Hettory

Meditacion 2009 CD special $12.

Hettory - Stick Guitar (SG12) and Box Guitar
Sound samples at: www.myspace.com/hettory

review by Greg Howard

Hettory performs almost nightly as a soloist and also in his trio with bass and drums at jazz clubs in El Paso, Texas. As a tapping guitarist he has released three CDs prior to his latest album, Meditacion, the first from any artist to feature the new short scale Stick Guitar® (SG-12™). On two of these nine original tracks he plays the Box Guitar, a 12-string tapping guitar from Australia.

Hettory tunes his SG-12 like two guitars, so most of these pieces sound something like very tight "guitar duets" with occasional synth or percussion accompaniment. There's a little overdubbing, but for the most part it's just his fingers on all the strings playing live melody together with live accompaniment. In addition to tapping, Hettory occasionally uses more conventional guitar techniques including strumming and some beautiful slide work on "Entornos / Surroundings". The sound of his Stickup-equipped SG-12 is warm and articulate. The tunes (all titled in Spanish and English) are not all as low-key as the CD title would suggest - many are very energetic - and they're all engaging, often building on repeating riffs and "geometric" musical patterns, but with surprising harmonic twists and turns.

Meditacion is a great entrée for the Stick Guitar. Other SG-12 players are using Stick type inverted 5ths along with this instrument's higher melody range, taking advantage of its shorter scale length. In this case Hettory's marriage of the double guitar tuning with the Stick's distinctive tapped sound creates a unique listening experience.

Track listing:

1. INTRO
2. ENFOQUE / FOCUS
3. ENTORNOS / SURROUNDINGS
4. BODISATVA / BODISATTVA
5. KARMA / KARMA
6. MEDITACIÓN / MEDITATION
7. DENTRO / INSIDE
8. DEDICACION / DEDICATION
9. PAZ MENTAL / MENTAL PEACE