Buster Brown & The New Resolutions

Album Notes

June 6, 2017

Here are some notes by Buster on the tunes on the album.

The majority of the tunes were written in the 1980s and 1990s. Some were played live, but were never recorded. The main influences in those years were Miles Davis, Jeff Beck, John Leventhal, Albert King, Robben Ford and Mark Knopfler. In a way, this album is a tribute to all of them.

1) Upstairs

Originally a vocal tune, written in the mid 1980’s. The great Gord Matthews provided a line which was later modded into the melody for the A section.

2) The Inner Man

A composition originally written for a fusion band called “Rude Noises”, put together with my good friend Tom Colclough. I think we only ever played one gig…the alto sax solo is by Bill Runge.

3) Slo

A slow blues of a different sort, heavily influenced by Jeff Beck and Miles Davis.

4) Shamper’s Strut

“Shamper’s” was a hotel lounge in downtown Vancouver where I played a lot of gigs in the 80s and 90s, with many different bands. One of the bands was a little power trio with Billy Mendoza and Peter Padden, called PMS (the initials of our last names…). We ultimately got fired for being too loud.

5) The Times We Had

A beautiful tune written by the incomparable Graeme Coleman. Graeme’s original featured some tasty guitar work by Mark Fortin.

6) Blooze

A simple blues, with a head inspired by a Sonny Stitt solo off the album “Blues Up and Down”, recorded with Gene Ammons in 1955.

7) Chill the Smoothie

This one started out as a goofy little number, inspired by the “Smooth” and “Chill” music genres. At one point it had a vocal sample in it, stating “love your thmoothie”…maybe we will release a re-mix one day :-)…the sax solo is by David Say.

8) Unbroken

Another great composition by Graeme Coleman. This one was pretty much recorded live off-the-floor.

9) Cookies for Lucas

About a dog I know…A straight-out Rock’n Roll instrumental, a bit of a tribute to Jeff Beck and Eddie van Halen. For my old friend Alan Marks, guitarist extraordinaire. Al played the first Van Halen record for me in his room in 1978, shortly after my arrival from Germany. It changed the way I looked at rock guitar. (Al also lent me his Boogie amp and talk-box for my first gig playing Rock’n Roll at a school dance. One of the nicest and most supportive guys you’ll ever meet.)

10) Alena’s Lullaby

I first started playing this many years ago, when my daughter was born. Much later I realized that the beginning (A section) was a lot like a study by Fernando Sor, many of which I had learned as a child studying classical music in Germany. Sor wrote some of the most beautiful pieces ever for the classical guitar. I’ve always wanted to record this piece and I am very glad that we got to do it this time.

(For those interested in Sor – see Karl Scheit’s U.E. editions of Sor’s mid-grade studies or the 12 easy studies. Both are excellent Sor compilations.)