I've Never Thought Shred Was This Interesting

When I think of shred guitar I think tight spandex pants and ridiculous hair. The guitar itself seems to take a back seat to the look, the flashing lights, and (oddly enough) the fans. If I can be crass and generalizing for just a second, I associate (and could be completely wrong here) 80’s with dirty guitar players and groupies. Both of which seems kind of wrong to me.

Anyway, folks like John 5 are out to change that image. He looks nothing like the guitar players of the 80s but is still pretty theatrical and his playing is varied enough that yesterday I listened to his entire album The Devil Knows My Name. It’s great stuff. If you’re interested at all in it, check out the song 27 Needles and listen to it the whole way through. There’s a great jazzy / ye olde country riff in there that will throw you off for a second but it’s so awesome you can’t help but love it. It’s got energy and can hold your attention and that’s why I recommend checking it out. Nowadays there aren’t enough guitarists out there that are just guitarists and musicians especially with his level of professionalism. He's very professional even if he doesn't look it. He understands that as a hired gun for different bands, the point is to make the singer look good, not to pimp his own stuff out to the world. As far as I know he doesn't drink or do drugs and before he became a touring musician he wanted to work in a studio instead so he could stay close to his family.

This is all very impressive to me.

If you like guitar music in any way, at least check out 27 Needles and see if you like it.