Dec. 12, 2019: Album Review: "Vin Downes - good light to go by"



“Good Light To Go By”
2020

I’m feeling like “king of the world” as one of four individuals on the planet lucky enough to have been sent a “pre-release” version of Vin Downes’ album “Good Light To Go By”, and from the first few notes I virtually melt into my seat and the words that come to mind are “absolute beauty, serenity and peace through sound!” Looking at the notes on the page, the tablature is not unusually difficult, but oh the sweet sound produced from those notes on a page!

Vin is not “good”, Vin is exquisitely “great”! The lead piece, “Falling Into Place”, is played in “Open D5” and has a quality that ranks it with some of the best guitar ever played!  The melody is a “soft happy blissful” and leaves no doubt that this album is one of the best of the last few decades. The recording at legendary “Imaginary Road Studios” provides an unsurpassed quality in the sound that almost stuns with its depth and clarity capturing every nuance to the last reverberation of Vin’s custom Furch guitar.  With this recording, the unsung hero of the sound engineer and producer stand out almost as bold as the artist himself. Master sound engineer and producer Tom Eaton creates a masterpiece with this album and much like the boutique master luthiers who create today’s finest guitars, Tom Eaton’s contribution pierces through reminding us all that even the best home studios cannot rival the audiophile quality and finesse of a true master sound engineer and producer.

You could call Vin somewhat of a “throwback” to an audiophile age when musicians labored for weeks, months and even years over an album trying to create something for the ages. “Good Light To Go By” achieves this lofty goal without question! If you came of age when Will Ackerman and Windham Hill recordings hit the airwaves, if you long for the “good old days” when the release of a new record was an event worth setting aside an evening or an entire weekend and listening over and over again on an audiophile sound system, if a musical piece is just not right if it’s less than 3-4 minutes long, if you really listen to and absorb music with a passion, “Good Light To Go By” will thrill you and leave you in tears of sheer joy that Vin has brought those days back at least for over 51 minutes and 12 beautifully crafted pieces! Yes, listen to and absorb this album the moment it hits Spotify and other streaming services, but to get the full effect, buy the album and listen on an audiophile sound system or your best headphones! With a January 2020 release date, Christmas will be extended into the new year waiting for my copy of the album!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

December 21, 2020: "This Week in Fingerstyle!"

November 9, 2020: "This Week in Fingerstyle!"