Artistic Notes:

After the Windham Hill era wound down, but before labels like Candyrat and Fret Monkey began, I released this album. And I think, artistically, it's a perfect middle ground. It's a collection of 11 songs from 10 musician-friends of mine who lived in San Diego. They were all singer-songwriters, but I asked them to write an original instrumental acoustic guitar composition. This album is what came out of that collaboration.

I held a release party for the album, and then shortly after decided to shift my focus from being a musician to an audio mastering engineer. This album has kind of been lost to the last two decades, as I did almost nothing to promote it when the world moved from brick and mortar to the web. With the forced "slow down" of COVID-19, I decided to get it online for people to enjoy.

If you like instrumental acoustic guitar music, I think you'll love this album. It's the sort of music you should listen to when you need sit still, recollect the past, and ponder the future.

Technical Notes:

About half the songs on the album were recorded by the artists and sent to me. The rest were recorded by me with a Roland VS-880; in 2001, that was pretty state-of-the-art for an indie musician. I used Earthworks SR-71 mics and a Demeter H-series mic preamp. I also mastered it with the VS-880's built-in eq/compressor/limiter.

When I went back to listen, I realized that I could re-master the tracks so much better now with my dedicated analog ZenMastering console. I also realized that one song, Dorothy, never was recorded that well by me back in 2001. I asked the artist to re-record it and send to me for mastering. That's the only song that isn't the original version from the CD.

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Minor7th Review: www.minor7th.com/m7_4_02.html

"Enough Talk" is the brainchild of Paul Abbott, a San Diego-based guitarist and producer who wanted to showcase some of his town's talented musicians without their voices. The result is an eclectic mix of styles from players who have been developing their chops for years, and who can hold their own with the plethora of acoustic players dotting the landscape.

I was drawn into the CD by the second track, a lovely 2-guitar overdub by Dave Howard, "Midnight, Wednesday", a simple yet beautifully haunting melody, cascading from phrase to phrase. "Safety Glass" by Scott Ireland taps its way into a nice contrapuntal rhythm. Jim Earp's "Sensitive Cargo" goes upbeat with some percussion, while Larry Mitchell's orchestrated "Purple Rose" displays his speed up and down the fingerboard. C.J. Hutchins wails with righteous tone from his Martin D28S on "West Side", a slide and Travis-style bluesy piece. John Katchur presents a strong sense of melody with "The Song I Wrote For You", also featuring 2 guitar tracks. Dani Carroll - the only woman appearing on the CD - finishes things up solo on her Breedlove with "Nautilus", a reflective wisp of a tune slowly carrying the listener along.

Several others complete the 11 tracks. All in all, Enough Talk is pleasant, if not spectacular, listening.

© Kirk Albrecht