ot unlike the Jackalope and punctuality, Dan Lambert is legendary in these parts. While lesser axmen toot their horns, Dan has been quietly honing his fretboard prestidigitation in unpredictable directions while finding time to turn out a rock star or two through his unsurpassed teaching skills. If I were to call him a fixture on the El Paso scene, he may be asked for in the lighting section at Home Depot. Let's just say he's damn fine, and he's been doing it for a while around here.
"The Blue Hand" is the 4th solo acoustic guitar release from Dan, and it clocks in at a whopping 71:57 over 17 tracks. This involves such a large commitment of time that I began to think about all the women I wasn't meeting, all the cars I wasn't crashing, and all the cocktails in the world drying up before my very eyes. Even Mahler has me questioning my sanity with this kind of a distance.
With this much material, and the nature of it being primarily performance-based, the most complimentary thing to do is to put it on and go about your daily business.You know, clean the .45, delouse the pup, explain your whereabouts for the last week to your lover, visit the bail bonds man, get the T-Bird off the blocks finally...
"The Blue Hand" proved a most excellent soundtrack to all of the above, and more. Dan's playing is exploratory without indulgence, and challenging without insistence. He manages to exploit the acoustic guitar without sinking into a new age torpor, or vanishing into processed digichip nonsense. It's all done with two hands, creativity, and a tad o'sass. While it's a long haul to just sit and listen to, this is a perfect soundtrack to some movie set out in the west. Now you just have to go and make it.