Ronnie Montrose Review of "Open Fire" @ iTunes By: M.J. Brady n 1978, Guitar Player, the highly regarded magazine, held its annual poll for various categories, and this album won BEST GUITAR ALBUM this particular year. The recording was a breakthrough of sorts for this era, as artists like Jeff Beck had opened the doors for other guitarists to explore the instrumental sides of jazz/rock music with his back to back classics "Blow by Blow" and "Wired". Ronnie Montrose was no secret prior to this album, he had made some noteriety as the guitarist for Edgar Winter's White Trash Roadwork, (yes, that was him playing on the memorable songs "Free Ride", "Frankenstein", etc.) He also had a couple of solo albums out as a band leader that featured singing. But this album showed Montrose's gift for voicings and melodies. He also involved a large amount of synthesizer backdrop, to give this CD a very futuristic sound for this era. The GP awards certainly weren't coming for the speed of the songs, nor any specific guitar antics never before heard, but for the fact that the songs were so well composed and performed, the album was soon to become a classic, and has a very fresh sound even by todays standards. © M.J. Brady / ProGGnosis Open Fire Mandolinia Town Without Pity Leo Rising