Bradford: Press

The art of the hard rock guitar sound forms the core of The Ninth Ring from Colorado-based guitarist Bradford Watson, known to his fans as Bradford. With his electrifying guitar approach Bradford can clearly bowl you over with his immense, hard hitting instro rock sound, yet scratch the surface and you'l find that there’s something more varied and deeper going on here. What’s even more incredible is that Bradford handles all the instruments here himself, creating the aura of a complete band as played by one musician! He even did all the studio engineering as well. If there’s a progressive side to hard rock guitar instrumental performance, then Bradford has it covered. Commenting on such a sweeping and demanding one man recording project, from his detailed liner notes Bradford adds, ‘This CD represents the culmination of just over two years of effort. I consider it the pinnacle of my own artistic expression up until now, not from a performance standpoint, but also from a song writing and audio engineering standpoint.’ Although many listeners and guitar fans will place Bradford into the heavy metal rock instro category, Bradford is quick to point out, ‘While I have the utmost respect for the technical ability of many of the musicians out there doing instrumental rock, my objective has always been different. For me, it was far more important to go for good song writing. The musically well thought out instrumental rock track that sings without a vocalist is what I love about the genre. I’ve tried very hard to put the songs first.’ In the spirit of hard rock instrumental guitarists such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and even Rob Balducci’s latest CD on Favored Nations, Bradford lays claim to some intriguing guitar territory all his own with the CD release of The Ninth Ring. In addition to the fine music within and intense cover art graphics, Bradford gives the listener a deeper understanding of his guitar sound and vision with his in depth track by track liner notes.

While I was in Quebec City last summer, I saw a street musician playing a table of wine glasses, each arranged to a particular pitch and also arranged on the table in such a way to make it (relatively) easy to produce melodies, harmonies, chords, and bass lines. “Easy,” of course, meaning easy if you knew what you were doing.

Denver-based guitarist Bradford certainly knows what he’s doing. You don’t have to get very far into his first CD, “The Ninth Ring,” to appreciate that he is someone who has developed some very serious guitar skills. He can certain shred with the best of them.

But fortunately, he also has a great ear for melody, harmony and phrasing, which makes this CD a lot more interesting than most of the “hey-I’m-a-fast (very fast) –guitarist-who’s-put-together-a-CD-of-all-guitar-music” that you’ll find out there. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of fast shredding going on. But Bradford does a great job of making the technique serve the song and not vice versa. This especially vividly realized in “Sky Solo,” Witches Brew” and “Tonight.”

The down side of the CD is that, again like most guitar guys, he uses a lot of programming and loops. Don’t get me wrong – it sounds great. I just think it would sound even better if he had people to bounce musical ideas off of rather than machines.

Case in point – while all twelve tracks of “The Ninth Ring” are certainly worthwhile, my favorites are the last two: “THS” and “Legend.” Interestingly enough the first is one of Bradford’s earliest instrumentals, which, to me anyway, sounds like it was meant to be performed live, with a group of musicians. It’s a wild romp, cleverly using dazzling sweep picking and string skipping techniques over a rollicking blues / rockabilly rhythm. Guitar and bass lines soar and glide together, like jets at an air show. This is a perfect example of song and speed merging to create something absolutely stunning and wild. It’s pure fun!

Likewise, “Legend” is also a lot of fun in its own way. The guitar work is spare, serving a lovely hypnotic melody (synthesized marimba?) that sweeps you along in its wake. And it’s telling that (reading the liner notes after listening) this song received a good deal of reworking, courtesy of comments from Internet listeners. Being able to create the music oneself is a gift; making use of your listeners’ reactions often makes the gift greater.

Which is why, strange to say, while I like this CD a lot, I am looking forward to more from Bradford. He states in his liner notes that he considers this CD “the pinnacle of my own artistic expression up until now, both from a performance standpoint, but also from a songwriting and audio engineering standpoint.” Personally, what I hear on this disc points makes me think that there’s even better music to come. Here’s my hope that Bradford finds some musicians that he can work with to produce an organic masterpiece that will make him redefine his pinnacle.

Peace

I was turned onto this album from a buddy out in Denver. There are some serious guitar fireworks on this album that recall some guitar heroes of the 80’s. While prog rock may have fallen out of fashion, acolytes of the genre would be wise to check out this latest release from Bradford. Featuring chops most of us can only dream of, The Ninth Ring features a number of well written instrumentals that really convey Bradfords emotions and vision.

You can tell that the guy loves what he does, as according to the presskit The Ninth Ring is more of a personal statement after years away from the industry.

It’s amazing to think of how many players like Bradford there might be lurking in basements around the world - players with skill that would shame most young players, recalling an era where wizadry on your instrument was more important than hype or buzz.

Kudos to Bradford for The Ninth Ring and I encourage you to check it out. Start by dowloading “Interspatial”.

For More information:

http://www.bradford-music.com

http://www.myspace.com/bradfordproject

"The Ninth Ring" Heart Pounding -Clear- POWER PACKED Rock & Roll! Bradford Clinches story telling through the sounds of Clean Instrumentals and powerful solos. Being the Producer of "Denver's Heartbeat" One of Denver's leading Music shows for the last 13+ years. I have listened to many musicians and filmed many shows, and I must say that "The Ninth Ring" is in the top of my collection. If you want to escape... disappear if you will, into another dimension a dimension of true musical soul, pick up Bradford’s "The Ninth Ring", you will love it!