Acoustic Visions

Acoustic Visions represents the first time David T. Chastain has recorded an album entirely of acoustic material, and the results are surprising. Instead of taking the conventional "unplugged" route and turning in acoustic versions of familiar tunes, Chastain works up a new a set of songs, many of them with distinctive classical overtones. He winds up exploring new textures and structures, discovering new dimensions and hidden depths within his own playing. As a composer, he's still a little weak — he rarely writes a memorable theme — but as a player he's exceptional, taking these compositions further than anyone would have expected. He may no longer have the audience he had in the '80s, and he may no longer be turning out the kind of heavy metal that filled stadiums in the '80s, but Acoustic Visions indicates that David T. Chastain is now playing better and with more subtlety than he ever has.