Sometime Tuesday Morning

Johnny A. is a Boston guitarist who has spent time playing with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock (Derek & the Dominos), percussionist Mingo Lewis (Santana), and ex-J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf. Sometime Tuesday Morning is A.'s extremely tasteful and classy debut solo CD. It is an all-instrumental project with A's guitar serving as the voice. Melodic and warm, it contains a handful of covers and eight originals. Imagine Willie Cobbs' blues classic "You Don't Love Me" with a funky, revamped lead lick, a little wah-wah, and chords and octaves that recall Wes Montgomery. Or a beautiful, melancholy version of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman," laced with enough melodic nuances and afterthoughts to give you some serious goose bumps. A. even had the cultivated musical vision to seek out a Beatles song you are unlikely to hear another cover of: the beautiful B-side "Yes It Is." It's the originals that really hit you between the ears, though. "Oh Yeah" is a funky, finger-snapping pop/rock tune that was embraced by a number of East Coast radio stations shortly after the album's release. On "Up in the Attic," A. lays down some rapid country picking much like that of Jimmy Bryant or Joe Maphis. A. plays a bajo sexto (or "baritone" guitar) to add color to four of the tracks. He plays a lap steel on parts of the bouncy "Tex Critter"; on other sections of the song he seems to pay tribute to Chet Atkins. A Jeff Beck influence can be heard on the disc too. Despite all the influences, A. has a tone and style that is distinctly his. This is a "must have," especially for those into instrumental guitar music.