Compression

The State of Bass Guitar

     

After years of receiving almost every award possible as a bass guitarist, Billy Sheehan (tours with David Lee Roth and his own band Mr. Big) finally released his first solo album. The reality is that after Mr. Big called it a day Mr. Sheehan stepped up and delivered something most of us in the bass world didn’t expect. Instead of putting together a series of self indulgent bass jams Billy spent the time wood shedding on good solid song writing with tasty grooves and excellent production. The man known for some of the best lead bass work in the business even provides vocal duty on all of the tracks. My hat is off to him because he could have used this an opportunity for endless amounts of bass noodling and over the top showmanship but instead he took the opportunity to show us that song writing is where his heart is. Ok, maybe the better description is song writing with lots of zingy notes and massive crunchy, compressed bass tones. From the world famous bassist who knows more about compressing low notes than anyone on the planet comes an excellent rock album with smart lyrics and excellent sound production. I should also mention that Billy also took the time to play most of the guitar tracks himself. Talk about dedication to your art….I challenge you to find one track on this album that doesn’t drip with hours of care and attention. Stand out tunes include the massive sounding slow groove of “What Once Was” the riff heavy “Chameleon” and the crisp “Feed your Head.”