Full disclosure: Not only do I know Dave Uhrich personally, but
\nI took guitar lessons from him back in the ’80s.<\/p>\n
As I’ve mentioned in my review of
\nChange<\/i>, I used to watch Dave before our lessons began as
\nhe’d show me some of the things he was working on. My jaw would
\nliterally be scraping the floor of the cramped practice room as he
\ndid tricks that I can still only dream about reproducing. When he
\ngave me a copy of his demo tape, it was like receiving the Holy
\nGrail in my hands.<\/p>\n
In 1992, Uhrich got his big break and was signed to a record
\ncontract. Yet no matter how many times I’ve listened to
\nDave Uhrich<\/i> over the years, I’ve always found myself a bit
\ndisappointed at the album.<\/p>\n
I still think part of it is that I’m biased in favor of the demo
\ntape. “Fury,” “Quarter To Three” and “Paradise Island” all appear
\non that tape, and the new studio versions always seemed to lose
\nsomething in the translation for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, these
\nversions still show that Uhrich had the power to be the next guitar
\ngod a la Joe Satriani or Steve Vai.<\/p>\n
But the more I’ve listened to
\nDave Uhrich<\/i> in the last year, the more I’m convinced the
\nproblem really is with violinist Jerry Goodman, who guests on
\nseveral of the songs. Often, on numbers like “Blue Rose” and
\n“Majestic Solitude,” the focus shifts from Uhrich – who’s supposed
\nto be the star of the show – to Goodman. I highly doubt this was
\nintentional, but when I start hearing more of the electric and
\nacoustic violin work than Uhrich’s guitar flash, I know things are
\nin trouble.<\/p>\n
Problem number two is the inclusion of Chicago broadcaster Kevin
\nMatthews in the guise of two of his characters. His short
\nappearance as Jim Shorts on the opening of “Fury” isn’t too bad,
\nbut the intro was hardly necessary. But Matthews’s appearance as
\nDevon on “Take It Home Boy” – already a song suffering from poor
\nsongwriting and uninspired playing – lowers the song to new
\nlevels.<\/p>\n
This all makes it sound like
\nDave Uhrich<\/i> isn’t worth checking out. This is hardly the
\ncase. Tracks like “City Heat,” “Fury” and “Paradise Island” all
\ndemonstrate the absolute mastery that Uhrich has over the
\nsix-string, making it produce sounds you probably thought weren’t
\npossible from a guitar. The guitar-only work “Kristin” demonstrates
\nthat Uhrich knows how to turn down the intensity without losing the
\npower of the performance. Likewise, “Rondo In D” allows Uhrich to
\nexplore the acoustic guitar – one thing I’d really like to see him
\ndo more of.<\/p>\n
In a way, it almost feels like Uhrich is trying too hard to
\nprove himself at times. When all is said and done, he’s a damned
\nfine rock guitarist – and that’s nothing to be ashamed about.
\nThere’s also no problem exploring softer sides and acoustic sides
\nof your playing. But to try and expand into the worlds of funk
\n(“Take It Home Boy”) and country (“Down Home” – admittedly just a
\nsong that Uhrich wanted to have some fun with), methinks that he’s
\ntrying to take too large a bite of the musical pie.<\/p>\n
\nDave Uhrich<\/i> is not the easiest album to find anymore (Red
\nLight closed its doors a few years ago), but if you stumble across
\na copy, it’s still well worth your time to check out. Just make
\nsure to step carefully on some areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6250],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36557","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dave-uhrich","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36557"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36557"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}