Level The Playing Field

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Subtitled "Early Hurly Burly 1988-1994", this collection on French label Last Call aggregates a gloriously rag-bag bunch of Gary Lucas tunes, illustrating both the dizzyingly diverse styles summoned up by this legendary guitarist, and his singular, distinctive voice writ large across these songs. The "Early" in the subtitle perhaps relates to the period, post-Beefheart, when Lucas began to develop the notion that he could be a solo performer, testing his searing guitar style out across a diverse bunch of group and solo formats (and some occasionally lo-fi recording environments). As such, it's a great collection of smart, open-minded and big-hearted rock tunes, featuring an utterly extraordinary musician.

The piece here are largely songs, rather than the ambient soundscapes or Wagnerian 'soliliquays' he's also capable of, and they generally feature his band Gods and Monsters, often working with a set of singers including Sonya Cohen, Rolo McGinty, Dina Emerson, Jon Langford, and the brilliant Mary Margaret O'Hara. The most celebrated singer in Gods and Monsters was the late Jeff Buckley, for whom Lucas clearly had the greatest respect, and for whom he wrote two songs which eventually became 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin', launching Buckley's sadly brief but radiant career. These are included here as Lucas solo pieces, and work brilliantly in their own right but also produce a spooky internal echo of Buckley's extraordinary vocal lines. Other standout moments include a scintillating 'power trio' with Jared Nicholson and Michael Blair treating the Knitting Factory crowd to a blazing cover of Miles Davis' "Jack Johnson" segueing into Suicide's "Ghostrider"; or the rock-hip-hop collision featuring K-Rob, "The Crazy Ray"; his virtuoso solo acoustic piece "Dream Of A Russian Princess"; or the incredibly raw, drum machine-driven "The Brain from Planet Eros" recorded in Lucas' NYC living room in 1991.

He's a truly broad-minded musician, with a personal taste for music related to blues in some way, or rather, featuring 'bent notes' at some point in the proceedings, "the voice of god is in the bent notes" as he says! Of course, this can lead to a rich pickings (pun intended), such as music from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, 30s Chinese pop songs, Celtic folk music, the Stones and Beefheart, as much as it can Robert Johnson. The fact he's a supreme player helps, I guess. I was privileged to witness his extraordinary one-man show at the Mixing It live shows in London recently, when his warmth, intelligence, humour, and vast musical knowledge and ability shone through with a certain hazy exuberance. What was also a pleasure to witness was his utterly genuine, humble sincerity and delight at the deserved adulation he received from the crowd. A true musician.