Guitarra 66

Best known for his work with Dead Combo, To Trips decided to go temporarily solo and record Guitarra 66. Dead Combo have echoes of fado, guitars from the Paris, Texas school of Ry Cooder’s playing and influences from Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone’s film music. To Trips always takes to the stage in pointy cowboy shoes and a beat–up top hat, as if he’d just been relieved from his night shift as a character from a Tom Waits song or a Damon Runyon short story.

On Guitarra 66 To Trips travels into acoustic blues territory, although he doesn’t play it straight: his guitar sounds like the missing link between the bluesier John Fahey tunes and Portugal’s own Carlos Paredes. And he doesn’t quite leave it at that: taking off from the same starting point as Dead Combo, he pursues the musical equivalent of a road trip. With the romantic and mythical Route 66 in mind, he uses the guitar as the best possible vehicle for a 38–minute ride around the world, visiting Portugal, Spain, Mexico, the US and Morocco. Extremely delicate and beautiful, this is one of the most superb guitar albums of the tail–end of the past decade.