What began as a novel way for artists to pay homage to their musical inspirations has devolved into plain silliness. I mean, there's a tribute album honoring Britney Spears! And while most tribute compilations come off as dull and cheap imitations, the ones that usually rise above the heap feature decidedly different or adventurous takes on pieces of music without losing the spirit of that music. (Even though it's a few years old now, I still maintain that The Unbreakable Chain: A Tribute to Daniel Lanois is a shining example of what a tribute album should be; so are the Warmth in the Wilderness Jason Becker tributes.)
The Becker tributes set the standard for tributes to rock-guitar instrumentalists, and Rewired-A Tribute to Jeff Beck isn't too far behind. I admit I had my doubts. After all, the label that released this disc, Progressive Arts Music, also issued a tribute to Joe Satriani back in 2000 (Crushing Days) that sounded so much like Satch it was hard to tell the difference. But because Beck is an altogether different player, effortlessly combining blues, heavy metal, fusion and electronica, the 10 songs here – covered by such accomplished players as Carl Roa (The Magic Elf), Greg Howe (Michael Jackson), Jon Finn (The Boston Pops) and Prashant Aswani (Herbie Hancock) – boast enough diversity that you can actually imagine someone other than Beck playing them. From Rob Balducci's swirl of shred on "You Never Know" to the prolonged beauty of Slav Simanic's moody rendition of "Where Were You" Rewired sounds a lot better (and more refreshing) than it looks on paper.
As a bonus, Progressive Arts Music offers Rewired on an enhanced CD, which features original tracks in MP3 format from all ten guitarists featured on the album. That way, you'll know how good these guys are with their own material, too.
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