Elemental Journey

Elemental Journey is Landreth's 11th solo album, and it's his first all-instrumental outing, and folks, this isn't a blues album. It's a wonderfully bright, woven mesh of blues, strings, rock, zydeco, country, reggae, and jazz that shifts and turns and builds within each track, and all of it fits seamlessly together like a huge musical quilt made for guitar heaven. Track after track surprises and amazes here, from the opening "Gaia Tribe," which features guest Joe Satriani on guitar, through the stirring "Heavy Heart Rising" and the joyous "Wonderide" and "Passionola" (this one features Eric Johnson on guitar) to the Caribbean shuffle of "Forgotten Story," complete with steel drums from Robert Greenidge. Members of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra are here, too, and the touches of violins, cellos, and violas that appear and fade appropriately throughout these tracks keep everything fresh, and there's always some new guitar line coming in. This is a wonderfully bright album, stirring and impressive.