Jack West and Walter Strauss Defy Classification with "Guitars of Life"

Jack West and Walter Strauss-Guitars of Life-Ota records

 

Acoustic guitar virtuosity of another color has been introduced to me with the distinctive acoustic album released in late January on Ota records. The duo album is titled Guitars on Life and features Bay Area based Jack West and his foil on this album, Walter Strauss. West has created his own following by creating a unique groove-centric acoustic guitar style. He utilizes his skillful abilities to create both bass and percussive effects simultaneously, as he plays his acoustic steel string guitar. Strauss, is another talented California based guitarist, who has built a reputation by incorporating Americana and interweaving it with African inspired rhythmic elements. For lovers of pure, unadulterated, acoustic magic, these two guys create a surprisingly satisfying set of music that exudes joy, creativity and is recorded live with no overdubs.

The album includes eight songs, the cover Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish”; four composed by Smith “More Guitars”, “Youth”, “Across the Bardo”, and “New Way Up; three songs composed by Strauss “Double Bounce”, “Follow the Water Down”, and “OO”.

Jack West and Walter Strauss (photo credit unknown)

The music is played with an exuberance that cannot be staged. There is no pyrotechnics or electronic enhancements here, the music just flows out of these two accomplished guitarists. West is a virtual rhythm section onto himself, incorporating bass lines, percussive accompaniment and fluid slide work. Strauss’s facile finger picking is seamless and almost creates its own chant-like drone at times. You will undoubtedly find your own favorites on this fine album, but for me the rhythmically driven opener “More Guitars” provided a real chance to enjoy some intuitive interaction on display by these two. The two offer a unique take on Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” that reimagines this classic in a way that is retains the song’s soul while still intimate by using this hybrid Americana approach. 

Strauss’s ostinato driven “Double Bounce” has a real down-home funk to it. Feel your body start to absorb the groove. West’s combined bass-line and percussive rhythmic approach drives this one, and some fine finger picked lines by Strauss makes this one irresistible.

West’s “Across the Bardo” is another favorite, and  opens with Strauss’s drone-like finger picking as West’s glass slide work brings you to a new place. The music weaves elements of the blues, folk-inspired percussive rhythms, Americana, and a feel that recalls some of Irish folk music’s pathos.

The music of Guitars on Life certainly is hard to classify and why should we have to label it? There is a lot here to enjoy. These two draw from multiple inspirations, and when they mix them all together we get a very well performed set of music that has all the elements of what makes creative music so vibrant, exciting, and unpredictable.