Gary Lucas Albums (11)
'Beyond the Pale'
Release Date 3/24/2008
Tracks 14
Label Some Bizarre
See Album Tracklist and Review
'The Edge of Heaven'
Release Date 1/14/2003
Tracks 13
Label Label Bleu
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Gary Lucas -- charmingly oddball pop songwriter, musical world traveler, utterly hellacious guitarist -- is perhaps at his most hellaciously, charmingly cosmopolitan on this frankly amazing album, which finds him adapting popular Chinese songs that were originally recorded in the 1960s and which he heard and fell in love with during a sojourn in Taiwan in the mid-'70s. His girlfriend at the time had a cassette tape of such local superstars as Chow Hsuan and Bai Kwong, and it was, he says in his liner notes, "like almost no other music I had ever heard before." Twenty-five years later he put together this quirkily gorgeous tribute, which includes jaw-droppingly virtuosic fingerstyle guitar arrangements ("Mad World," "Wall") and song settings using guest vocalists. Among the best of the latter are the limpidly beautiful "Night in Shanghai" (again, note the guitar playing) and the country-flavored "I Wait for Your Return," which is simply a hoot. He's not playing this stuff for laughs, though; his genuine affection for the music comes through loud and clear, and even when he has fun with it he is obviously trying to do so in a way that brings its haunting loveliness to the fore. Very highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Now here's an interesting project: Guitar whiz Gary Lucas teams up with ten-string Renaissance lutist Jozef Van Wissem for an album of duets done in a sort of Renaissance stylee (a few actually date to the 1600s), and the results are fantastic. Lucas sticks to his acoustic and National Steel guitars, and Van Wissem plays just a bit of percussion and very minor electronic treatments in addition to the lute. Van Wissem wrote all the tunes, but Lucas is very keyed in to the music. Sometimes playing circular lines around the lute ("For Whom the Bell Tolls," "If It Doesn't Fit, Thou Must Acquit") and lending more of a Delta slide feel at other times ("Diplopia," "Will o' the Wisp"), Lucas demonstrates what a sympathetic player he can be. Sounding vaguely Eastern at times, Diplopia is a stunning fusion of ancient and contemporary that ends up sounding timeless. Unique and excellent. ~ Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide
'Street of Lost Brothers'
Release Date 10/24/2000
Tracks 12
Label Tzadik
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Lucas' second album for John Zorn's Tzadik label continued in the same vein as the first (Busy Being Born) with one or two variations. The opening, traditional "Yigdal" is a rousing, dance-oriented number featuring Zorn on alto sax, and this is quickly followed by one of Lucas' almost-patented, intricate, and lovely solo guitar pieces, weaving various folk patterns into a delightful sonic fabric. The bulk of the album consists of further elaborations on Jewish themes (or anti-Jewish, as Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" is strained through the Lucas wringer), blues, and folk songs. The unusual cut, compared to prior releases, is the largely improvised duo with keyboardist Walter Horn. Based on a traditional Hebrew song, the pair venture into far freer territory than Lucas normally explores. Listeners who have known and enjoyed his work over the years might still admit that he gets into a series of ruts (however pleasurable); tracks like "Sh'ma" perhaps offer hope of a way out. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Accomplished guitarist Gary Lucas sends listeners on a multicolored carousel of "songs for children." He marches Jewish fight song singalongs, strums out Marx Brothers' tunes, and fingerpicks delicate acoustic originals. Busy Being Born includes great slide guitar; a Fiddler on the Roof tune; a traditional tune about turning clay into a dreydel done Ritchie Valens style; and what Lucas calls "an anti-lullaby" with a narrative reminiscent of Nick Cave's from-the-depths voice that's sure to frighten kids in a delicious way. Recommended for old and young alike. In all, the album is a rare, successful combination of silly kid-appeal and adult-sized ability, wrapped around a tweaked eccentricity that only the stodgy couldn't enjoy. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Evangeline is guitarist Gary Lucas' first attempt at recording traditional music. A few years before he hit the Tzadik label with his new/old Jewish music fusions, Lucas had been everywhere else. From Captain Beefheart's legendary Magic Band to his own woolly and wonderful unit Gods and Monsters, Lucas has played it all. Evangeline is a solo acoustic guitar record comprised of a mix of traditional songs of various kinds (a theme from Wagner's Tannhauser, a blues by Blind Blake, an old Chinese pop tune, "Here Comes the Bride"), those that should be (Sun Ra's "Interstellar Low Ways," the title theme from Lalo Schifrin's score for the movie Cool Hand Luke), and originals written and sung in that style (such as the title cut, "Judgement at Midnight Suite," and his variation on the traditional "Wedding March"). Lucas' guitar playing is far from the quirk and roar it evokes on other people's records, or even his own Gods and Monsters blasting infamy. Here, armed with only six and twelve strings and his heavy-bottomed voice, Lucas offers a side of himself seldom heard. His finger-picking styles on "The Wall," a Shanghainese ballad that was a hit in the '50s over there, are dizzying, not on their quickness -- save that for the immediately following "Apismatisin'" -- but in their modal, open, dexterous manner of digging deep into chords for their nuances and secrets. On the latter track, it's all fire and brimstone, punching the six-string and leveling his lyric with his dazzling, Clarence White-style flat picking. Another beauty is the Lucas original "A Wandering Minstrel Eye," in C-modal. The creation of the melody is achieved by the fragmentation of augmented and modalized chords that create enough of a platform for a wide open single-string style to play over the drones and, eventually, even those drones get played as runs. The disc closes with Schifrin's "Cool Hand Luke," a melody so recognizable and pilfered it's entered virtually every area of our culture in some way. Lucas plays it close to home, using a reverb and delay box to simultaneously sustain and loop his guitar playing so he can get to both harmonic parts of the theme without a harmonic shift or augmented bridge (Schifrin created the tune as a two-melody work for orchestra). He plays it as if it were the oldest song in the world, with such tenderness and ferocity of heart it feels like he wrote it, or it was written for him. It's the only way to close a stunningly beautiful album. With 15 tracks and 15 jewels, what else is there? ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
There was no need for Gary Lucas to make an album just to prove that he could play everything from folk ditties to bebop and rap, but on Gods and Monsters he came pretty close to doing just that. The album starts off with a pair of cheery acoustic pieces that are relatively simple except for the nervous, jittery guitar lines. From there on things get more complex and generally harder, with more edgy original tunes and covers of tunes by Miles Davis, Suicide, and Syd Barrett. Psychedelia and blues influences thread through almost every piece, and Lucas' own style is distinctive enough to make almost every piece his own. Most of the album is excellent indeed; standout tracks include the bright, acoustic "Fool's Cap," the terrifying version of "Astronomy Domine," and the extraordinary progressive metal jam that closes the album. The only dud track, "The Crazy Ray," suffers from being ordinary and overlong in the midst of an album of work that is extraordinary and concise. ~ Richard Foss, All Music Guide
