Intro to Eric Johnson

Reasons to buy this recording:

It's the best introduction to the variety of playing styles Eric Johnson does.

It's a great example of the use of pentatonic scales in a non-idiomatic style; he doesn't play "blues licks" per se but has a unique spin on the sound.

Supporting Eric Johnson is a way of helping music that is instrumental in nature be considered more "important" in the eyes of the industry in general. "Cliffs of Dover" showed a rock instrumental can, when given the chane, be a significant popularist draw.

There are plenty of unique and challenging phrases to learn from this recording for the guitar. It sets a nice technical goal for an advanced guitar player, as well as a fresh take on pentatonic scales.

It is a great recording of a variety of idiomatic guitar sounds: Fender strat.amplifier clean tones, *Vintage* Marshall tones, different pickup configuration tones, retro recording sounds. Learning to differentiate the sounds on this recording would be a good learning experience for a novice guitarist.