Sonny Landreth: Elemental Journey

Sonny Landreth has always been known as a monster slide guitar player, and some of his best songs have been instrumentals, but his albums were always packed with songs that told stories. This time he’s letting his axe tell the tales. For his eleventh album, all eleven songs are instrumentals. He’s joined by other shredders on the strings such as Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani, as well as bass player Dave Ransom and keyboardist Steve Conn, but make no mistake about it: Sonny and his slide powerfully steal the show. There is something New Age in the noise of Elemental Journey that drains the thunder of his instruments into something strange and peculiar. And there are strains of classical themes that sometimes make an appearance. I guess you could call this fusion, but really — this is a slide guitar album for those who want to bask in the sound of the instrument in all of its glory, played by one of the best.