ED DEGENARO: Dog House

Ed DeGenaro

Dog House

© 2007 Unfretted Records (842841058778)

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A melting pot of Americana, North Indian influences, and ole fashioned 70s Fusion brought together in a package that takes you on a Journey

notes

Dog House is Ed's view of the world. A melting pot of Americana, North Indian influences, and ole fashioned 70s Fusion brought together in a package that takes you on a Journey. With Country flavored Hoe-downs on Twang This, Bireli Lagrene-isms on Acoustic Moments, La Mer and 3 Views Of A Secret, old school Fusion on SFW, Hip To Hop, proto shred on Charlie Parker Goes Heavy Metal and Laswellian explorations on That's All Folks there's something to keep the listener entertained for a long time.



What some other folks have to say about Ed's playing!

He swings, he grooves, and that’s all there is to say.
- Steve Lukather

You’re actually making music with that fretless, stick with it.
- Joe Satriani

I dug the sound files, they're are screaming, anyway, thanks for putting your stuff out there -
All the best,
-Wayne Krantz

You play very interesting lines ... very clean execution as well as very high speeds!
-Ray Gomez

Excellent player, mucho generosity, another dude!
-David Torn

You sound great!
-Allan Holdsworth

More incrediblism. You are one of the VERY few people that make guitar enjoyable for me these days. Thank you!
-Matte Henderson

Well done, Ed, you have the tone nailed!
-Carl Verheyen

That was very impressive!
-Henry Kaiser

An amazing album! I can't believe his chops on "Charlie Parker Goes Heavy Metal"! Just insane.
-Brett Garsed

Your tone is so much better than the other fusion guys. I think you may be the only guy to have the chops, the music and the tone.
-Jack Zucker

There's some heavy right-hand work going on ... you'll need to show me how to do that stuff sometime!
-Steve Topping

You have some serious skills my friend! World class chops and tone! ... Bravo!
-Chris Poland

I forgot to tell you how great you sound on these tracks. Great tone and some pretty wild ideas.
-Don Mock

Your new songs sound terrific. Acoustic Moments and Three Views are killer.
-Gary Shea

Modern Guitars magaine CD Review: Dog House - Ed DeGenaro

by Rich Murray.
Dog House

Dog House
Dog House (Unfretted Records) is fretless-guitar whiz Ed DeGenaro's latest release. Though he plays plenty of fretted guitar as well, DeGenaro is one of the finest and most popular players on the fretless scene today. He appeared front and center on 2005's Village Of The Unfretted double-CD compilation (also on Unfretted Records), and performed at last year's Fretless Guitar Festival in New York.

In addition to his previous solo recordings, DeGenaro has done quite a bit of session work for commercials, television shows, and movies. DeGenaro describes himself as a fusion player, and the music on Dog House lives up to the purest definition of that label. Country, jazz, reggae, funk, rock, blues, Latin music - DeGenaro touches on all these styles and more on Dog House, often mixing several styles within the same song. As a result, this album comes across like a stream of DeGenaro's musical consciousness. That impression is heightened by the fact the entire CD is presented with no gaps between the tracks - each song flows directly into the next.

DeGenaro used a vast array of guitars on Dog House including fretted and unfretted electrics (6, 7, and 8 string), classical and steel-string acoustics, slide, lap steel, etc. There's also a fair amount of guitar-synth on the album, which DeGenaro used to trigger saxophone, flute, and other assorted samples. There are some vocal samples sprinkled throughout as well, though Dog House is essentially an instrumental album.

Listen to enough fretless guitar players and you'll quickly realize there's a fine line between making music on the instrument, and making an abominable mess on it. Mastering the subtleties in pitch and inflection a fretless guitar allows for is obviously a difficult thing to do, but DeGenaro has done it. Although he's a great player on standard fretted guitars as well, DeGenaro seems more expressive on a fretless. And with or without frets, DeGenaro can flat-out shred. Using highly developed picking and legato techniques, his cascading runs of varied note-groupings are often reminiscent of the late Shawn Lane.

Dog House features a whopping 18 tracks, and there are many highlights. After starting off with the country-flavored "Twang This" and "Teutonic Hellbelly," DeGenaro gives us the album's first fretless showcase - "Fretless In Seattle." Often evoking a violin or pedal steel guitar, DeGenaro's melodic phrasing on this song shows what a uniquely lyrical instrument the fretless guitar can be in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing.

More great fretless work can be heard on "Joe Z"; an obvious nod to Weather Report founder Joe Zawinul, who recently passed away. "La Mer" is another highlight. DeGenaro plays some great Django-esque runs on this track. Songs like "SFW," "North Coast," "Hoppier Than Thou," and "Hip To Hop" (which differs from DeGenaro's Village Of The Unfretted version of the same song) are closer to what most people consider fusion. These are grooving jazz-rock songs that give DeGenaro a chance to really blow. "SFW" and "North Coast" feature some particularly wild playing.

The chops highlight of the album though is "Charlie Parker Goes Heavy Metal." This is an insane solo-guitar shred showcase, featuring a harmonizer and plenty of edits. There are definite shades of Shawn Lane on this piece. In contrast to that track's electric madness is the great acoustic work on Dog House, including the Bireli Lagrene composition "Acoustic Moments," and a fine instrumental version of the Steely Dan classic "Aja."

The common denominator throughout this diverse recording is DeGenaro's great playing. He brings an obvious familiarity to whatever style he happens to be working in, and his great chops are always in tow. That's true whether there are frets present or not, but his fretless playing on Dog House really shines. By using the fretless so effectively in a such a wide variety of settings, DeGenaro really champions the instrument with this album. If you have any interest in fretless at all, or just want to hear a fine guitarist at work, pick up Dog House.



Review of Dog House from www.unfretted.com...

The first thing that strikes you about this CD is quality, the superb graphics from Emre Meydan matching the muted tones of the text and liner notes. Plus you get a massive 80 minutes of value-for-money Ed on this album, typical of Unfretted Records to cram the maximum audio content possible onto all its CDs.

You might be forgiven thinking you'd bagged a country album as it races off with "Twang This!" and continues with the enigmatic "Teutonic Hellbelly", I guess a reference to Ed's roots. Don't worry though, Ed has his fretless out on track three "Fretless in Seattle" a great title as Ed is living there right now, its a great drone piece with what seems like impossible high notes squeezed out by Ed.

Oh, and did I mention, all the tracks are gapless, its a straight switch from one track to the next and Ed manages it well, Joe Z is very reminiscent of early Weather Report, and so it should be but the band bags the tone and feel really well. The mood is quickly becoming the jazz fused rock Ed does so well.

Ed fans will recognise a few tracks that have appeared elsewhere in prototype versions, and nice to hear the humor in "Some Cow Phunk". "Acoustic Moments" is solo guitar again the surprising versatility could draw you to the conclusion that Seattle has found its very own Jeff Beck.

That doesn't stop Ed throwing in the odd cheesy lounge lizard track, or a complete remake of "Hip to Hop" the track he headlined the Village of the Unfretted CD with. The last five tracks are all stand out, "Charlie Parker Goes Heavy Metal" is blisteringly fast, love to see that live. The CD rolls out with the moody "Three Views of a Secret" and a very ambient "That's All Folks" which gets everything including the kitchen sink thrown in.

All in all a wonderfully diverse album, you can feel the vibe that says these guys had a great time making this CD. You will have a great time listening. Guaranteed! 5 stars.

reviews

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  • Ed DeGenaro
    author: Chip Meyers

    I became aware of Ed though his affiliation with a certain OUTSTANDING amplifier company. After he helped me out with some questions, I bought his CD. What is most impressive about this CD (aside from being technically jaw dropping and humbling) is that it is accessible in nature. It is not just a CD by and for a guitar player. In much the same way that Danny Gatton, Michael Hedges, Pat Metheny, Eric Johnson, etc (yes, pretty stout company there) took musical virtuosity and packaged it in a way that was appealing to the masses; Ed has done that with Dog House. Yes, there is some off the wall stuff here, but that just shows that the guy has some personality. It is the kind of CD you can put in, play from start to finish, and everyone listening will find something they like. Thoroughly enjoyable.

  • Ed DeGenaro - Dog House
    author: Joe Dzialak

    I'm not sure where to start... Acoustic moments is my initial fav. CP goes Metal is Jaw dropping...The twangy/country/banjo stuff is a nice surprise. No shortage of tonal colors on this cd... There are some truly beautiful harmonic moments on there. The songs some staggering grooves. Hellava rhythm section. Jazz/Fusion/Hillbilly-ShredRock would be a cool genre for it.

  • Ed DeGenaro "Dog House"
    author: Bill Altman

    "Big ears" ......... it's a compliment given to outstanding musicians. I've never thought of the phrase more than when listening to Ed DeGenaro's "Dog House". Ed's given us a tour de force album , a wild romp through styles and sounds that transcends the notion of a "guitar record". Ed's reputation as a gifted player preceeds him, a finalist in Guitar Player Magazines 06 Guitar Wars and the man tapped to record Jack Zucker's uber challenging " Sheets of Sound" instuctional CD, Ed's shown can play ANYTHING on guitar, the revalation here is DeGenaro the composer. Funky Miles inspired grooves on tunes like Hip to Hop and SFW will satisfy hipped out dancers and hard core jazzers alike while Ed's fun take on "Beside the Sea"( La Mer) will leave you humming the tune. Perhaps the most important aspect of the album is Ed's groundbreaking fretless guitar work, it's a sound so expressive you'll have to take a seat as you hear it, a truly inspiring sound that speaks like the voice of the planet, deep deep soul here people! "Fretless in Seattle" is a touchstone track in the guitar ballad pantheon, like Beck's "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" or Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again" Ed's work on this track will inspire players to greatness for years to come, a truly seminal cut! The fretless work on this album is so special, Ed gets a tone to die for, a rich sustaing tone that sounds like an amazing voice form outer space, the way he manipulates tempered and non tempered sclaes in the same piece show the limitations of the temper as Ed breaks the boundries and soars w/ pure music. Ed has taken on some of the most challanging covers a guiatrist can choose, Bireli, Tommy Emmanual, and the show-stopping "Charlie Parker goes Heavy Metal" , a shred-feast unequaled in guitardom, listen if you dare! This album is a deep collection of styles and performances, a must have for guitarist or fans of fusion and instrumental music, "Dog House" is the start of something really special, thanks Ed!

  • Ed's Dog House CD
    author: Joseph Lucido

    There is so much art & heart radiating from this in depth work, It's such a dedicated, beautiful & focused work of Love ... One can only imagine all the time put into this ... So here's some ~at random reactions~... There's way too much to be truly specific about ... so please forgive me if I miss naming a tune or two & refer to general catagories of genre ... Oh, & forgive me for the overuse of the word "hip"... I'll just use it now a few times... Your CD goes from hip to hipper to hippest & even to hippie ... all the time!! There are so many beautifully sublime moments.. Unexpected twists & just an amazing amount of ass kickin'' guitar playing... It's covers so much ground... Don't know where to start to even describe it ... Love what Ed's doing with the country stuff of course... & honestly think he will have great influence in that genre.. Predict Ed will be doing soundtracks for Wild West movies very soon .. The way he blends in everything is priceless ... They should bring back the DeadWood series to just to have him write the music for it ... Love that Cow Phunk ... Joe 7 ... Just knocked me for a loop on this one .. Would luv all the female ethic dancers I play for, who love their cultural music mixed in with a back-beat, to both hear & dance to this.. Would luv to hear Ed do a whole album with this kind of approach ... Let me use the word "evolution" to describe such channeling .. Ed reminds me of a trance medium, who has these huge circuits which enables them to draw in stuff from way beyond our every day realm ... (sorry to get carried away like that, but I'm just one of those meta-fizzled guys ....) Damn, check out how he incorporated the guitar synth so well .. It's all over the place ... & used in the hippest way .. The fretless playing is such a new sound ... It can be both raw & sophisticated An Acoustic Guitar version of Aja... Just Mo Fo ****ing beautiful... This should win a Award... it went straight to my heart For many, this rendition will be worth the price of the album The acoustic tone Eds getting is tres dope . There's even some Latin influences happening on Angelina.. Every tone on every tune is so happening ... Every lick on every tune is so happening ... Jamacian Sunset, Sew, Hip to Hop, North Coast, were funky & Hip as hell.... these are the kind of tunes I need to constantly have playing in the background of my life to keep me motivated... Charlie Parker Heavy Metal ... shredders will use this as an example of how worthy of admiration shredding can sound.. & proudly give the finger to those who can't handle it Hoppier Than Thou - damn.. the funk just eeks ... damn it eeks... Just luv it.. Wonderful acoustic guitar & trumpet verison of Three views of a secret .... The chording is beautiful as the soloing is perfect over those changes.. That's All Folks ... the hodgepodge conclusion tune was a kick .., This CD made me laugh, sent chills down my back, made me holler in reaction to Eds playing, dig the hip-ness of where he's coming from, touched me deep inside my soul & constantly shake my head as in: "How in the **** did he come up with that?" Ed's a Ga-Damn virtuoso ... There just ain't no other way to put it... Hope everyone gets to hear ya speak music Mr. ED... You so Walk the Talk ...

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