PAUL GILBERT

’ TWAS The Players Club 9/10

While Paul Gilbert is multi-faceted - he shreds, he slides, he plays chords and occasionally sings - a 13-track christmas album wasn’t obviously on the cards. Thing is, it all works really well thanks to his appreciation of how best to arrange instrumental music for mainstream audiences. So, with family orientated songs such as Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Winter Wonderland he’s sprinkled a lot of stylistic, rhythmic and harmonic colour to make them fresh. We Wish You A Merry Christmas is rocking with a big riff, various effected tones and chords that lean more towards Steely Dan than The Ramones. As for the jaunty melodic intro of Winter Wonderland,Paul has the uncanny ability to be both string skipper extraordinaire and a smooth entertainer at the same time. Let’s also not forget the Makita drill melodies, crazy shred tapping and his own Christmas songs (Three Strings For Christmas is for those in the know) too! (JS)