3 Boxes
Album: Strings Attached
Label: Gregsongs
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.3boxes.co.uk

If you add the band name and the album title together, you get to the fundamentals of what this album is about, guitars essentially "3 Boxes" is that item that's becoming rarer than a democratic process that actually works, the instrumental guitar album.

Ok a slight bit of an exaggeration, there are certain genres of guitar music and the guitars that make them that have a good number of releases, well by comparison at least, predominantly Spanish and classical guitar and there are many albums right across the acoustic spectrum that have instrumental tracks included on them, but rarely do you get a guitar album like this that not only has the ambition to reach beyond guitar players and aficionados but really has the potential to do just that.

One of the reasons for that is that 3 Boxes are just a single world class guitarist, as the name implies, we're talking a trio and as that trio consists of Clive Gregson, Mark Griffiths and Andy Roberts, we are talking something very special indeed.

Each has their own sets of influences, their routes to the instrument and their journeys of discovery, there's no point in having a party if everybody brings the same thing, what really sets "Strings Attached" apart is the interplay and musicality, the album is a bit of a genre-whore, but stays exclusively within the acoustic spectrum and every piece is a work of art captured live as it happens and that means as well as the perfect you also get to hear the imperfect, not very often admittedly but it's there and it's what makes the album human.

Without the little flaws, this album would still be a great album, but it would still be a technical manual, albeit one played to an exceptionally high standard as it is it's an album that resonates beauty and beauty is almost always at its best when it's not quite perfect. The beauty of "Strings Attached" is there aren't any, you don't need to be able to play a guitar, understand a chord structure or tell one end of a fret board from the other, you just have to love great music.

Neil King