Search - Davie Allan & Arrows :: Live Run / Live at Club Westworld

As guitar gods go, Davie Allan is something of a glorious throwback to the days when Link Wray literally shredded his speaker cones for effects and Duane Eddy twanged his way down 40 miles of bad road. Yet Allan still sounds completely fresh, especially in the rarified air of the live performances captured here. Having made his mark with the distortion-sustain masterpiece "Blue's Theme" and the snarling scores to a couple of low-budget biker and exploitation soundtracks in the 1960s and '70s, Allan's had a renaissance in the '90s, thanks to lovingly produced albums such as Fuzz Fest. But as good as those albums have been, they still take a back seat to Allan's ferocious live bent. Live Run captures both the greasy, low-budget charm of his early work and its slightly refined progeny, but that's the least of its appeal. Allan's fret ferocity has long been tempered by a genuine love of melody in general and Mancini in particular (no less than three melodic Hank covers here), and it infuses his napalm attack with a lyrical sense and pop economy that should be part of any lead guitarist's course in Common Sense 101. Fiery, feedback washed, and distortion drenched, Allan's playing seems deceptively manic and free here--and that's the sure sign of a god in total command. --Jerry McCulley