Album Spotlight: The Persuasions, Live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop
By David McGee
Got the Beyonce blues? Tired of auto-tune? Can’t figure out what Ke$sha has done to merit a feature story in the NY Times Arts section? Curious as to whether the Times is in fact on Taylor Swift’s payroll? Falling asleep to that Antlers album, are you? Well, friends, the Persuasions are here to save your soul. Salvation is nigh.

JAMES BLACKSHAW, The Glass Bead Game
CHARLIE HUNTER, Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid
JIM CAMPILONGO, Orange
Two veterans and, by comparison, a relative newcomer (despite having released eight albums now) are sporting new long players that demonstrate the continued vitality of instrumental music, specifically instrumental guitar music, that is both technically admirable and abundant in the human touch. Yes, we know about the uncategorizable and brilliant Bill Frissell, but the trio represented here works a different side of the street than Frissell, or even, say, Bryan Sutton on the rootsier branch. Each has his own territory mapped out, the twain never meets, and to hear these albums consecutively is to take a trip through a wondrous and varied musical landscape.