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Steve Tibbetts: The Fall of Us All
[ECM] (1996)
People who know me well know that I have little use for most guitarists. Especially, but not limited to, rock ‘n’ roll guitarists, the whole "guitar god" thing in rock and jazz, and brainless imitators thereof. Taking the obligatory screaming guitar solo somewhere in a song has become so much of a cliché that most listeners take it for granted—hell, it’s become such the expected thing to do, that it doesn’t even register on the consciousness of most listeners. I’d even go so far as to say that the majority of this kind of guitar-slinging is not only not musical, but is rather a form of ego-inflating musical masturbation. Some of my musician buddies feel similarly, and are proud to play music together in a couple of “Guitar-Free Zone” bands.
To get my attention, much less my respect and admiration, a guitarist has to be an original, someone with a unique voice on their instrument, someone who extends the envelope of their instrument’s capabilities and repertoire, and/or someone who has spirit and soul in abundance. A musician who happens to play guitar, in other words. Consequently, the list of guitarists I will pay money to see play, and whose albums I seek out, is a very short list. (The list of singer-songwriters and/or composers who happen to play guitar is a bit longer; but those are people who don’t tend to play “guitar solos” much anyways.) The list of guitarists whose work I do seek out includes: Bill Frisell, David Torn, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Sonny Sharrock (RIP), Nicky Skopelitis, Marc Ducret, Elliott Sharp, Ralph Towner, maybe a few others—and the remarkable Steve Tibbetts.
There’s no way to classify guitarist/composer Steve Tibbetts’ music. As one of the few real alternative guitarists out there (which is what that list above defines, in part), Tibbetts creates music unlike anyone else. This is stuff you’ve never heard before, both incredibly adventurous and real fun to listen to. Ably assisted by his long-time collaborator, Marc Anderson (percussion, congas, steel drums), Tibbetts has taken a quantum leap to a new level of cohesive brilliance with The Fall Of Us All. This CD also completes the series of “travelogue” albums that Tibbetts began with Safe Journay [ECM].
Kicked off with the raging “Dzogchen Punks,” the CD is driven throughout by intensely surging tidal waves of percussion and guitar phrases, many of which loop and swirl with evocative pitch-bends, or slap you with unexpected noise. More atmospheric than strictly melodic, each of the 11 tracks are holotropic textures that evoke strong feelings in the listener. I found “Full Moon Dogs,” featuring the wordless voices of Claudia Schmidt and Rhea Valentine, and “Burnt Offering” to be particularly haunting. Several other tracks, such as “Hellbound Train” and “All For Nothing,” evoke long desperate travels along deserted highways under the stars. The whole CD is a journey that leaves you wrung out when it’s over, that exhausted-but-good feeling you get after a long hike in the hills.
No question: Steve Tibbetts has one of the most unclassifiable, unique musical voices in contemporary music. Along with Torn and Skopelitis, he was recently featured in Guitar Player magazine as one of four real alternative guitarists (one of the rare times Guitar Player got it right). This most recent CD is the best thing he’s put out yet, and is one the very best albums I’ve heard in several years. Very highly recommended.
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An added note, December 2005: This is one of the few CDs I first took with me when I set out on my nomadic travels in mid-2004. It is one I keep returning to, when I take long drives, across the desert, along the ocean shore, and through the forests primeval. It propels you. It is in every good sense a "road album."
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