The problem with a lot of instrumental guitar albums is that the songs start blending together and ends up being just a lot of wanking with the bass and drums plodding along in the background*.  Brad Paisley has overcome this with Play, a mostly instrumental album (five of the sixteen songs are duets with other artists, although one is an oddball “duet” with Andy Griffith).  These songs are spread out through the album and give it a nice flow with the instrumental tracks.

Each track has its own identity - “Huckleberry Jam” is a traditional country breakdown, “Turf’s Up” is a surf type instrumental, “Cliffs of Rock City” is an Eric Johnson-type song. Despite the different song types, Paisley’s guitar playing remains a constant and makes each song his.

I’m a mark for instrumental albums anyway, but this is one of most accessible ones I’ve ever heard.  The different styles keep things from getting bogged down and boring.  This is one of the better albums I’ve heard this year, and hopefully this will lead to similar projects by non-traditional guitar heroes.

* Of course, my music collection contains about 90% of what Yngwie Malmsteen has put out so guitar wanking isn’t always a terrible thing.