THE FIRST DECADE

"The First Decade" is the CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO's album of collected works. For those of you that may have missed some highlights along the way this is a great CD to pick up. Is this a good representation of the first ten years of their career? This is not for me to say, as I have not been following their recorded output for that long. My introduction to their music came over the last few years. I have always enjoyed what they had to offer. I passed this CD on to several different people. No one had ever heard of the band before and they all loved this music. Now that alone was impressive. Think of The VENTURES gone progressive and that is what this band sounds like quite often, with more of an acoustic principle.

I like this music because it is guitar based instrumental music with many different qualities featuring layers and dispositions contributed by each individual in the group. Their cultures and influences are broad and that is what makes their musical repertoire so diverse. Hideyo Moriya, Bert Lams and Paul Richards make up the trio. Many guests show up on their albums, which makes it even more interesting and entertaining. Tony Levin, the incredible bass player, is a regular in the studio and shows up on stage with them at times, including many other talented artists that accentuate the CGT sound on a regular basis.

Nineteen tracks is a lot of music and what makes it so enjoyable is that every song has something different to offer without compromising the band's direction or sound. They are always true to themselves and their craft. Even with their original compositions, they tend sneak in a lick here and there from heavy weights like LED ZEPPELIN, which everyone does it so it is nothing new. See if you can find similarities to other bands yourself as you listen, I would be willing to bet you will catch a passage that you will recognize if you listen closely enough. This is what makes there music so intriguing and fun, it always keeps you guessing and wondering what could be coming next.

Not surprising, given the title of the CD, this is a compilation album culled from the first five studio albums of CGT. Also not surprising is that there are three of them, all playing acoustic guitar: the fact that only one of them is even American (and he doesn't come from California) doesn't seem to matter too much. Bert Lams, Hiedyo Moriya and Paul Richards met in 1987 when attending one of Robert Fripp's guitar seminars, and toured as part of his League Of Crafty Guitarists before forming their own band in 1990. Although they are sometimes joined by other musicians (most notably Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto), it is as a pure trio that their music is best heard.

Having seen them recently I was astonished, as were the rest of the audience, at just how well these guys can play. This album goes some way to showing that as it is incredible what three guitars can sound like in the hands of masters. The music varies between folky through to classical and music that is extremely technical. It is an album best dipped in and out of as it isn't hard for attention to wonder, just because there is only so much music of this type that one can take in at once. It does take a lot of concentration to get the most of, and it doesn't work as background music either so the listener has to be prepared to spend some time on this, but there is no doubt that these guys can play.

Originally appeared in Feedback #78, Feb 04