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Michael Lee Firkins
"Blacklight Sonatas"
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The great webzine Metal Temple writes about Michael Lee Firkins' 2007 "Blacklight Sonatas" CD, "It's an instrumental album with a lot of blues guitar and a cover of Ram Jam's "Black Betty", with Michael Lee Firkins testing his vocal abilities once more. This is the only dark moment in "Blacklight Sonatas" that mainly has some nice blues vibe, a lot of good guitar moments and nice mixing work in the studio. The stereo panning of the guitars is a little bit hard, with two guitars shredding at the same time at your left and right speaker with the rhythm section in the middle. The best moment is the album's title track; a sad guitar is bleeding with a bottleneck sliding to a classical music scale and a brokenhearted almost mournful melody with a glimpse of light inside. A nice compilation of blues, country riffs and solos and with a nice selection of musicians that wade in, like Thomas Pridgen, Chuck Leavell, Michael Bland and more, "Blacklight Sonatas" is the perfect listening exercise for guitarists that want to play the music that Michael Lee Firkins knows very well."
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05:41 |
One Big Punch (Crying Stacks)
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Instrumental
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06:02 |
Two Guns Left
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Instrumental
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04:08 |
Black Betty
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Vocal
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05:19 |
I-680 Waltz
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Instrumental
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03:05 |
The Horse And The Fly
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Instrumental
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04:21 |
Now's Your Time Blues
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Instrumental
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06:23 |
Theme From Sanford And Son
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Instrumental
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04:57 |
Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth
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Instrumental
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06:59 |
Blacklight Sonata
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Instrumental
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Michael Lee Firkins |
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Guitar, Vocals, Engineering, Production |
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Thomas Pridgen |
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Drums |
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Kai Eckhardt |
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Bass |
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Steve Evans |
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Bass |
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Michael Bland |
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Drums |
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John Purtle |
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Bass |
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Matt Abts |
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Drums |
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Andy Hess |
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Bass |
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Chuck Leavell |
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Keyboards |
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Danny Alvarez |
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Keyboards |
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Jason D`Ottavio |
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Engineering |
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Timin Murray |
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Engineering Assistance |
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Marty Strayer |
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Engineering |
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Dennis Gully |
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Engineering |
All guitars recorded at Sawblades Studios, San Rafael, California.
Basic tracks recorded at Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati, California.
Additional recording at Syklopps Studios, San Francisco and Straight-Up Sound.
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Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
