Ken Shimamoto

KEN SHIMAMOTO

I am not the only one who feels this way about Andy Colquhoun; as Ken Shimamoto expressed in an online review of his solo CD, Pick up the Phone, America! (I sure wish I knew enough about music to write like this): “Nobody on Earth plays guitar like Andy Colquhoun. Well, maybe Wayne Kramer [of Detroit’s MC5 and another running mate of Mick Farren’s for several decades now] and Tony Fate (ex-Bellrays, current Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) are in the same league, but Andy’s brand of over-the-top rock skronk and acid-blues is totally unique. As guitarists go, he’s got a deep trick bag: a huge sound, saturated with fuzz and Echoplex; a monstrous whammy bar attack that skews his snaky, vibrato-laden blues lines and monolithic octaves; ringing harmonics; a deft touch accompanied by a fine melodic sensibility . . . almost a bent-head Jeff Beck (always a name to conjure with in the gtr circles I run in).”

(August 2011)