With Guitar World — which feaures a small and subtle "Recorded at home" tagline on the back cover — Madison, Wis.-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Schad continues his string of clean and vibrantly produced records. As the title implies, the 13 songs on Guitar World, the man's sixth disc, are instrumental guitar pieces, most of them acoustic. But unlike many heavy-metal and neoclassical guitarists whose work gets covered on this site, Schad doesn't like to repeat himself. Granted, he covers Jeff Beck ("Jeff's Boogie"), The Beatles ("Here Comes the Sun") and Emerson Lake & Palmer ("From the Beginning"), as well as himself (an alternate version of one of Schad's best compositions, "Feeling the Force"), but after four acoustic numbers, Schad gets funky with a drum machine, ethereal effects and a fat electric guitar on "Mystic Skull" — among the album's finest tunes.
Elsewhere, the keyboard-drenched "Blessing In Disguise" sounds like a lost track from pre-Tommy Shaw-era Styx or early Kansas; the acoustic "Leonard" builds with multiple chord progressions, breaks into a brief spaghetti-western time signature and then alternates between the two styles for the rest of the song; and parts of "Bride of the Monster" unveil a darker side of the man's musical psyche.
Schad may keep a low profile, self release his CDs with simple homemade art and prefer to work alone "at home," but his enthusiasm for the well-crafted and melodic music he makes is infectious. This isn't throwaway stuff. In fact, I consider Schad's work refreshment for the ears.
Track Listing:
1) Jeff's Boogie
2) Feeling the Force
3) 1961
4) Here Comes the Sun
5) Mystic Skull
6) Blessing in Disguise
7) From the Beginning
8) Spanish Pandora
9) Pigeon Slippers
10) Leonard
11) Bullnose Almondine
12) Faithful
13) Bride of the Monster
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