Get Inside

Carter Allan writes about Johnny A.'s new CD for 2004, Get Inside, "Johnny A. once again lets the guitar lead the way on a dozen instrumentals that span a gulf of style from cool a go-go to finger-lickin' guitar pickin' to laying pure rock n' roll rubber. This is music for an open mind aching for the open road. "I Had to Laugh" has a breezy swing to it tempered by urban jazz - like a bunch of Manhattan beatniks lost in a Cadillac on a rural lane. A horn section perks up the chorus, stepping hard on the accelerator to lift this baby right off the highway. "Krea Gata" rises mysteriously like Mingus wandering his dark streets. Guitar tones pick out hushed territories until the piece builds into something stormy and defiant with its raging solo. The title track works off a stately mid-tempo groove surrounding a throaty story-telling guitar. Hammond organ swells about the Gibson's discourse and horns exert their Memphis groove at the end, but before you get there Johnny's guitar has finished disclosing a drama. The mystery has a cliffhanger ending; though, you have to get inside the music to solve it. There's no sophomore worries on the new album, which recalls the explorations found on Sometime Tuesday Morning, then sets off on its own intimate course."