Nita Strauss: 10 essential instrumental guitar albums!

on
 Photo by Stephanie Cabral Photography 
Nita Strauss
I had an awesome time talking to MusicRadar about my 10 essential instrumental guitar albums! Check out the list here and let me know some of your favorites in the comments too!!

Back in the lo-tech days of the late '90s and early 2000s, then budding guitarist Nita Strauss discovered new axe albums the old-fashioned way, through magazines and – get this – going to record stores. "I was a regular at Tower Records on Sunset," she recalls. "The people who worked there always had great recommendations; they were really plugged in. And I read Mike Varney's Spotlight column in Guitar Player. Every month it seemed as if some amazing new talent was on the scene."

Both the Spotlight column and Tower on Sunset are no more, so Strauss, who last year snagged the enviable position of lead guitarist in Alice Cooper's band, now combs the internet for new guitar music. The easy access of the internet makes things both easier and harder," she observes. "It’s easier because anyone can just put their stuff online; everybody can be kind of equal and have the same shot at reaching an audience. On the other hand, there’s much of it, and nobody’s weeding through it. How can you figure out what to check out? It's kind of daunting."

And so when Strauss does stumble across a bold new talent online, as she did when she discovered Angel Vivaldi on Facebook recently, the experience is especially profound. "Hearing Angel Vivaldi took me right back to how it felt back in the day," Strauss raves. "He makes really exciting, creative, well-thought-out guitar music. It's important when somebody like that comes along. It makes you feel as though not everything’s been done before, that the guitar still has a long way to go.”

See the 10 albums that made a difference for Nita:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your feedback