Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 11/22/2005
Guitar Spectacular was legendary pedal steel player
Speedy West's last official "solo" album. Augmented by an extraordinary group of session players including guitarists
Roy Lanham and
Billy Strange, bassist
Red Wootten, drummer
Earl Palmer, and pianist/accordion player
Billy Liebert, it suffered due to a manufacturers glitch that saw side one repeated on both sides of the album. Despite a re-pressing, the damage had already been done, as record stores demanded their money back. The music contained within the "fully realized" version of
Spectacular was more than worthy of its moniker, as
West sounds more comfortable here than on any session in his career. Whether they're tearing it up on
Western swing barnburners like
"Double or Nothing" and
"Wild and Woolly West" or taking it slow as molasses on lazy diversions like
"Sunset at Waikiki," this crystal-clear recording deserves the cocked ears of a much larger audience than the one it received in 1962.
~James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
