Geoff Achison

Don’t Play Guitar Boy

Jupiter 2 Records

“This is a beautiful album,” my old friend and Geoff Achison’s publicist Nancy Lewis-Pegel told me. As always, Nancy was spot-on. Thankfully, Achison never heeded the adverse career advice he heard as a youngster, because the Melbourne, Australia native can sure as heck play the guitar, besides being a gifted songwriter and singer. Achison recorded his twelfth studio album, and his third solo acoustic set among them, direct to 2” tape. There are no overdubs. The 12 original songs feature him playing a Gibson EC30 in front of two microphones, the results a crystal clear, punchy production.

Through his gorgeous guitar work and in a craggy voice that at times calls to mind Chris Smither or Mark Knopfler, Geoff Achison reveals a natural passion for his art, as well as his beaming success at his avocation. Although adept at a variety of styles of music, he smartly relegates himself to the folk and blues forms here, mixing them brilliantly into exhilarating vignettes about his experiences and perspectives.

In “Don’t Play Guitar Boy,” Achison recounts carving out a living doing what he loves amid a funky beat and with a wink and a smile in attitude. “Delta Dave” follows a similar thread, albeit in wistful, respectful tones, as Achison pays tribute to a Melbourne city street busker who laid it all out to pay the rent. Nimble fingerpicking illuminates “Walking Through Walls,” a dirge about a nagging distraction, and perhaps an escape from it. “Rule the World” ponders the question as to why world leaders seem to never be wise men, the hard blues of it mirroring the hard truth. For “Kissing Angels,” Achison switches to a lovely, pensive delivery, his heartfelt emotion for a past love easily felt. “Train Ride” takes us back to Achison’s boyhood, the sound of the train outside his bedroom window replicated in incredible detail by stupendous string acrobatics and an urgent vocal.

Geoff Achison’s talents have attracted the attention of the likes of The Allman Brothers Band, with whom he guested on guitar at one of their storied Beacon Theater shows in New York. He also toured with Hot Tuna, and salutes Jorma Kaukonen’s guitar prowess and his Fur Peace Ranch instructional camp here with the wonderful instrumental, “Jorma’s Ranch.”

In no way a run of the mill acoustic blues album, Don’t Play Guitar Boy shares qualities with Kim Simmonds’ solo albums, on which the late Savoy Brown leader presented a side of himself that was deeper, with a marked effervescence in the guitar playing, and in the songs. Achison achieves exactly that effect. Those that appreciate Tinsley Ellis’s recent Naked Truth album will also love this record. Geoff Achison has been crafting songs rooted in American blues, folk, soul, funk, and rock music for over 30 years. Don’t Play Guitar Boy is a display of that craft in its most natural, inspired fashion. It is one very beautiful album indeed.

 Tom Clarke for MAS

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