Barry Levenson - The Visit (2015)

This is Barry Levenson's (Canned Heat) second Rip Cat Records release, featuring newly written and recorded songs. With special guest Billy Price. The Visit is Barry Levenson's tribute to the artists who set him on his musical path. Across a selection of the four cover songs (the first he has recorded), the guitarist puts his mark on material he learned from recordings by Albert King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Lightnin' Slim, and Otis Rush. Original compositions make up the balance of the album. Levenson's instrumentals build on a foundation of T-Bone Walker, Magic Sam, Grant Green, Ike Turner, Mickey Baker, Freddy King, Kenny Burrell, and others, with results frequently unique - no one else could have imagined "Last Train to Nowhere" or "The Visit" - and always astounding. His lyrics demonstrate a rare thoughtfulness, with an imaginative, literary bent that can turn funny, or dark, or both.

A long time resident of Los Angeles, Levenson went back to the beginnings of his journey on The Visit. "Steel City" echoes the jazz he heard in Pittsburgh's clubs, and guest vocalist Billy Price was a hometown hero and early inspiration. The Visit looks to the future, too. On Levenson's previous records, singers Johnny Dyer and Finis Tasby did the talking. Here the guitarist speaks for himself, and proves to be an effective, honest, and mercifully unmannered, communicator in his recorded debut as a singer.

As an instrumentalist, Levenson's unmistakable sound is simultaneously taut and tempestuous, tempering the freedom of expression and unpredictable, wild, mercury sound of Buddy Guy's Vanguard and Chess era recordings with Was Montgomery's harmonic sophistication. His personality and soul - touch, dynamics, phrasing, and vision - guide an exacting control over the physical aspects of electric guitar playing. How refreshing to encounter a guitarist who could (obviously) play any line possible, yet chooses to play only what is necessary. The Visit is a set of soul, jazz, and especially blues, conceived and performed at the highest level.