eugene chadbourne: solo guitar volume 1-1/3

"Eugene Chadbourne is one of the great guitar players of the modern era. At the time he began recording in Canada in 1975, his music was a unique syncretic formulation. While its most obvious component was free improvisation in a style then most widely associated with English and European players, his music also contained elements of jazz, country, folk, blues, psychedelic and international sounds, referencing these threads in ways that were so diverse and intensely personalized it would take scholars decades to decode them. Volume 1-1/3 is the first of four LPs devoted to documenting some of the music Dr. Chadbourne was creating during the years he was based in the provinces of Canada, while avoiding the constrictive powers of Richard Nixon and his ilk. Exact details of the recordings are moot, but that's trivial. The music on this record is a joyous celebration of traditions of liberation, using approaches that range from the ridiculous to the sublime. But regardless of the humor level (which can be very high at times), the quality of the musicianship and the originality of Chadbourne's compositional theories is staggering. Today there are charts and maps that can lead anyone into and out of the conceptual jungles Eugene was exploring. In the mid '70s, when these tracks were laid down, this was all terra incognita. While still in his early '20s, the Doc was figuring all this shit out for himself. And doing so at a level that can still make your jaw drop. Today Chadbourne continues making some of the most exciting music on the planet, but these examples of his early work should serve as a challenge to many musicians who would like to imagine they're doing something new. That they're also a total gas to hear is just gravy. Delicious, hot and very juicy." --Byron Coley