Submitted by delboy (see all reviews from this person) on 2/11/2011

Where Purchased: Amazon Buyer

Overall Comments

I'd heard plenty of good things about the PLP series and was very familiar with Steve K through the web, through a few tracks on CDs over the years, and the pages of FGM magazine. When I saw this volume come up in the UK at a very reasonable price I thought I'd take the plunge.

What you get is a big old book - nice and clear text and tab for us short-sighted old-timers, and six CDs. Yep, six. The book pretty much just gives the tab for the tunes, and the CDs cover full speed performance of each track along with broken down and slowed down versions, with Steve talking through the pieces with particular emphasis on the problem and unusual areas. It's a real great way of covering the material - you can work through at your own pace using just the book and listen to Steve K as and when you need to understand a particular intricacy. For each song there are three versions - simple, intermediate, and advanced, along with some suggested endings. The simple versions are... simple. But they also sound great. I'd have no hesitation in playing these versions of the tunes as my break in these songs in jam sessions. The intermediate versions are a little more interesting and dfficult, as you'd expect. And the advanced versions take it all a step forward. But the great thing is, you can learn the basic version and then just a phrase or two from the intermediate (or advanced version) and thus slowly build up your own unique arrangement (maybe even add in some phrases from other sources), or work up to the advanced one a step at a time.

Steve K has a whole host of these books out covering scores of songs - I think there's a swing version, too. Volume 1 was the set I wanted on account of several songs that I've been working on are in here, as are several more that I want to learn. The 'setlist' is:

Ragtime Annie
Bill Cheatham
Goldrush
Flop Eared Mule
Forked Deer
Old Joe Clark
Soldier's Joy
Nothin To It
Red Haired Boy
Big Sandy River
Billy In The Low Ground
Under The Double Eagle
Fisher's Hornpipe
Blackberry Blossom
Turkey In The Straw
St Annes Reel
Arkansas Traveller
Sweet Georgia Brown
Whiskey Before Breakfast

Phew! The performance versions are wonderful. There's this moment of frission you get when listening to them when Steve plays something particularly great - you think "I've got the tab for that! I 'm in with a shout...." But of course it ain't that easy. Hearing it played, being giving the notes and instruction, is the easy bit. Learning it is the hard bit. If you're like me you're going to have to start off slow, and take it very steady!

There's no actual guitar instruction here. It's not about teaching you crosspicking (though there's plenty of it in the arrangements) or hammer-ons or how to keep a relaxed right hand or any other technical information - it's purely about learning these songs. Also there's no hints or information around why Steve chose (in the intermediate and advanced versions) the notes he chose. I'm a geek when it comes to understanding why someone chooses the notes they do - and that's why there's one star missing in the score. I'd love to understand how someone like Steve K would approach this stuff, not just when composing these different versions, but maybe in improvising upon them too. But that's not the intent to it's probably a little tight of me to knock off a point.

My other issue is nothing to do with the book and everything to do with memory. There's a lot of stuff in this set. I've already learned and forgotten several arrangements of several tunes. I'm not sure I'll ever keep it all my head at the same time.

Great stuff. Highly recommended for players of all levels.

Overall Rating: 9