East by Midwest

Holy cow, this is a great album. On this trio session, guitarist Charlie Ballantine plays (and writes) in a style that reflects his Midwestern roots: there are hints of steel guitar in both his tunes and his solos, and his shimmering, chorused tone evokes wide-open cornfields even when he's playing tunes by British city boys from Liverpool (yes, there are two Beatles covers here). If my description is making you wonder whether Ballantine basically sounds like Bill Frisell, my answer would be "Sort of, and I bet he's already getting tired of the comparison." But it's a deep compliment: like Frisell — and to some degree like Pat Metheny — Ballantine mines a deep vein of Americana but fashions from that ore a sound that is both adventurous and heartrendingly gorgeous. (Also like Frisell, he makes excellent use of reversed loops.) I listen to a lot(!) of music at work, and this album is the first one that led not one, but two of my coworkers to stick their heads into my office and say "Hey, what's that?". That's how good it is. Let's keep a close eye on this guy.