Ben Butler - Truth in Guitars

Australian guitarist Ben Butler has been living in New York since the early 90's, making his living playing the guitar with artists such as George Michael, Chris Botti, Suzanne Vega, Jonatha Brooke, Paula Cole, The East Villiage Opera Company, Dar Williams, and has worked in the studio or on stage with Bono and Edge of U2, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Burt Bacharach, Diana Krall, Dionne Warwick, Josh Groban, Stevie Nicks, and on and on goes the list. As a writer Ben has composed music for the films Heights, The Insurgents, and played on soundtracks to many other films. Truth In Guitars is Butler's first release as a solo artist, and contains many original compositions and some traditional Irish songs and the famous Bach Cello Suite. Although the music on this release is fairly wide-ranging, the sound of Butler's guitar and his musical sensibility and touch unify the music with a single voice. It is obvious that there is a background in solo steel-string acoustic guitar (Ben was a one-time student of Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel) and also a foundation in Jazz, blues and American roots-music. But Ben has apparently been listening to a lot of African guitar players, Ali Farke Toure for example, as well as celtic guitar and middle-eastern music. All of these shades form a total picture that is very musical, not too eclectic, and with a personal style. There are also a lot of different stringed instruments being played as supporting elements, for example Charango, National Steel, Lap Steel, Cigar Box Guitar, Nylon String Guitar, Archtop Guitar, and textural electric guitars. Some beautiful Violin solos from Jonathan Dinklage adorn some of the tracks, and the stellar drums, percussion and bass playing are provided by some of New York's finest players. The recording is beautifully made, the mix was provided by legendary engineer Kevin Killen of U2, Peter Gabriel and Bowie fame. This CD may have been a long time in coming but it certainly was worth the wait and will no doubt be followed by many more in the future, once the listening public respond so positively as they surely will to 'Truth In Guitars'.