Tribute to the great Les Paul (and Mary Ford). Don’t let the Jeff Beck moniker fool you: theres nothing here from his past, you’d never guess he’s involved besides the presence of rip roaring guitar playing that contains exceedingly unique stylings, use of octaves and harmonics and sheer mastery (who needs tape speed and effects when you have Jeff Beck’s fingers). These are live recordings from the Iridium Lounge in NYC ’10 where Beck assembled a cast of greats and played sets of classics that LP had a hand in. All tracks feature others, including guitarists Darrel Hingham and Brian Setzer (Stray Cats) who absolutely TEAR IT UP, and Imelda May, who brings to the mic the Mary Ford element. Perfectly recorded, perfectly set, a dynamite CD, ageless.

Notes to the uninitiated: Les Paul was an engineer, early innovator working with the first magnetic tapes to come to the USA and recording techniques in the 40’s. Though he is most famous for designing the world’s first solid body electric guitar his innovations in tape effects and recording remain with us today, e.g. slap echo that made Elvis and others famous (and a lot of this was done up the road in San Carlos in that building with the “AMPEX” sign along 101). He teamed up with his wife Mary Ford in the 50’s and produced a string of hits where he used tape speed and overdubs to create unique guitar and vocal sounds that never existed, Mary Ford harmonizing with herself, a one woman Andrew Sisters. The effect was mesmerizing and unheard of til then.

1-3 Feature Darrel Hingham on guit and vocs, rip roaring rockabilly with some bad ass noisey guitar unlike you’ve ever heard
4-12) feature Imelda May’s silken vocals and smack the most of Les Paul and Mary Ford, tape effects produce harmonies? Some Patsy Cline nods in here too
15,16,18, 19) are Beck guitar only, bad ass
13-20) rotating cast including Trombone Shorty, Jason Rebello and Brian Setzer, more of a big swing band feel in these

1) jumping Elvis Style
2) upbeat
3) train kept a rollin’ 12bar chuggin
4) I Cried A River, slow sad lovely
5) Les Paul and Mary Ford’s big hit and here we go!..... total LP and MF worship and incredible vocals, Beck on guitar
6) more upbeat stuff, cool guitar
7) upbeat again, hit
8) some killer guitar leads
9) “vaya con dios”, another big LP&MF hit: 50’s western/spanish tinged ballad, slow and pretty
10) another classic LP&MF style, cute waltzing/triplet dance
11) a lovely forelorn sad blues ballad, Patsy Cline anyone?
12) upbeat, vocal “oooo, ahhh, ooo, ahhh”s
13) big brass, sax/trombone, rockin Mancini’s theme to “Peter Gunn” with Beck doing that weird thing he does with the guitar
14) big band swing feel
15) Beck shows off some serious Link Wray/Dick Dale’esque surf stylings, big twang
16) Beck does “Sleep Walk”, classic slow dance triplet, careful with end as he introduces next song
17) Gary US Bonds with some classic 50’s sax rock
18) classic blues with Imelda on vocs and Beck tearing up the guitar
19) walking blues, Imelda vocs, ending includes intro to next song
20) Stray Cats style rockabilly with Brian Setzer