Lee Ritenour – Dreamcatcher (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Lee Ritenour – Dreamcatcher (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:11 minutes | 524 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Players Club

On ‘Dreamcatcher’, Lee Ritenour is celebrating 60 years of playing guitar with a first ever ‘solo guitar’ album. The 12-tracks of the album rank amongst the most melodic and tinglingly beautiful in Ritenour’s catalogue.

It’s hard to believe that in his over-50-year career, guitarist Lee Ritenour has never released a solo guitar album. He rectifies that fact on 2020’s warmly delivered Dreamcatcher. The record follows Ritenour’s star-studded 2015 album A Twist of Rit, in which he reworked songs from throughout his career with a bevy of special guests. Dreamcatcher finds him taking a more introspective, stripped-down approach, but one that still showcases his lyricism and adept fretboard skills. Recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritenour produced the album himself at his home, working remotely with studio assistance by Gary Lee and Brian McShea. There’s an intimacy to the recordings that has the feeling of a small private concert, or it’s as if you’re eavesdropping on Ritenour just jamming for his own pleasure. Comfortable in electric and acoustic settings, and with a career that has straddled the rock, jazz, and pop worlds, the guitarist takes an equally expansive approach on Dreamcatcher. He dips into folky acoustic balladry on “Starlight,” draws upon the sophisticated hollow-body style of Wes Montgomery on “The Lighthouse,” and weaves a delicate patchwork of nylon-string harmonies on the classical-leaning title track. He even rips into far-eyed electric jazz-rock on “Abbot Kinney.” There’s a shimmering, textural quality to many of these songs as Ritenour laces together his warm melodies using just a modicum of aftereffects. We also get the nicely arranged “Couldn’t Help Myself,” a flowing instrumental that evokes Ritenour’s ’70s fusion work and features a mix of synths, percussion, and over 20 guitar tracks. Dreamcatcher is a relaxing, deceptively understated album that showcases Ritenour’s laid-back virtuosity. – Matt Collar

Tracklist:
1-1. Lee Ritenour – Dreamcatcher (04:22)
1-2. Lee Ritenour – Charleston (04:16)
1-3. Lee Ritenour – The Lighthouse (04:55)
1-4. Lee Ritenour – Morning Glory Jam (04:28)
1-5. Lee Ritenour – Starlight (04:01)
1-6. Lee Ritenour – Abbot Kinney (03:13)
1-7. Lee Ritenour – Couldn’t Help Myself (04:30)
1-8. Lee Ritenour – For DG (04:47)
1-9. Lee Ritenour – Via Verde (03:14)
1-10. Lee Ritenour – Low & Slow (03:25)
1-11. Lee Ritenour – Storyteller (02:41)
1-12. Lee Ritenour – 2020, Pt. 1 (04:10)
1-13. Lee Ritenour – 2020, Pt. 2 (03:07)
1-14. Lee Ritenour – 2020, Pt. 3 (01:56)

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