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Recorded live in 2006, shortly after his The Jimi Project, Brown's set is made up mostly from that album. His fretwork and singing show the tasty and naturally funky feel he gives everything without even seeming to break a sweat. A nice treat is a gorgeous "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" with cool jazz chops.

J.H. (Vintage Guitar Magazine) (August 2012)
 

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Traditional blues, creative Jeff Beck stylings, and deliciously interpretive Hendrix covers rendered with supreme taste, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Brown is a unique talent, with a delicate touch that guitarists dream about. Clearly, he is a Hendrix disciple, but Jeff Beck's technique is never far in the background. He is like an elegant hybrid of Hendrix and Beck at their very best, with a sensibility that brings him into the 21st century. His voice is reminiscent of Don Henley, and he uses it to good effect. At the end of the day, Brown is the whole package: great singing, unbelievable chops with monster technique, and deep feeling that comes through with every note. If you've never heard him, you're in for a treat: this is guitar hero magic that transports listeners to a musical realm of sheer bliss, rendered by a master who is worthy of his noted influences.

Steven J. Rosen (Author) (April 2012)
 

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A lifetime ago, Jimi Hendrix posed the question, "Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?"

Most people didn't have the capacity to even understand what he was talking about, and the handful that did may have caught a glimpse of his vision once or twice, but as is so often the case, they were soon on to other things. Electric Ladyland wasn't a geographic location, per se, but it was - and is - a "real" place, albeit in the abstract.. a repository of dreams..a psychedelic attitude; a way of interpreting the universe differently.. in other words, a transcendant outlook, courtesy of an altered state brought on and sustained through a powerful stimulus.

In this case, that powerful stimulus is music - glorious and magnificent music - and the phenomenal "Phil Brown - Live In Seattle" (how fitting.. Jimi's hometown) will "alter your state" and take you to that magical place that Jimi spoke of. Not only is it a "real" place, but Mr. Brown is the landlord-in-residence, and he answers Jimi's question without pause: "Not only have I been to Electric Ladyland.. I LIVE there."

Words, quite frankly, are insufficient to adequately describe the aural treats in store for the listener within this "live without a net" collection of uniquely individual and hyper-stylized excursions to the psychedelic nether regions of the astral plane. Carbon-based bipeds, welcome to Electric Ladyland.. courtesy of Phil Brown.

All the other artists who've approached Jimi's music seem to play the songs as he played them and added their own "take" (in the form of lead guitar solos) on top of the breaks, which is not to say they don't sound good, but in the end it all comes off as "_______ Tries To Play Hendrix Like Hendrix" [you fill in the blank; it's a LONG list] and that's about as far as it can go (after all, imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery). Imitation is a safe bet. Innovation is not. It takes an extraordinarily fearless and adventurous individual to dare to innovate.. especially on music that is so indelibly etched on our collective consciousness like Jimi's. Phil Brown not only succeeds in reinterpreting these classics, but he actually reinvents them.. innovatively and immaculately.. breaking the mold and shattering illusions of what's possible.

Phil's "take" on the music of Hendrix (interspersed with three of his own masterful compositions and his jaw-dropping versions a couple of divergent covers, most notably "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" which opens the set) is revolutionary in its breadth and depth, and is infused with his pure and singular voice on the instrument.. not to mention his silken bluesy vocals.. delivered in a classic "power trio" format. His style - sans pick, working the whammy bar like a surgeon yields a scalpel, incorporating deft volume swells, joyfully creating soulful tonal textures "on the fly" that defy verbal description, displaying dizzying dynamics and otherworldly control of his instrument that at times sounds like a reverse tape machine, yet in real time - is similar to that of Jeff Beck. But Phil is more Jimi than Jeff, more Mozart than Miles, more symphony than shred, embodying both substance and style. Suffice it to say you've NEVER heard anything quite like him. He goes to a completely different place.. and all he wants to do is take you with him.

To quote from The ToneQuest Report [09/11]:

".. Phil Brown is an unusually gifted guitarist, writer and arranger who also happens to play things on the guitar that no one else seems to have heard, yet it all sounds familiar, as if the music were pouring from your speakers from a distant, mystical place once visited in a dream or a past life..."

I think that "mystical place" the author is referring to is Electric Ladyland. This man is a national treasure, and why he isn't selling out stadiums reinforces the fact we live in an insane world. But we DO have him. And his music. Before writing this review, I ordered his entire catalog ("Cruel Inventions", "The Jimi Project", "Imagine This"). I had to. After hearing "Live In Seattle", I had no choice. He's that great.

Phil Brown himself once said, "If you want to change your life, change your mind." I'll go on the record saying that his music has changed my mind and my life forever for the better. With a presentative format that is at once familiar yet totally original and innovative to the highest order of magnitude, he is in a league of his own. He's reset the bar.. completely. Long live the memory of Jimi Hendrix.. and long live the artistic brilliance of Phil Brown. He is truly a leader in a field of one.

Jimmy Ryan (Truth Squad) (4.12)
 

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Phil Brown may not be a household name, but his music is. This Los Angeles-based songwriter has penned songs for Cher, Tower of Power, Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Kim Carnes, Steve Perry, Lou Graham, etal. He’s collected numerous gold and platinum awards. His career includes a period as a roadie for Studio Instrument Rentals and the Whiskey A-Go-Go; a tour with Little Feat after Lowell George had passed away to fill in; and as a songwriter for Warner Brothers and A&M Records.

Brown once declared Electric Ladyland was the album that “changed the world forever.” Since that time, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based songwriter has kept the spirit alive in his personal music (having included a version of “If 6 Was 9” on his 2003 release Cruel Inventions with Phil Brown & The Apaches From Paris). In 2006 he took his Hendrix tribute one step further with The Jimi Project, an album of interpretations of Hendrix music that at the time we commented, “This is Phil Brown meets Jimi Hendrix, not Phil Brown is Jimi Hendrix as so many other tribute acts pretend to be. We have to commend Brown for one of the most exploratory evolutions of Hendrix we’ve heard to date.” This excellent disc captures Brown live at the Columbia City Theatre in Seattle, Washington on June 29, 2006.

Ken Voss (Voodoo Child 103)
 

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Whether on electric or acoustic, Brown belongs in the same club as his heroes, such as Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Pass, and McLaughlin—players whose sound resides as much in their touch and spirit as in any gear they might select.

"I am basically telling my life story when I am playing guitar," says Brown. Finally hitting his stride at 60, he offers encouragement to players who persist long after others would give up. "We are not really playing music, we are selling a dream. Time is suspended when we play, and that is why music makes us immortal."

Michael Ross (Guitar Player Magazine) (May 2012)
read the full review & interview at guitarplayer.com
 
 

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