Upon seeing that guitarist
Duke Levine opens the instrumental
Nobody's Home with a tune titled "Attack of the Mutant Guitars," one might assume that he is a
Steve Vai/
Joe Satriani type of instrumentalist -- "Attack of the Mutant Guitars" sounds like the sort of title that you would get from a forceful, hard-and-heavy guitar virtuoso like
Vai or
Satriani.
Levine, like those fellow guitarists, is a rock instrumentalist, but that's where the similarity ends. While guitarists from the
Vai/
Satriani school of instrumental rock are hard rockers,
Nobody's Home is not hard rock or heavy metal. Rather,
Levine favors a more rootsy and down-home style of instrumental rock that owes a lot to the blues and '60s soul as well as country. There is a definite country twang in
Levine's guitar playing, and it is especially strong on "Longhorn," "Remington Ride," and the rockabilly-minded "Shacklehands." Obviously, he is well aware of
Chet Atkins and
Merle Travis (two of country's greatest guitarists). But if
Levine is a country-rock instrumentalist part of the time, he is also a convincing blues-rocker -- and he gets in some memorable slide work on his version of
Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man." Meanwhile,
Levine shows an awareness of
the Meters and instrumental Southern soul on the Louisiana-friendly "Swamp Thing." And why shouldn't
Levine have a wide variety of influences to draw on? There is no reason why someone who has been influenced by
Travis and
Atkins cannot also be influenced by
the Meters and
Booker T. & the MG's. All of
Levine's influences serve him well on this enjoyable and fairly diverse CD. ~ Alex Henderson