“ Playing jazz guitar on a steel string acoustic model-especially uptempo jazz-is tough stuff…but Fried has wrestled the instrument into submission for five albums now, and to great effect; the separation of the chord’s notes is clearer than that produced by the average gut string guitar, and the sound is brighter than most archtop electrics offer…Fried turns a chord sequence into a web of melodies that develop separately…the music ends up sounding much larger than three musicians should be able to create.
- Dave McElfresh, Cadence, October 1996 |