Guitar Nine Records - "The 7th Song" Review Featured In Guitar 2001 Magazine, Summer, 2001

Steve Vai

Review of "The 7th Song"

By: Terry Wickham

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his is a concept for an album I have never heard any other artist use. Since his first album in 1982, Steve Vai has predetermined that every time he does an album, he leaves the seventh song for a sweeping guitar ballad. Vai says, "Singing, swooning guitar has always touched my heart very deeply." In the first track, Vai breaks loose with the passionate "For The Love Of God". It's one of my favorite Vai songs and you must see him play it live. Vai is known for his ability to make the guitar produce all sorts of strange noises and sounds almost like a magician or special effects artist. But on this song, of his "Passion And Warfare" CD, he opens up his heart and the white energy just explodes from his guitar.

This is my first time hearing "Touching Tongues", off his 1993 "Sex And Religion" CD. It has a gentleness that is sweet , especially with the guitar harmonies. "Windows To The Soul", off "The Ultra Zone" , features the cool Asian sounding backdrop to let Vai take off like a supersonic jet into the sky. Inspired by a shrubbery fure conducted by the local fire department, "Burning Down The Mountain" is fiery acoustic guitar and a shaker providing percussion. 1995's "Alien Love Secrets" gave us "Tender Surrender", in which Vai attains a bluesy clean tone. Vai's playing is quite amazing as he releases his emotional floodgates through the fretboard. "Hand On Heart" is from 1996's "Fire Garden" and is pretty subdued. That doesn't mean it's not great, because Steve Vai gives us a more relaxed feel on it.

"Melissa's Garden" is the seventh song from "The Seventh Song". Vai dedicated the song to the Melissa Kravetz foundation. This song actually is the first song Vai has done completely in the digital domain. in "Call It Sleep" Vai puts his fingers and the whammy bar to work, tearing up a slew of notes that are exciting and fun.

Vai put together two Christmas albums called "Merry Axemas", Volumes 1 and 2. We get a Christmas treat with his version of Vince Geraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here". The Peanuts tune never sounded more electric. The album finishes off with two bonus tracks, an ambient guitar texture song called "The Wall Of Light" and "Boston Rain Melody". This last tune is one of the finest compositions Vai has ever written. It's got the real grooving clean-tone rhythm ala Eric Johnson, goes into a beautiful lead section and then comes back out to the clean tone again. One of the most complete songs Vai has recorded. It has a beginning , middle and end. The song was inspired when Vai was on the G3 tour - while doing a lengthy sound check in Boston, his band encountered a large thunderstorm. This storm frames the song and makes it a pure joy to listen to. This is a must have CD.