Customer Reviews

My Turn

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the album Kirk has been wanting to make for quite some time. This album is a nice listen. I'm not sure what the other reviewer is talking about, but have you listened to track #8 "Blues For Antone"? If that's not blues, I don't know what is. That is a GREAT tune! Not all of the songs are as bluesy as that one, but this album is well put together. If you bothered reading the liner notes, you'd know why these types of songs are on the album. Kirk is a very good guitarist and this album is very good. He deserves to make an album of his choosing, not something for someone else. Definitely worth getting.
Over and out,
Scott "Dabluzman" Riley

Has a lot of nice guitar licks, I can use for my guitar playing, recomend it for blues players, has nice guitar tone

Kirk Fletcher - My Turn - 2010 Eclecto Groove Records CD

For me the release of the year! I've met this guy and have watched him play blues guitar with several artists over the years. This is only his third solo album since 1999. Each album has been very different. On his first he played like if part of the Hollywood Fats Band, attempting to fill Michael Mann's shoes. On his second album he did a Chicago Blues thing. Now he has evolved in to a blues-rock or rock-blues guitarist. On the urging of blues veteran Charlie Musselwhite to just play what he feels and don't worry about labels, he is showing some heavy influences from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. On this album also I hear traces of Gary Moore, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, Albert King, Carlos Santana, and Al Di Meola. Also some good company to keep! There are at least three killer tracks on this album. Song by song:

"El Medio Stomp," Texas electric blues, reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Medium fast tempo.

"Found Love," slow honk-tonk tune with guitar in place of piano. Several guitar tracks infact, some sounding banjo and mandolin like. Clever.

"Natural Anthem," Kinda a combined Chicago and Texas blues sound. Has a slide guitar solo and horns. Hard to explain.

"Ain't No Way," Medium tempo Chicago Blues. Nice.

"My Turn," Funk-blues, that is different and fun sounding at beginning, later with a jazzy solo. Solo is Hendrix influenced slightly.

"Congo Square," One of three killer tunes on this album. Funk, Soul, Rock, Jazz, the works. Lead guitar reminds me of Al Di Meola or Carlos Santana, but with a Southern twist. Even has short drum solo. Distortion and feedback at finale. This song is good!

"Way Back Home," Mostly a saxophone blues piece during first half. Then a similar tune is played on guitar. Piece gradually gets louder and busier, adding organ. Things calm down again towards the end.

"Blues For Antone," a blues radio hit for sure. Here Kirk sounds like he has turned into Stevie Ray Vaughan. False start with acoustic picking and scale runs. Medium pace but with rapid fire guitar strumming and lead lines. Again a Texas blues style tune. With wah-wah and "NBC" TV tones at the finale.

"Let Me Have It All," Another funky tune. Like a quirky bluesy Sly and The Family Stone tune.

"Continents End," Could be in rock radio rotation. Here Kirk pulls out all the stops. Starts slow with a few swampy notes. With a military like drum beat, and then a second lead guitar track. Now a woman begins a spoken word monologue about earthly geology and ecology. Sort of trippy and psychedelic. Through the tune runs guitar solos that have heavy elements of Jimi Hendrix plus Albert King or Eric Clapton. Overall a bit like a few Jimi Hendrix tunes but instead of outer space topics here we get the changing Earth.

The other players on this album are all great too. Kirk must have spent time on the arrangements as well. Every electric guitar fan should give this album a listen. Ignore any negative reviews. They either don't know what they are talking about or are fixated into only a very narrow niche of the Blues, i.e., pure Chicago Blues, like his last album. The blues can be many specific styles just like rock or jazz, and they of course can all be blended. Purity is fine, but it can get boring. Request your local radio station to play songs from this CD.

This album sucks! Although Kirk Fletcher is a great blues guitarist, he is NOT playing blues here AT ALL. Instead, he's playing jazz & funk. Did I mention that this album sucks? His singing is good though. Kirk, do us all a favor and play blues like you did on I'm Here and I'm Gone and Shades of Blue. You're a GREAT guitarist but that doesn't help if you're not playing blues. This album sucks!