Customer Reviews

Inside My Mind's Eye

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What a trip inside Jim Haptonstahl's Mind's Eye! He brings the listener a sense of harmony mixed with edginess, with side-trips into the subconscious. Fine fingerstyle guitar work on the instrumentals, but also a deft touch with the muted attack on electric guitar, creating flute-like tones in counterpoint lines. Evokes everything from John Renbourn to Jimmie Spheeris to Steve Hackett. But Haptonstahl also stakes a claim to a new and original voice: poetic musings within a dense thicket of reality, with some magic and heart thrown in for good measure.

This CD album delivers on the promise of its title and the surreal skies of the cover art: introspective but airy, flowing through many complex moods and colors - and stretches of wonderful passion. Tinted with a dark sadness throughout, but always believing in, and hoping for, something wonderful at the root of nature.

First the bad news - the title song was a comparative thud measured against the emotionally driven palette of the rest of the offerings. Plodding in composition and delivery, as though JimHap was taking an emotional breather.

That said, after putting the disk in the player the first time, I played the tracks repeatedly throughout the evening and into the morning... and the next evening. JimHap puts his fingers to the frets in search of beauty, and finds it. His riffs are reminiscent of many influences, from Frank Zappa to Pat Metheny, David Crosby, Leo Kottke, Will Ackerman and, well, Joni Mitchell among others.

I'm familiar with JimHap's work from previous decades, and there's clearly an evolving maturity in his instrumental technique. The voice of the golden youth has acquired an understated quality well suited to the aging child.

This work being vocally a solo effort, I think JimHap would benefit from some help on the harmonies. His backup voice tracks seem to falter sometimes, as though he's worn out from all the emoting on the lead tracks. Get yourself some compatible but contrasting singing voices behind you on the next one, Jimmy! Anyway, I recommend you get this CD. And be prepared to spend some quality time with it!