Lone Prairie

Christiansen is a worthy and technically excellent guitarist of the type who tours rarely but does a lot of teaching. Here he explores his roots, an increasingly popular process in an era when the jazz mainstream continues to dilute into ever-thinner tributaries, but at least his roots are unusual. He hails from the Rocky Mountains and high plains of Utah, an under-populated jazz corner of the far west US where folk anthems tend to be solemn and monotonal. A judicious amount of scale substitutions by Christiansen and pianist Allee are thus employed to colour them up.

The leader's occasional forays into post-Hendrix distortion are less palatable, but a handful of good old cowboy anthems - 'The Streets of Laredo', 'Red River Valley' and 'Sittin' on Top of the World' - draw genuine feeling from the players and are well worth a wider hearing. Corey's leisurely yet funky original, 'Chaparral', is another highlight of a low-key album, which might do well on commercial radio, especially around dinnertime.