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I’m sure I must’ve listened to the Boston trio the Slip sometime in the late 90s, but my patience for jam bands is nil, and by the time I received the recent solo debut from Slip guitarist Brad Barr, The Fall Apartment: Instrumental Guitar (Tompkins Square), I’d forgotten what they sounded like. The Fall Apartment is so good, however, that I felt compelled to give his main band another shot. (His piece “Bubba’s Bounce” previously appeared on the label’s first Imaginational Anthem collection.)
The only real dud is “Do I Have to Understand That?” where he’s partly plugged-in, using effects pedals, and percussively beating the guitar’s body. I’d love it if Barr devoted more time to his solo work than to the Slip, but for now he seems to be splitting his time about evenly. Tomorrow night at Schubas he’ll play a solo acoustic set, and then join his bandmates to back the pop-rock singer Sonya Kitchell.
