Jon Stickley Trio – Lost At Last

The Jon Stickley Trio is an instrumental band that showcases great musicianship and high level improvisation and tight arrangements. Jon’s guitar playing employs world class chops with a taste that makes technical playing accessible to the ear. As a bluegrass banjo player, what really draws me to music is driving 16th notes. Jon is a guitar player who can really drive the groove with those solid 16th notes and that effect gives great rhythmic satisfaction. By his use of this open strings, G runs, and fluid fiddle tune performance he’s obviously got a background in trad bluegrass. But by his command of dissonant harmony and complex melody one can tell he’s fighting the good fight by carving a path for his own sound. 

The drummer groves deep and uses a rhythmic simplicity which provides a strong platform for the violin and guitar to play on. For my taste, the full drum kit is a little heavy in tone and sometimes takes up too much sonic space covers up the guitar and violin. The violinist matches Jon’s masterful musicianship. He does lots of pizzicato which adds lots of nice texture to this acoustic group. 

Strength In Numbers is a revolutionary group  in the acoustic music world and I couldn’t believe when I saw the Jon Stickley Trio covered my favorite track of theirs, Slopes. What a treat it is to hear some young hot shots play their interpretation of this timeless acoustic masterpiece. 

I can tell by the improvisation that this is a group one has to see live plenty of times to really understand the musicianship of these guys. Jon Stickley has what it takes to inspire the next generation of acoustic guitarists and this album is a great place to start exploring this group.