Lawson Rollins – Traveler – Another Awesome Album!
I discovered the fantastic guitar of Lawson Rollins a few years ago. My first encounter with his music was through his work as part of the duo Young & Rollins, then in 2013 I met the solo artist, when I listened to his 2013 release Full Circle. In both settings,Rollins is amazing! Just ask Guitar Player Magazine who says this about his playing: “ungodly classical chops…dazzling speed, uncanny accuracy and beautifully delicate touch.” That artistry is on display again on Rollins’s latest release Traveler.
Lawson’s solo discography includes Infinita, Espiritio,and Elevation in addition to Full Circle and Traveler,and each album has been critically acclaimed! From his website, Lawson Rollins albums…..
… have landed high on the Billboard Top 30 contemporary Jazz radio charts and produced a Billboard #1 song – “Moonlight Samba” from ESPIRITO. The recent album FULL CIRCLE hit the Billboard Top 10 World Music Album Sales Chart and earned Lawson two awards from the prestigious USA Songwriting Competition, including first place for best instrumental song of the year for the track ‘Shifting Seasons.’ The album’s massive radio airplay landed Lawson on the Top 100 Contemporary Jazz Artists of the Year chart. He also served as “Celebrity Guest DJ” on Sirius-XM Radio, hosting a 1 hour show, broadcast to 26 million subscribers, a testament to his enduring appeal on radio. Read More
I enjoy the global nature of Rollins’s music which includes Afro-Cuban rhythms that have their roots in the music of Spain, India, Persia, as well as, the Arab world. Rollins says this about music….
“All music has a hybrid quality,” Lawson believes. “Thousands of years of travel, trade and communication between cultures created new forms of musical expression. The Spanish guitar embodies this with its ties to the Arab oud, the Persian tar, even the sitar, so weaving those strands together seems natural to me.”
Several of Lawson Rollins’s friends have helped out on Traveler all-star members of the cast include multi-Grammy Award winners Mads Tolling and Charlie Bisharat and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy bandleader Scotty Morris, as well as others! So by all means check out Traveler as well as, Rollins’s other work!
Bottom Line: Traveler is a 4.5 star album for me. I really, really like it and can see it being an album that I turn when I am reading as well as just drifting and relaxing. Rollins’s guitar work is just flat-out awesome!!
Links for Further Exploration of the music of Lawson Rollins…
Website
Amazon
iTunes
Facebook
Here’s the title track from Traveler from Lawson Rollins
