LES PAUL & FRIENDS
American Made World Played
Capitol Records 2005
www.hollywoodandvine.com

Sample it here

What’s the 4-1-1?
The legendary guitarist teams up with a host of contemporary artists to celebrate his 90th year by releasing an album of some of rock and roll’s classic tracks..

Genre
Classic rock / blues / R&B

The Good
The music laid down featuring some of the world’s best known guitarists is almost uniformly fantastic. Only Les Paul could bring together in one album the talents of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Keith Richards and so many others. Tracks like the cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “Love Sneakin’ Up On You” simply sizzle. The vocals are a duet between Sting and Joss Stone who nails the lyrics perfectly. This isn’t a case of Paul sitting back and letting others do the work while basking in the glory. He plays some hard rocking riffs on “Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo.”

The original vocal track from Sam Cooke is used in collaboration between Paul and Clapton of the song “(Somebody} Ease My Troublin’ Mind.” The song is quite deftly performed and well worth the listen. The late singer’s vocals are actually used twice, the other song being “Good News” with Jeff Beck helping out Paul.
Besides the Joss Stone contribution, there’s only one other female artist featured and that is one of my favorites, Beth Hart. She joins Journey’s Neal Schon on the song “I Wanna Know You” and absolutely kills on the song. Those two songs along with Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls) performing a solidly faithful version of U2’s “All I Want Is You” stand out as my personal favorite tracks on this album.

The Bad
On the aforementioned “Love Sneakin’ Up On You,” I thought Sting’s vocals sounded strangely like he was stretching to hit the required notes. The new version of Les Paul 1951 hit song “How High The Moon” had the original vocals from Paul’s wife Mary Ford cut together with the new singer from Russia, Alsou. Unfortunately this track left me feeling completely indifferent. “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” featured Buddy Guy, Keith Richards, and Rick Derringer, but fell flat to these ears. The same can be said for Steve Miller updating his classic 70’s hit “Fly Like An Eagle.” The one song I felt repulsed by was Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) version of “Bad Case Of Lovin’ You.” The vocals came right up to the line that separates actual singing from the cookie monster vocals of death metal. It’s simply atrocious.

The Verdict
While there are some duds on the 16 track album, I found myself being very entertained by most of the material. I guess it just goes to show you that a person’s age should never be held against them when it comes to rocking out!
It’s a solidly entertaining rock and roll album, and if you like to have as many guitar virtuosos in one place, this is definitely an album for you!

Did You Know?
Les Paul was the inventor of the first solid body electric guitar. American Made World Played is Les Paul’s first album in 50 years to make it to the Billboard Top 200 chart. Les Paul plays weekly shows at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York, City every Monday night.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts