Hear The Track Here
There's an old quote from somewhere that goes 'all human life is there' and in this case I refer to Soundclick's forum life. Hang around on there long enough and you get to meet a HUGE amount of people, and some who I am not sure what form of life they are... :D Now normally I don't really get to hear anything outside of a very, very tight reviewing schedule (oh oh poor me) but knowing Watsonica through the forums I got suckered...... errrr I mean enticed to listen to one of his tracks... No wait, I remember now. Someone said his work sounded like (gets down on his knees) Jeff Beck. As fekkin IF, sez I and I march full of my usual pomposity to prove him a lyin' blaggard, downloaded the track and had a quick listen and decided right there and then to look at this a lot further. See, Mr Beck is like God to me. The man has such mastery of his instrument it's ridiculous and if I am in need of something REALLY mental to listen to, I reach for the Truth album...Aaaahhh, Rod and Jeff in their prime...
Watsonica (or Gem Watson) is responsible for this track and I can't seem to find him anywhere on Soundclick other than on the Sound Aid page linked above, which has A Watsonica track but not this one. More to the point I thought I had downloaded a track called Selah and I seem to have something called Walking Backwards instead. Whatever I was on that night must have been heavy duty. I was struck by a fairly immediate Beck reference in the tone and style of both the music and the guitar playing. Like The Man, Watsonica uses the guitar to express mood by using (among other things) the whammy bar (tremelo arm to us brits) and drenched in effects lead lines that ripple through it like nervous tics.
I know that not everybody holds the same opinion as me on most guitar players but I know what I likes, ya know what I mean? Even if it does happen to come clothed in an almost new-age-y chill out track that I would'nt normally glance at if the star attraction hadn't caught me attention. What we end up getting, of course sure sounds like something else but only if you let it. What I get out of this track is that here is a tasteful, refined lead guitarist who is sophisticated enough to be able to pull off the trick of having people say he resembled so and so - whether in style or performance. Seems to me, that a really good guitarist is a really good guitarist no matter what he plays. The musical reference is apt, but I'm sure Watsonica has a lot more going on than a passing resemblence to a rock god.
Your mission? Track this man down and make him get a proper page!!! It'll be worth it.
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