California Guitar Trio Review of "Rocks The West" @ iTunes By: Eric Feder his is a live CD taken from the fall '99 tour, and features special guests Tony Levin and Bill Jannsen. The California Guitar Trio consists of Hideyo Moriya, Paul Richards and Bert Lams who all play acoustic guitar; the three met in a GuitarCraft course given by Robert Fripp. The opening cut, "Scramble" features interwoven guitar parts that form a unique whole and shows that they are clearly listening to each other and interacting on a deep level. Next, they launch into a wonderful rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, beautifully orchestrated by Bert Lams. To fully showcase the Trio's diversity, they then perform "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, complete with acoustic guitar doing the vocal part; again, the orchestration is masterful. The diversity I mentioned is really the hallmark of "Rocks The West". The Trio touches so many styles from classical (there's excerpts from Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition as well as the Beethoven) to complex to folksy to pretty to just plain fun. They play a Tony Levin song (the title cut from his new album "Waters Of Eden") which is a gem; the bass compliements the acoustic guitars beautifully. Saxophonist Bill Jannsen wows the crowd with screeches and sonic textures on "Blue-Eyed Monkey". Overall, this is a musically varied CD which any acoustic guitar fan would enjoy. © Eric Feder / Guitar 2001 Magazine Scramble Symphony No. 9 Bohemian Rhapsody Caravan Punta Patri