gifted guitarist. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED [Running Time - 44:33]